Videos

Sarah Labowitz is the volunteer team manager and board president of Houston Shine FC, the largest team of Afghan refugee women soccer players to be resettled in the United States. After being evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021, the players spent 20 months in Albania before coming to Houston three years ago. In the year leading up to the World Cup in Houston, Sarah has led a group of adult women soccer players in welcoming the Afghan players and helping them form a team for the first time on American soil. The team now plays in the Houston Women’s Soccer Association and provides wrap around support to help the players build young adult lives while they remain separated from their families in Afghanistan. Sarah’s remarks will focus on the sacred work of welcoming strangers and how the act of welcoming is both mundane and profound.

WE celebrated the Summer Solstice with Joss McWise, otherwise known as the longest day of the year. As the wheel turns again, it’s important to remember the little things in life as the summer flows into the fall and winter months. It’s a time to focus on the harvest that will come to fruition from your bountiful summer.

Generosity can be a conscious choice to make a difference every day. Generosity often results in hope for someone in need and is also one of our claimed UU Values. Please join me as I remind you of some generous sways of life. Rev. John Pepper.

As we remember the sacrifices of past and present wars, we are reminded that Sociologist Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “The Banality of Evil” to help explain the rise of Fascism in Germany between WW I and WW II. In this week’s worship service, Guest Minister Rev. Dan King shares observations and reflections on how we may be called by our UU values and principles to confront malevolence whenever and wherever we see it.

How do we develop the strength to rise again? What skills/tools can we cultivate, both as individuals and as communities of faith and commitment, that will allow us to see beyond the current struggles? How do we train our hearts to see Grace?