Services Archive - Mount Vernon Unitarian Church

Seeking Refuge

Presenter:
We are delighted to celebrate our annual multi-generational Thanksgiving service honoring the important work of the Unitarian Universalist Service Community. This year we’ll take a courageous look at the journey of the refugee in the 21^st century. This question will be contemplated in two services today: first starting at 9:15 am and second service begins at 11:15. Child care is available for both services. Sermon and service notes for November 22, 2015, organized by Rev. Kate R. Walker, Mark Zimmerman, Alice King and Ann Richards.

Service-Ish – YRUU Group

Presenter:

With choice comes opportunity, as well as regret. Through an interactive service, the Young Religious Unitarian Universalist (YRUU) group acknowledges the importance in the choices they have ahead of them, and what the outcomes, positive or negative, could mean to us all.

Signs of Life Are Ahead

Presenter:

Join us for an Easter Sunday celebration of life in a multi-generational service.

Ingathering: How Can I Keep from Singing? arr. Clif Hardin Mark Zimmerman

Introit: Easter Hymn arr. David W. Music Mark Zimmerman, Yee Von Ng

Chalice Lighting/Opening Words by Bettye A. Doty
▲Hymn No 269, Lo, the Day of Days Is Here
Anthem: My Soul Is Awakened text by Anne Brontë, music by Brad Burrill MVUC Choir
The Story Begins: The Tiny Seed Ann Richards, Alice King
Anthem: I Am the Wind MVUC Choir
Ancient Welsh text, music by Christopher Delp
The Story Continues
Anthem: All Good Gifts (from Godspell) by Stephen Schwartz MVUC Choir
The Story Continues
Music: To Spring (Op. 43, No. 6) by Edvard Grieg Yee Von Ng
Sharing Our Gifts♡ MVUC’s Partner Church Program
Meditation, Prayer & Silence
Musical Response:
Hymn No 63, Spring Has Now Unwrapped the Flowers
Homily: Signs of Life Are Ahead Rev. Walker
The Story Ends
▲Closing Hymn No 61, Lo, the Earth Awakes Again
Extinguishing the Chalice: No 456
Benediction
Postlude: Voices of Spring (Op. 410) by Johann Strauss, Jr. Yee Von Ng

Stories from the Desert – Alice King

Presenter:

Rocks in shoes, Operation Streamline, and tortillas in beautiful cloth – we consider the intersection of immigration and other justice issues.

The name of the book and the film that we were encouraged to read/view before the Tucson trip.
Book: “Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal” by Aviva Chomsky. It’s published by our own Beacon Press.
Film: “Harvest of Empire.” It is rentable.

Order of Service for Sunday, January 31st

Ingathering: Oh Freedom, American Spiritual Mark Zimmerman

Welcome and Announcements Alice King

#Centering Bell

*Introit: MVUC Choir
Be Ours a Religion, words by Theodore Parker, music by Thomas Benjamin

Chalice Lighting/Opening Words by Ned Wight Alice King

4Hymn: No 407 We’re Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table

4Our Covenant

Time for All Ages: Tito Ann Richards

Singing Our Children to Class

I Am a UU, and MVUC Is My Home Aimee Sims

Offertory

Music: Day by Day by Oscar Ahnfelt arr. Mark Hayes Yee Von Ng

Sharing Our Gifts♡ Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence

*Anthem: MVUC Choir
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, words by Emma Lazarus, music by Irving Berlin

Meditation, Prayer & Silence

Sung Response:

Hymn No 1040 Hush, Hush Somebody’s Calling My Name

Reading: Streamline by Patty Willis Carolyn Dunlea

Musical Reflection: Did Trouble Me by Susan Werner Linda Doyle, Alto
Eric Pourchot, Guitar

Sermon: Stories from the Desert Alice King

Hymn No 1064 Blue Boat Home

To enjoy the audio presentation of this sermon, click on the play button below.

Stories of Optimism and Hope – The Rev. Kate R. Walker

Presenter:

As darkness falls this time of year and cold creeps into our bones, it can be hard to kindle our hope and optimism. We’ll gather this morning for some refreshing stories and the latest research on why hope matters so much to our world and us. We’ll welcome the MVUC Jazz Band for its annual program of festive music.

Sermon for December 13, by Rev. Kate R. Walker.

To enjoy the audio presentation of this sermon from the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church, click on the play button below.

Strangers Finding Community: There’s No Place Like Home?

Presenter:

Sermon for Sunday, October 23, 2016 by Guest Minister Rev. Dan King.

Dorothy’s chant to “go home” from Oz to Kansas has multiple implications for some of us. What makes a place feel like home? Our Guest Minister will share observations, reflections, and personal experiences from his successive connections with 8 Unitarian Universalist institutions in 7 states over the past forty years as a visitor, member, servant leader, and Minister.

Strangers Finding Community: There's No Place Like Home?

Presenter:

Sermon for Sunday, October 23, 2016 by Guest Minister Rev. Dan King.

Teach-In on Racism

Presenter:

Sermon for May 7, 2017, by The Reverend Dr. Kate R. Walker.

We join over 600 Unitarian Universalists who have shifted regularly scheduled Sunday morning worship to participate in a teach-in on racism and white supremacy. This change is because over the past few weeks, there have been many calls by UUs of color and white UU’s to look critically within our faith communities—including hiring practices, power brokers, and cultural habits—for the ways racism, sexism, and white supremacy live.

