Tag Archives: Relationships

What You Can Control

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

The Work That Is Theirs to Do by Joanna Fontaine Crawford And said, “That’s enough of that.” And the day came when finally they put down their burdens The moment was full of sorrow but also relief Arms exhausted from … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Boundaries, Boundary, Caregivers, Caregiving, Communication, Control, Covenant, Families, Family, Family Systems, Healing, mental-health, Needs, Parenting, Parents, personal-growth, Relationships, Saying no, Self-Differentiation, Sermon, Sermons, Unitarian Universalism | 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

Reunion, a Sabbatical Story

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

What does it mean to meet again? After months, or years, or decades, to encounter another that we have not seen, or kept fully in touch with, especially one we once knew well, one we were close to, who knew … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog Reflections | Tagged Family, History, Intimacy, Memory, Recognition, Relationships, Reunion, Sabbath, Sabbatical, Time | 1 Comment

Zugzwang

Posted on July 31, 2019 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

By the time we sat in the room where life turned from what was, to what would be I had barely begun to believe there was a game, and we were players there was a strategy, and you intended to … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged agency, Choice, destiny, fate, Fidelity, poem, Poetry, Relationship, Relationships | 2 Comments

What Comes Next

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Reading – from Alain de Botton’s 2016 essay, “Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person” It’s one of the things we are most afraid might happen to us. We go to great lengths to avoid it. And yet we do it … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Call, Change, Commitment, Constancy, Covenant, Faithful, Fidelity, Glennon Doyle, Healing, Love, Marriage, Relationships, Sermon, Sermons, Stewardship | Leave a comment

Showing up for friendship

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

First, a reading, from Robert JohnsonChinese culture has a gentle way of talking about friendship: their proverb is that the fifth cup of tea between friends is the best. Tea was made in old China simply by pouring hat water … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged Friend, Friends, Friendship, Heartbreak, Relationship, Relationships, Sermon, Sermons, Showing Up, Theology | Leave a comment

Not Just Any Relationship – 5 Jagged Rocks Post #4

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

“Stones, timber, though squared, hewn and polished, are not a house, until they are compacted and united; so saints or believers in judgment of charity, are not a church unless orderly knit together.” (Cambridge Platform, 1648) For a while, in … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog Reflections, Philosophy of Church, Theology, Youth Ministry | Tagged Cambridge Platform, Congregational Polity, Covenant, Jagged Rocks, James Luther Adams, Relationships | Leave a comment

Time to DTR

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Reading – “Seeing People” by Brene Brown, from Daring Greatly Last week, while getting my nails done, I watched in horror as the two women across from me talked on their phones the whole time, employing head nods, eyebrow raises, … Continue reading →

Posted in Covenant, Sermons, Theology | Tagged Covenant, Covenantal, Economic Justice, Economy, Edward Snowden, Evil, Humanism, Humanity, Relationships, Sermon, Sermons, Theological Anthropology, Theology, Transactional | Leave a comment