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Click for a recommended UU Order of Service.
Click for BIOGRAPHIES to introduce us at UU events.
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ORDER OF SERVICE COMPONENTS
Suggested Hymns and Chalice Lighting |
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UU hymns we love:
#021 For the Beauty of the Earth
#331 Life Is the Greatest Gift of All
#360 Here We Have Gathered
#309 Earth Is Our Homeland
#301 Touch the Earth, Reach the Sky (especially for "Death" program)
#163 For Earth Forever Turning
#123 Spirit of Life (our preferred way to end a service)
#203 All Creatures of the Earth & Sky (only verses 1 - 3)
#343 A Firemist and a Planet
#298 Wake Now My Senses
#175 We Celebrate the Web of Life
#6 Just As Long As I Have Breath (to accompany the "Death" sermon)
#331 Life Is the Greatest Gift of All (to accompany the "Death" sermon)
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Hymns NOT to choose: Other hymns are perfectly serviceable with our programs, so if none of these work with your congregation, feel free to choose others. However, please do NOT choose Hymn #207, "Earth Was Given As a Garden", as it is very earthy but jars with an evolutionary framework. Also, do not select Hymn #174, "O Earth, You Are Surpassing Fair," as it is a very pessimistic dirge.
Suggested CHALICE LIGHTINGS: (choose among them)
We light this chalice as a symbol
of our connection to the stars in the sky,
to the warmth and light of the Sun
and of our own bright place in the Universe.
— by Sarah Skovlund and Cindy Johnson, Redwood City CA UU Fellowship
We light this chalice in deep respect
for the mystery and holiness of life;
in honor and gratitude for those who have gone before;
with love and compassion for those who dwell among us;
and with hope and faith for the generations to come
— by Rev. Ken Jones
We call upon the power which sustains the planets in their orbits, that wheels our Milky Way in its 200 million year spiral. We call upon this power to imbue our personalities and our relationships with harmony, endurance, and joy. Fill us with a sense of immense time so that our brief, flickering lives may truly reflect the work of vast ages past and also the millions of years of evolution whose potential lies in our trembling hands."
— by John Seed, Australian deep ecologist
May the fire that has illumined the Universe since the beginning, and lit up the stars, ignite a flame of possibility in our hearts and minds today.
— by Connie Barlow
Other Elements of the Order of Service
Because we prefer to be formally introduced before appearing at the podium or pulpit, we suggest the service leader read the Opening Words. Click here for our suggestions for Opening Words, categorized by each of our sermon titles.
If your congregation includes the children for the first part of the service, please know that each of us enjoys doing a 5-minute STORY FOR ALL AGES while the kids are still there.
We like to do a "Reading" (a very short quotation) of our choice just before the sermon (or sometime after opening words). Just list "Reading" in the order of service, and we will decide on one to match whichever sermon topic is used.
We enjoy doing the Closing Words.
Especially if our biography is not included in the Bulletin handed out with the Order of Service, then please draw from Connie's or Michael's short biographies to ensure that she or he is introduced during the Announcements or Welcoming part of the service.
Generally, whoever in your congregation is in charge of that day's service handles the announcements, "Joys and Concerns" candle lighting ritual, and Offertory — rather than us. Here is a possible way to lead into the Offertory:
"Unitarian Universalists know that the story of evolution/creation is not yet over. Evolutionary change at all levels — cosmos, planetary, life, culture — will continue into the future, and we humans bear a responsibility for how the story will continue on Earth. In support of our own evolving [fellowship/church/congregation], the offering will now be given and received."
Click here for brief BIOGRAPHIES in PDF that can be used to introduce Connie Barlow and/or Michael Dowd at UU events.
♦ Although Connie doesn't need to be personally involved in Order of Service planning for a regular adult service, she does like to talk personally with whoever is coordinating a Stardust Intergenerational Service or "Death Through Deep-Time Eyes". Contact her by email at:
Click to RETURN TO UU Programs Main Page.
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Home Hospitality Request
Click here for a handy list of information on our HOME HOSPITALITY NEEDS. We intend this list to supply prospective hosts with all the information they need to feel comfortable in extending us an invitation.
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Click here for a list of
UU BEST PRACTICES
that Connie & Michael have come upon
during their visits to
UU churches and fellowships. |
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Click here to see a 2004 article on Michael and Connie's itinerant Great Story teaching and preaching ministry: "Preachers of a New Pentecost", written by Carter Phipps and published in What is Enlightenment? magazine.
Scores of newspaper articles and radio/TV interviews have appeared on our ministry since the publication of Michael's book. You can access these via his book website: ThankGodForEvolution.com.
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Praise for Michael's 2008 book from UU ministers
full list of endorsements
"This is a book I would gladly (and securely) recommend, not only to members of my own humanist-inclined congregation but to my evangelical relatives as well!" — REV. MICHAEL SCHULER, SENIOR MINISTER, FIRST UNITARIAN SOCIETY OF MADISON
"Michael Dowd's marvelous use of scientific information, religious metaphor, humor, and sheer delight in his subject(s) carries us to new places where evolution and the deep stories of religion converge. His book is a gift for our time." — REV. LAUREL HALLMAN, SENIOR MINISTER, FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH OF DALLAS
"Dowd has given us a bridge across one of the major chasms of our times: religion and evolution. His passion for both science and religion is contagious. Reading his book, one can see that the discourse itself has just evolved to a whole new level!" — REV. MARLIN LAVAHNAR, SENIOR MINISTER, ALL SOULS UNITARIAN CHURCH, TULSA
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