Saturday, December 24, 2022
4 PM- Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Development
7:45 PM Mini Concert -UU Asheville Choir and Dr. Leslie Downs, Music Director
8 PM Candlelight Service – Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
Sunday, December 18, 2022 11am
Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Development
Drumming Circle following the service
NewComer Gathering 12:30-1:30 in the Sanctuary
Sunday, December 11, 2022 11am
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
December’s theme is Wonder, but what happens if you aren’t in the mood for wonder? Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” But what if you are not in the mood, or you are simply comfortable in your gloom? What’s the secret, can you be surprised by wonder?
Sunday, December 4, 2022 11am
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister and Gina Phairas, Minister Search Committee
Rumi wrote, “And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.”
For example, while a tree seems dormant above ground, the underground system of roots is busy at work growing, searching, and retaining nutrients to help get your tree through the winter and to prepare it for the spring.
UU Asheville’s roots have been riotous and preparing for spring, too! Ministerial Search Committee chair Gina Phairas will share with you what has been happening behind the scenes. She will also be including the results of the survey and the next steps toward calling your new settled minister.
Soup Sunday Fundraiser benefitting YRUU
Sunday, November 27, 2022 11am
Kim Collins, Lifespan Religious Educator
All Ages Service with RE classes prior to service
If we know that the Thanksgiving story that many of us learned (and still do learn) as children is a myth, then why do we celebrate Thanksgiving? It still has a great meaning for many of us as a day to gather, feast, spend time with loved ones, and observe personal or family traditions. While it is important that we acknowledge the harm brought by the origin story, we can still celebrate in a meaningful way.
Sunday, November 20, 2022 11am
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
Holiday Craft Fair and Drumming
Sunday, November 13, 2022 11am
Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Development
Sunday, November 6, 2022 11am
Will Jernigan and Clyde Hardin, Co-chairs, Meet the Moment Campaign.
Sunday, October 23, 2022 11am In Person and YouTube
Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Development
Courage or coraje en español, contain the root word “cor” which means heart in Latin. When we are courageous, I believe we are engaging from a place of love, from our hearts. It is often that which “breaks our hearts” that moves us to act despite our fear. When have there been moments of courage in your life? Join us to explore how courage shows up in our lives and our engagement with the world. Will adopting the 8th Principle ground our engagement?
After service (and coffee or tea), join Rev. Claudia and members of the 8th Principle Team for a Reflection Circle in the Sanctuary at 12:30PM.
The Proposed 8th Principle:
“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
WHAT IS BELOVED COMMUNITY?
Beloved Community happens when people of diverse racial, ethnic, educational, class, gender, abilities, sexual orientation backgrounds/identities come together in an interdependent relationship of love, mutual respect, and care that seeks to realize justice within the community and in the broader world.
Sunday, October 16, 2022 11amIn-person and YouTube
Rev. Jeff Jones, Affiliate Minister
I have found Unitarian Universalism to be a profound way to be religious. It can transform us, provide comfort in times of struggle, and challenge us to live out our values. Drawing on my experience serving at the El Paso border for a year, I will explore more deeply how we engage with our Unitarian Universalist faith.
Sunday, October 9, 2022 11am In person & on YouTube
Dr. Edwin Murillo, Guest Speaker with special music by Chris Rosser
Dr. Edwin Murillo is an Associate Professor in the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. He received his doctorate in Romance Studies from the University of Miami. Dr. Murillo is a second-generation US Hispanic and the first person in his family to attend college. His articles have appeared in Hispanófila, Crítica hispánica, and Hispanic Journal, among others. His poetry, written in Spanglish and Portuñol, has appeared in various international academic journals. His short-story collection Midnight Vallenato was published by Floricanto Press in 2019. His book Latin America and Existentialism is under contract with the University of Wales Press. At UTC, he teaches Spanish language, composition, and literature courses, as well as creative writing in Spanish. He loves music, travel,and the noise his daughters make in the morning.
