?X21 ????????????? ???????: Recent Episodes
Unitarian Universalist Fellows
Speaker or Performer: Karen Van Fossan, JP Holmes and Friends Date of Delivery: February 3, 2019
It's been said thousands of times that laughter is the best medicine. From laugh yoga, to laughter therapy, to laugh and learn toys, recognition of the emotional (and spiritual) need to laugh is on the rise. Please join us this Sunday, as we honor laughter as spiritual medicine–and put it into practice together.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Don Morrison Date of Delivery: January 6, 2019
In our 5th UU principle, we affirm both personal conscience and collective, democratic processes. In the words of Rev. Parisa Parsa, “In our religious lives, the democratic process requires trust in the development of each individual conscience—a belief that such development is possible for each of us, as well as a commitment to cultivate our own conscience.” Considering that the oldest known model of participatory democracy in the world comes from Hau de no sau nee people (the Iroquois Confederacy), the roots of democracy are deep on this continent. How do we honor both the person and the collective? Who do we understand the collective to be? What if the collective is more than the sum of all its parts? Join us for the last service in the Seven Principles series, as we consider these questions in the context of our faith and our convictions.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Tim Mentz Date of Delivery: December 9, 2018
Speaker: Tim Mentz According to Dakota/Lakota/Nakota traditions, there are seven directions in the sacred hoop of life. These seven directions hold life in balance, and honoring them helps to maintain life's balance. Today's service will honor traditional Dakota ways of being, which have been practiced in this region for generations. Tim Mentz is co-owner of Mentz-Wilson Consultants/Makoche Wowapi, former tribal historic preservation officer for Standing Rock, and an honored friend of our congregation. Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Rev. Karen Van Fossan Date of Delivery: December 2, 2018
Many of us lament the violence by the US against the migrant caravan at the US/Mexico border. Since our origins as a species, human beings have always migrated, in search of more space, more food, more companionship. What does it mean to migrate in our time? How can we be in solidarity with those arriving at our borders – and with human beings as a whole?Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Tone-Lise Stenslie Date of Delivery: November 18, 2018
What are the connections between healing and consciousness, body and mind? An emerging field, consciousness-based healing is based on the understanding that every part of our body is imbued with a knowing, a consciousness – and that we can access the body-mind's own wisdom to speed up the healing process. Originally from Norway, Tone-Lise Stenslie is a holistic health practitioner using the healing system called BodyTalk, in Bismarck.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Karen Van Fossan & Friends Date of Delivery: October 28, 2018
Sunday, October 28 at 10:30 AM 12:30 PMSpeakers: Dee Hendriks, Mary Wilson, Ronya Galligo-Hoblit, Rev. Karen Van Fossan, FriendsWe all have ancestors. We come from the countless generations that have given us life. Some of us have grown up with cultural practices of honoring these ancestors; some come from backgrounds that have all but lost these practices. In this multi-generational service, we will draw on cultural traditions that are alive within this UU community, in order to honor our ancestors and lost loved ones. The spirit will be one of reverence and connection across the generations.You are invited to bringpictures or other memorabiliato represent your ancestors or other lost loved ones.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Karen Van Fossan, Bismanuu minister Date of Delivery: October 21, 2018
The Mindfulness SeriesSunday, October 21 at 10:30 AM 12:30 PMSpeaker: Rev. Karen Van FossanAnne Herbert coined the phrase, “Practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty” in response to global violence and domestic racism. Like many of us, she believed that our ordinary lives have extraordinary impact on our world – and that beauty can be an antidote to cruelty. Today, we’ll celebrate the milk of human kindness and gather sustenance for a world that deeply needs it.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Janis Cheney Date of Delivery: October 7, 2018
The Seven Principles SeriesSunday, October 7 at 10:30 AM 12:30 PMSpeakers: Janis Cheney, Claire Lowstuter, FriendsThe Fourth of our Seven UU Principles affirms the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. In this interactive service, we will consider the tension between “free” and “responsible,” as well as “truth” and “meaning.” How can we be both free within ourselves and responsible to our communities? How can we seek a sense of truth, while honoring other ways of making meaning? All are welcome to join the conversation.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Lanny Sinkin Date of Delivery: September 2, 2018
Speaker: Lanny SinkinThe traditional Jewish concept,tzadek, speaks to justice in this life and is the root of many contemporary concepts of social justice. In this reflection, Lanny Sinkin will invite us to consider science, spirituality, and consciousness, all in the context oftzadek. Lanny Sinkin, author ofThe Conscious Bible,has served justice for decades, from Vietnam Summer in 1967, to Rainbow Friends Animal Sanctuary in the 1990s, to the Lakota People's Law Project today.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Andrea Ficek Falcon Date of Delivery: August 14, 2018
