
Sunday Service
Multi-Platform in-person and online services at 10:30 am on Sunday mornings.
Upcoming Services
Thematic Thoughts
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Trust is a confident engagement with the unknown.
~ Rachel Botsman
Trust is choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions. Distrust [is when] what is important to me is not safe with a person in this situation or in any situation.
~ Charles Feltman
To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
Alan Watts
I’ve come to trust not that events will always unfold exactly as I want, but that I will be fine either way.
~ Marianne Williamson
It’s a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.
~ Madeleine L’Engle
Daughter, believe me,
when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.
~ Philip Booth
A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not in the branch but in her own wings.
~ Charlie Wardle
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In relationships, trust isn’t a promise to never hurt each other. It’s acceptance of the risk that we will hurt each other and the confidence that, if we do, we will come together to heal.
~ Esther Perel
Our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past.
~ Chuck Palahniuk
(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2025 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Trust’)
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March 6, 2025
This list of questions is an aid for deep reflection. How you answer them is often less important than the journey they take you on. So, read through the list of questions 2-3 times until one question sticks out for you and captures your attention, or as some faith traditions say, until one of the questions “shimmers.”
Then reflect on that question using one or all of these questions:
What is going on in my life right now that makes this question so pronounced for me?
How might my inner voice be trying to speak to me through it?
How might Life or my inner voice be trying to offer me a word of comfort or challenge through this question?
What have you trusted since childhood and never lost faith in?
Have you ever been made trustworthy by someone who risked putting their trust in you?
When did trust in the Divine show up in your life? Is there anything about that moment that might help you navigate your life right now?
When did trust in the Divine leave your life? Do you ever feel a longing for it to return?
When broken trust left you broken-hearted, what voice in your head or word from a friend helped you pick up the pieces?
Has it ever been hard to trust that your children will find their way?
It’s been said that trust is choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions. Does this make you see yourself or any of your relationships in a new light?
Is it time to start trusting yourself again?
Do you have doubts that deserve to be more deeply trusted?
Have you done more battling with your body than trusting it?
What would happen if you trusted life enough to let go?
What has your life partner taught you about trust?
Are you upset because you were lied to or because, from now on, you can’t believe the one who lied?
Do you regret the time you were too scared to trust the unknown and take that leap of faith?
How would your life change if you stopped believing that people can’t be trusted?
What have you learned about trusting grief, rather than resisting it?
What’s your question? Your question may not be listed above. As always, if the above questions don't include what life is asking from you, spend the month listening to your days to find it.
(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2025 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Trust’)
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In religious circles, talk of trust most often revolves around having faith that life will look after us. For instance, our Christian friends sing hymns about God “watching over us” and keeping “an eye on the sparrow.” Our Jewish friends lift up the Exodus story to encourage faith that God will help us make our way even when things look bleak. Likewise, prayer practice for our Muslim friends is all about reminding oneself that you are in Allah’s safe hands. We UUs voice similar sentiments through the language of trusting “a Love that will not let us go.”
This call to trust Life comes to us as a gift. After all, it can be quite easy to convince ourselves that life is a foe. So we need our faith communities to restore our faith that life is ultimately a friend. We need the reassurance that when we fall, we can count on being picked up.
But what about being pushed? Don’t we need to count on that too? A Love that won’t let us go is essential, but isn’t it just as important to have faith in a Love that won’t let us get too comfortable? Especially as March asks us to honor women’s history, the anniversary of the Selma–Montgomery March and Transgender Day of Visibility, we certainly don’t want to forget about a Love that disturbs. We need a Love that keeps us “creatively maladjusted” to the inhumane and unjust parts of our society. We need a Love that exposes privilege and unsettles those of us who have it. We definitely need a Love that tells those of us who are marginalized and tired, “I won’t let your pain be ignored.”
And just when that type of trust seems the one we all should place at the center of our hearts, another voice adds itself to the mix. This one reminding us to trust that it’s not all up to us. That sometimes it’s ok to rest. A voice that doesn’t disturb and push but instead assures us that we can let go. That tells us to trust that we can - for a while - put the work down because others are ready to pick it up, knowing that we will be there to pick it up when rest calls to them.
So, friends, where does that leave us? What is it?
Trust life to pick us up?
Trust life to push and poke us?
Trust that it’s ok to put the work down for a while?
It is all of them, of course. And more.
