All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana
A home for Unitarian Universalism and liberal religion in Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana since 1950
Please note that this is our first worship service in our new location (The Highland Center — 520 Olive Street, Shreveport LA 71104).
The audio for the pulpit voices may be too quiet for portions of this worship service.
You can turn up the volume for those portions to hear the content.
We will be working to improve the quality of our worship videos recorded in our new location.
Please join us this Sunday (26 July 2026) at 11:00 AM for “What’s in a Home? Thoughts on a Trip to Palestine” by Melissa Gibson.
For our first worship service in our new The Highland Center location, we are delighted to welcome back one of our own — Melissa Gibson.
Melissa comes to us from Omaha NE to discuss her recent trip to Palestine.
She will explore the idea of what home means — appropriate as we conduct this first service in our temporary home at The Highland Center.
Melissa is a seminarian pursuing a Masters in Divinity degree at Starr King School for the Ministry and is on the staff at First Unitarian Church of Omaha, Nebraska. Melissa is also an Aspirant within the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Ministerial Fellowship process.
This service will also feature music from the All Souls Choir.
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.
Our service will also be livestreamed on Facebook Live here if you cannot attend in person.
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 and Flu are all showing an increase in Louisiana as of 18 July 2026. COVID may have started an increase but it may have stalled out as of 18 July 2026. We will be paying attention to these changes.
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 July 2026 give-away-the-plate recipient is the OUTNorthLA Film Festival.
And you can contribute to All Souls using this online resource.
Please join us on Sunday (26 July 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 in the church social hall and also on Zoom.
For this Sunday, we welcome guest presenter Melissa Gibson.
Earlier this year, Melissa took a trip to Palestine under the auspices of Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East and Friends of Sabeel North America (Sabeel is a Palestinian Christian organization).
Although she will talk about the trip in her sermon on Sunday, this adult religious education session will give us more of a chance for a conversation and to hear more details about the trip.
During the summer months, our children and youth religious education activities are a mixture of fun and creativity.
Our children and youth will continue their summer art activities in our new church home.
Now that we are in The Highland Center, our children and youth will be using Maggie’s art studio downstairs for their summer fun art activities and will continue religious education classes in this location in the fall.
This will allow the group to keep art supplies in this space and also do messier activities than if they stayed upstairs in the small conference room.
As we have done in the past, our children and youth will still join us for worship in the large conference room for the first 15 minutes or so before they are dismissed to their activities.
Parents and caregiver adults who wish to see where they will be going are invited to take the trip downstairs with the group where they can either stay in the class or come back upstairs to worship.
From: Kathy Osuch (Secretary of the Board)
Subject: Announcement of Two Special Congregational Meetings
Time (First Meeting): Sunday (2 August 2026) at 12:00 noon or immediately following the worship
Time (Second Meeting): Sunday (9 August 2026) at 12:00 noon or immediately following the worship
Location (Both Meetings): Large conference room in The Highland Center (520 Olive Street, Shreveport LA 71104) or online using Zoom
On Sunday (2 August 2026), The Building Committee will present a special informational town hall meeting at 12:00 noon or immediately following the 11:00 AM worship service.
The committee present information about our various options for moving forward. The meeting will also feature a presentation from architect Chris Coe on his ideas for the 641 Olive Street building.
On Sunday (9 August 2026), there will be a special congregational meeting. Pending the results of inspections and other issues, there will be a vote on the purchase of the 641 Olive Street property.
Both meetings in the large conference room at The Highland Center (520 Olive Street, Shreveport LA 71104) or via Zoom.
Note: this announcement is an update to our earlier 2 August 2026 congregational meeting announcement.
Please see “A Message from Our Board President Susan Yellott (5 July 2026)” for more information.
Please join us next Wednesday (29 July 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.
Please join us on Saturday (25 July 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.
Please join us this Sunday (19 July 2026) at 11:00 AM for “Before We Turn the Page” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.
This is our final service at our Ellerbe Road location — a quieter service for grieving, cherishing, and remembering.
Please join us in the sanctuary or via Facebook Live for a very bare-bones worship service.
Our service will also be livestreamed on Facebook Live here if you cannot attend in person.
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 and Flu are all showing low numbers in Louisiana as of 11 July 2026. COVID may be starting an increase as of 11 July 2026 and we will be paying attention to this.
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 July 2026 give-away-the-plate recipient is the OUTNorthLA Film Festival.
And you can contribute to All Souls using this online resource.
Our first worship service in our new home will be “What’s in a Home? Thoughts on a Trip to Palestine” by Melissa Gibson.
Our new home after we leave Ellerbe Road will be in The Highland Center (520 Olive Street, Shreveport LA 71104)
All Souls member Melissa Gibson drops in from Omaha, Nebraska to discuss her recent trip to Palestine.
She will explore the idea of what home means — appropriate as we conduct our first service in our temporary home at The Highland Center.
Melissa is a seminarian pursuing a Masters in Divinity degree at Starr King School for the Ministry and is on the staff at First Unitarian Church of Omaha, Nebraska. Melissa is also an Aspirant within the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Ministerial Fellowship process.
Members of the All Souls choir will sing for this worship service.
Drive around to the back of The Highland Center and enter from the ramp-accessible entrance in the back on Topeka Street, take the second hallway to the right, and our worship will be in the first room on the right.