Community has become even more important in these challenging times. We offer multiple ways to connect.
We invite you to enjoy our Sunday morning services! JOIN US!
For those who cannot make it in person to services, we offer livestreaming via YouTube. See this week’s service announcement directly below with the link. (Click on the picture.)
Sunday morning service videos can be accessed at your convenience on our Worship page or YouTube channel.
Our next Sunday Morning Dialog is May 17th. CLICK HERE for more information.
May 17th, 10:30am
In person and livestreamed on YouTube
Preparing the Soil: Lessons from Thomas Potter
Rev. Craig Hirshberg and Rev. Carol Haag, guest ministers
Thomas Potter, our Universalist pioneer, was a farmer on the Jersey Shore in the 1700s. But there is a much deeper story about Potter’s preparation that launched the beginning of Universalism in our country. During these difficult times, we can learn a few things about keeping love at the center from our Universalist prophet.
Music: Michael Rosin, Music Director
Rev. Craig Hirshberg is President of the Board of Trustees at Murray Grove Retreat and Renewal Center, where she hosts meditation classes, retreats, and other spiritual development activities. She is Minister Emerita (and founding minister) of the UU Congregation of Somerset Hills. A graduate of Drew Theological School and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, she received her spiritual direction training at Shalem in Washington DC and from the Rowe Spiritual Direction Program. Rev. Hirshberg has served on the board of the UU Trauma Response Team, being deployed in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. Before her retirement, she served as Executive Director of UU FaithAction NJ.
Rev. Carol Haag retired after 13 years as the religious educator (DRE and MRE) with The Unitarian Church in Summit, NJ. She is a strong advocate for Universalism as the central, vital force in our Unitarian Universalist movement, and has served on the Murray Grove board, as member, President, and Stewardship Committee Chair. She believes that Universalism embodies the critical message of inclusion for our time.
May 17th, 9:00am
UUCMC Community Room
The United States from the Outside Looking In
Rosane Geiselman, Suzanne Bless, MD, and Friends. Tim Geiselman, moderator
In this 250th year of the United States of America, we will speak with a few people who were born abroad but now live here. We will get their perspective on the country – what drew them to the US, what do they appreciate, what do they struggle with, what do they miss from their country of origin? We will speak about the US through the eyes of outsiders in an attempt to understand the US a bit more.
Rosane immigrated to the US from Argentina and Suzanne from Egypt. We have invited several others from Great Britain, Lebanon, and Brazil and hope they will be able to join us! Rosane and Tim have been members of UUCMC since 2016.
The weekly service link is 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. Our Facebook page (click here) is also updated as information unfolds.
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May Theme: AWAKENING CURIOSITY
My grandmother, an incredibly gifted, creative, if not eccentric woman, imparted me with these simple but powerful words. She said: “To be interesting, Kate, you have to be interested.” Curiosity not only makes the world interesting, it makes you interesting.
Each of us is shaped as much by the quality of the questions we are asking as by the answers we have it in us to give.
The ability to ask beautiful questions, often in very unbeautiful moments, is one of the great disciplines of a human life. And a beautiful question starts to shape your identity as much by asking it as it does by having it answered. You just have to keep asking.
The opposite of anxiety is not calm, it’s not confidence. The opposite of anxiety is curiosity. Anxiety is worrying: OH NO What is going to happen? And curiosity is OH, WOW, I wonder what could happen?
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few.
The best spiritual instruction is to wake up in the morning and say, “I wonder what’s going to happen today.”
If you want to know why you do something, stop doing it and see what happens.
Curious people are interesting people; I wonder why that is.
People go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
