As of now, Sunday worship service is a weekly YouTube video. Sunday morning community hour begins at 10:30 am via Zoom.
If this is your first time with us, here are the answers to some Common Questions you might have.
If you have children/youth, you can find out more about our Family Ministry.
Join in Tuesday evenings via Zoom for our Dialog series, which runs from September to May.
Join in on one of our Music Programs.
Listen to our previous services on our podcast page.
We invite you to watch our virtual services. Each week our service is pre-recorded and is available typically by 5pm on Saturday evening. You can enjoy them at your convenience on our YouTube channel (CLICK HERE).
We extend a special invitation to you to join us in loving community on Sunday mornings for a virtual community “happy” hour at 10:30am using Zoom. (Please note Zoom requires a password.) The weekly service link, community hour link and password are sent out via email each week. In addition our weekly eblast that comes out on Thursday mornings has loads of information about UUCMC happenings. If you are not already on our email list, click the button in the footer to sign up. Follow us on Facebook (click here) to keep in touch.
(If you are not on our email list, you can contact uucmc@uucmc.org for the password or click the button below.)
We hope you will join us in community from the safety of your homes.
March 7th
Thinking Again Rev. Craig Rubano
Click here to view the Service.
One of the hardest things to do as humans is rethinking, exercising an ability to unlearn. And yet, in order to escape the weight of our underlying assumption, we must question ourselves, difficult though it may be. This morning, we’ll explore what committing to think again requires.
Music by Lynn Dash, Jan Dash, and Rev. Craig.
Services Available to Watch on YouTube:
February 28th
Who Belongs Here? Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
We all need to feel we belong somewhere, but generating such feelings in ourselves and allowing them to blossom in others is complicated. Today’s service will examine the Beloved Community through the lens of our belonging. Click here to view the Service.
Music by Helen Kho, Jennifer Thomas, Karen Christiana, Louise and Dan Chernosky.
February 21st
I Cannot Tell A Lie Rev. Craig Rubano
During this time of February when we celebrate Presidents, Rev. Craig uses our collective (mis)understandings of George Washington to probe “truth”: Is there a difference between something that is “true” and something that is “verifiable?” When is it important to probe behind the curtain of received “truth?” Test your G. W. knowledge! And, here’s a question: When was the last time you thought it would be a great idea to take an ax and chop down a fruit tree? Click here to view the Service.
Music by Jennifer Thomas, Kirsten Norberg, Elaine Held, and Louise Chernosky.
February 14th
Love and Trouble: The Continuing Adventures of You and Me
Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst, Rev. Craig Rubano, Michelle McKenzie-Creech
On this Valentine’s Day, we gather to reflect on what it means, to recall Alice Walker’s words, to be “in love and trouble.” Bring the whole family to your screens for this multigenerational celebration. Click here to watch the recording of the LIVE Service.
Music by Louise Chernosky and Rev. Craig Rubano.
February 7th
Myra Zinke Service: The Space Between Rev. Andrée Mol
Names and categories create distinctions which we use to navigate our world. But what happens when society’s standard labels don’t fit our identity—black, white, gay, straight, male, female? We are more than just a label. Yet, it takes courage to live outside categorical norms. Rev. Andrée Mol explores stories of trans and gender non-confirming individuals who risk living into their full humanity, and ways we can collectively affirm those lives with our love. Click here to view the Service.
This service is funded by a bequest from Dr. Myra Zinke who hoped to promote gender equality with her generosity.
Rev. Andrée Mol (pronouns: they/them/theirs) serves as the minister at Central Unitarian Church in Paramus, NJ. Andrée is an active member of TRUUsT (an organization of UU trans religious professionals), which views the work for liberation as intimately tied to all efforts to dismantle oppression within Unitarian Universalism and our wider world. Through Andrée’s varied experiences in filmmaking, leadership development, and ministry, they are committed to
collectively exploring the role of transformative stories and dialogue in our spiritual lives. They are also the proud parent of two young children and two cats.
Music by UU Singers Altos and Friends, Dan and Louise Chernosky.
January 31st
Imagining Ourselves into Community Rev. Craig Rubano
What does it take to become the world about which we dream? Rounding out an inspirational month in our lives, we take some time to celebrate our progress, and to step boldly down new paths of mutually accountable community. Click here to view the Service.
Music by Elaine Held, Thomas Cannizzaro, Kirsten Norberg, Richard Sachs, and Rev. Craig.
January 24th
What Is Religion For? Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
Music by Jan Dash, Louise Chernosky, and Thomas Cannizzaro.
January 17th
Service is Our Prayer: MLK Sunday Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst and Rev. Craig Rubano
Music by Louise and Dan Chernosky.
