Like most churches, Live Oak’s “program year” runs from September though August. Our worship services and faith development classes begin new themes and curricula, we often begin new discussion groups (like the upcoming “Big Ideas” group) at this time, and there will be a new liturgy starting in September. (Liturgy...
The argument that most churches, including ours, need to make nowadays is not “why our church?” it’s “why church, period?” There is no longer a societal expectation that you’ll belong to a religious community. In fact, it’s often countercultural (especially among our progressive friends) to be a member of a...
On Sunday, I referenced the 2025 Sophia Fahs Lecture, done by my friend and colleague, the Rev. Sean Neil-Barron. You can read the full text HERE and I hope you will. I thought it was the best thing I heard at General Assembly. In it, Rev. Neil-Barron compares and contrasts...
It’s the easy breezy days of summer, but we are hard at work planning for our next “church year” (which starts in September.) We’ve got some terrific things lined up, including a new service time, so pull out your calendar and mark the below dates. FIRST … Sunday, September 7,...
Live Oak is a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association. We are what is called “free” congregations. Our polity is congregational. Every UU congregation is an independent entity; we call our own ministers, vote on our own officers, create our own covenants, make our own decisions, and pay our...
If you haven’t attended a high school or college graduation recently, you might not know that “honor cords” have become a THING. No longer is it only the honor students with a fancy rope around their shoulders, now you can get a cord for your extracurriculars, community service, membership in...
Well, here it is, only May and we’re already beating heat records for our area. I imagine I’m not the only one looking ahead at the summer with a bit of dismay at what will probably be a scorcher. But as I keep learning over and over, fighting with reality...
You belong among the wildflowers…You belong somewhere you feel free. Tom Petty This Sunday, we will celebrate the oldest of the four rituals of UU community, the Flower Communion. Originally created in a 1930s Unitarian church in Czechoslovakia, this ritual affirms the beauty of each member and the unique gift...
This Sunday, a convergence of traditions will hit Live Oak: we will raise our maypole and weave ribbons around it in a dance done for hundreds of years. We will eat together in the “guided potluck” of our nacho bar. And we will bid with gusto on items and events...
In Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt delves extensively into propaganda and lying in totalitarian governments, writing that “In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.” Seeing...