But maybe it’s mostly about trusting that we’ll know which call is right for us. Maybe it’s about having faith in ourselves and not letting anyone tell us what we need to trust in the most.
Another way to put this is to say that we need to make room for everyone’s uniquely broken heart. We all experience a loss of faith in our own way. The trust you need to repair is likely different from mine. But what we both long for is safe space. Space to say how hard that work of repair is. Space to say how much our experience of broken trust hurts.
So, how about it friends? This month, let’s prove to each other that we can be trusted to offer safe and wide-open space for each other’s broken hearts.
(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2025 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Trust')
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Ask Them About Trust
One of the best ways to explore our monthly themes is to have conversations about them with people who are close to you. It’s also a great way to deepen our relationships! Below is a list of questions to help you on your way. Be sure to let your conversation partner know in advance that this won’t be a typical conversation. Telling them a bit about Soul Matters will help set the stage. Remember to also answer the questions yourself as they are meant to support a conversation, not just a time of you quizzing them.
Come to your group ready to share what surprised you about the conversation and what gift or insight it gave you. As always, keep a lookout for how your inner voice is trying to send you a message of comfort or challenge through these conversions with others.
Trust Questions:
What have you trusted since childhood and never lost faith in?
Has trusting people gotten easier or harder as you’ve grown older?
At what stage in your life were you most trustworthy? At what stage were you the least trustworthy?
Have you ever been made trustworthy by someone who risked putting their trust in you?
Do you regret the time you were too scared to trust the unknown and take that leap of faith?
Have you done more battling with your body than trusting it?
What would happen if you trusted life enough to let go?
Do you think your future self will be better or worse at trusting life and people than you are now?
(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2025 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Trust’)
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Three Objects of Trust
Identifying where trust resides in our lives is most often a mental exercise of examining our thoughts and memories. But this route can end up masking how much trust is embodied in the physical objects surrounding us.
For instance, our favorite garden gloves represent our faith in the living processes of life, not to mention our trust that being close to the earth and burying our hands in the soil will bring us back to life too. That heirloom necklace we wear represents the trust our family members put in us to hand it - and family stories - down to future generations. Lotions, bath fragrances and silk sheets capture how much we trust our bodies to tell us what they need. For those horse riders among us, our bridles and saddles contain the story of how much we trust these magnificent creatures and how much they trust us. Our old typewriter or new keyboard represents how much we trust ourselves and the creative muses within to generate meaningful words.
So now let’s turn to you? What objects sing your special relationship with trust? This month, honor them by going on a treasure hunt to find three objects that represent three important or under-recognized sources of trust for you.
If possible, bring one or two of them to your group and be ready to share what they say about your unique relationship to and journey with trust.
(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2025 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Trust')
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It’s okay to distance yourself from spaces that demand a version of you that no longer is true. Belonging shouldn’t depend on an illusion.
~ Cole Arthur Riley
They want thinking you’re bad at being a girl Instead of thinking you’re great at being yourself... They want you to blend in,
like you’ve never seen a blender...
~ Andrea Gibson
Inclusion isn’t better just because it’s kinder. We should bring disabled perspectives to the center because these perspectives create a world that is more imaginative, more flexible, more sustainable, more dynamic and vibrant for everyone who lives in a body.
~ Rebekah Taussig
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch... and her name Mother of Exiles... cries she, with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me...
~ Emma Lazarus
If justice is what love looks like in public, then inclusion is what love looks like among groups.
~ Rev. Matthew Johnson
This is almost always the by-product of expanding the table: God is right-sized. Rarely, if ever, do you do the work of hospitality, authenticity, diversity, and agenda-free relationships and encounter a smaller, more selective God.
~ John Pavlovitz
Put the mantle of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless...
Take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them In the high street.
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise
~ Maya Angelou
(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2025 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Inclusion')
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Videos & Podcasts
Nick Cave on Loss, Yearning & Transcendence
https://onbeing.org/programs/nick-cave-loss-yearning-transcendence/
Be Kind (On small acts of repair that mean so much!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eKoOoOTvgk&t=16s
These Three Natural Things Can Repair You...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXPLbcsDOJQ
The Museum of Broken Relationships
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMNdTZhQ1TU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Q731asMtg
How Trauma Lodges in the Body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnKxZqObIWk
Related Video HERE
Related book HERE
Repair & Needleworkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EITLA0fvx0I
On how mending and stitching the clothes outside us repairs what is torn inside us.
