September Worship
Sundays at 10:30 a.m.
Attend virtually via Zoom here.
Online Visitor Card, archive of past services, and more here.
Cause of the Month
Athens Pride & Queer Collective
This month’s theme is Welcome.
September 3 – “Songs of Solidarity”
Amber Fetner and Susie Weller and the Chalice Choir
Celebrate workers and the work of labor activists in story and song.
September 10 – “Love, Loss, and Time Travel”
Rev. Dr. Pippin Whitaker
When someone we love dies, time feels different. Philosophy, psychology, and quantum physics each illuminate part of the mystery of separation through time, opening new ways of relating across time.
September 17 at the UU Mountain – “What Bloomed in Your Retreat?”
Rev. Dr. Pippin Whitaker
UUFA members and friends gather for a closing worship service and celebration of what unfurled in their time at the mountain.
September 17 in the sanctuary at UUFA and on zoom – “Intellectual Freedom under Attack”
Aleta Mendenhall-Turner and Congregation
Book challenges and bans in schools and public libraries are skyrocketing, despite a large majority of people being against such bans. Our 4th UU Principle is a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” Bring a short reading to share from a favorite book that has been challenged or banned or a reading that speaks to why or how intellectual freedom is important to you.
September 24 – “Socialism Is for Humanity”
Guest Speaker Rev. Jonathan Rogers
The COVID-19 pandemic response makes clear that American worker health and safety are not guaranteed, and self-actualization through vocation is a rare workplace luxury. Our humanist UU values can help us to imagine and create a future where all people flourish.
Reflection Ideas and Questions
- Who welcomed you in when you needed it most? How has that gift changed you? What would you say to the person if you had the chance?
- What part of you do you wish your family of origin would have welcomed more enthusiastically?
- Do you know what it’s like to encounter a welcome that requires you to remove parts of yourself to belong?
- What part of yourself is hardest to welcome in and embrace with compassion: Your vulnerable self? Your flawed self? Your easily frightened self? Your angry self?
- What if, as some say, God is the force that disrupts our comfortable plans and notions? What if wholeness and holiness only leak into our lives when we welcome those moments of life being turned on its head?
- What new ideas have you welcomed in since you’ve been to UUFA?
