Church of the Larger Fellowship UU Worship

In 1971, at the University of Wisconsin Fannie Lou Hamer delivered one of her most famous speeches saying, “… your freedom is shackled in chains to mine. And until I am free, you are not free either.” We will learn more from Fannie Lou Hamer. The ways she lived her life teaches us how to be fierce in the face of fascism.

When someone we love dies, the relationship doesn’t end – it just transforms.

Let us all imagine, invite, and/or conjure a vision of a world without structural violence, and then intentionally embody/practice that world via our family, community, organizational and institutional structures; over and over until our present world is replaced by our sacred and embodied vision. This is my prayer and practice.

This week I invite you to continue contemplating the lessons you desire to pass down to future generations in hopes that they may experience a greater liberty of being and becoming than what may have been available to you in this life?

We are the result of generations of people and societies that came before us. Enough people who came before us, loved us in advance in order for us to be here. Our charge is to love in advance the future generations by advocating for a sustainable and loving world.

On my desk is a picture of my maternal great-grandparents, who died years before I was born. I often think about what it would be like to have a conversation with them. As my people are asked to celebrate someone problematic to whom I am not connected, I would like to celebrate the people whose life and labor, to use a phrase from Maya Angelou, paid for my existence.

The logic of Empire seeks to convince us that the status quo is fixed, and inevitable. Furthermore, this logic conditions us to fear and resist change. However, our Living Tradition encourages us to embody acts of LOVE as a pathway to personal and social transformation. Join us this week at CLF as we continue our contemplation on Transformation.

Additional resources suggested:
Sisters of the Yam by Bell Hooks
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
Corporeal Theology Accomodating Theological Understanding to Embodied Thinkers, by Tobias Tanton

In many Pagan and Earth-based traditions, the Autumn Equinox (Mabon) represents gratitude, balance, and letting go. Many see it as a threshold moment, acknowledging what has been harvested and preparing for renewal through darker months. What are you experiencing in this Change of Season? What opportunities for transformation does the Equinox provide us? Join us this week as we honor Mabon (Autumn Equinox) and the gifts and opportunities this celestial event provides us.

Guest Bio

Cecelia Hayes’ more than 29 years of professional experiences run the gamut of organizing, curriculum development, teacher mentoring, & executive coaching for equity with a variety of organizations in Seattle and Chicago. She was on teaching faculty in Sociology at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago for nine years, focusing on critical race theory, gender studies, queer theory, and media studies, She is a former Phyllis Mayo Fellow for Leadership Tomorrow, a national civic engagement institute. She was a founding member of Black UU’s of the Pacific Northwest, and served as a member of the UUA General Assembly Planning Committee from 2018-2021. She is currently the senior practitioner for equity, social justice and engagement in Executive Services for King County, WA. The daughter, granddaughter, and great granddaughter of singers and Movement activists, Cecelia’s accomplishments and interests include, vocal performance, “slam” poetry performance, documentary films, local community activism and keeping up with a very energetic 17 year-old daughter.

What is a mistake? Something gone wrong? A decision you regret? Part of transformation is learning from our mistakes, this week we will explore how to have grace for ourselves and others when mistakes are made.

Relationships require a lot of work. Growth requires a lot of work. As we celebrate Labor Day weekend in the United States, we will honor the emotional labor that we are each asked to do as part of our commitment to transformation (and recognize that emotional labor is not distributed equitably in our society).

We have spent the past month exploring all the ways we need rest to replenish our bodies and spirits. On our last day of the month, we will lean into the transition from rest to rising and what comes next on our journey toward collective liberation. And we will honor Dolly, the woman who showed us how to live generously and with love for humanity.

Many times we are told to put things down, disengage, take a vacation or a media fast as ways to rest. Those are definitely ways to rest. And. Sometimes the rest comes in choosing presence, moving closer, picking up threads whose disconnected dangling was wearing us out. There must be at least a thousand ways to rest. Come practice a few together on our faithful journey towards collective liberation.

