UUCS Sunday Sermons

Join us as Gordon Diddons leads us through a special intergenerational service we are calling the Flower Celebration. In this beloved practice, everyone is invited to bring a flower if they can, and each person will return home with a different flower, symbolizing the unique gifts we each bring and the community we create together and celebrating our interconnectedness and community. This service is rooted in the Unitarian tradition of the Flower Communion, first created in 1923 by Norbert Čapek at the Unitarian Church in Prague, Czechoslovakia where he was the founding minister. The service was brought to the United States in 1940 by Dr. Capek’s wife, Maja Capek, also an ordained minister. Dr. Capek died in a concentration camp in 1942. This ritual offers a unifying and inclusive alternative to traditional communion—one that honors beauty, diversity, and shared connection without alienating those who have left other faith traditions. This is a service best experienced in person, and we warmly invite you to join us for this time of reflection, connection, and renewal. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.

During this quarterly service, attendees will have an opportunity to ask Rev. Eklof questions about topics on their minds. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.

During this quarterly service, attendees will have an opportunity to ask Rev. Eklof questions about topics on their minds. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.

Mary Shelley’s classic novel is often interpreted as a foreboding tale of science, technology, and obsession run amok. But, for me, it is my story, and yours, and that of anyone who has ever felt left out or like they don’t belong. In this sermon, we’ll consider this story and its deeper meaning for our own lives. Listen to the audio only of the full service.

As we kick off our annual pledge campaign, Rev. Eklof will discuss Unitarianism from the perspective of his own personal journey and what it has meant to his life. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.

In this guest presentation, Jim Kershner will answer this question: How did a Spokane orphan child, who was kicked out of an orphanage because of the color of his skin, end up being the subject of a bronze bust at Gonzaga School of Law, with the inscription, “He made a difference”? Mr. Kershner will tell the unlikely tale of how a child with no family and zero advantages in life became one of the most influential figures in Spokane’s history. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.

Rev. John H. Deitrich, our Spokane congregation’s minister from 1911 to 1916, went on to become known as the Father of Religious Humanism. In his wish to reawaken us to this seminal figure’s relevance today, Rev. Eklof will continue his series of occasionally reworking and delivering one of Dietrich’s historic sermons. In this particular sermon, given in 1924, Dietrich discusses his appreciation for Robert Ingersoll, a renowned 19th-century American lawyer, Civil War veteran, and orator known as “The Great Agnostic.” As a staunch Republican and advocate for free thought, he defended science, reason, and humanism while criticizing religious dogma. He was also a prominent defender of civil rights, including women’s suffrage and abolition. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.

During this annual service, we will celebrate our continuing and longtime friendship with our partner church in Felsőrákos, Romania. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.

These two words share the same root, although one feels positive and the other negative, yet our pathways and pathologies share so much in common that it’s difficult to distinguish the difference; the difference, that is, between knowing when we’re truly on a good path or one that simply enables us to justify harmful patterns. In this sermon we’ll ponder this question and ways to become more authentic and honest with ourselves. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.

Almost forty years ago, George H. Bush ran for U.S. President expressing his desire to help create a “kinder, gentler nation” by encouraging Americans to care for others through volunteerism, as “a thousand points of light,” and by promoting “decency” in public life. He didn’t succeed. But his remains a common and human wish, even for those who, in practice, consciously or unconsciously, work against it. In this sermon we’ll consider what it means to be kind and gentle, and how these qualities ought to be expressed and extended to others. Listen to the audio only of this sermon.