The UU Montclair Podcast: UU Idol: A Battle of the Holidays (12/15/13)

35:53 – Selections from our Intergenerational Holiday Service at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”
–Bahá’u’lláh

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
–Hamilton Wright Mabie

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
–Charles Dickens

INTRODUCTION OF THEME
by Rev. Judy Tomlinson

PRAYER & MEDITATION
by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman

A HOLIDAY PAGEANT
“UU Idol: A Battle of the Holidays”

A HOMILETIC STORY
“The 4th Wise Man”/“You Can Be Anybody That You Want to Be”
by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman

CLOSING WORDS

“UU Idol: Battle of Holidays”
Written by Dionne Ford Kurtti
Directed & Produced by Laurice Farrell, Beth Smith, Lori Alexander & Mama Doni
Musical Direction: Markus Hauck, Stearns Matthews, Amy Crafton
Musical Arrangements: Amy Crafton & Markus Hauck
Production Services: Brian Brodeur & Steve Schoenwiesner
Stage Crew: George Buccino, Nathanial Wodnick & Sebastian Wodnick

CAST (in order of appearance):
Ryan Solstice: Maggie Arian
Yule Tide: Lanka Ramsey
Holly Queen: Nikki Mernin
Tonantzin: Devany Kurtti

The Funky Gold Menorahs:
Charlotte Brookes-La Blanc, Clara Brookes-La Blanc,
Willa Brookes-La Blanc, Sara Howard

The First Fruits:
Beatrix Scherfen-Brown, Mimi Scherfen-Brown, Sophia Sorge,
Winnie Sorge, Sadie-Talullah Curran

The Wise Ones:
Julia Chadwick, Jade Lytle, Rachel Harmon, Blake Hayden Hart,
Emerson Wodnick

Singers:
Desiree Kurtti, Helen Healy, Giancarlo Ponticello, Hank Felix, Sam Schuman, Eric Stoloff, Kristen Lo

Very Special Thanks from Beth and Laurice: To all the parents and participants for showing up, working with my crazy scheduling and being incredibly wonderful!!

The UU Montclair Podcast: Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion (12/8/13)

23:13 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“I caught the happiness virus last night when I was out singing beneath the stars.”
–Hafiz of Persia

“Your happiness is a gift because it literally brings out the best in you.”
–Robert Holden

“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up.”
–Mark Twain

PRAYER & MEDITATION

READINGS: ANCIENT AND MODERN
From “Happiness Runs” by Donovan Leach
From the poem: “So Much Happiness” by Naomi Shihab Nye from her book “Words under the Words”
From Lau Tsu

SERMON
“Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion”
Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman

CLOSING WORDS

Liturgist: Michael Mernin

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.

The UU Montclair Podcast: To Lead Where No One Has Led Before (12/1/13)

22:53 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by Mr. Bruce Knotts.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“‘Freedom from fear’ could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.”
–Dag Hammarskjold

PRAYER & MEDITATION
Rev. Judy Tomlinson

READING
“We, The Peoples of the United Nations”

SERMON
“To Lead Where No One Has Led Before”
Mr. Bruce Knotts

CLOSING WORDS

TODAY’S SERVICE IS BEING LED BY MR. BRUCE KNOTTS.
Bruce was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia. He worked for Raytheon in Saudi Arabia and on a World Bank contract in Somalia before he joined the Department of State as a U.S. diplomat in 1984. Bruce retired from the Foreign Service in 2007 and joined the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO) as its Executive Director at the beginning of 2008. He began the UU-UNO’s very successful LGBT advocacy program in 2008. Bruce has been chair of the UN NGO Committee on Human Rights since June 2010 and of the Faith and Ethics Network for the International Criminal Court since April 2010. He is the President and CEO of the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security and a member of the NGO UN Security Council Working Group.

Liturgist: Mike Mernin

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.

The UU Montclair Podcast: …That Thorns Have Roses… (11/24/13)

18:41 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.”
–Margaret Cousins

“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”
–William Faulkner

“One regret dear world, that I am determined not to have when I am lying on my deathbed is that I did not kiss you enough.”
–Hafiz of Persia

PRAYER & MEDITATION
Rev. Judy Tomlinson

READINGS: ANCIENT AND MODERN
From the Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama
From “The Guest House,” by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

SERMON
“…That Thorns Have Roses…”
Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman

CLOSING WORDS

Liturgist: Frank Ippolito

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.

