Announcements
All Ages Worship (4 October 2026)
Please join us this Sunday (4 October 2026) at 11:00 AM for “Expectations Great and Small” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.
Our service will also be livestreamed on Facebook Live here if you cannot attend in person.
All Souls is now meeting for worship and religious education classes in The Highland Center (520 Olive Street, Shreveport LA 71104) after the sale of our former building located on Ellerbe Road.
Drive around to the back of The Highland Center and enter from the ramp-accessible entrance on Topeka Street, take the second hallway to the right, and our worship will be in the first room on the right.
We are moving our videos from Facebook to YouTube for long-term storage and viewing — you can find our worship videos on YouTube here.
State-level COVID data can be found on the Louisiana Department of Health’s respiratory virus dashboard web page. The most sensitive metric to follow for current COVID trends is the “Laboratory Surveillance Data” link.
RSV is maintaining low but steady numbers in Louisiana as of 26 September 2026. Flu appears to be continuing its fall / winter increase in Louisiana as of 26 September 2026.
COVID is continuing its summer decline as of 26 September 2026.
However, the Louisiana Department of Health website does also say “Recent counts likely to change as more data are received.”
We should all be paying attention to these trends so we can keep everyone safer.
Masking and COVID vaccination are optional for attending in-person events at All Souls.
We encourage you to be vaccinated against COVID and to also have the most-current COVID booster shots. This provides greater protection to the individual and the church community.
Anyone who prefers wearing a mask is welcome to do so for in-person events and attending worship through livestream video is also an option where required for medical or schedule conflict reasons.
We will still have KN95 masks available in the foyer for anyone who needs one.
We continue to recommend that you stay home if you have any symptoms and that you keep up with all available vaccinations and boosters.
If you are recovering from COVID and have no symptoms, you should mask in public until you have tested negative twice in a 48 hour period.
We also ask that you go by the previous CDC guidelines of waiting at least 5 days past the onset of symptoms rather than the current 24 hour recommendation.
If you have symptoms for COVID or other respiratory illness, please stay home and take care of yourself.
Our October 2026 give-away-the-plate recipient is North Louisiana Interfaith.
And you can contribute to All Souls using this online resource.
Religious Education for Children and Youth (4 October 2026)
For this Sunday (27 September 2026), our children and youth will continue our first pillar of the church year — Unitarian Universalist Identity — where we focus our shared religious identity, history, and heritage.
This Sunday’s topic is pluralism — how our differences make us stronger and how all of us need all of us to make it.
Special art projects in Maggie’s art studio will continue as an integral part of these sessions.
Online and In-Person Adult Religious Education (4 October 2026)
Please join us on Sunday (4 October 2026) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class.
Our adult religious education class is now a dual-platform class — meeting in person at the Highland Center and also on Zoom.
On this Sunday, we will continue our discussion of the book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future by Jason Stanley.
Our discussion for this Sunday will cover chapter 6 (“Classical Education”).
Classical education — depending on how it’s taught and promoted — can either be a vehicle for our highest ideals as a society or a reinforcer of white supremacy and colonialism.
Bear in mind that although the book was published before the 2024 election, a paperback edition has come out since then.
The Preface in the 2026 paperback edition is different from the Preface to the 2024 e-book edition.
We will be meeting in the small conference room of the Highland Center. Park in the back parking lot on Topeka Street and come in through the ramp-accessible entrance. Take the first hallway to the right and enter first room on the right. And you can join us via Zoom.
Vegan Potluck (11 October 2026)
The All Souls Peace Alliance invites you to a vegan potluck on Sunday (11 October 2026) immediately after the 11:00 AM worship service.
The Peace Alliance is a group at All Souls exploring veganism based on the principle that the path to peace can pass through our plates.
There are many good reasons to be vegan — better for the animals, better for human health, and better for the planet.
Vegan potlucks are a great way to discover all the delicious possibilities of plant-based eating.
Need some recipes? Contact Rev. Joy Walker (revjoywalker@aol.com) for suggestions.
Or just Google “vegan recipes” and you will find a treasure trove.
You do not have to be vegan to attend — omnivores, vegetarians, and the vegan-curious — are all welcome.
