What’s UUp 8/3/25?

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Children During the Service – Two Choices

  • Children are welcome to stay and attend the service, but will be expected to remain in the sanctuary the entire time.  OR
  • The Children’s Religious Exploration (RE) will meet during the service for Mask Making! We’ll make masks of all sort and play with them.

10:00 –  Adult Religious Exploration in the Church Library
We’re exploring and diving into the Anti-Racism Challenge (ARC) sponsored by Listen. Learn. Act.  through our August 3 session. The Sunday morning experience is designed so you can swoop in and dip out without having to do anything ahead of time, and with no obligation to do anything afterwards.

First Sunday Lunch: August 3
The menu will highlight whatever is freshest at the farmer’s market. Fresh local food offers numerous benefits:  enhanced flavor, increased nutrient density, environmental advantages (reduced transportation-related pollution and fuel consumption) and promotes community connection. Join us for a culinary adventure!
Wednesday, August 6: Family UU Dinner (Fun FUUD) RSVP by noon Monday.
  • Arrive by 6:30 (earlier if setting up or preparing food) until 8 (later if washing dishes or cleaning up
  • Chili Dinner As we wrap up the Anti-Racism Challenge for Adult Religious Exploration (Adult RE) we’re going to gather for a chili dinner in the Social Hall.
  • You don’t have to be doing the Anti-Racism Challenge to be part of the dinner. This dinner is intended to be fun and for families.
All are welcome, First U Folks – including members, long-time lurkers, and curious people who’ve been kicking the tires, and their friends/family.

Celebration of Life – 11:00am 
 
A Lammas Celebration

Speakers:
Lady Vanessa and Ron Zorn

We will celebrate Lammas, “loaf mass,” (also referred to as Lughnasadh) in circle format as we honor the August 1st holiday, albeit 2 days late.

This festival marks the bounty of the grain harvest, which may also manifest as the successes in our own lives.
Now as the sun begins journeying to the south, we acknowledge our achievements, and our personal harvest, by coming together in community to symbolically return these blessings to the earth.

About Our Speakers
Lady Vanessa is a High Priestess of the Wica in Louisville where she’ been active since 1981. Transformative and earth-centered practices are the focus of her spell work, tarot readings, rituals, and teachings. As an advocate for Pagan paths, Lady Vanessa has appeared on local media, but more often facilitates public rituals and classes through CUUPs at First Unitarian Church, Louisville Pagan Roots Festival (FKA Louisville Pagan Pride), and Clifton Unitarian Universalist Church.  In addition to being a Unitarian Universalist Church member, she has a M.A.T. and holds ministerial credentials of public record through the New Wiccan Church. For fun, goodwill outreach, and charity, Lady Vanessa regularly dances with Bluegrass Black Hats.

Ron Zorn is a long-time member of First Unitarian Universalist Church and a Co-Facilitator of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) here at First U. He is also the Treasurer and Co-Chair of the National CUUPS organization on their Board of Directors. He follows an Earth-Centered Spiritual path and enjoys collecting books on a variety of religious paths that are outside of the Abrahamic faith.
 

For the zoom link, Click here. The Meeting ID is 4508929882 if you can’t attend in person.  You will not need a password. Contact the volunteer desk if you have trouble getting online.

The Order of Service (Bulletin)
Gathering Music        Ethan

Lighting the Chalice & Black Lives Matter Candles
Lady Vanessa and Ron Zorn

Prelude          Ethan

Welcome          Valerie Schwartz

Introduction to Lammas       Ron Zorn

Calling the Quarters       Lady Vanessa and Ron
East: Rebecca Selene        South: James Bridges
West: Victoria Clark            North: Raquel Rouse

Chant #387 and Lammas Dance     Ethan
The Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Words and Music: Anonymous

     (words to chant)  
The Earth, the Air, the Fire, the Water
Return, return, return, return

Blessing of the Elements     Lady Vanessa and Ron

Drawing the Circle      Holly Harris, Ron Lady Vanessa

Cleansing the People        Ron, Lady Vanessa, Holly
Rebecca, James, Victoria, Racquel
Chant: Earth my body, Water my blood, Air my breath, and Fire my spirit.

Chant #73      Chant for the Seasons     Ethan
Words: Mark L. Belletini; Music: Czech folk song

     Vernal clouds have turned the starwheel, Summer is upon us
     Gliding are the hawks, hovering above the hot and yellow hillside.
     Vernal clouds have turned the starwheel, summer is upon us
     Crickets in the night, chirping in our ears the sound of moonlit music.
     Vernal clouds have turned the starwheel, summer is upon us.

Group Response    from The Emerald Tablet of Hermes
Lady Vanessa
Trismegistus

Lammas Celebration          Lady Vanessa, Rebecca, James
Victoria, Raquel, Ron and Holly
(words to chant)
     Hoof and horn. Hoof and horn. All that dies shall be reborn.
     Corn and grain. Corn and grain. All that falls shall rise again.

Cakes and Wine       Lady Vanessa, Ron, Holly
Rebecca, James, Victoria, Raquel
(words to chant)
     We are a circle, within a circle, with no beginning, and never ending.

Dismissing the Quarters     Lady Vanessa, Ron, Holly
Rebecca, James, Victoria, Racquel

Declarations of Mission     Ron
We are a church of reason and spirit
that witnesses for progressive faith,
nurtures our community, and transforms our world.

Declaration of Covenant   (unison)      Lady Vanessa
Love is the spirit of this church and service is its law.
This is our great covenant: to dwell together in peace,
to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.

Invitation to Generosity        Laura Roberts

Offertory     John Barleycorn Must Die     Ethan
Words and Music: Old English Traditional

Extinguishing the Chalice (unison)       Ron Zorn
We extinguish these flames, but not the light of truth,                        
the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment.
These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.

Postlude       Ethan

Closing Words     Merry Meet      Ron
Old English; Traditional Farewell

Recessional      Ethan