Listen to Recent Sermons

Together: We Burn Brighter


Date:   March 1, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   10:54

We gather this morning to feel the love, the comfort, the inspiration we need to carry on.  We gather to remember that we are part of something greater than ourselves. That when our own light gets dim  it can be rekindled by another. We gather to remember that together we burn brighter and that the fire of compassion and truth that we bring to the world matters.  What we give multiplies. When the world seems the darkest we find a way to shine on. 

Moving Through, Not Bouncing Back


Date:   February 22, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   20:57

This homily is in two parts. The individual-focused part is the first eight minutes. Then comes part two - the organizational focus. They were separated in the service, but are together here.

For a long time, we in this society have associated resilience with returning to normal, going back to the way things were. What if true resilience means letting go of what was, moving through what’s hard, and embracing something new. How does this fit within the context of religious life and community living? How are examples of this played out in our UU Institutions and in our country as a whole? Together we will wonder and learn. 


Loving in the Face of Lies


Date:   February 15, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Jim Scott
Length:   17:46

We are so lucky to have the fabulous UU musician Jim Scott with us and leading our worship service on February 15. The service featured many of the songs/hymns written by Jim Scott. The messages he brought focused on inclusion and love. There are two talks here - the first about the UU Church: "The Dangerous Bastion" and the second, starting at 17:46, was called "At the Mosque." 


Its Own Unfolding


Date:   February 8, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   12:13

The Soul Matters theme for February is Embodying Resilience. Today Rev. Amy will share thoughts on what it means to practice resilience through trusting in the movement of things and the mystery of time passing, healing as it goes. Pulling from her weeklong experience with the family of priest, writer, and philosopher John O’Donohue in Ireland, we will think about what it means to live resilience in our everyday life, in the face of hardships and all that is unknowable and uncontrollable.

I would love to live like a river flows, Carried by the surprise of its own unfolding. - John O’Donohue


The Both/And of it All


Date:   February 1, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick, Kathy Muzzy, Dean Anderson, Anna Wood Cox, Debbie Bailly
Length:   23:38

The service today will attempt to explore the nature of belonging and welcome from the acknowledgement that we are all seeking belonging and welcome while also being the ones who do the welcoming and create the opportunity for belonging. “We are the ones we are waiting for”, says Kimberly Quinn Johnson. What does it mean to look at this concept through the lens of community life and a covenantal faith. I’m excited to share the service with voices from our Committee on Ministry, who have prepared little vignettes of experience to highlight the struggles and the joys of being part of something larger than oneself but still made up of all of us flawed and striving humans. 

  • Starts with Rev. Amy
  • Kathy Muzzy at 9:14
  • Dean Anderson at 13:41
  • Anna Wood Cox at 16:48
  • Debbie Bailly at 20:01.



Turning Toward Discomfort


Date:   January 25, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   13:10

In the midst of the ICE actions being taken in Minneapolis, and the deaths of two residents at the hands of federal agents, Rev. Amy addresses a way to deal with this and all issues that weight heavily on us. She suggests acceptance and surrender to the realities - to turn toward the discomfort. Se suggests we abandon avoidance and magical thinking. Instead, become willing to meet life face-to-face, to find clarity that will lead to right and effective action.

Wherever You Go, There You Are


Date:   January 18, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   15:07

(Rev. Amy showed a short video of photos from her sabbatical time just preceding her message.) After 6 months of reflection, travelling, and experiences both good and hard, Rev. Amy returns to the pulpit to reassure us that no matter where you go, you carry yourself with you. Are you surprised? This service will touch on the themes of choice, of following what you love in the service of justice, it will give you a window into some tender learnings that will hopefully resonate with some of your own. The world is vast, times are hard, beauty abounds, and cruelty exists, kindness wins. Wherever you go, there you are. What a blessing that is. 


Finding Faith in Fungi, Lichens, and Community


Date:   January 11, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Marty Pelham
Length:   16:35

     Why do we still choose religious community in an age of scientific knowledge, spiritual diversity, and declining belief in the supernatural? Our faith is a shared practice of awe, interdependence, and meaning-making. We will consider how life itself emerges through relationship, how we are shaped by unseen networks within and around us, and how religious community helps us explore mystery together. 
     Marty (all pronouns) grew up next to their grandparents’ strawberry farm near a small town in Florida, where their ancestors first settled in the 1600’s. They journeyed through Southern Baptist, United Methodist Church, fundamentalist Church of Christ, Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, and Buddhism before walking into the UU Church of Tampa on October 21, 2001, and finding a religious movement that felt right. They graduated from Andover Newton Theological School in 2018 and served congregations in Syracuse and Watertown, New York, before being called as the settled minister of First Universalist Church in Rockland, Maine, in 2021. 

The Universe in Verse: Exploring the Cosmos Through Science and Poetry


Date:   January 4, 2026
Speaker:   Rev. Jan Hutslar
Length:   9:16

    Inspired by Maria Popova and her yearly celebrations of science and poetry and how, together, they bring us into the mystery and awe we live with daily.
      Jan Hutslar is from the UU church in Fairlee, Vermont.  Jan got her bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources from Ball State University and worked as a naturalist and environmental educator. She was married and has one adult daughter, Maggie.
      After moving to Canton, New York, Jan began attending the UU Church of Canton and a few years later was hired as their Director of Religious Education. That job changed her life as she fell in love with Unitarian Universalism and congregational life.  She felt a call to ministry after twelve years as their DRE and with the support of her home congregation, went to seminary at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA in 2014. She graduated in 2017 and was offered preliminary fellowship as a Unitarian Universalist minister in 2018.
      Jan worked for the UU Church of San Francisco and was an intern minister at First Parish in Concord, MA. On May 5, 2018, she was ordained into the Unitarian Universalist Ministry by the congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton.

Making Space for the New Year


Date:   December 28, 2025
Speaker:   Rev. Donna Dolham
Length:   7:40

 "Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go."  ~ Hermann Hesse
     Please join us for this service as we prepare for the unfolding of the new year. This service will invite you into story and a burning bowl ritual.
     The message this day was interspersed with actions of the congregation.
  • Rev. Dolham began with a story about a cricket, followed by members of the congregations speaking of those things for which they give thanks.
  • After music indicates that break, at 3:10, she provides the story of the woman and the two monks. After this, the congregation wrote of things they want to let go of, and burned those pieces of paper in a bowl.
  • Then, at 6:16 of the recording, Rev. Dolham spoke of intentions for the coming year.
     Rev. Donna Dolham serves as the settled minister for the Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Augusta, Maine. She holds a Master in Social Work degree from Boston University and a Master of Divinity with a certificate in Ethics and Justice and a focus on inter-religious dialogue from Andover Newton Theological School. Donna's interests have engaged her in several immersion courses exploring Buddhism in Myanmar, Sufi practice in California, and Multi-religious education in Israel.