January 10th
How strong is our faith with and without the 8th Principle?
Paula Cole Jones and the 8th Principle Task Force
Perhaps the strength of Unitarian Universalism can be measured in the true transformative power of our Principles. It is the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism that bring us together.
Momentum is growing around the country for the inclusion of an 8th Principle: It states: We, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by building a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.
Covenants can change a culture. They hold the potential to transform relationships, communities and institutions. The 8th Principal is our proposal to be in covenant with the Beloved Community. You are invited to join Paula Cole Jones to explore why we need an 8th Principle and why now? Click here to view the Service.
Paula Cole Jones is a life-long Unitarian Universalist and a Management Consultant with over twenty years of experience in designing and facilitating workshops and dialogues for leaders and organizations. She is an innovator of institutional change. In 1999, Paula founded ADORE, A Dialogue on Race & Ethnicity. She has conducted hundreds of group discussions and workshops across the country for faith organizations, community groups and government agencies. Paula Cole Jones is the author of a UU World Magazine cover story, Reconciliation as a Spiritual Discipline and she is the editor of a Skinner House book, Encounters: Poems about Race, Ethnicity and Identity.
Music by Louise Chernosky.
January 3rd
Imagine: Three Drawings Dr. Carol Penn and Core of Fire
This is a fun filled inspirational service with something for everyone. Using our imagination is the centerpiece as participants will be guided in the use of visual guided imagery to use their imagination to create a hopeful and optimistic future. Everyone will need to bring three pieces of paper and/or a journal and markers and/or crayons. Click here to view the YouTube Service.
Music by Louise Chernosky, Core of Fire, and Kendra Kehde.
December 27th
The Fabulous Fezziwigs
A joyous and rousing caroling event featuring four fine professional singers from NYC. From their glorious high notes, to booming bass notes, to artistic arrangements of old favorites, to thoughtful insights on the carols, lots of bantering and laughter so very appreciated at this eventful holiday time…all arrayed in Victorian holiday garb…The Fabulous Fezziwigs will bring a contagious joy for an admiring and muted audience! They will crown your holiday season!! For an introduction to them CLICK HERE. Noël and good cheer! Please note this service was not recorded for YouTube. Please do check out the Fabulous Fezziwigs!
December 24th Christmas Eve
A Multigenerational Christmas Eve Rev. Virginia, Rev. Craig, and Michelle
One multigenerational YouTube service featuring pageantry, lessons, and carols. In the Unitarian Universalist tradition, we believe that every child is the hope of this world. Click here to view the YouTube service.
Music by Jan Dash, Elaine Held, Ruby and Louise Chernosky, Maya Kimmel, Craig Rubano, UU Singers and friends.
December 20th
A Solstice Journey Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst & Michelle McKenzie-Creech
Music by Liz Tortorella, Louise and Dan Chernosky.
December 13th
Days that Count Rev. Craig Rubano
Midway through Advent and three days into Hanukkah, how can our monthly congregational theme of stillness enrich a season that can feel like a countdown clock, moving us from counting the days to experiencing days that count? Click here to view the Service.
Music by Louise and Dan Chernosky, Maggi Riordan.
December 6th
A Child’s View Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
How do children see the December holidays? So much enthusiasm and energy is hard to keep still. Can we older ones capture that wonder once again? Click here to view the Service.
Music by Jan Dash and family, Jennifer Thomas, Louise Chernosky.
November 29th
Healing Rev. Elizabeth Congdon, guest minister
We experience healing all the time – in times of sorrow, anxiety, distress and stress; a job loss, loss of a friend, a love, a child, a relationship, a marriage, a home, a disappointment; an injury, an illness and surgery – organizational stresses, job stress and especially zoom fatigue. We will be talking about personal healing of many different varieties including some basic parameters. Click here to view the Service.
The Reverend Elizabeth B. Congdon is the retired Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Trenton. Prior to being called into ministry she did hospital nursing for 17 years and then for the State Department of Health for 25 years. She has been on mission trips to the Philippines, Haiti, Rwanda, Egypt, Lebanon, Malaysia, Thailand, the Navajo and Hopi nations in the American Southwest and the Republic of Georgia. Liz is currently the Co-President of the Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought and is on the steering committees for both MOSAIC, the teen interfaith education, leadership and community service project and the Civil Discourse project. She is the mother of four daughters and grandmother to one granddaughter and three grandsons. She gets together with all of them on zoom, as we all try to get through this pandemic.
Music by Tom McCormack and Louise Chernosky.
