Centered Relationships are Key

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Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
November 12, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

As Unitarian Universalists, we work towards building the Beloved Community, a community in which everyone’s needs are centered and met and where equity is enshrined in all we do. As we work towards this larger and universal goal we also do the work of practicing the Beloved Community in our own space. Let’s explore the role of relationships in our practice of the Beloved Community and how those relationships have the power to transform us both individually and collectively.

Chalice Lighting

As we kindle this the flame, we honor and remember
Those who have passed into the mystery.
Their brightness lives on in our vision;
their courage lives on in our commitments;
and their love continues to bless the world through us.

Call to Worship

ANYONE’S MINISTRY
Rev. Gordon McKeeman

Ministry is

a quality of relationship between and among human beings that beckons forth hidden possibilities;

inviting people into deeper, more constant, more reverent relationship with the world and with one another;

carrying forward a long heritage of hope and liberation that has dignified and informed the human venture over many centuries;

being present with, to, and for others in their terrors and torments; in their grief, misery and pain; knowing that those feelings are our feelings, too;

celebrating the triumphs of the human spirit, the miracles of birth and life, the wonders of devotion and sacrifice;

witnessing to life-enhancing values;

speaking truth to power;

speaking for human dignity and equity, for compassion and aspiration;

believing in life in the presence of death;

struggling for human responsibility against principalities and structures that ignore humaneness and become instruments of death.

It is all these and much, much more than all of them, present in the wordless, the unspoken, the ineffable.

It is speaking and living the highest we know and living with the knowledge that it is never as deep, or as wide or a high as we wish. Whenever there is a meeting that summons us to our better selves, wherever

our lostness is found,

our fragments are united,

our wounds begin healing,

our spines stiffen and

our muscles grow strong for the task,

there is ministry.

Affirming Our Mission

Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.

Reading

ONE LOVE
Rev. Dr. Hope Johnson

We are one,
A diverse group
Of proudly kindred spirits
Here not by coincidence–
But because we choose to journey-together.

We are active and proactive
We care deeply
We live our love, as best we can.

We ARE one
Working, Eating, Laughing,
Playing, Singing, Storytelling, Sharing and Rejoicing.
Getting to know each other,
Taking risks
Opening up.
Questioning, Seeking, Searching…
Trying to understand…
Struggling…
Making Mistakes
Paying Attention…
Asking Questions
Listening…
Living our Answers
Learning to love our neighbors
Learning to love ourselves.

Apologizing and forgiving with humility
Being forgiven, through Grace.

Creating the Beloved Community-Together
We are ONE.

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