Sunday, October 2, 11am In person and YouTube
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
Sunday, October 30, 2022 11am In person & YouTube
Chaplain Sequoyah Rich, Guest Speaker
Bring a framed picture of a loved one that has passed away. We are going to celebrate Halloween by creating an Ancestor Altar. Children are welcome to participate by bringing flowers to adorn the altar. Children may have seen a similar Ancestor Altar in the Pixar/Disney movie Coco from 2017. During our service we will:
*Learn about the Pagan roots of Halloween
*Experience and witness the Pagan ritual of calling in the Directions
*Commune with the altar by offering our joys and sorrows to the your ancestors and loved ones.
*Honor the memories of loved ones that have passed away in the last 12 months, by a public reading of their names.
Sequoyah is a Chaplain at the VA Hospital. She became a member of UU Asheville in May of this year and has become very involved. She co-leads the Buddhist Sangha and is a Worship Associate and a Pastoral Visitor. She graduated from Meadville Lombard Theological School with a Master’s Degree in Religion.
Sunday, September 25, 2022 In-person and YouTube
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
Join Rev. Cathy and members of Unitarian Rainbow Unity (URU) as we celebrate LGBTQ+ lives and commit to fight for their rights. As Barack Obama once said, “When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.”
Sunday, September 18, 2022 In-person and YouTube
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
Unitarian minister, Erik Walker Wikstrom wrote a wonderful little book called, Serving with Grace for church leaders that invites us to change the lens of volunteering at church as a job that needs to be done, to seeing leadership as a way of spiritually nurturing us, not a necessary evil.
He says when we understand leadership as spiritual practice, we can “stretch in new directions.”
Performing will be Emma’s Revolution.
Sunday, September 11, 2022 In-person and YouTube
Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Development
Join us for the launch of the new Religious Exploration year with a reflection on the importance of community as a catalyst for growth, change and spiritual deepening. What do we bring as individuals? How do we build and strengthen community TOGETHER? On this Sunday we will also have a Child Dedication and a blessing for this year’s Religious Exploration team. Nos vemos!
Sunday, August 28, 2022, 11am In-person and YouTube
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister and Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Development
Bring a vial of water from a place (real or symbolic) that holds meaning to you so that we might mingle the waters of memories and hope in a shared communion of solidarity and peace.
In 1980, Carolyn McDade and Lucile Shuck Longview were asked to create a ritual for the Women and Religion Conference. They both shared “a vision for justice and the environment. The water symbolized the birth waters, the cycles of moon, tides and women, and all the waters of this small blue planet. The ceremony was also designed to demonstrate solidarity with women globally, as women the world over traditionally draw and carry water. Forty-two years after its creation, this meaningful ritual speaks to a deepening awareness of our solidarity with our siblings globally who lack the most basic and precious resources. It also speaks eloquently of our interdependence.
Sunday, September 4, 2022 In-person and YouTube
Rev. Cathy Harrington Interim Lead Minister
As we move into this exciting year of searching for your new minister, it is important to reflect on who you have been, who you are now, and who you hope to become as a beloved community. What lies ahead? What is UU Asheville being called to be in today’s world?
Sunday, August 21, 2022 11am In-person and on YouTube
Rev. Keith Kron, Guest Speaker
Religion, including Unitarian Universalism is at a moment in time. Can it survive? And what must it do in order to survive? What must we do? We’ll explore our place in today’s world, and why it’s metaphorical meteorites and not a comet that could wipe us out.
Rev. Keith Kron is the Director of the Transitions Office for the UUA, helping congregations and ministers as they navigate the ministerial search process.
He is the former Director of the Office of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Concerns for the Unitarian Unversalist Association. He held that position for over 14 years from 1996-2010.
He has visited over 450 UU congregations across the continent, helping them in Welcoming Congregation work, Beyond Categorical Thinking workshops, and public witness.
A former elementary school teacher, Keith also has taught an online class for Starr King School for the Ministry, our UU seminary in Berkeley, on children’s literature. He also leads workshops on the enneagram, plays and teaches tennis, and collects children’s books in his spare time (He has over 9,000 of them.).
He currently lives in Providence, RI.
Sunday, March 14, 2022 11am, In-person and on YouTube
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
To live in this world. you must be able to do three things:
To love what is mortal
to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it;
And, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. —Mary Oliver
Sunday, August 7, 2022 11am In-person and YouTube
Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Development
Join Rev. Claudia as she shares reflections on this year’s multi-platform General Assembly.
