UPCOMING WORSHIP SERVICES
THEME FOR SEPTEMBER: “BUILDING BELONGING”
September 7
Every One Of Us Is A Mystic
10:30 AM
Rev. Clare L. Petersberger, Kara Tyler, Director of Religious Education, Tracy Hall, Music Director, and the TUUC Choir
What is your response to the assertion that “Every one of us is a mystic?” Do you reject it because you associate mysticism with union with God and you aren’t sure what that means? Do you feel drawn to it because you have experienced the oneness of everything? Brother David Steindl Rast made this assertion because he defined mysticism as “the experience of limitless belonging.” When have you experienced “limitless belonging?” Today we explore the possibility that every one of us is a mystic.
September 14
The Names That Hold Us: A Spiritual Reflection on Naming, Identity, and Belonging
10:30 AM
Sofia Blom, Rev. Clare L. Petersberger, Kara Tyler, Director of Religious Education, Tracy Hall, Music Director, and the Community Choir
Meadville Lombard Seminarian Sofia Blom reflects on the power of names in shaping identity, belonging, and transformation. Drawing from sacred texts and personal experience, she explores how claiming our true name can be a sacred act of becoming—especially for those whose journeys include transition, grief, or self-discovery. This sermon offers a message of authenticity, remembrance, and the profound way that the blessing of being truly seen fosters deep belonging.
September 21
We Are All Bound Together In One Great Bundle Of Humanity
10:30 AM
Rev. Clare L. Petersberger, Kara Tyler, Director of Religious Education, Tracy Hall, Music Director, and the TUUC Choir
In the third season of The Gilded Age, the fictional character of the Black writer and activist Peggy Scott gets to meet one of her real life heroines, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. September 24 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper in Baltimore. She became a leading figure in the abolitionist movement and dedicated herself to various causes, including civil rights, temperance, education, and women’s suffrage. Watching her leadership in The Gilded Age led me to wonder what she might say in our contemporary gilded age in the United States which also includes technological change, high economic inequality, corporate consolidation, political corruption, and social division. How did she work for belonging in her lifetime? What can we learn from her?
September 28
Live, Love, Learn, and Leave A Legacy
10:30 AM
Rev. Clare L. Petersberger, Jason Braspennickx, Chair of the TUUC Endowment, Lorraine Sorbello, Kara Tyler, Director of Religious Education, Tracy Hall, Music Director, and the TUUC Choir
The author and motivational speaker, Stephen Covey, wrote, “There are certain things that are fundamental to human fulfillment. The essence of these needs is captured in the phrase; to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy.” Today we will focus, specifically, on our social need to love and be loved and on our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution. We will hear from our Endowment Team on how this need to love and leave a legacy led our founders to establish the TUUC endowment. When you think about your own legacy, what do you hope it will be?