UU Community Blog
Welcome to the Community Blog of First UU Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania
UU Community Blog
A Welcome From Our Board of Trustees
Welcome to the First UU Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania! We are a vibrant and open congregation, committed to the belief that each person has the right and the responsibility to follow their own spiritual path. We worship in community as followers of many faiths. Our building is more than a Read more…
UU Community Blog
A Faith Statement on the Invasion of Ukraine
As Russia continues to advance troops into Ukraine against the clear wishes of the Ukrainian people, we find it imperative to offer a statement of faith as a congregation. Let us state clearly that what is happening in Ukraine is wrong. This invasion is immoral and unjustified. The destruction of Read more…
UU Community Blog
Living with Intention In Times of Worry
It’s the new year, a time of renewed goals, new possibilities, celebrations of survival for another year. It is also, often, the time when we make far too many resolutions. Then those all overwhelm us until we abandon them, settling back into the ruts of our usual lives… Maybe that’s Read more…
UU Community Blog
Joy in a Season of Care
This month is a season of joy. We are bounded by the eight nights of Hanukkah and New Year’s Eve, with a little Christmas joy, a Yule log, some Diwali, and perhaps even Festivus or Saturnalia thrown in. We offer to each, joy and blessings depending on their preferences and Read more…
UU Community Blog
A Veteran’s Day Acknowledgement and a Hope of Peace
Nearly all of us know someone in service. Most people know a person or several who volunteered for military service or who the government drafted at one point. For many of us, our grandparents, parents, or other elders in our families were a part of the draft. Our government conscripted Read more…
UU Community Blog
Our Past Creating a Story for the Future
Each month, our community shapes itself around a different aspect of our world. So far this Fall, we’ve embraced possibility and cultivated relationship. This month, we will be Holding History in our worship and spiritual lives. I recently visited family, and got to “hold history” in our relationship during a visit Read more…
UU Community Blog
Relationship to Spirit, Self, and Society
Dear friends of all ages, it’s October, a month in which we will be Cultivating Relationship as our focus for worship and community. When I first began to work in ministry, I was coming from an activist background. I wanted to get things done. I wondered why we couldn’t hurry Read more…
UU Community Blog
The Possible Impossible, Finding New Ways
Beloved Community, we’re BACK!! Summer is ending, and schools have started up. There’s the excitement of new things, and our theme for the month is Embracing Possibility! I know that returning to school has brought worry instead of the usual excitement, and that for many of the parents and students Read more…
UU Community Blog
Re-connecting, and Renewing our Congregational Community
I am so glad and grateful to have returned from vacation and Study Leave. I have had time with my family and in the mountains of Colorado to rest and renew my spirit. Already in the past week, I have visited with several of you and we have begun to Read more…
UU Community Blog
Playing with New Ways of Gathering
In our community of playful friends, we are once again experimenting with new things. We have tried outdoors and inside, online and in person. Regardless of location, it has been lovely to move back into new ways of being together! I am grateful each week for flexibility and the fun Read more…
UU Community Blog
Lifting Our Ourselves into Hope
As April begins, many of us are thinking toward the celebration of Easter. It’s the time when the Earth renews itself (barring a quick snowstorm here and there), and the greening of the grass, the crocuses, the budding trees remind us that life is everlasting and always returning. This weekend, Read more…
UU Community Blog
Have a Glorious TDOV 2021!