Sunday, July 24, 2022 11am In-person and YouTube
Tobias Van Buren, Guest Speaker
Some octo-wisdom about how we can be too hard on ourselves, UUs in their own unique way, and some suggestions for taking better care of our most valuable asset: our selves. Original Blessings. The Titanium Rule.
Sunday, July 17, 2022 11am In-person and YouTube
Lea Morris, Guest
Sunday, July 10, 2022, 11am In-person and YouTube
Rev. Roger Jones, Guest Minister
In our society, family and other personal relationships can be blessed or troubled by our attitudes about money and resources. Yet the ways that we handle money can be a source of insight about our spiritual approach to life. With stories about family life, our guest invites us to think about our personal relationships, our sense of self, our money, and those funny places where they overlap.
Rev. Dr. Roger Jones is one of the Co-Ministers of Equal Standing at the UU Society of Sacramento, where he has served since 2008. He serves on the boards of his UU district, area YMCA, and a medical center’s chaplaincy training program. He has degrees from Indiana University, Meadville Lombard Theological School, and Pacific School of Religion.
Sunday, June 26, 2022 11am Pre-recorded
Rev. Susan Fredrick Gray
“We are not alone, though sometimes we forget that truth. We are woven into one cloth, one gorgeous blanket, designed for use, for comfort, to sustain and to love…”—Rev. Dr. Sarah Lenzi
“Woven in a Single Garment of Destiny” is a full-length video worship service exploring and celebrating hallmarks of our Unitarian Universalist theology.
We’re all connected: an interdependent whole. Therefore, says Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, “covenant is our religious response to our fundamental interdependence.” We make promises about how to be together, and how to be in the world. We also fall short of honoring those promises, inviting us to repair and strengthen the strands of community. The choice to mend broken strands of the web is an act of faithfulness.
The liturgist for this service, Rev. Erika Hewitt, UUA Minister of Worship Arts, coordinated a wide range of worship and music leaders for you to enjoy—including original songs composed just for this service.
Sunday, June 19, 2022, 11am
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
Send Rev. Cathy a photo of your father, grandfather, or someone who was like a father to you for our slide show, and bring a flower for our traditional Flower Communion.
In the years immediately following the First World War, Norbert Capek, who had once been head of all the Baptist churches in Bohemia, discovered that he had begun to embrace theological and religious convictions which were simply too liberal for that religious community. In response, he founded the Unitarian movement in Czechoslovakia. Many of its members, like Capek, had grown up in other religious communities and found that their religious needs could not be met by the empty ceremonies and the hymns which were part of the churches of their childhood. Dr. Capek responded by writing hymns of his own and devising new ceremonies. One of the most successful of these ceremonies was the flower communion service, in which each person in the congregation brought a flower to church and placed it in a vase. This simple ceremony began to spread among American Unitarian Universalists at about the time that Dr. Capek was executed by the Nazis at the infamous death camp at Dachau.
Sunday, June 5, 2022, 11am
Dr. Leslie Downs, Music Director
On June 5 we’ll have our first in-person Music Sunday service since 2019! The choir is excited! This service will feature the UU Asheville Choir and our in-house band, The Sandburgers. The music consists of uplifting songs with themes of joy and encouragement (because who doesn’t need that?). Included will be choir favorites from The Greatest Showman, as well as music composed by Mark Miller.
Sunday, May 29, 11am
Rev. Cathy Harrington, Interim Lead Minister
This Memorial Day we will honor some lesser-known heroes; men and women of the global majority who gave their lives for our country.
Sunday, May 22, 11am
Worship Team: Kim Collins, Jen Johnson, Les Downs, Rev. Claudia
Join us to celebrate Faith Development for all ages in our congregation. We will honor graduating seniors and share gratitude for all who have worked with children and adults to promote spiritual deepening. Our choir will be joining us.
Sunday, June 12, 2022 11am
Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Devlopement
In 2015, our denomination approved a Reproductive Justice Statement of Conscience. Join Rev. Claudia and worship associate Jane Branham as they explore its implications for today as the reality of the overturning of Roe vs Wade is before us. How are we called as UUs to support the rights, needs and choices of everyone?