November 22nd
Let Gratitude Heal You: A Multigenerational Service of Thanksgiving
Rev. Craig Rubano & Michelle McKenzie-Creech
On gratitude, the poet David Whyte writes, “being unappreciative might mean we are simply not paying attention.” In shifting our attention, in being present to everything that comes together each time we draw breath, we open ourselves to a gratitude that can heal us. Let us gather in an expressly intergenerational way and live, together, into our thankfulness. Click here to view the Service.
Music by Louise Chernosky, Virtual Uke Project, Elaine Held, Edna Larsen, Paul Vallin.
November 15th
Humor Might Help Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
Do you know a really good joke or funny story, or has Covid stolen your sense of humor? We will share some good ones and reflect on the role humor has in our health and healing. Join me in bringing a bit of that lightness to our community today. Click here to view the Service.
Music by David Fischell and Louise Chernosky.
November 8th
Post Election Sunday: Now What!? Rev. Craig Rubano & Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
There is no way to know what to expect on this post election Sunday as we write this mid-October. We do know that we all have taken responsibility for this democracy by voting and making our voices heard. We do know that we will gather together LIVE ON SUNDAY MORNING to make sense of the results. As always, we do know that this community will show up with love and commitment to our values whatever the day may bring. We’ll see you there! Click here to view the recording of the live service.
Music by Virtual UU Singers, Thomas Cannizzaro, Rev. Craig and Louise Chernosky.
November 1st
Adopting an “8th Principle” on the Road to Beloved Community
Rev. Craig Rubano & the 8th Principle Task Force
At the heart of what Unitarian Universalists believe about our interactions with our world and one another are the, so far, 7 Principles. At this critical moment, however, there is an uprising of support across our faith movement to bring a new commitment and accountability to dismantling the systems of oppression that have harmed historically marginalized persons. Congregational adoption of an “8th Principle,” which would bring a new level of dedication to our anti-racist work in order to give teeth to our Principled intentions, embodies this move toward creating Beloved Community. Click here to view the service.
Music by Music Director Emerita Elaine Held, Kirsten Norberg, Louise and Dan Chernosky.
October 25th
Remembering All Souls Rev. Craig Rubano & Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
Join us in this annual service of recognition and remembrance of those who have died this year. We will meet live at 10:30am in Zoom for this interactive service of listening and of remembering those who have joined the ancestors. In the words of poet Birago Diop:
Those who have died have never, never left
The dead are not under the earth
They are in the rustling trees
They are in the groaning woods
They are in the crying grass
They are in the moaning rocks
The dead are not under the earth
Music by UU Singers Virtual Choir, UUCMC Music Video “Remember Me,” Craig Rubano, and Louise Chernosky.
October 18th
The Unheard Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
Whether we cannot not hear them or are just not listening for them, the unheard do have something to say. Our service today will focus on those who are silenced and those who remain silent, all vital witnesses to life, who deserve to be heard. Click here to watch the service.
Music by Craig Sunada, Liz Tortorella, and Louise Chernosky.
October 11th
Deep Listening at the Heart of Connection Rev. Craig Rubano and Louise Chernosky
To American composer Pauline Oliveros, listening—if engaged in enough depth—is a full-bodied attending to oneself and to the surrounding world that is necessary before directed, socially-conscious action. This morning we will be inspired by Oliveros to stop, and truly hear, moving toward an openness of communication that builds community. Click here to watch the service.
Music by Rev. Craig Rubano and Louise Chernosky.
October 4th
250 Years of Universalist Heritage and its Meaning for Our Time Rev. Justin Schroeder
This year, we are celebrating 250 years of Universalism in North America. The anniversary celebrates a sermon by Rev. John Murray, September 30, 1770, right here in NJ. Murray Grove Retreat & Renewal Center exists as a living memorial to the meeting between Murray and Thomas Potter, a local farmer, and the resulting sermon. Click here to watch the service.
September 27th
Awesome Days Rev. Craig Rubano
Music by Jan Dash, Liz Tortorella, Paul Sherman, Rev. Craig, Louise and Dan Chernosky.
September 20th
The Fix: On Breaking and Mending Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
Music by Jennifer Thomas, Louise and Dan Chernosky.
September 13th
Ingathering Sunday: In Search of Good News Revs. Craig and Virginia; Michelle, and Louise
Welcome back to an UUCMC Ingathering unlike any other we have known! In this multigenerational service, we will celebrate the good news to be found in this strange time and place. We look forward to seeing you online and Sunday afternoon at our annual Ingathering picnic at Thompson Park with masks and social distancing. Seeing you there will be the good news we need! Click here to view the service.
Music by UU Singers, Thomas and Aengus Cannizzaro, Skip Leib, Louise and Dan Chernosky, Bob Shumway.
