Unitarian Universalist Programs
(short descriptions)
by Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd
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1. "A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE: Your Brain's Creation Story"
♦ 15 to 25 minute Sunday sermon for adults and youth
♦ preceded by Connie's 5-minute children's story, "Animals in Your Brain" (with puppets)
♦ Connie's NEW PROGRAM! (enthusiastically received when introduced Feb 08 at Chalice UU near San Diego)
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In spring of 2007, Connie began including this material as one facet of her "Awakening to the Universe Story" sermon. Congregational response was so appreciative that she is now offering it as a complete sermon in itself. She has found that while the "We Are Made of Stardust" theme is well received by all ages (especially children!), and that while her "Death Through Deep-Time Eyes" sermon is hugely appreciated by people in their middle and elder years, the lessons drawn from Evolutionary Brain Science and Evolutionary Psychology can be transformative for YOUTH and adults — especially those struggling with relationship problems or substance abuse in their own lives or in the lives of family members. Note: For the 5-minute children's story, Connie uses hand puppets. (Click HERE for stories of what makes this program so powerfully received.)
The core of the message is that the human brain is exquisite evidence against "intelligent design". Our brain is not freshly designed to serve the human condition: rather, it is an amalgam of the brain components that served our ancient ancestors, what scientists call "The Quadrune Brain". Connie and her husband, Michael Dowd, developed playful names for the four components: The Reptilian Brain(brain stem and cerebellum) handles basic survival and reproductive instincts. It is "OUR LIZARD LEGACY". The Paleo Mammalian Brain (amygdala, hippocampus) is the locus of our emotional response and the source of our drive to bond with others and nurture our offspring. It is "OUR FURRY LI'L MAMMAL". The New Mammalian Brain (neocortex) is the rational, calculating part of our brain that evolved to help the drives in our Paleo Mammalian Brain and our Reptilian Brain more successfully get what they want. It is, what the Buddhist tradition calls, "OUR MONKEY MIND". Finally, the most Advanced part of our brain (prefrontal cortex) plays the executive function, sorting among competing drives. Because of it, humans are capable of freely choosing entirely new paths of living purposeful lives in service to our world and the future. This we call "OUR HIGHER PORPOISE".
Suggested description for publicity for SUNDAY SERMON:
Unitarian Universalists, as freethinkers, have long appreciated the scientific endeavor for what it can tell us about the vast Universe and the depths of prehistory. The young sciences of Evolutionary Psychology and Evolutionary Brain Science are now beginning to offer practical tools that can assist us in leading fulfilled, on-purpose lives. Indeed, these sciences teach that "inherited proclivities," which served our pre-human ancestors, are at the root of our most challenging personal issues today: relationship troubles and our tendencies to use food and other substances in unhealthy ways. Connie Barlow and her husband, Rev. Michael Dowd, have presented programs at more than 250 UU churches and fellowships. Their "evolutionary evangelism" is a featured article in the spring 2006 issue of UU World. Their website: www.TheGreatStory.org
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2. "CELEBRATING EVOLUTION"
♦ 15 to 25 minute sermon
♦ preceded by Connie's 5-minute children's story, "We Are Made of Stardust!"
♦ Listen to AUDIO of Connie's 2006 sermon at Second Unitarian of Omaha
(You may choose an alternative title for the same program: "Awakening to the Universe Story".)
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This is a flexible sermon title that allows Connie to speak about whatever components of the 14 billion year Story of the Universe, told as sacred story, that she is most excited about in the moment. The title also matches that of Connie's 2-disk DVD set.
Suggested description for publicity for SUNDAY SERMON:
Science writer Connie Barlow, a popular UU speaker, is a leader in the growing movement that celebrates mainstream science as our shared "cosmic creation story." Building upon Carl Sagan's legacy, Connie shares how artful presentations of our evolutionary heritage can breathe new life into UU religious education programs for adults, youth, and children. Connie Barlow and her husband, Rev. Michael Dowd, have presented programs at more than 250 UU churches and fellowships. Their "evolutionary evangelism" is a featured article in the spring 2006 issue of UU World. Connie's website: www.TheGreatStory.org
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3. "DEATH THROUGH DEEP-TIME EYES: An Evolutionary Celebration"
♦ 20 to 25 minute Sunday sermon or 2-hr evening workshop
♦ preceded by Connie's 5-minute children's story, "We Are Made of Stardust!"
♦ Listen to AUDIO of Connie's 2006 sermon at Unitarian Society of Hartford, CT
♦ Click here for "Even the Heavens are Not Immortal: An Alluring Vision of Death", which is an interview of Connie on this theme, published in the Sept 2005 issue of What Is Enlightenment? magazine.
(You may choose an alternative title for this program: "Death in the Heavens for Life on Earth".)
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This is one of Connie's current favorite programs, as it celebrates how understandings drawn from a range of sciences (astrophysics, evolutionary biology, embryology, cell biology, ecology, geology) can transform our view of death. Setting aside our UU differences in beliefs about what happens to spirit/soul/consciousness after death, Connie offers a celebration of the material fact of death that we all can share — a sense that death is natural and generative at all levels of reality. Both the 25-minute sermon and the 2-hour workshop on this theme employ a traditional hymn, with words rewritten by Connie, as the structure for presenting the science. The program concludes with the congregation/audience joining Connie in singing the verses. Recommended hymns from the UU hymnal to accompany this sermon are #6 and #301. If your Sunday service includes a 5-minute children's story, Connie loves to tell the "We Are Stardust" story to kids, with an emphasis on how all the atoms in our bodies are recycled stardust, made available to us by ancestral stars who gave their atoms back to the universe when those stars died. Click here to view an illustrated description of the core content of the long version of this program.
