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 join us on Sunday (11 October 2015) at 11:00 AM for “In This World” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.
Religious education classes for children and youth are offered during the 11:00 AM service — children and youth attend the first 15-20 minutes of the service and then are dismissed to class.
Our adult religious education classes resume on Sunday (11 October 2015) at 9:15 AM with a book study / discussion group — The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color-Blindness by Michelle Alexander.
A brutal tangle of draconian sentencing laws, selective prosecutions, unbalanced jury selection, and a prison-for-profit system fueled by a drug war resulting in far more casualties than victories has resulted in what Michelle Alexander calls ” … a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to [the pre-Civil Rights-era system of segregation known as] Jim Crow.”
This book was the 2012-2013 UUA Common Read. The tide may finally be turning on this issue — the Caddo Parish District Attorney and Sheriff elections this fall are particularly focused on many related issues covered in this book. Continue reading “Adult Religious Education Resumes 11 October 2015”
Please join us on Sunday (27 September 2015) at 11:00 AM for “Blessed is the Flame” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.
Our Jewish friends have just completed the celebration of the High Holy Days — a time of atonement, release, and beginning again in love.
In that spirit, we join together in a ritual of release and a celebration of new beginnings. The All Souls Choir will sing.
Religious education classes for children and youth are offered during the 11:00 AM service — children and youth attend the first 15-20 minutes of the service and then are dismissed to class.
A newcomer information session will take place after this service.
Next Sunday (4 October 2015) — our annual Blessing of the Animals service.
Please join us on 20 September 2015 at 11:00 AM for “It’s OK to Be Angry: The Philosophy of Cold Anger” by Lady Carlson (lead organizer for Northern and Central Louisiana Interfaith).
Often, the things we see that need changing in our society can make us angry. The kind of anger needed to make changes through organizing is not a hot, humorless, raging anger, but a cool and focused anger — tempered with humor and powered by the sustained energy of a committed community, working together.
Lady is always a powerful and inspiring speaker and we are blessed and excited to welcome her back. The All Souls Choir will sing.
Religious education classes for children and youth are offered during the 11:00 AM service — children and youth attend the first 15-20 minutes of the service and then are dismissed to class.
Please join us this Sunday (13 September 2015) at 11:00 AM for “Seekers’ Sanctuary — A Homecoming Service” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell.
This will be a service to welcome everyone home to All Souls for the new church year — whether you’ve been away for years, weeks, or just since last Sunday.
We will honor those members of 25 years or longer, and ingather our new members. The All Souls Choir will sing.
A Potluck Lunch will take place in the Social Hall immediately following the service. Please bring a dish to share and join us, or join us without a dish to share.
Religious education classes for children and youth are offered during the 11:00 AM service — children and youth attend the first 15-20 minutes of the service and then are dismissed to class.
Please join us on Sunday (6 September 2015) at 11:00 AM for “The Language of Hope” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. The All Souls Choir will sing at this service.
Religious education classes for children and youth are offered during the 11:00 AM service — children and youth attend the first 15-20 minutes of the service and then are dismissed to class.
Please join us this Sunday (30 August 2015) at 11:00 AM for “The Federal Flood and the Lesson of Listening” by Susan Caldwell. The All Souls Choir will sing in this worship service.
As we mark the 10th anniversary of Katrina, a particularly tone-deaf editorial by a writer for the Chicago Tribune has touched off a torrent of anger and pain among survivors in New Orleans, their friends and family and just about anyone with any connection to the storm, all over the country.
The oblivious and almost equally insensitive non-apology that followed is indicative of a wider problem … a pattern of not only failing to listen to other people’s experience but often going so far as to speak to those other people and to tell them how they should be thinking or feeling about their own experience.
Continue reading “30 August 2015 Worship Service and Religious Education for Children and Youth”
Please join us on Sunday (23 August 2015) at 11:00 AM for “When in Doubt: Challenging the Calculus of Certainty” by Claudia Harris. We will have music from the All Souls Choir.
Religious education classes for children and youth are offered during the 11:00 AM service — children and youth attend the first 15-20 minutes of the service and then are dismissed to class.
If you are interested in teaching religious education during the 2015-2016 church year, please join us on Saturday (22 August 2015) from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
Child care, lunch, and snacks will be provided.
Who should come to Teacher Training?
Anyone teaching religious education for children and youth — whether for the first time or the hundredth time — or even thinking you might like to try teaching Religious Education.
If you have been a member or regularly attending friend for six months or longer or even if that 6 month-period will elapse between now and 17 April 2016, you are eligible to be considered for teaching during the 2015-2016 church year. Continue reading “Religious Education Teacher Training (22 August 2015)”
Please join us on 16 August 2015 at 11:00 AM for our annual Water Communion Ceremony worship service with Rev. Barbara Jarrell, the All Souls Choir, and your stories for the water you bring.
The Water Communion is a ritual celebrated in many Unitarian Universalist Churches.
Children and youth will be with us for this service in the sanctuary (no religious education classes — the special summer activity for this Sunday is our annual pool party).
As our members and friends return from their summer adventures — whether far away or right in their own backyards — they bring with them a small container of water (from a place they have visited or representing a special memory of the summer).
We pour our waters together in a common bowl as we each briefly tell our stories and celebrate our coming back together to begin a new church year.
The water is then boiled, filtered, frozen, and saved for future water communions as well as other rituals such as child dedications.
Bring your water in a small container. If you forget or could not bring actual water from a place you visited, we will have symbolic water on hand for you to add to the bowl.