Tag Archives: Community

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

Goodness Beyond the Good Life

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Reading: Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, by Wendell Berry Last Sunday, I told you about sitting down with the Rabbi from Har Shalom, and how the first people to call her after the Hamas attack were Christian Evangelicals. What … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Bonhoeffer, Capitalism, Collective, Commitment, Community, Fasicsm, Fear, Idolatry, Individualism, James Luther Adams, Liberal, Liberal Faith, Liberalism, Patriarchy, Rebel, Reparations, Resist, Resistance, Sacrifice, Sermon, Sermons, Success, Time, Wealth, Wendell Berry | Leave a comment

Good Walls: Boundaries as Acts of Love

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Reading: From Prentis Hemphill, On Boundaries For me, there is a big love [that exists regardless of me]. [Which means,] there are people I have boundaries with that I’m like, “I don’t know if I love you but there’s a big … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Boundaries, Boundary, Change, Community, Covenant, Diversity, Justice, Liberal, Sermon, Sermons, Tolerance, Trump | Leave a comment

The Gift of Memory (Dec 2022)

Posted on December 4, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Sometimes I think about my daughter’s childhood as a matter of three phases: We are now, perhaps obviously, in phase three. The annual nativity play at Foothills only became an annual tradition in my third year here, when Gracie was 10, but by … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Bible, Christmas, Cole Arthur Riley, Collective, Community, Exodus, Healing, Holidays, identity, Memory, Past, Selfhood, Sermon, Sermons, Solstice | 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

Bearing Witness

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

This week, one of my parents’ friends experienced a tragedy. Their daughter – who was my age, died suddenly, from a hidden medical issue they failed to uncover in time. My parents live far away from me, as do their … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Bearing Witness, Change, Community, Compassion, ethics, Faithfulness, Global Justice, International, Justice, Network, Pain, Partnership, Resilience, Sermon, Sermons, Stories, Suffering, UUSC, Witnessing, World | 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

Becoming a Unitarian Universalist

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Reading: Show Up Hungry by Elizabeth Nguyen I got off work at 7 pm and did the thing where you chase the bus a little bit but then realize you won’t make it and walk sheepishly back to the bus … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Belonging, Coming Out, Commitment, Community, Conversion, Dedication, Duty, Faith, Faith Formation, James Luther Adams, Loyalty, Relationship, Relationships, Religion, Religious Identity, Sermon, Sermons, Spiritual Deepening, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Unitarianism, Universalism | Leave a comment

Community in Diversity

Posted on July 24, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

(This sermon is an update of a few different sermons I’ve offered in the past, including this one) Reading: The Purpose of the Church Sermon: Community in Diversity In the late 1990s, and the early 2000s, Bishop Carlton Pearson experienced … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Belonging, Beloved Community, Community, Covenant, Covenantal, Diversity, Eccelesiology, James Luther Adams, Mission, Sermon, Sermons, Theological Diversity, Unity | Leave a comment

Gay Enough

Posted on April 15, 2022 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

My partner Carri and I were pretty early in our relationship when we started to wonder if we were “gay enough.” It wasn’t a new question for me; as a bi-identified person, more than a few lesbians have over the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog Reflections, Justice, Personal Stories, Sexuality | Tagged Acceptance, Beloved, Bisexuality, Community, Enough, Friendship, Gay, Genderqueer, identity, Lesbians, LGBTQ, Love, Queer, Sexual orientation, Sexuality, transgender | 1 Comment