Video of Recent Sermons
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church -March 17, 2024
Alok Kalia, MD - "Emotional Intelligence" - The Intelligence Quotient (IQ), which is a measure of the ability to make rational decisions, has proven to be a weak predictor of professional success. IQ tests ignore the role of emotions in the decision-making process. The term “Emotional Intelligence” refers to the ability to skillfully manage one’s own emotions and respond to the emotions of others with empathy. This ability is now felt to play a major role in personal and professional fulfillment.
Dr. Kalia will take you backstage, inside the brain, to show how the rational and emotional influences balance each other, and how they can sometimes become fierce competitors. He will also share techniques for gracefully responding to overwhelming emotions.
Alok Kalia, MD is a speaker on health issues for business executives. He is a retired professor from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and a long-time member of the Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church.
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church -March 10, 2024
Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - "The Wonder of This World" - We know the Unitarian Universalist humanists of the past century, the Transcendentalists of the century before that, and the Romantics that inspired them. All contributed to a profound love for this earth that is our home. Every tradition needs a mythic layer, the big story that tells us who we are and where we come from. Ours is the grandeur and beauty of the universe and life itself.
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church -March 3, 2024
Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - "Cultivating Our Dreams" - Unitarian Universalists are Congregationalists – there is no outside authority to define our goals or dreams. But there is also no outside support to give us foundational resources! Our congregations are self-sustaining and self-directed. It’s all us, from top to bottom. We are in the middle of discerning what the work of this community is, bringing all our dreams to the table to share with one another. We must also discern our tools and resources – when we find the place where our resources align with our dreams, we will find our callings.
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church - February 25, 2024
Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - "That's Not Fair!" - Through stories and song, we will explore justice, equity, and fairness. What are the differences? What does it look like in practice? This multigenerational service has extra story time and a shorter reflection to engage across our age spectrum.
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church - February 18, 2024
Guest Speaker: Catherine Vance - "Through an Indigenous Lens: Rethinking Land Relationships" - Native American spirituality is spatial and land-based; it relies on relationship to nature and the non-human world and is grounded in particular places. This differs markedly from Western thinking in which abstract concepts of salvation, Christian superiority, and conquest mentality have been pushed on cultures through time. How do we as UUs frame our own land relationships, and what can we gain by understanding the indigenous perspective of total integration with the environments we inhabit?
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church - February 11, 2024
Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - "Love Will Guide Us" - Is our love for one another a solid foundation for freedom and justice? Unitarian Universalism is saying yes and calling us to deepen our commitment to both justice and the power of our love.
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church - February 4, 2024
Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - "Whose Justice?" - We use the word like we know what it means, and as if we all agree on what it means. But we don't! Different ways of seeing the world produce different ideals of justice, not all of which are compatible. Which version is ours? Does Unitarian Universalism share a single vision of justice?
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church - January 28, 2024
Rev. Erin Walter - "A Thousand Elections from Now" - The Unitarian Universalist 5th Principle affirms “the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.” What does that mean this election year and centuries into the future? Rev. Erin Walter of the Texas UU Justice Ministry joins us in person to share a UU-grounded vision for saving democracy and building Beloved Community. (Hint: It needs you.)
Rev. Erin J. Walter (she/her/hers) is proud to serve as Minister and Executive Director for the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry, the UU state action network for Texas. Winner of the 2017 Sermon Award from the UU Women’s Federation and board member of Texas Impact, Rev. Erin is the singer/songwriter /bassist for band Parker Woodland and considers music a spiritual practice. In 2022, her book Care for the World: Reflections on Community Ministry was published by Skinner House Books. You can find more about her music and ministry at ErinWalter.com and ParkerWoodland.com.
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church - January 21, 2024
Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - "Reproductive Justice Sunday" - On the anniversary of Roe v Wade, we look back on the steady rollback of reproductive rights across the country, and particularly in our own state of Texas. How are we to respond as religious liberals? What does it look like to act from the love that is at our center?
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church - January 14, 2024
Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas - "New Year...Same Me" - In a world that says “Do more!” and “Improve yourself!” it can be a radical counter-cultural act to instead take care of ourselves. To be gentle and compassionate with ourselves, we must take the time to discover what we really need - not what the world says we ought to be.
Sunday Service - Bay Area UU Church - January 7, 2024
Guest Speaker: David Throop - "We Are Whole Even Where We Are Broken" - In the cycle of the seasons, New Year is a time of inventory – what has been broken, what can be mended? David Throop has been a UU since 1978, and a member of BAUUC since 1993. He and his wife Kathy have raised 4 children in this church. David does occasional lay-preaching as a spiritual practice