Category Archives: Faith Formation

What We Give Our Children – a sermon for Mother’s Day 2022

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

My first real impression of the Orange Conference came from a text from Eleanor VanDeusen, our Director of Family Ministry.  It was a photo of her and Rev. Sean in a giant arena with amazing stage lights and thousands of … Continue reading →

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What Love Means

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Part 1: Tough Love When I was an intern in the women’s prison – women would come to talk with me, as their chaplain, and they’d tell me that they knew, Jesus was the solution to their problems. When they’d say … Continue reading →

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Pass It On – on faith formation & mentorship

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Teacher Parker Palmer calls the place where we begin muttering miserable, unrepeatable things at the radio, or at our social media feed – that place that many of us are way too familiar with these days – he calls it … Continue reading →

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The Gifts of A/theism

Posted on October 3, 2017 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

This sermon was offered in two parts, starting with…. Part 1:  The Gifts of Atheism I don’t remember precisely when things started to fall apart, but we should probably blame feminism.  Or the arts….definitely the gays.  I’d been a dedicated … Continue reading →

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Three Things (or, simplicity redux)

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

I’m guessing it’ll come as no surprise to most of you that I like to pack my days as full as possible. I’ve been like this my whole life – in 4th grade my teacher started an anonymous advice box … Continue reading →

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Nothing Simple in a Simple Summer

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Our monthly theme at Foothills is “Simplicity,” which makes a certain kind of sense.  We imagine the summertime to have an inherently slower pace, a casual ease, with an abundance of backyard barbecues, long mountain hikes, and weeks of vacation adventures … Continue reading →

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The Fierce Urgency of Now

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Many of you reading this will have recently heard the news that the remaining viable candidate for the Republican nominee for President is the same one who said a few months ago that he was “calling for a total and complete … Continue reading →

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Bound in – and Blind to – the Blessing

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

The exercise actually read, “Blind to the Blessing,” but that’s not what I read.  I had been scanning through this month’s Soul Matters Packet, on Blessing, looking for inspiration for this month’s services and programs, when I read – or rather misread – these … Continue reading →

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How to Write Your Unitarian Universalist Testimony

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

“Only by….conversion can we be possessed by a love that will not let us go.”  – James Luther Adams, in “Root Ideas of Human Freedom” My colleague Joanna Fontaine Crawford posted this article, along with an invitations to Unitarian Universalists to … Continue reading →

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