PODCAST · religion
Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco
by 1st Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco
First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco Sunday worship service. Home of liberal spirituality for over 150 years, the Society welcomes people of all racial and religious backgrounds. Our Congregation includes gay, straight, transgendered, and questioning people. More information is available at www.uusf.org.
Episodes
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Igniting the Fire of Commitment
Igniting the Fire of Commitment Sunday, March 1, 10:50 am, 2026 There is so much in the human heart that is both tender and fragile and ferociously enduring. Fire can be like that quality of what can live in the human heart. How do we know enough about these pieces of ourselves—the ones that...
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The Excellence of a Horse: A Lunar New Year Celebration
The Excellence of a Horse: A Lunar New Year Celebration Sunday, February 22, 2026 As we welcome the Year of the Horse, we celebrate an animal that has long represented “excellence” in Chinese folklore and around the world—admired for speed, agility, or endurance. In this new year of intentions…
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The Case for Hope
The Case for Hope Sunday, February 15, 2026 Creeping cynicism, or what Forrest Church used to call "Sophisticated Resignation." These are some of the dangers to a soul of our time (maybe all times). Let's unpack what the seeds of these "soul sicknesses" are and how to inoculate ourselves. The…
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The Virtue and Pitfalls of Moral Purity
“The Virtue and Pitfalls of Moral Purity” Sunday, February 8, 2026 There has been such a wide swing in recent years between approaches to injustices in our world that ask for unwavering focus that at its extreme bleeds into Cancel Culture, with the I am hearing lately, in various places, to see…
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don't despair
don't despair Sunday, February 1, 2026 Carmen Barsody, Sam Dennison and Mari Magaloni Ramos, preaching If these times call for resilience (and they do), we best not despair, for despair dissipates and distracts. Despair unmoors us and sets us adrift. No! Let us not despair. Let us look simply and...
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Echoes & Endurance: Notes from Minneapolis
“Echoes & Endurance: Notes from Minneapolis” Sunday, January 25, 2026 Come on Sunday as we reflect on what is unfolding in Minneapolis, the echoes through recent history, the danger of amnesia, and the power of stubbornness, courage, and love. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Mark...
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Leadership From Where You Are
“Leadership From Where You Are” Sunday, January 18, 2026 How are we called to lead, what does leadership ask, how does it shape us, and what forms does it take? We will hear from three members who show up in the world powerfully and differently and ask what leadership—that piece of our lives—can...
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The Parable of the Rainbow: Resisting Change
“The Parable of the Rainbow: Resisting Change” Sunday, January 11, 2026 What is our relationship to change, especially when we are in multi-generational spaces? We will explore the parable of the rainbow and the metaphors it provides to look at change differently. Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of...
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Sustaining Love in the Struggle
“Sustaining Love in the Struggle” Sunday, January 4, 2026 “Resistance is a long, thin, soft noodle covered in pink sauce.” At least, according to a two-year-old, it is. Come explore the nourishing possibilities of resistance with Rev. Ranwa Hammamy from Side With Love as we begin the new year.…
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The Art of Waiting
“The Art of Waiting” Sunday, December 7, 2025 In Christian liturgy this is the season of waiting and preparation—of Advent. It is perfectly scheduled in the depths of winter, when so much feels like it is waiting, preparing, quietly under snow until the light draws it out again. Times of...
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Bread Communion, or Ate, and left no crumbs
"Bread Communion, or Ate, and left no crumbs" Sunday, November 30, 2025 In this moment of vanishing resources, let us practice collective restoration through the ancient ritual of gathering as a community and breaking bread. Who is welcome at our table and in our pews? Mark Caswell, Ministerial...
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The Spiritual Practice of Birding
"The Spiritual Practice of Birding" Sunday, November 23, 2025 Like so many things we love, we are drawn to them because of the worlds they open up to us—outside us and within. In a month when we discuss gratitude, let's journey to how one person's relationship to the hobby, the avocation of...
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Roots and Wings of Hope: Emergent Wisdom from the Interdependent Web
"Roots and Wings of Hope: Emergent Wisdom from the Interdependent Web" Sunday, November 16, 2025 adrienne maree brown teaches, “We are part of a natural world that is constantly changing, and we need to learn to adapt together and stay in relationship if we hope to survive as a species.” Emergent...
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Lists of Gratitude
"Lists of Gratitude" Sunday, November 9, 2025 To nurture gratitude, one has to find ways to be present to the world around them, take stock of what is in their life, and look at the journey they are on. We will actively contemplate these themes and consider what might be on our lists to be…
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Presente!
"Presente!" Sunday, November 2, 2025 It has been a fall of memorial services for me, and fall has only just begun. That means a lot of things, as you might imagine: loss, wrestling with legacy, telling stories, making sense, paying attention to how each life pressed itself into the world and into...
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Sacred Guardians of This
"Sacred Guardians of This" Sunday, October 26, 2025, 10:50 am Through history a lot has changed. The building we have met in has changed a few times, how we have explained our theology has changed, how we have worship has changed a bit, what we sing has changed, what our ministers have looked…
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Faith In Times of Crisis
“Faith In Times of Crisis” Sunday, October 19, 2025 Our forebears in liberal religion here in San Francisco endured crises long before the present one we now face. As we continue to celebrate the 175th Anniversary of UUSF, our former Senior Minister and resident historian will share stories of...