Bio: Born by a lowland salt marsh, educated by a mighty river, and moved by love to an island cared for by the people of the clear saltwater since time immemorial, Rev. Deanna Vandiver (she/they/De) is a called-auntie in the world and serves as an Affiliated Community Minister for Love and Liberation with the Church of the Larger Fellowship Unitarian Universalist and the founder of Ever Unfolding. As a human raised to be white inside of violent, extractive empire, Deanna is deeply grateful to the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond for shaping her core understandings as a young adult and beyond of how systemic racism dehumanizes all of us – and how it can be undone together.

Our culture tells us that productivity is worth, that stillness is wasted time. This service pushes back — drawing on Tricia Hersey and The Nap Ministry's teaching that rest is not a reward to be earned but a birthright, and that reclaiming rest is an act of resistance against systems built on exhaustion. We'll explore what rest can actually look like — not just sleep, but the many forms stillness and restoration can take, and an invitation to notice which ones you're missing.

Bio
Rev. Kimberly Quinn Johnson has served as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork since 2015. A committed congregational and denominational leader, she was elected Co-Moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association in 2025. She has also served as a chapter leader for the Metro New York UU Ministers Association and mentors emerging UU ministers.
Her ministry is grounded in faith formation, racial justice, and popular education—creating spaces for shared reflection, deeper understanding, and faithful action. Rev. Johnson’s extensive service includes leadership with the UU Service Committee, Black Lives of UU, UU Women's Federation, New York UU Justice, and other UU and justice-centered organizations. She is also an active community leader on Long Island’s East End.

Have you ever just needed a nap? Capitalist grind culture makes it nearly impossible for all but a privileged few to do this. Perhaps we can normalize napping when we need it.

Global extractive capitalism manufactures scarcity and inflation for the masses by hoarding resources for a few elites. Then, Empire and it’s agents coerce us to trade our sacred bodies (labor) for very trivial amounts of money (a thing that literally has no inherent value). Many of us are so busy on the hamster wheel of capitalism that rest feels like a luxury we cannot afford; but what if, REST is the only thing that can free us from the evils of the Empire?

Suggested Resources:

Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey; The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk ; The Deepest Well by Nadine Burke Harriss, MD; Loving the Body ed. By Anthony Pinn and Dwight Hopkins; Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy DeGruy Leary, and Crisis Contemplation by Barbara Holmes

Robin Wall Kimmerer takes us on a journey illustrating how nature teaches us the lessons of abundance and reciprocity. We will explore her book The Serviceberry, and lean into the ways we can show up for each other and build a better world.

Description
Centering folks with lived experiences of oppression creates greater equity, more people getting needs met, a safer society, and draws on gifts that are otherwise ignored. Pip discusses this orientation to disability justice, prison abolition and restorative justice, and antiracism with a UU lens of placing love at the center.

Bio
Pip Paris is a trans man (he/him/his) living in Chicago Illinois. He graduated from seminary in 2025, and is a Candidate for ministry with the Unitarian Universalist Association. Pip has been a Pagan for 25 years, including 6 years as a Heathen (Norse Pagan), and has been UU for 12 years. His home church is Second Unitarian Church of Chicago, and he completed a parish internship at Broadway United Methodist in Chicago. He is on the steering committee of the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois, where he began volunteering for inside ministry in 2018.

Violence is a tool used by empire to keep people subjugated. It is expressed through all systems of oppression in different ways--white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism, and ableism all require violence to sustain themselves. How do we maintain the inherent dignity of all people when violence is the dominant political narrative?

This July 4th weekend, the United States of America will be celebrating 250 years. It is hard to fully celebrate in light of the current political climate, and yet I think there is plenty of reason for hope and celebration in spite of the ways this country has been the gold standard for oppression.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu taught that we become human through one another. In a culture that often values independence more than connection, this service explores the everyday practices that help us build communities where everyone can flourish. From the unseen work that sustains our lives to the relationships that shape who we become, we'll reflect on what it means not only to recognize our interdependence, but to practice it with intention.

What do our faith, shared values and covenant call us to do about the Prison industrial Complex? The ministers, staff, and incarcerated members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship will invite us to embody our Universalism as we unlearn theologies of punishment and embrace one of inherent worthiness.