All Episodes
Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco — 378 episodes
Igniting the Fire of Commitment
The Excellence of a Horse: A Lunar New Year Celebration
The Case for Hope
The Virtue and Pitfalls of Moral Purity
don't despair
Echoes & Endurance: Notes from Minneapolis
Leadership From Where You Are
The Parable of the Rainbow: Resisting Change
Sustaining Love in the Struggle
The Art of Waiting
Bread Communion, or Ate, and left no crumbs
The Spiritual Practice of Birding
Roots and Wings of Hope: Emergent Wisdom from the Interdependent Web
Lists of Gratitude
Presente!
Sacred Guardians of This
Faith In Times of Crisis
The Rest of The Story
Begrudging Journey to Compassion: Confessions of a Recalcitrant Pastor
Clearing the Pathway to Belonging
Revisiting Stories: The Prodigal Son and Belonging
Raindrops, Rivers, Oceans: An Annual In Gathering to Community
The Power and Draw of Wonder
Crossing the Threshold
Love at the Center Part 2
All for One & One for All
Poetry in Times of Reverie
Spirituality and Inner Freedom
Lessons from our Fathers
Celebrate! Our Annual Flower Communion Sunday
Show Tunes and Tee-Shirts
Imagine a World Without War
Minds Wide Open
Holding Open Possibilities for Each Other
Oh the Possibilities! Annual Youth Worship Service
Fair Earth!
What Does Resurrection Look Like?
Joy in the In Between
Attempted Poetry and Other Misdemeanors, Oh Joy!
Trust in the Wild
Trusting In Community
Trust the Body
Leaning In
Safe Harbors in Stormy Times
Inclusion
Story: Wine, Weddings, and a Coming Out
MLK
Build Strength Through Our Stories
The Stories We Tell
Hanging of the Greens
How Do We Lead?
Seeing Nature and Presence Through the Eyes of Robin Wall Kimmerer
Breaking Bread
Forgiveness & Repair: A Ritual
The State of the Union and the Soul of the Nation
Uncertainty
Listening to Our Ancestors
Skilling up for Love
Listening Deeply to Hear if We Got the Story Right
Accountability to What We Hear Inside
The Turbulence of Invitation
From a Wave to a Welcome: Invitation as a Spiritual Practice
Invitation to Participate in the Democratic Process
Spiritual Practices and Climate Justice
Radical Rethinking of God: God is Queer
Harmony Unveiled: The Secret Music of the Renaissance
What They Taught Us?
A Look Back
Metaphors for Us
Meditations on the Transformative Power of Street Ministry
The Fight to be Authentic, and Loved
A Polymath Nun and Why She Matters on this Mothers' Day
Treasures from the Journey
When Legacy Propels Boldness
Understanding Autism, Each Other, and Ourselves
Perspectives on Earth
Person by Person by Person
Roll that Rock Away
Lessons from the Road
Written in Pencil
Religion... I Too Dislike It
It's Time to Build
What Will You Save?
Storm Warning
The Dragon's Might: A Lunar New Year Celebration
Thus Do We Covenant
Covenant: Laying the Foundation
Belonging
Promises of the Heart
Let Go of the Old & Ring in the New: Fire Communion
Christmas Eve Night
What's Up With That: Interactive Christmas Pageant
Hanging of the Greens
SACReD Stories, SACReD Decisions and Mary, Mother of God
I Will Meet You There
Oh, We Give Thanks: A Bread Communion
In Transition
The Enfleshed Life: What Life and Love of a Body Entails
Connecting Across Borders and Divides
Lessons for Future Ancestors
By Stander, Standing By
The Uses and Abuses of Scripture
“Hello, Frank!” in honor of the feast of St Francis which is on Oct 4.
Healing and Hope: A sermon on forgiveness and beyond
We Are All the Same.... and Not: A service of celebration and reflection on being in community
Good Job!
Connection Through Sharing
La Dolce Vita in Motion
Living Joyfully
The Quick Fix: A conversation about what is lost when we attempt to rush reconciliation.
Worth and Dignity
Lessons on Community from Nature
WEAV: What is it?
Setting Boundaries
Big Music Sunday
Our Authentic Selves
Life is Pure Jazz
Extravaganza!
Nap Ministry
A Sacred Choice: Reproductive Justice
Little Did I Know
A May Day Convergence
The Problem with God
Heartbeats
What Prepares us for Sunrise?
You Are Loved
What Need One?
