Foothills Unitarian Church

What we ache for reveals our values, our wounds, and our hopes for the world. And yet longing carries real risks. It can narrow our vision; distract us from the present; it can try our patience and make us think we have more control than we do. This Sunday, we will explore what it means to practice longing faithfully, and how desire can be our teacher and our guide in the turning.

What are we waiting for—and what are we postponing that’s ours to do now? In a time of so much struggle and uncertainty, how do we honor the real ache for things to get better without slipping into resignation or deferring our own power? How do we discern the difference between the waiting that is wise and the waiting that keeps us from living? Drawing on the ancient idea of a “messianic hope” and the wisdom of kairos—the right time— we will explore the spiritual practice of waiting faithfully, living in the paradox of both patience and urgency.  

Rev. Elaine and Sophia Miller lead a meditation based on a loving-kindness meditation, adapted from the work of Sister Karma Kechog Palmo, a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.   

Heroes can feel out of reach—like the kind of people who have more courage, more clarity, or less to lose. But what if it’s not about being extraordinary? What if the difference is just practice—small, consistent choices that shape who we become and how we show up when it matters most? This week's message is an invitation to stop waiting for the moment and start preparing for it together, drawing our lines, building trust, and learning the kind of courage that doesn’t come from going it alone, but from rising side by side.

We’ve all been there—someone we care about falls down a rabbit hole of “alternative facts.” You try to explain, to reason, to send the article that will finally convince them. But somehow, the more facts you share, the deeper they dig in. So what’s really going on when facts fail? Why do smart, caring people come to believe things that make no sense? And how can connection—rather than correction—bring us back to truth? Join Rev. Gretchen this week, as we explore how belonging shapes belief, and what it means to stay human, curious, and kind in an age of misbelief.

In a world that keeps demanding we either smooth over our differences or cut each other off completely, Rev. Sean's message explores a harder, more honest way forward—where love isn’t control or avoidance, but the daily work of staying rooted in your convictions while making space for others to be fully themselves. What if the tension we’re trying so hard to eliminate is actually where love—and transformation—lives?

In a world where fear often masquerades as wisdom, this message invites you to treat your discomfort not as a red light, but as data—pointing to where love is asking more of you. Rev. Sean draws on personal experience to help differentiate between real threat and personal unease, and choosing to cross the bridge of courageous love—even when it’s hard, even when you’re scared—to have fellowship with those on the other side.

This past Sunday was our cherished annual Service of Remembrance, where we came together to honor loved ones who have passed by bringing their photos or objects into our sacred space as we built a shared altar.  Rev. Elaine asked Foothills Member Karen Wilken to talk about the sudden loss of her son, Oliver, and her journey with grief.

You’ve spent years believing that if you just told the truth clearly enough, people would see it—but now that logic feels broken, and it’s breaking something in you, too. When the old tools stop working, faith invites us to grieve what’s gone and still step forward, learning to speak truth in a way that reshapes the ground we stand on.

We want to believe heaven is already here, on earth. In beauty, and nature; in generosity and creativity; and in human goodness that still surprises us in its abundance. But then....we read the headlines, we feel the heartbreak, and we experience the harm - and all of these ideas feel hollow. So, as Eleanor Shellstrop (from TV's The Good Place) might say....is this the bad place? And if so, how do we live faithfully here - in what Parker Palmer calls the "tragic gap,"  between the world as it is and the world as it could be? These are the questions at the heart of this sermon from Rev. Gretchen.

Life shifts under our feet in ways we didn’t ask for— relationships strain, identities evolve, and structures and expectations that once felt right can start to feel confining.  It’s easy to mistake the pain of breaking open, growing, and becoming as a sign that something is wrong.   This message from Rev. Elaine invites us to discern whether the strain we feel is the cost of becoming or the cost of staying too small.

