Community Means All Us - Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - Resilience and self-care are often presented as solitary and individualistic, but we are all embedded in networks of relationship and community. Building resilience and capacity is collective work we do for and with each other. What do you bring to our collective project of community?

All That We Are Is Holy - Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - Bring your chalices for the sharing of sacred flames! Tis the season for pagan fire festivals and Christian candle blessings, so we Unitarian Universalists will celebrate and bless our chalices. If you have one at home, please bring it. And if not, we’ll have plenty here, including terra cotta ones you can decorate and make your own.

All That We Are Is Holy - Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - The rights of all people to live freely in our bodies is sacred and holy. The choices we make in pursuit of that freedom are also sacred and holy. Bodily freedom from coercion is essential to liberty and citizenship, but liberation demands even more – true justice, where all are able to not only survive but thrive.

Sacred Dissent - Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - It has been one year of the current administration, and in that year a great deal has changed. Religion can function to uphold Empire or dismantle it. Prophets cry out against Empire, and faithful people are moved to resist. To cry out against injustice and oppression is a spiritual act. So long as defiant spirits continue to organize, resist, and engage, there is possibility for transformation.

Lessons from the Long Night - Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - A political movement grounded in fear is brittle. A movement grounded in love and joy is strong and resilient. What practices can keep us grounded in love and delight even as we engage in work that can be stressful and heartbreaking? Let us consider the many ways that love and solidarity call us into wholeness, for ourselves and for our fragmented world.

Lessons from the Long Night - Guest Speaker Nina Kuzniak - Nina Kuzniak is a fourth-year UU seminarian at Starr King School for the Ministry. She is currently the Ministerial Intern serving First UU Church of Houston, which includes occasionally preaching at Bay Area UU. When she’s not preparing for parish ministry, she likes experimenting with new vegetarian recipes and exploring Houston with her dogs.