Foothills Unitarian Church

What is the eagle to your weasel? In this episode, we're talking all about the experience of feeling a call to something new - the experience of taking a big leap into a more authentic life even when saying yes to this new thing feels unbearably awkward or scary. 1:12 Excerpt from essay by Annie Dillard called "Living Like Weasels" 2:57 Rev. Elaine Aron-Tenbrink's sermon "Living Like Weasels" 20:50 Conversation with Foothills member Sally Harris about her call and experience to create a safe space at our church for non-binary, trans, gender-expansive kids and their families. Sally also answers questions about our Be More Gay campaign and the pronoun pins our church now offers alongside our nametags.

Rev. Gretchen Haley explores how to respond to the uncertainty that arises in moments of transition and digs into how focusing on the now and grounding in community can be life-steadying. 

Rev. Gretchen Haley explores the question of legacy, and our role in passing on our faith and values as if our lives, and our children's lives, depend on it. Because they do. Whether we are parents or not, we all have a part in shaping the next generation's future. Whether we mean to or not, we are creating their inheritance. What sort of world do we intend for our children to receive from us? What sort of values and practices and ways of making meaning and finding hope do we want them to cultivate?   24:25 Rev. Gretchen's sermon 43:55 Revs. Elaine and Gretchen envision an intergenerational community at Foothills Unitarian and discuss the barriers to getting there

Rev. Sean explores radical hospitality and how church feeds the part of all of us that yearns to belong in a community - woven through past and present - that holds our whole selves. 6:07 Rev. Sean's sermon 26:08 Guided meditation with Rev. Elaine 29:03 Abortion rights response and resources Read Rev. Gretchen Haley and Rev. Elaine Aron-Tenbrink's response to the threat on abortion rights.

Rev. Gretchen delivers an Earth Day message inviting us to practice the pause where we can both honor what’s been lost and lean into co-creating a joyful life. 2:31 Rev. Gretchen Haley’s sermon Earth Seeds 20:28 Foothills member Beckie Wagner reflects on her journey out of despair 25:21 Rev. Sean closes our Regeneration series   Learn more about Be More Gay at https://foothillsuu.org/bemoregay

Amid a cultural moment when queer people are facing cruel and unjust treatment across the U.S., Rev. Sean shares an Easter message of queer Jesus - someone accused by the crowd of perverting a nation (11:11). Revs. Gretchen and Sean discuss why Rev. Sean chose to preach on queer Jesus and how queerness is liberating for all people regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity (0:25 and 33:46). Sermon Transcript

Rev. Elaine Aron-Tenbrink guides us in exploring how we can move through ambiguous loss and pandemic social atrophy by attuning ourselves to what is alive. When we embrace observation and follow the threads of what is alive and beautiful, here and now, we begin to imagine something new to hope for. 1:31 Reflection from Rev. Meg Riley read by Rev. Sean Neil-Barron 5:56 Rev. Elaine Aron-Tenbrink's sermon "Aligning with Aliveness"

What do we do when we feel so stuck or in despair that moving forward doesn't feel possible? Rev. Sean explores how we can find hope through doing. 5:28 Rev. Sean Neil-Barron's sermon "Hope is a Verb" 34:53 Closing song: "Hope with Our Hands"   

What do we do when - despite our best efforts - we feel like progress isn’t happening or we’re even moving backward? It’s normal to want to hide and disconnect when life gets messy and hard, but in this episode, Rev. Gretchen offers an alternative path. She explores how through reconnection we can bring ourselves, our relationships, and our world back to life. 5:20 Response to recent anti-trans, anti-queer legislation 11:43 Rev. Gretchen’s Sermon 31:10 Revs. Gretchen and Sean discuss the sermon

Does living your best life mean that you've got it all figured out? Does it mean all pleasure and no pain? Does the concept of no pain even make sense in the world where joy and beauty are so often entangled with disappointment and struggle? Rev. Elaine digs into these questions and more with long-time Foothills members Lynn Young and Bob Bacon. They explore how we can hold the tension of being both awake to suffering and open to beauty and joy.

Rev. Sean draws on East Asian philosophy and religious traditions to explore how embracing flow can help us live our best life.

This week on the podcast we're diving into a new series called "Your Best Life," exploring how we don’t need to have it together, to do it together. What our consumer society tells us we need to live our best life is a lie... so what the heck does it mean to live your best life? Join Revs. Sean and Elaine as they explore a possible answer to this big question.  2:49 - Reading from No Cure for being Human by Kate Bowler 6:12 - Conversation with Revs. Sean and Elaine

In the final week of our series Re-Assembly Required, which is all about repairing broken relationships, we're zooming out to focus on communal relationships — specifically, the relationship between settlers and native peoples. Rev. Sean interviews indigenous activists Christinia Eala and Elissa Tivona about Hughes Land Back. Land back movements seek to restore stewardship of land to indigenous people, and Hughes Land Back specifically seeks to return the former site of Colorado State University's Hughes Stadium.

We all share the longing to be known and embraced for who we are, messy parts and all. Yet, humans are experiencing loneliness at record levels (and this was true even before the pandemic hit!). So what is it we really want in friendships and how can we find it? Rev. Gretchen draws on friendship research to help you start opening up and forming deep, authentic friendships no matter your walk of life (2:03). Then Rev. Sean converses with his close friend and fellow Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Joe Cherry about patterns and experiences within their friendship and friendships generally (24:19).

Rev. Sean interviews couples therapist Jennifer Dunkle on how we can simplify conflicts to make them more productive. We distinguish solvable and perpetual conflicts and explore how unpacking our personal histories can help with navigating conflicting values and goals.

Rev. Christopher Watkins Lamb explores the hit movie Encanto through the lens of Gretchen Rubin's four tendencies (The Obliger, The Upholder, The Questioner, The Rebel) to help us better relate with the inner and outer characters that make up our lives.

Rev. Gretchen explores the mechanics of a good apology and how whole-hearted attempts at repair have the potential to heal and set us all free. Rev. Elaine also guides us in a prayer that integrates the four parts of a good apology.

This week we continue our series on how to strengthen relationships. Rev. Elaine joins Rev. Sean to guide us in exploring the loneliness many of us are experiencing during the persistent pandemic.

Rev. Sean Neil-Barron talks with Dr. Dan McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Senior Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School. They explore how the current trend of increasing economic inequality affects progressivism across religion and politics, how people rise up seeking to come to terms with America’s white supremacist and colonialist legacies, and the complex place that Unitarian Universalism occupies as a progressive religious tradition that is primarily made up of white folks. What is our role to play in movements for change? 

In "Fix You," Rev. Gretchen reminds us that we are each worthy of having thriving relationships... but in pursuit of that goal, we may attempt to fix others instead of going where change really begins: inside ourselves. Join Rev. Gretchen as she explores the work of relationship expert Esther Perel to help us start bringing the vibrancy back to our relationships.