What happens after we mess up—after we hurt someone, fail ourselves, or cause harm, intentionally or not?  We can either spiral into shame—or we can turn toward growth. Shame disconnects us from belonging, but growth deepens it. This Sunday, Rev. Gretchen Haley continues our Broken | Open series with wisdom from the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Together, we’ll explore how to find meaning and belonging—even after we fall short. ✨ A creative story for kids and youth ✨ Gorgeous music to ground and lift us ✨ Belonging, even in our brokenness

Lament is the cry of the heart that says: “This pain matters.” It doesn’t try to fix, defend, or explain. It witnesses. It gives voice to the grief, anger, confusion, and sorrow we so often carry in silence. Across traditions - from the Hebrew psalms to Buddhist stories, from African American spirituals to modern poetry - lament has always been a way to be fully present in life as it really is. Together, we’ll learn how lament can connect us, comfort us, and remind us: whatever you’re carrying, you don’t carry it alone. You can expect a space for all-out whining and collective sighing, maybe even some stomping of feet. And of course powerful music from Julie Koenig the whole way through it all. Most of all, the invitation to both share and witness all that we are holding, in community. Let's do this, together. Link to Book of Laments: https://simplebooklet.com/bookoflaments#page=1

Feeling entirely lost? Confused? Sometimes, right when the map fails, the real path begins. This Sunday: bewilderment, whirling, and the possibility that being lost can be the place where we are ultimately found.  Rev. Gretchen will be preaching, Christopher Watkins Lamb and Julie Koenig will be leading music, Rev. Elaine will be reading a wild poem about a crab, and many of us will be twirling. Maybe including you? Hope to see you there! 

Do you ever get the feeling that you are having an experience NO ONE could ever understand? Something too hard, too embarrassing, too messy....these feelings can make us feel so alone, and so isolated. But what we have learned (especially those of us whose job it is to meet people in these challenging moments) is that these moments that feel unique to you, are often the exact things that other people are struggling with too.  This Sunday, Rev. Elaine shares from her experience as our lead minister for pastoral care to remind us that the place where you feel most alone is often your place of deepest belonging.  

You don’t become a different person overnight—but staying in long-haul relationships has a way of slowly confronting who you were and calling out who you’re becoming. This message from Rev. Gretchen looks at how deep, lasting connections reshape us over time in ways quick fixes never could.

This Sunday we share a re-imagined and reinvigorated Water Ceremony ritual for all ages. This tradition was born from UU women 45 years ago who got tired of being told how to worship and decided to create their own ceremony, and this year we take up their mantle as we reinvent this piece of our living tradition in our own way. We explore what it means to be dammed up and what it feels like when those dams finally break, practicing the radical act of letting barriers come down. We'll look at the Klamath River, where the largest dam removal in U.S. history just happened. After a century of being blocked, salmon are swimming home. The river remembers. We're made of that same stubborn, remembering water, and its gifts are also ours: The wildness of the water is a current alive in within you, within us, flowing in a way that needs no permission, no apologies, no restraint. The power of the water is ours, together - a force within us like a river that's been gathering behind a dam of lies for decades, finally free

We gather to celebrate and honor the extraordinary Eleanor VanDeusen, who is retiring after 26 years of ministry in religious education and family ministry at Foothills.  Revs. Gretchen, Sean, and Elaine, along with guest minister Rev. Justin Schroeder guide us. Rev. Justin grew up at Foothills and worked with Eleanor as a youth coordinator.  He reflects on both Eleanor, and also on what our children, youth, and families need from the church now, as truth refuses to be still, continuing to unfold and reveal new understandings and possibilities. This Sunday we also bless backpacks for all our kids and school employees about to start their new school year! Plus, we’re joined by musical guest Adam Podd!

In these days of fear, we must keep asking: what sacrifices must we make to make belonging real? Not just pretty words, but actual bodies fed, actual doors opened, actual love lived out loud. That's the work. That's the fight. Building a belonging so fierce, so wide, so stubbornly inclusive that even our enemies find themselves home.