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The Rest of The Story
“The Rest of The Story” Sunday, October 12, 2025, 10:50 am We begin the celebration of our 175th anniversary as a congregation with a return visit from the very first woman minister in our history. Diane Miller served UUSF for several years starting in the bicentennial year of 1976. Like onetime...
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Begrudging Journey to Compassion: Confessions of a Recalcitrant Pastor
“Begrudging Journey to Compassion: Confessions of a Recalcitrant Pastor” Sunday, October 5, 2025, 10:50 am I knew directly after the election when some folks were talking about building bridges and understanding the other side that strategically and spiritually this was the right way to go—or…
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Clearing the Pathway to Belonging
“Clearing the Pathway to Belonging” Sunday, September 28, 2025 As we approach roadblocks, stop signs, detours, and potholes on the path to belonging, what spiritual technology can we employ to continue along the path? Who or what stands in the way of naming our belonging in a community? Is…
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Revisiting Stories: The Prodigal Son and Belonging
"Revisiting Stories: The Prodigal Son and Belonging" Sunday, September 14, 2025 We talk about the importance of sacred stories. They come in many forms. The gentle ones whose wisdom goes down sweet and easy and the ones that require a lot more work. In my experience the Prodigal Son, a story told...
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Raindrops, Rivers, Oceans: An Annual In Gathering to Community
"Raindrops, Rivers, Oceans: An Annual In Gathering to Community" Sunday, September 7, 2025 We will be regathered into community for another year in our annual Water Communion Service this Sunday. Separateness is an illusion. We were meant to meet and merge and make a life together. And so we…
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The Power and Draw of Wonder
"The Power and Draw of Wonder" Sunday, August 24, 2025 Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology and expert in the study of emotion, has been focusing on the human experience of wonder. What is its power? Where and how do we find it? Why is it worth making room for? His book "Awe" will be our...
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Crossing the Threshold
"Crossing the Threshold: A service on death and dying... and a life informed by both." Sunday, August 17, 2025 Our musicians this Sunday have a ministry companioning those through death and dying. So we will sit with what it means to be with those on the journey across the threshold to death. How...
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Love at the Center Part 2
"Love at the Center Part 2" Sunday, August 10, 2025 We will pick up our conversation from July and explore the remaining themes from the book, "Love at the Center." Participants from the class will share their reflections on what they learned about and what they currently believe about love. Rev....
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All for One & One for All
“All for One & One for All” Sunday, August 3, 2025 Matt has led music and worship for hundreds of services in congregations all over the U.S. and Canada. Matt has a degree in hand drumming from Berklee College of Music and has studied abroad in Cuba, Ghana, and Central America. In addition to...
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Poetry in Times of Reverie
"Poetry in Times of Reverie" Sunday, July 27, 2025 Poetry is a moment distilled. Sometimes it is life pressed into the pages of a book or, more vividly, as Robert Frost said, it is a way of "taking life by the throat." And Alice Walker said, "Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and...
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Spirituality and Inner Freedom
"Spirituality and Inner Freedom" Sunday, June 22, 2025 These days, as basic human rights and freedoms are under constant attack, the battle for our attention is relentless. What if the real locus of our freedom is within each of us? What if we put greater attention there? Our former senior…
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Lessons from our Fathers
"Lessons from our Fathers" Sunday, June 15, 2025, 10:50 am We learn from their words and their actions, from how they succeeded and where and how they stumbled. What are some of the lessons from our fathers that carry us forward with grace and courage? Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister;...
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Celebrate! Our Annual Flower Communion Sunday
“Celebrate! Our Annual Flower Communion Sunday” Sunday, June 8, 2025 I had a coach once who said when you are going up the mountain, you have to take time to go to the overlooks, take in how far you have come, celebrate and enjoy the view, and rehydrate before you move on. We will look back this...
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Show Tunes and Tee-Shirts
"Show Tunes and Tee-Shirts" Sunday, June 1, 2025 A story (maybe two) of life on its own terms, bold, joyful, and that left the world better than they found it. Come, and be ready to smile and sing. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Dennis Adams, Worship Associate; Emma Wakeling,...
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Imagine a World Without War
"Imagine a World Without War" Sunday, May 25, 2025 On this Memorial Day weekend, let us imagine a world without war. War is the act most antithetical to our values. Right now, it may be hard to imagine a positive future at all, but without imagining what we truly want, not just knowing what we...
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Minds Wide Open
"Minds Wide Open" Sunday, May 18, 2025 I've been reading more about things like "flow" and right brain/left brain functioning. Anne Lamott speaks of the power of imagination and what it opens up, as opposed to the gifts and limits of rationality. How do we channel the creative, and where can it...