If you select this topic, please select as a congregational HYMN somewhere in the program the hymn Connie adapted, "Praise Birth and Death Amid the Stars". You can print-out a PDF of the full songsheet for the pianist and a short version with just the melody and lyrics to insert in the order of service. This hymn is ideal as the closing hymn.
Because Connie sings a simple SONG for teaching the science content of her sermon/talk, you may (or may not) wish to print as an insert for the Order of Service, just the lyrics of the song "Death Has Lifted Us". Click here for an AUDIO CLIP of the first verse.
Click here for a 3 MINUTE VIDEO CLIP of this program.
Suggested description for publicity for SUNDAY SERMON:
Coming to terms with death, of loved ones and ultimately of ourselves, has long been regarded as a core impetus for the religious impulse. Science writer Connie Barlow, a popular UU speaker, assembles modern understandings drawn from sciences spanning biology, geology, and astrophysics to weave a cosmological celebration of death that is both realistic and comforting. No matter what our individual beliefs about what happens to spirit/soul/consciousness after death, we can join in celebrating the material fact of death — that so much of what we cherish in life is possible only because death has prepared the way. Because she uses song as the structure for this sermon, this program is highly recommended for children age 10 and up. Connie Barlow and her husband, Rev. Michael Dowd, have presented programs at more than 250 UU churches and fellowships. Their "evolutionary evangelism" is a featured article in the spring 2006 issue of UU World. Connie's website: www.TheGreatStory.org
Suggested description for publicity if Connie presents this title as a 2-hour workshop:
Western civilization is grounded in a creation story that explains death as the consequence of humanity's original sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Whether or not we are consciously aware of this story, the notion that death is un-natural, bad, and something to be avoided at all costs pervades our existence and shows up in increasingly dysfunctional ways. In this 2-hour program Connie Barlow provides, first, a celebratory awareness of how the biological, geological, and astronomical sciences reveal that death is "natural and generative" at all levels of Reality, and, second, an opportunity to reflect inwardly and as a group on new possibilities for death awareness — especially as a vital facet of the emerging evolutionary form of eco-spirituality. The science part of this presentation is not only rich, but is conveyed through the art of song. Connie Barlow and her husband, Rev. Michael Dowd, have presented programs at more than 250 UU churches and fellowships. Their "evolutionary evangelism" is a featured article in the spring 2006 issue of UU World. The Fall 2005 issue of "What Is Enlightenment?" magazine features an interview with Connie on her evolutionary view of death. Website: www.TheGreatStory.org
4. "WE ARE STARDUST!" - adult or intergenerational
Science can now offer us a renewed intimacy with the night sky: stars become our ancestors — truly! — as we learn how the atoms that now compose our bodies were created inside the bellies of giant stars that lived and died before our sun was born. As Carl Sagan exulted, "We are recycled star stuff!" (For a brief introduction to the meaning that can be drawn from the stardust story, see a one-page Stardust Flier in PDF, which we often hand out after presentations.) For INTERGENERATIONAL SERVICES, we recommend that this service be concluded with a "Cosmic Communion" Ritual. For adult services, you may wish to include Robert Weston's "Out of The Stars" Responsive Reading #530 from the UU Hymnal and invite Connie to present a fun 5-minute "Story for All Ages" for the kids on the Stardust theme. R.E. teachers may wish to supplement this service with kid's UU curriculum materials on the stardust theme, to be used on a subsequent Sunday or more in the classroom, as these materials are available free for downloading from Connie's website.
Note: If you have a choir, you may wish to have them sing the choral arrangement to the Weston reading: "Out of the Stars," set to music by Betsy Jo Angebraandt, Minister of Music at the Annapolis, MD, UU Church. This music is available through the UUA Bookstore in Boston (phone 617-742-2100). Another lovely choral version was set to music by David Beaubien and adapted by Jason Shelton, and is freely available for use at www.JasonSheltonMusic.com. (It also appears in Rev. Shelton's 2nd edition song-book: This Little Light.
Click here for ORDER OF SERVICE SUGGESTIONS for an intergenerational service, with Cosmic Communion Ritual.
Reading (to precede sermon or printed in O of S): "We are the local embodiment of a cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: star stuff pondering the stars!" — Carl Sagan, 1980
Suggested publicity paragraph for a Stardust Intergenerational Service: Suggested publicity paragraph for adult Stardust Service:
This intergenerational service celebrates our scientific understanding that all the complex atoms in our bodies were forged inside the cores of ancient stars that lived and died before our own star, the Sun, was born. Science thus offers a wondrous intimacy with the night sky, as we notice red giants that are now making carbon and blue stars that are destined to make calcium and iron. As Carl Sagan has exulted, "We are recycled star stuff!" Connie Barlow and her husband, Rev. Michael Dowd, have presented programs at more than 250 UU churches. Their "evolutionary evangelism" is a featured article in the spring 2006 issue of UU World. Connie's website: www.TheGreatStory.org
As Carl Sagan exulted 25 years ago, "We are star stuff!" In this guest sermon, science writer and evolutionary humanist Connie Barlow takes us on a spiritual tour of the science underpinning Sagan's statement, along the way revealing why the "cosmic creation story" offered by mainstream science can delight our kids, guide our youth, and give all of us a renewed and embodied relationship with our "kin" in the night sky. Connie Barlow and her husband, Rev. Michael Dowd, have presented programs at more than 250 UU churches. Their "evolutionary evangelism" is a featured article in the spring 2006 issue of UU World. Connie's website: www.TheGreatStory.org
Connie Barlow presenting "Celebrating Evolution" sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grass Valley, AZ (February 2006).
Click to view Connie's retired titles for Sunday services, and where these talks were delivered.
Click for a recommended UU Order of Service.
Click for BIOGRAPHIES to introduce us at UU events.
