High Street Church Zoom Worship with Rev. Cyndi Simpson – December 27, 2020

How is it that the experience of Mystery and Wonder can bring us to a place of profound place of stillness?

Download MP3: Mystery and Wonder

 

High Street Church Zoom Worship with Rev. Sarah Oglesby and John Dunegan– December 20, 2020

In Christianity, Mary has been a bridge for many between pagan traditions and cultural forms of spirituality that preceded Christianity. There are many ways to understand her role and what she symbolizes that transcend the traditions of Catholicism and point to something greater than any one spiritual understanding of the feminine divine. Rev. Sarah and her husband John have come to know Mary from very different spiritual and religious frames. John grew up Catholic, where Mary has a prominent role. Sarah grew up unchurched in a feminist household that leaned pagan and met Mary through her studies of the feminine divine across cultures. What does the feminine divine have to offer us today?

Download MP3: Mary, Mother of Mystery

 

High Street Church Zoom Worship with Rev. Sarah Oglesby – December 13, 2020

Many UU’s have struggled to understand both the history of denomination and its spiritual connections to Christianity, Judaism, and other world faith traditions. In particular, we often want to follow the teachings of Jesus without acknowledging Jesus or Biblical stories that are embedded in our culture and in our own faith tradition. We’ve changed the words to the songs that came from our Christian Hymnals and we’ve secularized our practices. Is there a place for Jesus in our tradition anymore? Drawing from Scotty McLennan’s 2016 Skinner House book, and authors John Dominic Crossan and Amy Jill Levine, Rev. Sarah shares some possibilities for UU’s to re-connect with Jesus and still be… UU.

Download MP3: Where is Jesus in the UU Tradition?

 

High Street Church Zoom Worship with Rev. Sarah Oglesby – December 6, 2020

How can we engage our UU principles in our everyday life? Some UU’s have started celebrating “Chalica” as a weeklong experience of embodied and engaged practices that can enrich our everyday lives and remind us who we intend to be—whether we are at home, at work, or out in the community. We’re not just UU’s on Sunday, right? Paula Del Rio and Rev. Sarah will offer some ideas for members of all ages to take with them for the week, month, and year. In addition, we’ll talk about the proposed 8th Principle and how we might engage it as well–including why we might adopt it as a congregation ahead of the denomination adopting it.

Download MP3: Everyday Unitarian Universalism: Chalica and the 8th Principle

High Street Church Zoom Worship with Steve Lynn
November 22, 2020

Steve Lynn, member of High Street, and Chief of Police in Perry, Georgia will be speaking on the Trust Initiative. This is a program instituted through the auspices of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Perry Police Department volunteered to be one of a handful of GA law enforcement agencies to implement this program which examines issues of past and present marginalization within the minority community, and works to develop ways to make amends and move forward.

Download MP3: The Trust Initiative: Law Enforcement and Making Amends, a Groundbreaking Program

High Street Church Zoom Worship with – Rev. Sarah Oglesby November 22, 2020

Rev. Sarah shares her experiences traveling with youth to the annual Spring seminar held by the UU United Nations Office in NYC and the importance of this work. From the study of inequality (racial and economic), to disarming the planet, from the role of gender discrimination and intersectional oppression to the experiences of millions of people migrating around the globe and living as refugees, as well as examining the impact of climate and environmental crises, intergenerational learning that is also international and intersectional offers a glimpse at what it means to engage global issues that affect our entire planet.

Download MP3: Global Healing Comes From Global Learning

High Street Church Zoom Worship with – Rev. Sarah Oglesby November 15, 2020

Rev. Sarah looks at what’s ahead for High Street as High Streeters move through a time of transition into an unknown future. Diwali, the Indian Hindu festival of lights celebrated at this time of year offers a symbol of lights that illuminate our journey, ensuring we reach our destination and affirming all that is life-giving and bringing a quality of deeper understanding to our lives. How can we light the way for High Street on this journey?

Download MP3: From Liminality to Luminescence: Congregational Transitions and Transformations

 

High Street Church Zoom Worship with – Rev. Sarah Oglesby November 8, 2020

Without knowing what we will be facing on November 8, we know with certainty that we will need to be developing a way forward, together. Rev. Sarah and Lori Johnson plan to lead us in a Sunday service that holds this moment with care and looks for what we are called to do–for ourselves, for each other, for our shared future.

Download MP3: Beyond Elections

High Street Church Zoom Worship with – Rev. Sarah Oglesby and Hetty Jardine, November 1, 2020

We will take time to lift the names of people we’ve lost this year and grief that remains with us from previous years. We will look at how we can prepare for death and dying and what we need from each other when we are grieving and when we are facing our own mortality.

Download MP3: Day of Remembrance: Death and Dying with DIgnity…even in a Pandemic

High Street Church Zoom Worship with – Rev. Sarah Oglesby, October 25, 2020

We’ve created covenants but now how do we keep them, or return when we’ve broken them? How do we know when to apologize, when to forgive, and how can we restore relationships that have been torn, sometimes despite our best intentions? Deep listening is a tool we haven’t used enough! We will explore restorative justice and practices as tools for developing better skills for our own lives and for institutions that thrive. As poet William Stafford says :

“If you don’t know the kind of person I am/
and I don’t know the kind of person you are/
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world/
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.”

Download MP3: Protest As Prayer: Apology, Forgiveness, and Restoration: Listening to Transform Our Relationships