Past Worship Services

Memorial Service

The Cares and Concerns Committee of MMUUF will be hosting a memorial service honoring our beloved dead. Members and guests will have an opportunity to remember a beloved one no longer with us. This could be a person, or dog or cat, or any creature that caused your heart to swell with grief. Folks are asked to bring some items for our beloved dead altar, even if they aren’t speaking. But we would love to have people, members or guests, share a brief memory or a few words about whoever you are honoring. Children may also share before they leave for RE classes. It will be received with respect and love.

Beltane

Join us to joyously celebrate Beltane, an ancient Celtic trading that brings community together to welcome the greening of the Earth back after the cold of winter. We will do a little drum trance to remember the ancient ways. If we are lucky we will once again dance the Maypole.

The Nature of Spiritual Life

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” are the first words of Jesus in the first section of teaching in the first book of the New Testament. Guest speaker Rev. Austin Hornyak will present this week’s service and share his thoughts on what these words tell us about the nature of spiritual life.

Rev. Austin Hornyak joins us from Shelburne, Vermont. He attended Duke Divinity School and has served United Methodist congregations in North Carolina and his native western Pennsylvania. For the past ten years, he has worked at Howard Center in Burlington as a social worker supporting individuals with developmental disabilities. Rev. Hornyak enjoys spending time with his partner Yasamin and her daughter, hiking, reading, doing crossword puzzles, and spoiling his cat, Quinn.

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Poetry Service: Personal Faith and Spirituality in Hard Times

For the past 2 years, MMUUF has held annual poetry services focused on bringing our community closer together. As we share poems that are meaningful to us, we learn more about each other. As we co-create community poems in the moment, we weave our stories together. In this year’s service, we’ll focus on the ability of poets to capture our fears and help us find our strength through faith and spirituality in difficult times. In this interactive service, fellowship members will share poems relevant to this theme. Our choir will share reflections on spirituality through song. And if time allows, we may even write a poem together. All are welcome.

Danielle Thierry is a member of MMUUF, where she’s active in the choir, religious education, and cares and concerns committee. Danielle is a lifelong writer and musician who often finds strength in words and music in hard times. She currently focuses much of her writing work on helping to make federal government benefit programs more accessible through clear language and people-centered design. She previously served as the community organizer and executive director of the Burlington Writers Workshop, co-founded Vermont’s community-led literary journal Mud Season Review, and has taught writing in community college, workshops, and other settings. 

Ann Bonanno is a member of MMUUF, and has chaired the Sunday Service Committee for the past decade or so. Ann’s spirituality is based in the natural world and the connections between all living things, and she can often be found in the woods talking to the trees and any other being that catches her eye. Ann spends some time each day grateful for her community and the beautiful state of Vermont.

A Tribute to the Celebration of Holi

While the holiday is Hindu in origin, Indian people in all regions of the country and of many faiths enjoy it together, so it fits well with our UU spirit of inclusiveness. This service will be intergenerational, so no RE classes will be held. Rather than merely delving into the holiday intellectually, we will practice its customs together. Weather permitting, we’ll begin with a Holika Dahan bonfire, continue with an indoor portion of music and dance (yes!) and end with the traditional throwing of gulal, or colored powder. IMPORTANT: If you would like to participate in the color throwing, please wear old clothes or, even better, a white tee shirt that will show off the colors. Celebrators of Holi typically wear white. (You can buy white tees at Michael’s or JoAnn’s for a couple of bucks; I have a few for people who forget or don’t receive this message in advance.) The powder generally washes out, but please don’t wear silks or fabrics that can’t be washed.

Beth Esmond has been a member of MMUUF for more than 25 years. She and her husband own a communications firm and live in Jericho with their very tiny dog. Beth previously led a Holi service about 10 years ago with Friederike Keating and both of their daughters, Josie and Katerina, who were celebrating their Coming of Age that year.