Sunday Morning Worship
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This theme for October is Cultivating Compassion.
The Fellowship offers many opportunities and invitations to explore and practice the theme. We will be exploring the theme through out the month in worship and Religious Exploration.
October 5 “Just Three Feet” with Meredyth Howard
When everyday seems to bring a new tragedy, how can we find hope? When all the problems seem so insurmountable, how can we take them on? UUFA’s Youth/Young Adult & Membership Coordinator Meredyth Howard explores one way to find hope and effect real change every day.
October 12 “How I Carry You with My Words” with Mikhayla Robinson Smith
Every act of compassion begins with words: spoken or perceived. Our words have the power to hold or harm, to protect or to destroy, and to show mercy and compassionor to show hatred, or erase. This service will serve as a reminder and an encouragement for us all to carry one another with our words.
October 19 “How to Read a Covenant” with Rev. Dr. Pippin Whitaker
As participants in a covenantal faith, we write and hold many covenants with one another. Some covenants speak to our association among congregations; others call us to gather in covenant within congregations. Committees, groups, and teams (and even meetings!) may have covenants! With all this experience, we UUs tend to be pretty good at writing covenants. How should we read them?
October 26 “Into the Hollow Reed” with Rev. Dr. Pippin Whitaker
Reflection Ideas and Questions
Are you seeking more ways to explore the theme of cultivating compassion?
Consider reflecting on these quotes:
There is a hierarchy of responses when we encounter suffering. Pity says, “I see your pain.” Sympathy says “I understand your pain.” Empathy says, “I feel your pain.” Compassion says “I am with you in your pain and I will help.” – Rabbi Esther Adler
Self-compassion isn’t about escaping your darkness but learning to love yourself there. – Jennifer Healey
Hold yourself as a mother holds her beloved child. – The Buddha
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring. – Martin Luther King Jr.
Hurt people, hurt people… but, they help them too. – Iain Corbett
Some questions you may use as a prompt for conversation or for a journal entry follow:
- When were you offered compassion in an unexpected or unique way?
- What’s your first memory of being compassionate with yourself?
- Where did your unkind and self-critical inner voice come from?
- How would your feelings about that “difficult person” in your life change if you discovered that their aggravating behavior is not a character defect but a wound that runs deep?
- What do you need to do to stay tender and compassionate in the face of our consistently cruel political culture that wants you to go numb?
