Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Eric VanBaars – Don’t miss our annual family-friendly, outdoor service at Plum Creek Park. Joining together for a single service at 10 am, we will welcome in the summer, honor fathers and celebrate the youth who are bridging from high school into the next chapter of their lives. Consider bringing a lawn chair for your comfort and plan to stay for the picnic after the service.
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Lori McGee – Gay or straight, bi or trans, intersex, gender-queer, questioning or not, you are welcome here. This morning is a celebration of love and diversity. Bring a flower with you to church today as we will also be celebrating our annual Flower Ceremony. Meanwhile, the children who participated in religious education this year will have a party during each service.
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Christie Anderson – Unitarians and Universalists have long been advocates of public education. This morning we will consider the life and work of the Unitarian educator Elizabeth Peabody. Did you know that we are indebted to her for the kindergarten movement in our country? Come to learn and celebrate as we also recognize the people who have been teachers and advisors for the children of the church this past year.
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Ted Voneida – Recently there has been a spate of new churches opening specifically for men. These churches are responding to a belief by some that religion has become feminized. This morning we will explore gender and church.
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Lori McGee and worship Associate Elaine Bowen – Having recently read “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch, I began to consider my own legacy to my family, friends, and community. In this service we will explore the idea of our own legacy as individuals and as UUs.
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Guest speaker Jeremy Elliott – Henry David Thoreau challenged us to “live life deliberately!” What does it mean to live a life of great meaning and power? What exactly are we supposed to do? This Sunday we look to the wisdom prophets of liberal religion to learn how we might live extraordinary lives. We will consider the lives of Thoreau, Gandhi and King and their contributions to our world. Can our contributions be equally important? Jeremy Elliott is a chaplain resident at the Cleveland Clinic and a spiritual counselor at the Clinic’s Center for Integrative Medicine. He is a UU minister in preliminary fellowship with the UUA. He served as the intern minister at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and as the Killam Fellow at First Unitarian Church of Cleveland. He attended Starr King School for the Ministry, Case Western Reserve University, and Baldwin-Wallace College.
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Dani Beale – Last year’s sermon on Mother’s Day was entitled Mothers of War. This year we celebrate peacemaking and the Mothers of Peace.
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Lori McGee – The questions we ask always influence the kinds of answers we get. This morning we will consider how the words we use (and the ones we don’t) shape our conversations about faith. Cub Scouts Alan Kerns and Gavin VanWinkle-Bright will be receiving their certificates and emblems for completing the Unitarian Universalist Love and Help program during the first service today.
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Worship Associate Elaine Bowen – If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an educated, empathetic and caring world to raise, support and nurture children and adults with special needs. As a faith community, how well to we recognize, support and understand those with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other neurological disabilities? How welcoming and inclusive are we to people with developmental delays or cognitive impairments? What more can we do? In commemoration of National Autism Awareness Month, I offer my experiences, insight and life lessons learned as a parent of sons with ASD.
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Kristofer Sperry – This morning we will consider ways we can care for the earth by greening our congregation and greening our lives. Our celebration of Earth Day will feature special music, beautiful images and inspiring words. All are welcome!
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Elaine Bowen – Christmas and Easter are important holidays here at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent. And yet as a congregation we seem to express ambivalence about our Christian roots. As we tell again the sacred story of Christ’s redemption, we will consider how we might reclaim our Christian heritage. Our first service this morning will be fully intergenerational and family friendly. We encourage all families with children to come for the first service and stay for coffee hour when our youth will organize an egg hunt for toddlers and elementary school aged kids. Our second service will be created with adults in mind. Children who remain at church for the second service will be invited to attend a special Easter celebration with our Director of Religious Education.
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Marion Yeagler – The poet Pamela Sneed entitled a volume of her work “Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery.” This morning we will explore some of the central themes of Passover. How can the wisdom of these sacred stories inform our own journeys through the wilderness?
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Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer and Worship Associate Dani Beale – It doesn’t matter how good or smart or brave or honest we are; sometimes we can’t have what we want. This service is a spiritual meditation on living through disappointment.
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Our Guest in the Pulpit is Rev. Joan VanBecelaere, District Exec. of the OMD. Joan will be assisted by Linda Mishler. – Today kicks off the 2009-2010 Stewardship campaign, the theme of which is “Let your love Grow”
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