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Holding Open Possibilities for Each Other
"Holding Open Possibilities for Each Other" Sunday, May 11, 2025 In this month when we look at the power of imagination, it is interesting to explore how we do that for one another in our personal relationships. How do parents use imagination (for good and ill) in the shaping of their kids'…
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Oh the Possibilities! Annual Youth Worship Service
"Oh the Possibilities! Annual Youth Worship Service" Sunday, May 4, 2025 Join our youth this Sunday to hear what they imagine as possible futures. We will be recognizing our High School Seniors as well. Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior...
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Fair Earth!
"Fair Earth!" Sunday, April 27, 2025 Ecophilia, Pagan rituals and roots carried forward, hiking, eating—all that ties us to our love and relationship and responsibility to earth. We root ourselves in this (reground ourselves in it) to stay whole and joyful. Let’s do that regrounding together. See...
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What Does Resurrection Look Like?
"What Does Resurrection Look Like?" Sunday, April 20, 2025 Easter is upon us, the Sunday we talk about resurrection—of hope, of life, against all odds. In our Good Friday world, especially these days, how about some stories about resurrection and a reminder of how often it shows up... against the...
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Joy in the In Between
"Joy in the In Between" Sunday, April 13, 2025 It's the week when we begin the celebration of Passover in the Jewish tradition and Holy Week in Christianity—hard stories with important and ultimately triumphant endings. And this is a month when we are supposed to talk about joy?! How perfect!…
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Attempted Poetry and Other Misdemeanors, Oh Joy!
"Attempted Poetry and Other Misdemeanors, Oh Joy!" Sunday, April 6, 2025, 10:50 am Joy is a little word with an expansive definition. There is Joy in the hard work of trudging towards Justice. And there is the pure joy of celebration. With a spring in your step, a poem in your heart, and…
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Trust in the Wild
"Trust in the Wild" Sunday, March 30, 2025 Robin Wall Kimmerer, who writes about the natural world, writes about a world undergirded by trust, reciprocity, and generosity. But this is the same natural world that also has predators and prey and scarcity. Which do we put our trust in and why, and…
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Trusting In Community
“Trusting In Community” Sunday, March 23, 2025 Join us for this All-Ages Worship to hear a sweet story about how a cat helped calm a scary storm and brought a community together. Interactive opportunities to build trust in our community, both within our walls and outside our walls, will be part…
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Trust the Body
"Trust the Body" Sunday, March 16, 2025, 10:50 am What does it mean to live an embodied life, to treat the body as a shrine and as a source of wisdom? What happens when we don't? Maybe trust isn't just between two people or out in the world, but in one of the most fundamental relationships to...
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Leaning In
"Leaning In" Sunday, March 9, 2025, 10:50 am Anxiety and a feeling of ungroundedness can erode trust in ourselves and in our community. How do we lean into relationships during challenging times? Are there ways we can build trust instead of diminish it? Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of...
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Safe Harbors in Stormy Times
"Safe Harbors in Stormy Times" Sunday, March 2, 2025 Someone teaches you about the ocean. Someone shows you how to swim for the joy of it, or maybe so you can be safe. Each of us will face storms, and what someone taught us about the water, about swimming, and about what will get us through is...
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Inclusion
"Inclusion" Sunday, February 2, 2025 Who's in? Who's out? Belonging? Exclusion? Making room? Accommodations. Drawing the circle wider. Stretching beyond what we know, what and who is familiar. What does inclusion mean, and what does it ask, and why bother! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior...
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Story: Wine, Weddings, and a Coming Out
"Story: Wine, Weddings, and a Coming Out" Sunday, January 26, 2025 The theme of January is “Story.” One of the things I love about a tradition—religious, cultural, or literary—is that the community starts to repeat and value certain stories as worth revisiting, as worth revising in light of the...
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MLK
"MLK" Sunday, January 19, 2025 Jonathan Eig won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2024 for his biography King: A Life. People who previously refused to be interviewed told their stories, government documents that were newly released, and lots of research present a rich perspective on more of…
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Build Strength Through Our Stories
"Build Strength Through Our Stories" Sunday, January 12, 2025 Stories are powerful and offer us lessons to help resource ourselves. By looking at historical figures, ancestors, and our own lives, we can remember the stories that have given us resilience and have helped us build community in...
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The Stories We Tell
"The Stories We Tell" Sunday, January 5, 2025, 10:50 am Humans are storytellers, and stories have the power to influence us, for better or worse. Our affiliated community minister, Rev. Mille Phillips, will address what stories we tell ourselves or others. Do they empower us or hold us back?…
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Hanging of the Greens
"Hanging of the Greens" Sunday, December 15, 2024 Join us for the annual Hanging of the Greens Service. This all-ages service has us begin together in the sanctuary and then move around the church, decorating garlands and wreaths and making pomanders, learning a winter song, and coming together…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco Sunday worship service. Home of liberal spirituality for over 150 years, the Society welcomes people of all racial and religious backgrounds. Our Congregation includes gay, straight, transgendered, and questioning people. More information is available at www.uusf.org.
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First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco Sunday worship service. Home of liberal spirituality for over 150 years, the Society welcomes people of all racial and religious backgrounds. Our Congregation includes gay, straight, transgendered, and questioning people. More information is...
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