Worship & Sermons

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I have been preaching about the importance of, and need for, religious community for as long as I remember. I knew this as a child who didn’t have a consistent religious community and who longed for a place to belong. I was...

  Christmas Eve Homily by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ Tell me a story… Tell me the time when you and grandpa met for the first time. Remind me how I was born. What happened when you fell off that horse, or the time Uncle Sam plugged all the Christmas lights in...

  Reflection by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ ​“Transformation is the business of winter,” writes Katherine May in her book, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. This is certainly not the prevailing energy of this time of year for most, or...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ Did everyone pick up three pipe cleaners as you came into the sanctuary? If so, are they mangled already, or still in good order? Hold yours up if they are untouched—if you’ve managed not to touch them. Okay, you’re control...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I dedicate this sermon to my teachers Sally Coate and Sat Tara; and to their teachers, among them, Snatam Kaur, Satpurkh, Abhai Raj, and Gwir Llewellyn; and to the lineage of their teachers including Guru Nanak, the founder...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ The words of the 8th Principle are as follows: We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ How do I maintain relationships with people who think so differently from me? That question, or a variation on it, is one of the most common questions I have been asked over the last five years. It may pertain to people’s...

  Homily by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ We who are gathered here today are all animal lovers—why else would we be here? I see in your eyes and smiles how much you love and appreciate your animals, those animals who are with us and those who have passed on. It...

  Poem by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I pray because it makes me a better person,more in touch with true self. I pray because it opens the pathto connect with compassionand feel the love within me. I pray becausein connecting with that compassion and love,I am...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I first heard the term axis mundi from Reverend Craig Barnes this summer while at the Chautauqua Institute. He described it using T.S. Eliot’s phrase, “the still point of the turning world.” My ears immediately perked up,...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ This is the year for us to journey through the reality and truths of interconnectedness and interdependence. It is exciting, hopeful, and sometimes overwhelming. And it is time to learn about FRS wasps and all kinds of...

  Homily by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ (Rev. Rebecca calls the children forward to the front for the homily.) Sometimes we are given very big tasks to do. Has that ever happened to you? Yea, me too. Sometimes tasks we have to complete or concepts we have to...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ (Sermon given in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire) I love being here to preach each August. It is beautiful inside, with its trompe l’oeil paintings and reed organ. It is beautiful outside, with the waving meadows, farmland,...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I open with words of Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti from an essay in which he describes church. We are engaged in a fallible, human enterprise, but it is one that simultaneously transcends our finitude. Amid the uncertainty,...

  Reflection by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ Was it the lead up to this weekend’s Pride activities, the growing sense that something remarkable was underway, that this city was blooming in Pride? Maybe it was Friday morning's ceremony marking National Gun Violence...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I have admired the work and philosophy of Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen for decades. Her book Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, first published in 1996, has become a classic, helping an unknown number of people over the...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ A few weeks ago, I defined spirituality as living with authentic, beautiful purpose and reminded us that purpose without authenticity and beauty is simply function. Purpose when combined with authenticity and beauty fills...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ Wherever you go, there you are. This aphorism derives from a stanza in a devotional book written by Thomas à Kempis in Latin in the 1400s. The book was entitled “The Imitation of Christ,” and the stanza goes like this:...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I met Mary Oliver when I was twenty-two years old. Well, I didn’t literally meet her, though I might as well have. I picked up a volume of her poetry in a small bookstore in Westport, Connecticut, near where I was working...

  Easter Homily by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ “If the Buddha had been born into the society in which Jesus was born, I think he, too, would have been crucified.”[1] Words spoken by the beloved Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay. May he rest in peace. I...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan-as read by Mary McDonald ​ The children in the after-school program sat in a circle. They were drawing pictures of buildings, in the most spectacular of ways that six-, seven-, eight- and nine-year-olds do. One young boy said...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ Last June, the members of the Men’s Group put their heads and wallets together and bought this sermon as their contribution at last year’s auction. It was a generous and brilliant idea. I was excited to imagine the sermon...

  Reflection by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I want to start by talking with the children this morning. Children and youth, please raise your hand so I can see you.   How many of you children have ever walked past the church and thought to yourself, That’s my...

  Reflection by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ The first time I heard the heartbeat of the universe was during a period of intense and prolonged grief. We were moving from our family home where we raised our children and had developed deep ties over decades. I had...

  Sermon by Reverend Stan Barrett ​ There is more to grief – as there is to love – than meets the eye. Yes, grief’s roots reach to the depths of us, just as love touches our core. Each love carries echoes of previous loves, and any love of another implicates and...

  Reflection by Reverend Helen M. Murgida, Ed.D. ​ Many thanks to Reverend Rebecca for today’s theme of “The Faces of Grief” and for sharing this Sunday with the Pastoral Care Associates. I surprised myself when I volunteered and said, “I can talk about Prolonged...

  Reflection by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ “There is this natural place in grief where it really messes with your identity. You can’t remember where things are, miss meetings, and tell the same story over and over. “It’s so hard to keep on loving yourself when...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca M. Bryan ​ I had avoided the office for some time, choosing to work in the meditation room instead of in my home office, from which I had the led the congregation through COVID. I knew I was avoiding my office, but I ignored the...

  Sermon by Dr. Sandra Harbert Petrulionis Good morning! Thank you to Rev. Rebecca, Justin, and others for inviting and hosting me at this morning’s service. I’m excited to be in Newburyport for my very first visit. And I’m honored to be here on one of your...

  Sermon by Reverend Rebecca Bryan ​ When was the last time your heart skipped a beat? I apologize to those who have had medical conditions and scares. My question is meant to be poetic, not insensitive. I want to know when your heart last skipped a beat in...