My dear glittering sparklesouls, This week, the Trans Day of Visibility approaches. Like the sighting of a leprechaun, this is the one and only day of the year when you can actually SEE your minister. Tomorrow, I fade into the shadows once again… No, I’m kidding. It is, in fact, a Read more…
UU Community Blog
Committing to Grow and Blossom
It is nearly the season of springtime, and the sun is beginning to reawaken the world. Roots stir and the sap runs upward in the trees, awakening buds not yet ready to send forth leaves. Beneath the ground, shoots begin to raise their heads. Seeds and bulbs uncurl, nearing the Read more…
UU Community Blog
Finding Love in Community
This month’s theme of Beloved Community invites us to think about the places where there is connection, justice, love, equity, and generosity of spirit. It invites us to think of ourselves as a part of a greater web. We are asked to notice relationships between all those who make up Read more…
UU Community Blog
Imagining Our Shared Faith
So perhaps, today, this week, finally in this month, we find ourselves with space to imagine. As a result, we wonder about the changes in our country, and in our local communities. We ask ourselves what will shift in the coming months and what will endure. What shifts in our Read more…
UU Community Blog
Small Comfort in Unbearable Times
These past two weeks, we find ourselves in the midst of what is hard to bear. Both nationally and close to home, we ponder what responsible leadership looks like and mourn the loss of innocence. A sense of safety is denied to us when those who were meant to be Read more…
UU Community Blog
Anticipating the New Year
We have had a year unlike any other, and we have managed to behave ourselves and support one another. In this time, we chose to act in ways that are impressive and fundamental to the functioning of this community. We are not perfect, but we are healthy as a community. Read more…
UU Community Blog
In the Stillness of Hope
Here we are, hopefully with a little more room to breathe. There is a little less anxiety and uncertainty in the world now that we imagine an end to this pandemic may be in sight. With elections behind us and vaccinations on the way, winter becomes a time to pause Read more…
UU Community Blog
What Holds Our Attention?
As the leaves fall from the trees and the weather turns cold, my attention turns inward. Every year, for me, this time of year reminds me to pay attention to home, family, community. The winter is a long and chilly time, and we need each other’s company in the cold Read more…
UU Community Blog
Beginning a New Ministry
As I complete one month with this congregation, I have been thinking a lot about our expectations of one another. It’s been fortunate to have such an appropriate Soul Matters theme in September to jump-start conversations with one another about the hopes and dreams that you have for our years Read more…
UU Community Blog
“Deep Wells of Water in UU Faith”
The following is from Josiah, one of the Soul Matters Facilitators. I asked him to write a bit on what Soul Matters means to him. “I came to The First Unitarian Universalist Church late in 1999 and I signed the book in October of 2000. The church has seen me through some of the greatest surges of my spiritual growth and helped me through some of the greatest challenges to that growth. I have Read more…
UU Community Blog
Soul Matters Starts in September
Last year, I did it reluctantly. Now, I am jumping in, head first. That pretty much sums up the state of my spiritual journey over the past year. Around this time last year, I heard Rev. Joan and others talking about Soul Matters. I thought to myself, “Nah, I take pretty Read more…
UU Community Blog
We Have a New Minister!
Brandon, Board of Trustees President Sometimes, things in life happen just a bit too smoothly for my skeptical mind. Events occur one after another with a bit too much coincidence for my taste. Like when you hear about someone who did a nice job installing a hotwater heater, and then the next day your Read more…
UU Community Blog
Searching for Our New Minister: A Time of Transition
With the retirement of Rev. Joan Sabatino, First UU church is seeking an Interim Minister. It’s a time of transition, but also of renewed commitment.
UU Community Blog
“Keep Doing It”: A Farewell Sermon from Rev. Joan
Keep doing it. Keep loving each other and sharing that love wider and wider.
UU Community Blog
Choosing Curiosity Over Judgement
What if we listened with curiosity, and without trying to win the argument?
UU Community Blog
UUs Reflect: I am passionate about…Wholeness.
This week, each of our three Soul Matters small groups met to discuss this month’s topic: Wholeness. Wholeness was also the topic for our Sunday service last week. In my opinion, there is more diversity among our groups (and probably within our congregation) on this topic than any of the others. What is Wholeness? Read more…
UU Community Blog
UUs Reflect: I am passionate about…“embracing the journey.”
My spiritual/religious journey can be summed up with these six words: seeking answers, finding home, embracing possibilities.
UU Community Blog
UUs Reflect: “I am passionate about…Soul Matters”
The goal of Soul Matters is to promote deeper, more meaningful relationships among our church members. We explore a new spiritual theme each month; February’s theme is Trust.