East Shore Unitarian Sermons (bellevue, Wa)

Rev Steve contemplates Memorial Day by way of considering the nature and reliability of our memories.

Rev Dr. Furrer shares the particulars of his personal meditation practice, walking the length and contours of his watershed, in this case Madsen Creek. As water rolls off Steve and Carol's roof, it follows a gravity-drawn course from their yard to the Cedar River and thence to the Sound. Notes on Henry David Thoreau, Wendell Barry, Annie Dillard, and the spirituality of place: this place.

How do we understand and experience hope? Is it just wishful thinking? Environmental Justice activist Joanna Macy teaches us that Active Hope is something we do rather than have. It involves being clear about what we hope for and then playing our role in the process of moving in that direction. She calls this time The Great Turning and encourages us to make our contribution to it. In the process, we might discover new strengths, a wider network of allies, and experience a renewed sense of hope.

What brings us together as Unitarian Universalists? There are as many reasons as the individual people who make up our church communities. Most of us believe that together, we can transform ourselves and make this world a better place through the practice of love. In community, we are offered an opportunity to practice this love by embodying radical hospitality and theological diversity.

Join us as we celebrate Easter. What does it mean to celebrate Easter as a Unitarian Universalist?

In the face of ecological heartache, how do we hold both grief and love together in a way that connects us to nature’s wisdom? Join us for our Earth Day service as we explore this question through nature’s rhythms, seasons and cycles of life.

What’s the situation at ESUC and how to make everything copacetic.

Join us as we celebrate our trans siblings in spirit! Stephanie Dykes will be speaking on the subject of Trans Visibility in advance of International Trans Day of Visibility on March 31. Join Stephanie and the Welcoming Congregations team after the service for a fun and informative Q&A. Stephanie Dykes is a teacher, singer and trans educator/activist.

Reverend Furrer preaching on the need for radical measures in each of our personal lives if we are to faithfully succeed in arresting and healing global warming.

Mardi Gras precedes Lent as a splurging overindulgence in preparation for repentance and purgation. We all enjoy both, often unconsciously. How to reconcile our natural inclination to extravagant display and indulgence with our ESUC covenant to “become the best people we can be?” 

Join us for a family-friendly, all ages worship service featuring accomplished Seattle actor and storyteller, Eva Abram, who brings folktales and myths of American history alive with masterful performance skills. This morning, our worship will focus on the stories of animals and will show us how powerful animal characters can convey so many things. Eva Abram writes that she grew up collecting rainwater for household use and that experience taught her that water is essential for life and so is the same is true of stories. Stories nourish human beings, as rainwater nourishes the earth’s plants and animals.

Lessons from our Coast Salish neighbors on how to think of our upcoming Annual Mission Fund Drive—and how to make it both successful and remarkably FUN! Reverend D. Furrer preaching on the soulful appreciation of money.

A sermon and pean to the power and beauty of romantic love. The day before St. Valentine’s Day is a fitting moment to the consideration of the values and virtues exemplified by amour.

Just as there are many varieties of religious experience, there are many varieties atheism—from the Buddha to Robert Ingersol to Madalyn Murray O’Hair.

This morning we hoped for RITUAL RE/OPENING of our on-site worship services, but thanks to the Omicron Variant scare, it has led to a total redesign. Instead of the choir heralding our warm collective re-embracing of one another, we are once again, 100% virtual, i.e., in a holding pattern, until our newly adopted Guidelines for Safe Gatherings call for a return. Join us as we share a variety of experiences of both their frustration AND of unexpected riches bubbled forth out of a change in plans.

The Beloved Conversations Among team leads a worship service about the current program many ESUC lay leaders and staff have been participating in and finding very energizing. Hands on transformation!

January sixth is celebrated among orthodox Christians as Epiphany. Lower case “e”piphany is kind of an ah-ha experience or moment. How to cultivate such moments and celebrate them when they come.

Reverend Furrer preaching on living in and through apocalyptic times. Are they End Times? Prophets have long predicted a coming day when our shared temporal experience is interrupted and radically changed. First here was nuclear Armageddon and now: accelerating climate change. Are the prophets correct? Let’s kick off 2022 right!

Good King Wenceslas has long been my favorite Christmas Carol, partly because it includes a verse with my name in it, but far more because of its poignant social outreach message in a medieval context, its crisp, clear images, and its lovely melody.

Rev Furrer, preaching on the evolution of the mythic figure we all know as Santa Claus.