Forgiveness and Fresh Starts

Date:  September 13, 2026
Speaker:  Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:  16:47

Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, falls on September 20 this year. It is a time to begin again, to practice giving and receiving forgiveness. Join Rev. Amy as she explores the nature of forgiveness and the power of fresh starts and new beginnings. She says" "I think there is something so powerful about people gathering together in friendship and fellowship. We carve out this space each week to be nurtured and inspired by one another's presence, by music and story and prayer. Each week is an opportunity to start again renewed by our time together and hopefully more prepared to face the days ahead."

Gathering Resilience

Date:  September 6, 2026
Speaker:  Rev. Vanessa Titang
Length:  14:28

This Sunday we have the Rev. Vanessa Titang with us. Rev. Vanessa was one of our Collaborative Ministerial Interns in 2019-2020 and she is now an active community Minister affiliated with our Ellsworth congregation and doing Justice ministries throughout our state. Recently she was here in Belfast leading a “Countering Christian Nationalism” workshop with the Rev. Jodi Hayashida. 

All Brave Things

Date:  August 30, 2026
Speaker:  Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:  19:19

Rev. Amy focuses on a message of awe and courage, hoping this will call us all into a deeper understanding of ourselves and our actions in the world. She shows a 45-second video at 10:45, and she finishes with a video of a choir singing the Lord's Prayer in Swahili.

My Spiritual Journey

Date:  August 23, 2026
Speaker:  Lawrence Reichard
Length:  9:10

     Come join us this Sunday in getting to know the spiritual journey of another of the interesting and entertaining members of our congregation, Lawrence Reichard who writes:      "My life's spiritual journey has been a long, strange trip, with something of a political bent to it.  It has accompanied me in my travels, and it has woven together elements of Catholicism, Quakerism, and Lutheranism - and I look forward to sharing it.”Come join us this Sunday as we worship and as we hear what I hope will be the interesting tale of my life's spiritual journey, which will wander through strains of Quakerism, Catholicism and Lutheranism. As I wrote in my journey's tale, it has been a long, strange trip – and I invite you to join me on that trip.  So, come, let us worship together.  

Return Path

Date:  August 9, 2026
Speaker:  Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:  12:02

      Rev. Amy talks about the power and beauty of being lost and found, the relief of returning to ourselves through surrendering to uncertainty.           "Return Path"           by Lesley Wheeler.The only way to pray is through my feet, earthward, jolted in return by the fizz of a spiking current. I never thought a circuit would loop through me,I believed I was separate, alone, done with gods, but here it is:I've found a way to pray. Through my feet,I reach down. There's something animate, mycelial, that touches me back. It's a species of love, a thinking-spike, a zinging circuit of energy and dirt, blood and spirit-plutonic conversation, mostly wordless.The way l've found to pray is through my feet,sole bared to wooden boards, or rug, or slate, or buggy grass, just as you want to press skin to a beloved's, sparking a current, a circuit.Not that earth loves me, exactly. Matter's what matters.She ants me to return the mess of my only body,pray from head through feet as I sink, unthinking ash, into love's circuit.'

Gifts, Magic, and Portals

Date:  August 2, 2026
Speaker:  Frannie Joseph
Length:  10:27

Frannie Joseph details what she believes, and the formative gifts she has gathered through her life's journey so far. 

My Spiritual Journey

Date:  July 19, 2026
Speaker:  Roberta Latham
Length:  17:28

 Roberta offers the spiritual questions we all ask - what we believe and why. And she touches on the existential realm of death, grief, and loss - and is there afterlife? What an opportunity we have during the summer to learn what our peers and fellow congregants wonder about when they are sitting beside us listening to the wisdom of our leaders at other times of the year!

"Writing from the Heart", Excerpt from "Little Sister" Memoir

Date:  July 12, 2026
Speaker:  Marsha Donahue
Length:  6:01

We welcome to our pulpit Ruth Cash-Smith, professional writer, along with Worship Arts member, Marsha Donahue, in another of our offerings to help you get to know our community better. The title illustrates two ways writing may be a spiritual journey, hoping to inspire you to write, too. In this part, Marsha Donohue shares part of her spiritual journey.