From Special Creation to Kin
A Hermit's Life
Greatness
Some of What I Learned on My Sabbatical: Reclaiming Time and Empathy At a recent trip to the DeYoung Museum, to see the exhibit by Black South African artist Lhola Amira, I was made aware of (at least) two parts of the righting of the heart and mind around our shared human history. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Sam King, Worship Associate; Shawnette Sulker, Soprano; Mark Sumner, Songleader; Jon Silk, Drummer; Wm. García Ganz, Pianist Shulee Ong, Camera; Eric Shackelford, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Joe Chapot, Live Chat Moderator; Thomas Brown, Sexton; Carrie Steere-Salazar, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher; Ralph Fenn, Les James, Tom Brookshire, Zoom Coffee Hour LIVESTREAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DnikWdJ1E8 OOS: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IbTftR9ipv2nkL6lYUEkuA7uZbUU_i67/view?usp=share_link PLAYLIST: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGWIRF9PinfwPGOdVb00NNSJaAgz3MasT
Mourning and Celebrating At a recent trip to the DeYoung Museum, to see the exhibit by Black South African artist Lhola Amira, I was made aware of (at least) two parts of the righting of the heart and mind around our shared human history. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Sam King, Worship Associate; Shawnette Sulker, Soprano; Mark Sumner, Songleader; Jon Silk, Drummer; Wm. García Ganz, Pianist Shulee Ong, Camera; Eric Shackelford, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Joe Chapot, Live Chat Moderator; Thomas Brown, Sexton; Carrie Steere-Salazar, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher; Ralph Fenn, Les James, Tom Brookshire, Zoom Coffee Hour LIVESTREAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DnikWdJ1E8 OOS: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IbTftR9ipv2nkL6lYUEkuA7uZbUU_i67/view?usp=share_link PLAYLIST: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGWIRF9PinfwPGOdVb00NNSJaAgz3MasT
Keeping Love Alive
Gongxi Gongxi: A Will to Hope in the Lunar New Year
A Religious Center With a Civic Circumference: Unitarians in San Francisco Since 1850
Gaining Vision at the Edge of the Miraculous
Once to every Soul and Nation…
A People Without Vision Shall Perish
Annual Hanging of the Greens Service
What I want for Christmas?
Oh, Family
Little Things Mean a Lot
After the OObleck" - A Forgiveness Ritual
The Double-edged Sword of Faith
Across the Veil
Living with the Trouble
What Fuels These Fools?
Being Alive
Whose Land Is This?
A Hope Worth Fighting For
Are We Normal?
The Tasks of Life
The River of Life: An Ingathering
Birthing a New World
The Arc of the Universe
Transforming Perfection
Ordinary Days
Retraining the Dragon
Good Trouble
What am I going to do?
Coffee in the Desert
The Living Tradition
The Perfect Body and the Ladder (Rebroadcast from December 6, 2020)
What is Fatherhood?
I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together
Finding Out Who We Are
Remembering the Future
The Nike Solution
A Time of Transition, part II: The Place In Between
The Loving and the Letting Go
A Time of Transition
Elephant Company: an Earth Day service
Never What You Imagined
An Especially Big and Important Music Service
Word After A Word After A Word Is Power
What's Going On?
The Question of Legacy
Rites of Passage Service: Big Life Questions
"The Ecology of Generosity"
To Change the World, with Love
To Sondheim, with Love
To Relationships, with Love
Weaving Waters: Regional Assembly Worship
The Many Faces of Leadership
Some Joy Please
History is not History
'God' is not God's name
Right Belief or Right Living
Kwanzaa
Being Alive
Big Music Sunday
A String of Gratefuls
What the Pecans have to Teach?
The Pursuit of Radiance
We are the Thousand Winds that Blow
The Costumes We Wear
The Land of Memory
"Right Thinking, Right Feeling and Right Relations"
"Who is Earth to Me?"
"Higher Love: Installation Service"
Enough is Enough: The Inflation of Satisfied and the Risks
Ganesh Chaturthi and the Need to Remove Obstacles
New Eyes and Not Afraid
In Our Hands Is Placed a Power
The Power of Focus
I Know Nothing
Deep Time: Stories We Tell the Children, and the Work of Repair
Sinking In To Ordinary Time
Dare to Love Again
Summer Musings
Crisscrossing Humanity
Relinquishment
Time to Slow Down
Raising Hope
Saying Yes
Dismantling Perfectionism: Bring it on!
We Shall Not Sleep, Though Poppies Grow
Marge and Barb Have Class
Holding Ourselves Accountable: The 8th Principle and the Future of Our Faith
Arms Wide Open: Parenting as a Spiritual Path
Religious Imagination: What it Means to be a Teaching Congregation
Close Enough for Awe: An Earth Day Sermon
Becoming Together
Living Purposefooly
Easter Sunday: Hope is a.......
