The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport
10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - Ph: (203)227-7205 Sunday Services: 10:00 AM
I first heard of Appreciative Inquiry in Chicago in the late 1990s. I was dealing with some very thorny congregational issues as a young minister. In consulting with my mentor, I said “We have so many problems, I just don’t know where to start.” She looked at me and with a calm voice said “Don’t […]
As we embark on the spiritual theme of vulnerability in this month of March, I want to take on the question of hope. Brené Brown, who has spent her entire career studying vulnerability, points out that hope is not an emotion that we have but is, rather, “a function of struggle which we develop… hope […]
This Sunday, February 26, we will feature some jazz selections at the morning service. One of those pieces is called “Break Not the Circle” with words by Fred Kaan (1929 – 2009). In the third verse Mr. Kaan says: “Join the movement of the love that frees, ‘till people of whatever race or nation will […]
In her book The Weight of Ink, the author Rachel Kadish tells the fictionalized history of a young Jewish woman in the 1600s, Ester, who loses both of her parents in a fire in Amsterdam and is sent to work for a blind rabbi in London. Her job is to write down his thoughts and […]
Most of us think of resilience as the ability to overcome difficulties and persevere. That is true but resilience is more than that: Resilience is the ability to adapt to the change we are experiencing. Jeremy Lent in his book The Patterning Instinct puts it this way: “The resilience of a system determines whether it […]
We enter the third week of our “30 Days of Love” as part of the Side of Love campaign of the UUA. This week we focus on the power of healing in the service of love. Healing is hard even with time on our side. Healing requires at least the beginnings of forgiveness. All of […]
If you have been coming to worship these last several weeks you will have noticed that there is a new energy in our midst. With the new year have come people who have found us and our new way of doing religion, creating a place where creativity and spirituality meet. We welcome all who find […]
We begin this New Year with hope in our hearts and worry on our brows. There is much to fear. Regardless of circumstances, all of us are struggling with some part of our lives. If your personal world is not in turmoil, our outer world most surely is. We are embarking on a new course […]
Happy New Year! Welcome to a new year of possibilities and transformation. As I was pondering this new year, I found myself coming back time and again to the ideal of appreciation. Too often we make resolutions focused on what we want to have or be or do differently in the coming year. I think […]
We will spend Christmas evening at my daughter’s house in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. She lives on a farm at the end of a small valley, a hollow or “holler” as the locals call them. All around the farm on verdant hills are sheep. As I have been anticipating this trip, I have […]