Announcements – All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana

18 August 2019 Worship Service and Summer Fun for Children and Youth

Please join us on Sunday (18 August 2019) at 11:00 AM for “Transcending What? Balancing Life and Spirit” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.

Phoenix Rising by Eric Kilby -- a photo of a sand sculpture portraying a phoenix arising out of the flames — Phoenix Rising by Eric Kilby

In this worship, we will be exploring our first source — “Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.”

This week’s summer fun activity for children and youth will be making stepping stones with Kevin Henry and Tena Hines.

The children and youth will be making decorative stepping stones for placement either at the church or at their own homes.

Adult Religious Education — 18 August 2019

Please join us on Sunday (18 August 2019) at 9:15 AM for our adult religious education class — “Faith Like a River: Themes in Unitarian Universalist History” with Bennett Upton and Jax Schmidt.

Join Bennett and Jax for this workshop series exploring “the dynamic course of Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist (UU) history-the people, ideas, and movements that have shaped our faith heritage.”

This week we continue with “The Water is Wide: Multiculturalism”:

As Unitarian Universalists, we face the challenge and opportunity to embrace those with different experiences, perspectives, and ways of being in the world. As Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists, we have at times in our history followed societal norms in our willingness or reluctance to welcome diversity. At other times, we have confronted and refuted the accepted ways-sometimes our own accepted ways-in order to embrace diversity and invite it to transform us. This workshop explores stories of multicultural encounter from our tradition; some are inspiring, and some ask us to examine past actions with candor and compassion.

Artist Sunday — 25 August 2019

Mark your calendars — our annual Artist Sunday event will be happening a week from this Sunday (25 August 2019) from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM.

A worship service focused on the arts will happen at 11:00 AM. A visual art show and sale will happen before and after the service.

Building and Grounds Work Day — 17 August 2019

We have postponed our monthly building and grounds work day to happen on 17 August 2019. We will be there from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Because so many of our regular volunteers were also involved in last Saturday’s Board and Council Retreat, we are moving our usual second Saturday of the month building and grounds work day to the third Saturday of the month (17 August 2019) for this month only.

Mark your calendars — we hope to see you there.

11 August 2019 Worship Service and Summer Fun for Children and Youth

Please join us on Sunday (11 August 2019) at 11:00 AM for “Starving Darkness” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.

In these times when the darkness seems particularly pervasive and daunting, how do we continue to be the light, for ourselves and for others?

Our summer fun activity for children and youth on this Sunday is making Ojos de Dios (Eyes of God) with Sam First and making Friendship Bracelets with Maggie Molisee.

Adult Religious Education — 11 August 2019

Please join us on Sunday (11 August 2019) at 9:15 AM for our adult religious education class — “Faith Like a River: Themes in Unitarian Universalist History” with Bennett Upton and Jax Schmidt.

This week we continue with “The Water is Wide: Multiculturalism”:

As Unitarian Universalists, we face the challenge and opportunity to embrace those with different experiences, perspectives, and ways of being in the world. As Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists, we have at times in our history followed societal norms in our willingness or reluctance to welcome diversity. At other times, we have confronted and refuted the accepted ways-sometimes our own accepted ways-in order to embrace diversity and invite it to transform us. This workshop explores stories of multicultural encounter from our tradition; some are inspiring, and some ask us to examine past actions with candor and compassion.

4 August 2019 Worship Service and Summer Fun for Children and Youth

Please join us on Sunday (4 August 2019) at 11:00 AM for our Water Communion Service with Rev. Barbara Jarrell.

We welcome Rev. Barbara back this Sunday for our annual Water Communion Service.

This is a time when we bring water — whether real or symbolic — from our experiences of the summer (from far away across oceans or from a puddle in your own backyard).

We pour the water into a common vessel as we briefly share our stories. No one drinks this water. Instead, we boil, filter, and freeze it and add it to water from previous years of this service. The water is used for child dedications and other special rituals of the church.

We’ll have the water ceremony while the children and youth are in with us and then sing them out to their summer fun activity — preparing a salad bar lunch for the church in celebration of Lughnasadh (the beginning of the harvest season in the Druid tradition) with help from Kevin Henry and friends.

This is Green Bag Sunday for Noel UMC Food Pantry. This month, they need canned green beans (15 oz.) and packaged side dishes such as mac and cheese, Rice-a-Roni or Zatarain’s side dishes.

Adult Religious Education — 4 August 2019

Please join us on Sunday (4 August 2019) at 9:15 AM for our adult religious education class — “Faith Like a River: Themes in Unitarian Universalist History” with Bennett Upton and Jax Schmidt.

This week: “The Water is Wide: Multiculturalism”:

As Unitarian Universalists, we face the challenge and opportunity to embrace those with different experiences, perspectives, and ways of being in the world. As Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists, we have at times in our history followed societal norms in our willingness or reluctance to welcome diversity. At other times, we have confronted and refuted the accepted ways-sometimes our own accepted ways-in order to embrace diversity and invite it to transform us. This workshop explores stories of multicultural encounter from our tradition; some are inspiring, and some ask us to examine past actions with candor and compassion.

Adult Religious Education — 28 July 2019

Please join us on Sunday (28 July 2019) at 9:15 AM for our adult religious education class — “Faith Like a River: Themes in Unitarian Universalist History” with Bennett Upton and Jax Schmidt.

This week: “Shall We Gather at the River: Religious Tolerance” (continued):

Religious tolerance is one of the greatest values of our movement. Perhaps our faith embraces it passionately because our religious forebears were so often subjected to intolerance. Throughout Western history, religious tolerance has been a question both in the civic realm, as societies have worked out whether to allow diversity of religious belief and practice, and within faith traditions themselves, as religions have had to work out just how much diversity of belief would be tolerated within their particular tradition.

This workshop explores tolerance of diverse beliefs, both in the civic realms that held our faith forebears and within our faith tradition itself.

Participants examine moments in history when governments or rulers — wrestling with questions of religious freedom — created an environment where Unitarianism and Universalism could take root. The workshop also studies the history of religious diversity within the Unitarian tradition.