The UU Montclair Podcast: Meaning Well (11/17/13)

20:55 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“I consider those are rich who are doing something they feel worthwhile and which they enjoy doing.”
–Eleanor Roosevelt

“Service is the rent we pay to be living. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time.”
–Marian Wright Edelman

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.”
–Laurence J. Peter

PRAYER & MEDITATION

READINGS: ANCIENT AND MODERN
From the Book of James
From High Eagle, Native American, musician, philosopher and recipient of the National Medal of Freedom

SERMON
“Meaning Well”
Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman

CLOSING WORDS

Liturgist: Frank Ippolito

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.

The UU Montclair Podcast: Crossing into Deep Time: A Calling and a Response (11/10/13)

23:31 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by Miriam MacGillis, OP.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“The universe is wider than our views of it.”
–Henry David Thoreau

“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.”
–Carl Sagan

“No known roof is as beautiful as the skies above.
–Michael O’Muircheartaigh

READINGS: ANCIENT & MODERN
From the Book of Wisdom, Chapter 1, Verses 7-8, 12-15
“The Great Work, Our Way into the Future” by Thomas Berry

SERMON
“Crossing into Deep Time: A Calling and a Response”
Miriam MacGillis, OP

CLOSING WORDS

Liturgist: Frank Ippolito

TODAY’S SERVICE IS BEING LED BY MIRIAM MACGILLIS, OP

Miriam is a member of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, NJ. Since 1980 she has lived and worked at Genesis Farm, which she co-founded in Blairstown, NJ with the sponsorship of her Dominican Congregation. The Farm explores the new insights and implications for the human community derived from the scientific story of an evolving Universe and living planet. It promotes bioregionalism, sustainability and a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of ethics for resolving the ecological crises of our times.

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.

The UU Montclair Podcast: The Time of Our Lives (11/3/13)

20:13 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?”
–Henry David Thoreau

“Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s might oak is yesterday’s nut that its ground.”
–Rosa Parks

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
–E.B. White

PRAYER & MEDITATION

READINGS: MODERN
“October nor’easter” by Marge Piercy
“The True Joy in Life” by George Bernard Shaw

SERMON
“The Time of Our Lives”
Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman

CLOSING WORDS

Liturgist: Frank Ippolito

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.

The UU Montclair Podcast: The Bells Are Ringing; Love and Justice Are Served! (10/27/13)

30:41 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by our Past Congregational Presidents and Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.”
–William Wordsworth

“That is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all.”
–Henry Ward Beecher

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”
–Dr. Seuss

A CELEBRATION OF LOVE AND JUSTICE
Our Presidents Remember
Lois Grebe, Ruth Karr, Janice Maffei, Sabine Von Aulock,
Nick Lewis, Teresa DeSousa

A SPECIAL REMEMBRANCE

PRAYER & MEDITATION

SERMON
“The Bells Are Ringing; Love and Justice Are Served!”
Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman

CLOSING WORDS

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.

The UU Montclair Podcast: Don’t Just Do Something; Sit There! (10/20/13)

19:05 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“The art of listening needs its highest development in listening to oneself; our most important task is to develop an ear that can really hear what we’re saying.”
–Sydney J. Harris

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
–Dorothy Nevill

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
–Mark Twain

PRAYER & MEDITATION

READINGS: ANCIENT & MODERN
From the Book of Psalms, Chapter 40
From the German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke

SERMON
“Don’t Just Do Something; Sit There!”
Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman

CLOSING WORDS

Liturgist: Ginny Loggins

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.

The UU Montclair Podcast: Why We Are Universalists (10/13/13)

23:44 – Selections from The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair’s Sunday Worship Service by Rev. Carol Haag.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

“Give them no Hell, but Hope and Courage; preach the kindness and everlasting Love of God.”
–John Murray

“If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good.”
–Hosea Ballou

INTRODUCTION

PRAYER & MEDITATION

READINGS:
From the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut
From John Murray, quoted in the book The Larger Faith: A Short History of American Universalism by Charles Howe

SERMON
“Why We Are Universalists”
Rev. Carol Haag

CLOSING WORDS

Liturgist: Ginny Loggins

TODAY’S SERVICE IS BEING LED BY REV. CAROL HAAG

Carol retired after 13 years as the religious educator (DRE and MRE) with The Unitarian Church in Summit, NJ. Since then, she has served on the Murray Grove board, as member, President, and currently chairs its Stewardship Committee.  She is a strong advocate for Universalism as the central, vital force in our Unitarian Universalist movement.   She believes that Universalism embodies the critical message of inclusion for our time.

Please note: All sermons are copyrighted by the author.

For more information about The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, please visit us at http://uumontclair.org.