Tag Archives: Church

Gather in Joy – a sermon for our first Sunday in our new sanctuary

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Can you believe it?! I never doubted we would get here, really, but we have been talking about needing a bigger sanctuary since I started at Foothills 11 years ago, and that conversation had been going on long before I … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Belonging, Church, Community, Faith, Gathering, God, Intention, meaning, Mission, Power, Priya Parker, Purpose, Refuge, Ritual, Sanctuary, Sermon, Sermons, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Universalism, Worship | Leave a comment

Church as Countercultural Practice

Posted on November 19, 2023 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with Rabbi Finestone, who serves Congregation Har Shalom, just down the road. We were speaking about the attack on October 7th, and what her community has been feeling since. She shared many things … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Christian Zionism, Church, Covenant, Ecclesiology, Fascism, James Luther Adams, Liberal Church, Liberal Faith, Liberalism, Purpose of Church, Resistance, Sermon, Sermons, Small Groups, Zionism | Leave a comment

More Than Enough

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Reading: The Church Where Everything Goes Wrong by Elea Kemler Sermon: More than Enough Like a lot of teenagers, my daughter really does not love getting up in the morning. Instead she loves her cozy bed, and the sweet dark of … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Abundance, Change, Church, Community, Covenant, Emerson, Enough, Faith, God, Grace, Love, pandemic, Post-pandemic, Recovery, Resilience, Sermon, Sermons, Theology, Transcendentalism, Transcendentalists, Trauma | Leave a comment

Shall We Gather at the River?

Posted on September 11, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

It was an oppressively hot July morning in 1864 when Pastor Robert Lowry wrote what would become the popular hymn, Shall We Gather at the River. In those days, talk of a civil war was not a threat made on a … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Church, Collective, collective liberation, Community, Covenant, Gathering, Hymnody, Interdependence, Promise, Promises, Sermon, Sermons, Water Communion | Leave a comment

Losing, and Finding Your Religion

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

It was 2007 when I could keep it in no longer. I’d avoided the issue long enough. I’d downplayed my feelings, guarded my intuition. I’d kept a lot of my favorite things and even my friendships, on the down low. … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Change, Church, Faith, identity, Ministry, Open Heart, Progressive Church, Religion, Religious, Religious Identity, Religious Injury, Role of the Church, Sermon, Sermons, Transformation, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalist, UU, Vulnerability | 1 Comment

The Deal on Those Days, a sermon for the UUA General Assembly June 2022

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

It was March 2020, you know the week. I’m sitting in my home office. Just a few feet away, my two teenagers are in the living room “homeschooling.” A few feet from them, my partner is at the kitchen table. It is … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Change, Church, Collaboration, Covenant, COVID, Diana Butler Bass, Ecclesiology, Mission, Partners, Partnership, Promise, Sermon, Sermons, Unitarian Universalism, Vision | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Faith Formation, Sermons | Tagged children, Church, Evangelicals, Faith, Faith Formation, Families, Family Ministry, Intergenerational, Multi-generational, Orange, Orange Conference, Religious Education, Role of the Church, Sermon, Sermons, Unitarian Universalism, Youth | Leave a comment

Be More Gay

Posted on April 15, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

After my last post, I kept thinking about how to take these ideas and invite in a collective conversation, as well as a more intentional strategic response. The conversation part that I’m thinking about is a kind of playful response … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog Reflections, Justice, Personal Stories, Sexuality | Tagged Church, Community, Faith, Gay, gender, Genderqueer, LGBTQ, Love, Non-Binary, Pride, Queer, trans, transgender | Leave a comment

The Cullor Covenant

Posted on October 24, 2021 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

This pandemic season has been challenging for so many of us, in really significant and serious ways, and also in some small yet persistently annoying ways. I have a confession that’s more in the latter category to share with you. Which … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy of Church, Sermons | Tagged Church, Collective Action, Collective Change, Community, Covenant, Economic Justice, Equality, Essential, Healing, Inequality, Liberation, Money, Sermon, Sermons, Shame, Stewardship, Taboo | Leave a comment

Past as Prologue

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

There was a time in my ministry here where I felt like every meeting or gathering I was in, I found myself saying “well that’s a can of worms.” It got so common that at a certain point I just … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Church, Covenant, History, Past, Sermon, Sermons, Tradition | Leave a comment