The First Steps
Sabbath Redux
Giving it Up for Lent
Times Like These
Love and Accountability
Being Ready
Lessons of Love
The Year of the Ox
The Wonder of Being Alive
The Nature of Religious Experience and the Power of Knowing
Saying "I'm Sorry"
Homosexuality and the Bible
Whole Enough
Let the End be the Beginning: A Meditative Service for the New Year
Christmas Eve Service
The Wintering Season
The Soul of America: Worth Saving?
The Perfect Body and Ladder
Coming to the Table
I Sing the Body Electric
Now What?
Rebuilding Trust
Healing and Hope
The Ways We Grieve
Breathing Room
New Habits of the Heart: Seeing for Real
Big Love
I'm Sorry
The Sum of Our Parts
Plow this Field... and other mantras to pull us through a wild and unfolding new year.
What Do We Do When We're Under Attack?
Jonah and the Big Fish
Launching the Fledglings
Turning Points
Story Time
The Promise in the Desert
From Fragility to Accountability
Poetry for Summer Musing
The Power of Witnessing
Exquisite Risk
The Perfect Day
Lost Stories
A Welcoming Community
For Such a Time as This
Apart/Together
The Human Spirit, Hardy and Delicate
Negotiating Risk
It Takes a Village: The People Who Shaped Us
How Are You Feeling?
Life in the Monastery
Earth’s Lessons
Easter in Holy Week Times
At Ease
Perspective: The Power of Climbing up onto the Balcony and What Can We See?
Are We Saved?
Gifts Great and Small
A Thousand Cuts and the Work of Healing
What Goes Around...
Envisioning Justice
From Darwin to Unitarian Universalism
I Do, I Do: A Sermon on Relationships
The Year of...
Millie Phillips Ordination Service
Who Are You to Judge?
Honesty and Legacy II: Inspecting the Family Tree
Religious Experience and the Ascent of Mount Ventoux
Angels Among Us: Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
The Big Question
The End
Blinded by the Light
Hanging of the Greens: A Multigenerational Extravaganza!
what are we waiting for?
A Pearl of Great Price
The Ultimate MassUp
Happiness is....
Authenticity and the Price of Being Most Fully Human and Yourself
Preaching from the Housetops
Imagine That!
Honoring the Ancestors
Honesty and Legacy
The Cost of Turning
A Caring Community
What Books Changed Your Life?
What Holds Us?
Cuentista: Who tells us who we are?
Alive with Hope, Despite It All
Biophilia, the Urge to Connect with Life
Finding Your Voice
Deep Time
At Least a Thousand More
No Going Back
In Memoriam
Hope in an Age of Climate Despair
Poetry and Life Distilled
Inside/Out
Releasing on Urgency.... A Sermon for Summer
A Little Better than Before
What Deserves Our Ultimate Trust?
You Know That I Love You
Two Bodies, One Heart
Good Enough Mother
Growing a Soul
Liberation
Miracles
Stepping Stones: Rites of Passage Class
The Way - The Fools Way
Threshold Living
Time of the Month
An Understanding Mind
Boldness!
Gift Culture: the Gift Experiment
Seeing Whiteness?
Exploring Our Humanist Source: A Living Faith in Human Connection
Come Home!
Unafraid of the Dark
Wrestling with Time
The Myth of Inevitability
Healthy Lives, Healthy Institutions: Love and the Limits of Kindness
In An Ideal World
Saved from Perfection
Holy Families
Joy!
The Gaudy Curtain
The Season of Waiting?
What is True?
Jim Jones and the Nature of Cult
The Soul of Genius
Invitations Across the Veil
Foundations: Our Pagan Roots
Living Hope. Living Justice
Enshrined in Walls and Windows
Beloved Community
Loved Into Being
Lost and Found in America
Lay the Burden Down
The Love Boat
Rising Up
Carried Through Time
Summer Stillness and Silence
Pilgrimage
Awakenings
We Are So Much More Connected Than We Think
The Deep Song of Our Lives
The Warrior and the Wise Man
Doing Small Things with Great Love
Loving America
Breaking the Silence Barrier: Lessons of Love and Liberation
What We Tell Our Men
State of the Garden: A Reflection on Us and Here
The Outermost House and The Sacrality of Place
Contemplative Practices And Connection In Digital Times
Sports and Spirit: What being a jock can teach us about life.
Embodied Faith