September 6th
This Finite Earth Jim Scott, UU singer/songwriter
We are pleased that Jim Scott will present a full service of music and musings. His extensive experience and UU tradition are sure to contribute to a meaningful service. Don’t miss it! Click here to view the service.
“For more than three decades, Jim Scott has made it his business to create and perform music that celebrates the earth.” Find out more here: https://jimscottmusic.com/bio-resume/
August 30th
Plant Love Eileen Ellis, MSW, Native American Healing, LLC, guest speaker
Spiritual guidance, Divine inspiration and amazing synchronicities always seem to find their way to me when I need it the most. It is truly one of the greatest gifts of paying attention with an open heart. I invite you to join in my 2020 summer lesson to plant love around you. Click here to view the service.
Eileen Ellis is a full-blooded Mohawk Native American with ancestral healing roots with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Rutgers University. She is a retired NJ public school administrator with 25+ years of educational experience, and since 2006 has been a practicing shaman and spiritual/energy consultant, teaching and facilitating classes in meditation (breathing, mindfulness, guided imagery, shamanic journeying) as well as varied topics in energy healing.
Music by Helen Kho, Dan and Louise Chernosky.
August 23rd
Suppose is a Beautiful Word Rev. Kim Wildszewski, guest minister
In this season of unrelenting endings, what might come to be born? Suppose is a beautiful, co-creative, word. Click here to view the service.
Since 2014, Rev. Kim has served as the settled minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Washington Crossing. A lifelong UU from eastern Long Island, Kim holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing and Religion from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, and a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Before serving UUCWC, Kim was the Minister of Congregational Life at Beacon UU Congregation in Summit, NJ. Kim and her wife, Tara, live in Titusville, NJ. Their son Tobias was born in 2015. Their son Malcolm, born in 2018, died in 2020.
Music by Louise Chernosky, Thomas Cannizzaro, Sarah and David Fischell.
August 16th
In Search of Oneness Sarbmeet Kanwal
The breadth and depth of the world-views from which we live our lives has not kept pace with the technologies that make it easier to magnify our differences. This has brought our nation to the brink of an existential crisis. What will it take to bolster the feeling of oneness, so crucial for the further advancement of our species? Click here to view the service.
Sarbmeet Kanwal teaches astronomy and physics at Brookdale Community College. He speaks frequently to the public on topics related to science and spirituality including a TEDx talk in 2019. He is a strong contributor to interfaith activities in Monmouth County and cofounded an award winning youth leadership program called MOSAIC.
Music by Louise Chernosky, Jan and Lynn Dash.
August 9th
In This Together Rev. Craig Rubano & Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
We are fairly new to co-ministry here in Monmouth County. As two very different ministers sharing one position, we have learned a few lessons about partnership—its beauty, fragility, power, and pitfalls. One thing is clear—partnership matters. What does a broader partnership mean to Unitarian Universalists these days? Does our theology really encourage collaboration? Can we survive without it? Click here to view the service.
August 2nd
Liberating Lost Souls: Tending a Local Wound of White Supremacy
Rev. Karen Johnston, guest minister
In 1818, a corrupt Middlesex County judge sold 150+ African Americans into permanent slavery in the Deep South when they should have been free in New Jersey. A history that was whitewashed and largely forgotten. No more. As our nation grapples with the ongoing presence of white supremacy, as well as which monuments to tear down, and which to build up, let us pledge to liberate the Lost Souls and to re-member them home. Click here to view the service.
July 26th
Nourishing Music and Poetry Elaine Held, Jan Dash, and Joel Dewitt
July 19th
We welcome Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, sharing one of their virtual services with us this week.
Keeping Vigil Rev. Alison Miller
“Morristown Unitarian Fellowship is a vibrant multi-generational liberal religious home that believes in walking alongside each other in our separate spiritual journeys while covenanting to create community and striving to make a more just world.”
July 12th
We welcome Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Summit, sharing one of their virtual services with us this week.
How to Light a Chalice Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner and Rev. Emilie Boggis
Our Mission is to be a radically inclusive religious community that feeds the human spirit and heals the world.
“We are committed to being a Beacon in our world by ministering to our members and friends, reaching out to those in need, partnering with allies and advocates for transformation and joining our voices and actions in the chorus of justice.”
July 5th
We welcome The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, sharing one of their services with us this week.
The Color of Law Rev. Scott Sammler-Michael
“The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, now in its 118th year, enjoys a rich history of spiritual exploration and social justice activism. For us, it’s difficult to tell those elements apart because we find them to be two aspects of the same human, religious impulse. It’s much like breathing in and breathing out.”