We will be in the same large conference room where we have worship.
We will take a few minutes to reset the room before the meal.
Please bear in mind that while we no longer have access to a conventional oven we do have a microwave and a refrigerator in our new church location.
Join Our Team for Out of the Darkness Walk (7 November 2026)
Join an All Souls team to participate in the Northwest Louisiana Out of the Darkness Walk sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (Saturday, 7 November 2026 at 9:00 AM — Betty Virginia Park, Shreveport, Louisiana).
Out of the Darkness Walks take place in cities throughout the country.
Community members from Shreveport / Bossier City and surrounding communities will gather on Saturday (7 November 2026) to help save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide.
This is a family-friendly community event featuring community resources, music, activities, a butterfly release, refreshments, a silent auction, and a walk around beautiful Betty Virginia Park (0.9 miles) to raise awareness and funds for suicide prevention.
Half the proceeds are devoted to suicide prevention resources in the local community, while the other half goes to the national organization supporting their four core pillars:
- Education — in schools, universities, and workplaces to help communities identify mental health warning signs
- Support for Loss Survivors — financing healing networks and other resources tailored for local needs
- Research — Financing grants to study the biological, genetic, and behavioral risk factors to improve intervention
- Policy Advocacy — supporting volutneers and staff who lobby at state and national levels for mental health legislation, including the rollout of the national 988 hotline
All Souls is creating a team to enter the walk — you can join the team at our team link here. The link will direct you to create your own individual registration link and an opportunity to create your own individual fundraising page.
You will have the option to set an individual fundraising goal and — if you like — make a donation toward that goal (although your personal donation is not required).
Our team fundraising goal is $250 — but our hope is that between our September 2026 give-away-the-plate funds and our individual fundraising pages — that we have set that goal modestly and can easily surpass it.
North Louisiana Interfaith — October 2026 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient
Each month we dedicate all of our non-pledge income to a community organization doing the work that best embodies our Unitarian Universalist values.
For the month of October 2026, we choose North Louisiana Interfaith.
Twice each year, we choose North Louisiana Interfaith as our give-away-the-plate recipient as a way of making good on our congregation’s membership pledge of $1500 annually.
North Louisiana Interfaith is a highly effective organization made up of partner institutions that work together to create real change in our local community and across the state through our affiliate statewide organization Together Louisiana.
Past achievements have included getting the buses to run at night, getting a renter’s code established for Shreveport, and effecting reforms of the Industrial Tax Exemption program.
More recently, the Vaccine Equity Project brought protection from COVID and other illnesses to undeserved populations around the state.
And Interfaith secured funding for two Community Lighthouses that are up and running in Shreveport, and two more set to go live within the next two to three months. Community Lighthouses are solar-powered grid resilience hubs that can save lives in extended power outages, which are the leading cause of death in natural disasters. Community Lighthouses are staffed by volunteers who know the needs of the neighborhood.
Together Louisiana and North Louisiana Interfaith are kicking off their “Pledge to Vote” campaign for the 3 November 2026 election.
Two ways to donate:
Online — Go to our donation site using this link. If you are paying your pledge, select “2026 Pledges” and enter that amount for your pledge contribution. Then select “Collection Plate” to give the amount you would like to give to North Louisiana Interfaith and then put “GATP Oct 2026” or “North Louisiana Interfaith” in the comment section. All online collection plate contributions for the month of October 2026 will go to North Louisiana Interfaith.
Offline — Please send your give away the plate contribution checks to All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 520 Olive Street, Shreveport LA 71104. Please put “North Louisiana Interfaith” on the memo line of the check if you want to have 100% of your check go to North Louisiana Interfaith. If you want less than 100% of your check to go to North Louisiana Interfaith, please put the amount you want going to North Louisiana Interfaith on the memo line.
Zoom Lunch This Wednesday (7 October 2026)
Please join us next Wednesday (7 October 2026) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch.
With the busy lives of our regular participants, our in-person Zoom lunches are on hold for the time being but the link is always open to join at noon every Wednesday.
Meditation with Larry Androes (3 October 2026)
Please join us on Saturday (3 October 2026) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes.
This group will be meeting via Zoom and not in person.
This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching.