Submit your articles, events, ministry accomplishments, and royalty-free photos for the January 2024 WUUC Newsletter. Please send your contributions to the office administrator at office@wuuc.org. The January 2024 newsletter will be sent out early since the church office will be closed from December 25 until January 1. Deadline will be by the end of the […]

Passage from Soul Matters September 2023 Theme: Welcome The Gift of Welcome It seems to go without saying. To be welcoming, we’ve got to think big. Notice how often we speak about “widening the circle” and “making more room.” We place a priority on expanding our minds by welcoming new experiences and new ideas. Those […]

Passage from Soul Matters October 2023 Theme: Heritage Welcome to the Gift of Heritage Some people are your relatives, but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of values.   — Ralph Ellison Be on the lookout, friends. The ghosts are on their way! […]

Passage from Soul Matters November 2023 Theme: Generosity Welcome to the Gift of Generosity It would be easy to see this as a month of niceness. After all, for many, the call of generosity is equated with the call to be kind. But that’s not the spiritual understanding, and certainly not the sort of gift […]

Passage from Soul Matters December 2023 Theme: Mystery Welcome to the Gift of Mystery We live in a culture that loves to conquer mysteries. For us modern folks, the unexplainable is simply a lock to be picked, a code to be cracked, a puzzle to be figured out. But what if mystery isn’t just something […]

Passage from Soul Matters January 2024 Theme: Liberating Love Welcome to the Gift of Liberating Love Love, it sits in the chest, at least at the start. It’s what makes our heart beat again after being broken, and our lungs breathe again after being closed off in the dark for far too long. For some, […]

Passage from Soul Matters February 2024 Theme: Welcome to the Gift of Justice & Equity Here we go again. Another injustice. Even more inequity exposed. So much pain. So many issues. So little equality. And so, so many people with certainty. I wish I had it. Don’t you? The crystal-clear clarity of who’s right and […]

Passage from Soul Matters March 2024 Theme: Welcome to the Gift of Transformation Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook […]

Passage from Soul Matters April 2024 Theme: Welcome to the Gift of Interdependence Talk of interdependence immediately calls up the work of saving the planet, rightly so. But what if the first step toward saving the planet is learning to speak to it? And hear it? Could our collective failure to confront the climate crisis be […]

Passage from Soul Matters May 2024 Theme: Welcome to the Path of Creativity Creativity is our ability to dream things up and make them happen. — Peggy Taylor Dreaming things up. We’re all familiar with that part of the quote. Who doesn’t love conjuring up new ideas and images? Who isn’t impressed when someone takes […]

Welcome to the Path of Delight Because the road turns long and lonely sometimes, I built this box of delight. I picked up the lid and into it I put… My children laughing, together. The look of giddy disbelief on my mother’s face when that black-capped chickadee swooped in and landed next to her knee, […]

Passage from Soul Matters September 2024 Theme: Welcome to the Practice of Invitation Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands and you […]

Passage from Soul Matters October 2024 Theme: Welcome to the Practice of Deep Listening This is your chance to listen carefully. Your whole life might depend on what you hear. - Joyce Sutphen Listening helps us find our way. The listening of therapists allows us to navigate our way through life. We turn to prayer […]

Passage from Soul Matters November 2024 Theme: Welcome to the Practice of Repair    When the cracks come, who doesn’t desire - even demand - to restore what once was? Nothing is more human. We all long to reverse the damage. We all hold tight to the humpty dumpty hope that everything can be put back […]

Welcome to the Practice of Presence     The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.   Henry Miller  Spiritually, presence can mean two quite different things. On the one hand, contemplatives talk of “being present.” Presence from this perspective is all […]