Speaker: Andrea Ficek Falcon Zen is indescribable. Art often defies description. This service invites us into deeper appreciation of the mystery of life itself – and the many ways art can open us into that mystery. Our UU music director, Andrea Ficek Falcon, is co-proprietor of Blue Sky Bismarck, a downtown art space, classroom, and gallery. Blue Sky’s motto is, “Get inspired!” Join us this Sunday, as we welcome inspiration – together.Video Version:
Speaker or Performer: Monte Faul Date of Delivery: August 5, 2018
Sunday, August 5, 2018Speaker: Monte FaulYou are invited to this brief exploration of our various perspectives on what it means to be human – and how we make meaning, as human beings, in the first place. A proud father, Monte is a life-longer observer of the human condition and also serves on our Board of Trustees, where there’s plenty of human behavior to observe.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Bill Patrie Date of Delivery: July 22, 2018
Speaker: Bill PatrieThe former economic development director for North Dakota, Bill Patrie considers the dramatic differences between a cooperative and a competitive economy. He focuses on the underlying values that makes sustainable local economies and, using UU principles, warns of the idolatries of the worship of wealth. Bill is an expert on human cooperation and a catalyst for the phenomenon known as Co-op Fever, which was the Associated Press story of the year in 1995.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Dr. Peter Huff Date of Delivery: July 1, 2018
Speaker: Dr. Peter HuffProfessor and editor Peter Huff reads for a living. Currently, he is halfway into an unusual literary project he set for himself: reading only women authors for a year. Since January 1, he has read history, autobiography, fiction, philosophy, and poetry by women, as well as biographies of women, by women. In this talk, Peter offers a report at the midpoint, sharing his adventures with remarkable women writers and reflecting on how he is being changed both intellectually and spiritually.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Dean Conrad Date of Delivery: June 24, 2018
Speaker: Dean ConradSummer can be a time of travel and adventure. This Sunday, Dean Conrad will reflect on decades of travel, where his priority has been spending time with local folks, rather than taking 5-star tours. After visiting many places in the world, as well as living in the Amazon area of Brazil for three years, he will share some of the differences he has witnessed in communication styles – and even reflect on communication styles here at home.
Speaker or Performer: UU Trauma Ministry Date of Delivery: May 13, 2018
Speakers: UU Trauma Response Ministry (UUTRM)On this Mother's Day for Peace, we are fortunate to welcome UUTRM back to our congregation! The purpose of this Ministry is to visit congregations that have faced critical incidents (like suicides, high school bomb threats, the pipeline struggle, etc.) and help us renew our care for ourselves. Whatever our views or our roles, these stressors continue to shape and challenge our local community. This service will help us reflect, connect, and even heal.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Danny Sheehan Date of Delivery: April 29, 2018
What are the similarities – and dissimilarities – between the UU and Jesuit commitments to social justice? What is our call in the face of structural injustices, as people of faith and conviction?Danny Sheehan,former chief counsel for the Jesuit Order, nowserves as chief counsel for theLakota People's Law Project. His lawsuits include Watergate,the Pentagon Papers, and the killing of Karen Silkwood. In 1973-74, he served as amicus counsel to the ACLU regarding the occupation of Wounded Knee.He draws on decades of experience of justice-making as a practice of faith.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: UU Members Date of Delivery: April 3, 2018
Speakers: Liz Anderson, JP Holmes, Marnie Piehl, and FriendsFacilitator: Aaron CarranzaCommunities of faith and conviction may be held together more by the stories we hold in common than by our shared beliefs. Get the inside stories on how beloved members of our UU community found their home here – and why they stay. From favorite memories to visions of tomorrow, this service will celebrate who we have been, how we got here, and who we might yet be.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Karen Van Fossan and Friends Date of Delivery: March 27, 2018
Beauty is only skin deep.Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is as beauty does. We have many sayings about beauty, but how many ring true? Part performance, part meditation, this service will celebrate and affirm the worth, dignity, and, yes, the beauty of each and every human being.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Karen Van Fossan, Bismarck Mandan UU Minister Date of Delivery: March 11, 2018
Speaker: Rev. Karen Van FossanFacilitator: Jeremiah VeachIn our UU tradition, we are held together more by the agreements we make than by a common creed or doctrine. What agreements have we made about who–and how–we will be together? What agreements might we yet make? How do these agreements, these covenants, express our faith and conviction?Our minister, Karen Van Fossan, is a writer, activist, foster mom, and lover of the river.Video version:
Speaker or Performer: Karen Van Fossan Date of Delivery: February 25, 2018
Speaker: Rev. Karen Van FossanFacilitator: Jeffon SeelyLove trumps hate, as the saying goes. But we live in a time when whole groups of people find ourselves divided from those who could be our allies and even friends. How do we get disconnected? How can we get re-connected? And how can we address that little bit of hate, even within ourselves?Video version: