First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg's Podcast

2025-03-09 Sermon “Over the past two years, I have described the kinds of ministry available to this congregation in workshops, meetings, and individual conversations, but I have tried to keep the space open so that you could express what ministry means to you and what kind of minister you wish to have. I have mostly refrained from telling you what ministry means to me – why it

2024-12-22 “No one is outside the circle of love,” wrote Rev Susan Frederick-Gray in a 2017 pastoral message. Canada’s commitment to universal health care is rooted in the fundamental belief that every resident, regardless of their background, deserves high-quality care when they need support for their well-being. On this morning after the winter solstice, as we emerge from t

2025-02-16 Like the proverbial olive, winter is an acquired taste for many. But if you do acquire a taste for it, “only in the winter,” says Ruth Stout, “can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savour yourself.” Amidst the frigid cold and dark nights, it is easy to miss the beauty and bounty of this season, its warmth and blessings. In this land of long, vivid win

2025-01-12 In the beginning there is no desire to mark time, and in the end, there is no reason. But in between beginnings and endings, we mark time almost compulsively. Minutes lead to hours, hours to days, days to months, and months to years. And then we repeat. Calendars are the yardsticks with which we measure the passage of time and organize our lives while the proverbial cloc

2025-02-23 “Do not obey in advance,” says Timothy Snyder in his book On Tyranny, warning that, “most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.” In England, Unitarians emerged within a religious movement that was dubbed Nonconformity, while in America, our kindred spirit Henry David Thoreau was acclaimed for his essay, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. As authoritar

2025-02-02 Like all elements, love is essential for human survival. We need it to survive and thrive, so why aren’t we taught to hold unconditional love for ourselves? Join Octavia as she speaks to the true power of self-compassion. Service Coordinator: Cate Ziegler https://uuwinnipeg.mb.ca/services/an-element-of-love-the-elements-series-love/ This is the third in our series expl

2024-12-15 In ancient Rome, the state sought to pacify the people by feeding large groups of citizens and then distracting them with entertainment—such as feeding Christians to the lions and other such “sports.” In his Satire, the Roman poet Juvenal called this practice “bread and circuses.” How much has really changed since then?

2025-02-16 Since the dawn of human time, people have experienced a close, yet uneasy, relationship with fire. After countless millennia, we find that our efforts at controlling fire are limited at best. Yet fire in many forms continues to be employed, such as in heating our living/working/playing spaces, in cooking, and in ritual and ceremony. So come, let’s play with fire! This

2024-12-08 A bend in the road is a recurring motif in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s stories about Anne of Green Gables. “Oh, there’s another bend in the road at their end,” she writes in Anne of the Island. “I’ve no idea what may be around it – I don’t want to have. It’s nicer not to know.” One of Canada’s most acclaimed authors, Montgomery was born 150 years ago, an

2024-11-24 David Morrison has worked most of his life caring for and helping people, and currently is a volunteer with Community Helpers Unite. David is a board member of several Indigenous organizations, a Pipe carrier and knowledge keeper. He shares tales of a lifetime of being "surprised by joy."