Visible Mending
https://psyche.co/films/a-whimsical-ode-to-the-reparative-power-of-knitting-rendered-in-wool
Two more needleworkers and knitters testify to creativity’s power to help us repair and heal.
Stitching Our Wounds, Andrea Gibson
https://www.tiktok.com/@andreagibsonpoetry/video/7242840039527386414
Articles
A Slower Urgency
https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/post/a-slower-urgency
“In ‘hurrying up’ all the time, we often lose sight of the abundance of resources that might help us meet today’s most challenging crises…”
Grief is Healing in Motion
https://toko-pa.com/2019/07/24/grief-is-healing-in-motion/
“Grief plays an essential role in our coming undone from previous attachments. It is the necessary current we need to carry us into our next becoming…”
The Sounds of Grief
https://mariandrew.substack.com/p/the-sounds-of-grief
Might repairing from grief be more about the sounds of grief than the famous five stages?
Want to Fix Your Mind? Let Your Body Talk
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/magazine/somatic-therapy.html
(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2024 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Repair)
Music
Are you feeling musical this month? Enjoy a wonderful YouTube playlist inspired by this month’s theme, Resistance.
Past Services
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The Western Lens
March 9, 2025 at 10:30 am
The conception of "religion" in the West has profoundly Christian biases that unfortunately distort our ability to see other religions clearly. In this talk, we will explore how this lens developed, the blindspots it fosters, and how being aware of this lens may allow us to see other traditions and peoples more fully. Join us this week for our special guest speaker who will be joining us virtually from Toronto. (Speaker: Brian Carwana via Zoom)Brian Carwana is the Executive Director of Encounter World Religions, a charity that promotes religious literacy and understanding. He has a PhD in religion and has spent 25 years taking thousands of people to various religious communities to meet leaders, share meals, and observe ritual. The highlight of his year is Encounter's annual Discovery Week where 50 people spend a week in Toronto exploring 11 religions through classes and almost 20 site visits in a rich and rewarding experience.
(Guest Speaker: Brian Carwana, Executive Director of Encounter World Religions)
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The Delicate Dance of Trust
March 2, 2025 at 10:30 am
Trust is not static. It ebbs and flows throughout our lives. And it requires our vulnerability—opening ourselves to the possibility of being hurt in order to experience the dance of life. How might we explore the tension between self-protection and openness? the delicate balance between caution and trust? And how can we begin to do this in life, in faith, and even in times of repair?(Rev. Beckett Coppola Speaking)
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Active Hope
February 23, 2025 at 10:30 am
The journey ahead of us is uncertain and may be difficult. Can we find and sustain hope in these challenging times? We will explore this gently as we worship together.(Guest Speaker: Rev. George Buchanan)
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Love & the Kindness of Strangers
February 16, 2025 at 10:30 am
In this special service we will hear a sermon from Rev. Beckett’s colleague Rev. Audette Fulbright while Rev. Beckett stays home and keeps her laryngitis to herself. The message is titled Love, with the subtitle The Kindness of Strangers. Rev. Fulbright wrote, “It is a great spiritual practice, to be a kind stranger, and to offer trust in a world that focuses most of all on all the reasons not to trust.” Let’s join together, continue the conversation we began last week, and meet the wholeness in one another anew.
(Guest Speaker: Allan Hammond, reading Rev. Audette Fulbright)
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Creating an Internal Sanctuary
February 9, 2025 at 10:30 am
Join us this Sunday as we explore the foundational spiritual practice of welcoming all parts of ourselves. Drawing inspiration from poets, spiritual teachers, and contemporary thinkers, we'll examine how creating space for our whole selves - including the parts we've tried to exile or silence - is essential to authentic living and genuine inclusion. Through music, meditation, and reflection, we'll explore how internal divisions often mirror societal exclusion, and how making peace with our own contradictions and imperfections opens us to deeper connection with others. Ultimately, self-acceptance and internal hospitality create the foundation for meaningful social change and community transformation.
(Rev. Beckett Coppola Speaking)
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Trusting the Light
February 2, 2025 at 10:30 am
At this time of year, when earth-based traditions celebrate the return of the light, we can trust the changing of the earth's angle to provide us with more and more illumination. Can we also trust the light that flows from ourselves and from those around us? With meditation, music and ritual, we welcome Imbolc. For those joining on Zoom, please have a candle to light or a lamp to turn on and a piece of paper and pen.
(Anne Coward Speaking)