firstubaltimore: Recent Episodes
First Unitarian Church of Baltimore
“Honoring our Covenant, Honoring our Elders”
Rev. David Carl Olson
At this service of quiet reflection, our Lead Minister tells the story of our congregation and its varied heritages. He and our Music Director lead us in singing the hymns and spiritual songs that comprise our story. We name our elders and thank them. We open the book of our covenant and invite all to add their names. Ours is a beautiful and complicated story, a story of transformation and hope.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
“Black History is Our History”
Rev. David Carl Olson
In February 1916, Dr. Carter G. Woodson led a small group of African American Historians to honor the birthdates of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln by celebrating Negro History Week. Over time, Woodson’s vision grew to the month-long celebrations of African American and Black history that we now recognize. In this story is the story of the engagement of Unitarians and Universalists devoted to freedom for all peoples.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
January 29, 2017
The struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux to protect the Missouri River is not a new struggle. Indigenous people throughout the world have had to fight to protect their sacred land and waters. Our liberal faith calls us to join in this effort, but how? What are we to do? Today, our Intern Minister will share what she learned as a participant in the “Guardians of the River” program in Nicaragua, sponsored by the UU College of Social Justice.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
January 22, 2017
We live in an era of uncertainty and fear. Truth has become negotiable. How do we adjust and thrive in the midst of radical changes? A sermon by a member of our young adult community and religious education ministry, a graduate of Meadville Lombard Theological School, and a recent organizer in Ohio for United Against Hate, a project of MoveOn.Org. Mr. Brown will analyze the history of exceptionalism through a religious lens, and talk about ways to resist fear and hopelessness in an era when religious texts provide a blueprint for the way to build Heaven on Earth.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
January 8, 2017
Unitarian minister A. Powell Davies wrote of prayer being “the language of the heart.” Reflections on the purposes and powers of prayer from a hospital chaplain and UU humanist minister.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
January 1, 2017
We gather on the first day of the new year simply to be and to breathe. To be one community with each other. To breathe in the peace that sustains us our spirits in times of change. To breathe out love to a world that needs it. And while we’re breathing, we will sing favorite songs, and enact the ritual of the burning bowl.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
December 18, 2016
December 25, 1939, England was at war, and the overall mood was one of fear and anxiety. In his Christmas radio broadcast, King George VI overcame his stutter to read a poem that asked the listener not to search for a light, but to go out into the darkness, to tread “gladly into the night.” Now, in this time of fear and anxiety, made worse by our own personal trials and losses, how can we learn to stop searching for a light, but go – if not gladly, then at least bravely – together, into the night?
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
December 4, 2016
Winterfest Committee
An exploration around winter themes, including winter’s universal features, and the diverse spiritualities of a pluralist community like ours. Drumming and processionals, songs and storytelling, and the special inclusion of the perspectives of African American members and friends.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
November 13, 2016
The Unitarian Universalist Caucus at the Movement for Black Lives Convening began to develop a new set of guidelines for our faith, the Seven Principles of Black Lives. These principles mirror and magnify the principles of our Association, and begin with the First Principle: “All Black Lives Matter.” Hope grows in a community where all lives are valued, where all participants create a sacred space together, where no one gets “thrown under the bus.” Our community is growing in its cultural competency, and we yearn to create a safe and encouraging space for all who will join us on the journey.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
November 6, 2016
Unitarian Universalist congregations promote the use of the democratic process in our congregation and in the wider world. We promote the right of conscience and we imagine that, even in areas where we do not have a singular opinion, still we can create ways that the majority may rule, with protections for those holding minority opinions. In the season of national, state and municipal elections, we give ourselves an hour which can perceive beyond the polarization and tension of this moment, and imagine a more perfect democracy which will help us move toward greater justice and freedom.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
October 16, 2016
A controversy was brewing in New England in the years after the establishment of our country. Some called it a political controversy about who would be in charge. Others called it a theological controversy about the nature of God. But Rev. Olson imagines that it might have been about goodness—how good humans are, to start, and how we get better by the building of character. Our church was born out of this controversy.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
September 25, 2016
Our Universalist Miracle Story: Rev. John Murray meets Thomas Potter
On the 246th anniversary of John Murray’s arrival in New Jersey and the first universalist sermon preached in America, and with help from some of our younger students of our religious heritage, we’ll look at “Universalist love.”
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
September 18,2016
What makes your heart sing? Religious communities with a transforming mission have an abundance of resources to accomplish that mission. Congregations for which committed community is lacking operate from scarcity. Which future will we choose?
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
August 27, 2016
At her death, the Baltimore Sun noted, “Perhaps no phase of her life better exemplified her vitality and intellectual independence than the mental discomfort she succeeded in arousing, between her ninetieth birthdays, among . . . conservatively minded Baltimoreans.” A story of Rev. Olympia Brown, a member of our predecessor congregation, Second Universalist Society, who lived fully into her “retirement.” Are many among us fortunate to do likewise?
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
July 24, 2016
Just as the world today is experiencing a massive die-off of its plant and animal species, and an alarming reduction in biological diversity, we are living in a time of cultural and linguistic die-off. How are we, as Unitarian Universalists, called to defend and promote linguistic and cultural diversity?
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
July 10, 2016
One of the key concepts of yogic philosophy is asteya, or nonstealing. As a faith that borrows from many traditions and cultures, how can we avoid cultural appropriation? In this worship service, we will practice asteya by incorporating readings and music from many different cultures, in a mindful and respectful way.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
July 3, 2016
On this Independence Day weekend, we remember those who have been forced to flee their homes in search of a place where they can be safe, well, and free. We also recognize all the families that are separated by walls, and we consider our own role in welcoming the stranger.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
June 12, 2016
A welcoming congregation like ours hopes to become a diverse people by recognizing the gifts and interests of many people. Simply including more people, changes who we are. But including people requires either that new people assimilate into our congregational culture, or we begin to practice a culture that has the means to be transformed by the integration of new interests, varied gifts, and people whose cultures are in some ways unlike our own. This celebratory service celebrates the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning people among us, and the cis-gender, transgender, and gender nonconforming, queer people who are finding a home at First U. We especially celebrate the gift of song shared by the Baltimore Men’s Chorus. (Note: while Baltimore Pride will be marked in July this year, we have chosen to celebrate during June as well.)
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
June 5, 2016
A celebration of the season of flowering: In a tradition established by Unitarian leaders Maya and Norbert Capek of Prague, each person is asked to bring a flower to share in an arrangement that will be made by children, youth, and adults in our Religious Education program. We bless the flowers, and then welcome over a dozen new members of our congregation.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.
May 29, 2016
Our Interim Director of Religious Education shares his thoughts about his experience in our community this year, and thoughts about how change happens in complex systems.
The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is located at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in downtown Baltimore. Services are held every Sunday at 11 a.m. During the summer, weekly worship services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall at 514 N. Charles St starting at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. For more information, please visit our website or call the church office at 410-685-2330.