The ABCs of Dying

Presenter:

Sermon for Sunday, July 3, 2016, by MVUC member Ron Brandt.

Two classic books had a powerful influence on The American Way of Death — and now there’s another book calling for a third reformation. These books tell us to accept death, be ready for it, and change our approach to end-of-life care.

The Grand Canyon: Experiencing the Wonder of the Great Unknown

Presenter:

Sermon for July 31, 2016, by MVUC members Angel Collins and Ed Venzke.

“We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are,

we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we

know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.” — John Wesley Powell, Canyons of the Colorado

The Grand Canyon: Experiencing the Wonder of the Great Unknown – Angel Collins & Ed Venzke

Presenter:

Service for June 23, led by MVUC members Angel Collins and Ed Venzke.

Inspired by John Wesley Powell’s landmark 1869 journey, we explore how the science and aesthetic experience of the Grand Canyon inform personal thinking and influence societal beliefs.

The How and Why of Human Existence

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Sermon for August 6, 2017, by MVUC members Carolyn Dunlea and Lauren Crowder Heighton.

We explore the ways Unitarian Universalism and science have intermingled.

The Light on the Horizon (Christmas Eve)

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Sermon for Christmas Eve, December 24, 2016, by Reverend Kate R. Walker.

The Prophetic Imperative: Living the UU Social Gospel

Presenter:

Sermon and service notes for Sunday, November 29th, lead by Mount Vernon Unitarian Church member, Betsy Yarrison

Betsy will share some of her experiences as a Unitarian teenager in Memphis during the years of the civil rights movement and, more recently, as a professor at the University of Baltimore, where last spring she found herself in a time warp – teaching through riots and fires and curfews and marches and thinking long and hard about what we have and haven’t accomplished in the fifty years since Selma.

This is a multi-generational service and suitable for all ages. Childcare will be provided.

To enjoy the audio presentation of this sermon from the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church, click on the play button below.

The Trial Never Ends – Rev. Dr. Kate Walker

Presenter:

Lessons from Q, a favorite omnipotent being in Star Trek: The Next Generation. This topic comes from Gabe Chesney, the winner of the Sermon Auction.

The View From the Ground – Rev. Dr. Kate Walker

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Sermon for Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017, by the Reverend Kate R. Walker.

Oh great earth! Our Theme of the Month is Vision, so we look up from beneath the rocky layers to see what rituals, songs and stories support our life and love for this spinning beauty in space.

Touching Inward Springs

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Sermon for October 22, 2017 by the Reverend Betty Jo Middleton

Our speaker, the Reverend Betty Jo Middleton, asks the question “Why do people go to church anyway?” and shares her musings in response. Betty Jo was MVUC’s first Minister of Religious Education, serving from 1984 to 1990. She and her husband are long-time members of the congregation.

Unconditional Love – Rev. Dr. Kate Walker

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Sermon for May 14, 2017, by Rev. Dr. Kate Walker.

Even the misfit needs love and affirmation, so how do we push past our resistance to difference?

Watering the Roots of Life – Rev. Dr. Kate Walker

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This service celebrates our annual Gathering of the Waters ritual, which helps us look at how to nourish our soul and life itself.

What Can Islam Teach Us About Gratitude

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A Sermon for November 8, 2015 by the Rev. Kate R. Walker
No other faith is so feared and so misunderstood as Islam; yet gratitude, so deeply embedded in humanity, is also deeply embedded in Islam.

What Do 50 Other UU Congregations Tell Us About MVUC?

Presenter:

Sermon for July 10, 2016, by MVUC member Bill Clontz.

“Over the past few years I have worked one-on-one with about 50 Unitarian Universalist congregations, and with a few dozen more in clusters or similar gatherings, and at General Assembly. Through that experience I have developed a short list of what makes a great, vibrant, congregation in which its members feel called and feel lucky to be a part of what they have. What are those traits and how many do we claim as our own at Mount Vernon Unitarian Church? Let’s find out.”

What Grounds Us in a Universe of Love? (Part One) – February 2016

Presenter:

Our Theme of the Month for February is Love. In this two-part sermon we will look at how love intersects with morality and ethics, and what goes on in the brain’s chemical cooking process.

*Introit: MVUC Choir Standing on the Side of Love/One Love, Jason Shelton and Bob Marley
Chalice Lighting/Opening Words by Steve Dick
!Hymn: No 1024 When the Spirit Says Do
I Am a UU, and MVUC Is My Home by Linda Doyle
Music: When You Say Nothing at All, Don Schultz and Paul Overstreet, arr. Jon Schmidt
Sharing Our Gifts♡ The Frog Pond Early Learning Center
*Anthem: Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind, William Shakespeare and George Shearing
Sung Response: Hymn No 1029 Love Knocks and Waits for Us to Hear
Readings: Love Abundant by Patty Willis
Sermon: What Grounds Us in a Universe of Love? Part Two
Hymn No 1014 Standing on the Side of Love

Presented by Rev. Kate Walker February 7, 2016
To enjoy the audio presentation of this sermon, click on the play button below.

What Grounds Us in a Universe of Love? (Part Two) – February 2016

Presenter:

Our Theme of the Month for February is Love. In this two-part sermon we will look at how love intersects with morality and ethics, and what goes on in the brain’s chemical cooking process.

Sermon for February 14, 2016 by Rev. Kate R. Walker
To enjoy the audio presentation of this sermon, click on the play button below.