All posts by John DiLeo

Mystery

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Speaker & Worship Leader:- John DiLeo

Mystery
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Today, I’m going to read a sermon, originally presented by Bruce A. Bode. It’s titled Living with Contradictions. After the reading, I’ll follow up with a few comments.


John DiLeo © 20 August 2023

As we were driving home from last Sunday’s service, I was thinking on what I should talk about this week.

During that service, we celebrated Clay’s years with this church as our paid minister, and we acknowledged that phase of our community’s life was coming to a close.

During the Notices that day, Ted reminded us all of the need for members to step up and fill the void Clay’s retirement has created. We can no longer sit back and let him come up with all the ideas week after week, because – simply put – it’s not his job any more.

The ‘theme’ or ‘slogan’ that popped into my head during last Sunday’s drive home was simple: “One Community – Many Voices.”

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Dealing with grief

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Speaker & Worship Leader:- John DiLeo

Dealing with grief
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John DiLeo © 26th March 2023


Today, I’m reprising – nearly in its entirety – a service I led in September 2019. At that service, our guest speaker, Jean McElhaney, presented a talk titled “How can awareness of death enrich life?”

We reached out to Jean, to see if she might be willing to join us again today, but we were unable to get in touch. I considered simply playing the recording of her talk from our website, but ended up going in a slightly different direction: I’ll be playing a recorded TED Talk from 2016, on a similar topic.

What makes life worth living in the face of death” by Lucy Kalanithi
given at TEDMED 2016

Links

Welcome:- “Sanctuary of the Soul” by David R. Chapman

Opening words:- Spirit of Life and Hope” by Clarke Dewey Wells

Chalice Lighting:- In the Mystery of Life About Us There is Light” by George Kimmich Beach 

Song:- “Spirit of Life” by Carolyn McDade,
Performed by TheGWVibes DC, USA.

Time for all ages:- The Invisible String” by Patrice Karst

Meditation:- Living Brings Us Closer to Dying” , by Helen Lutton Cohen

Closing words:- The Purpose of This Community is to Help Its People Grow” by Erik Walker Wikstrom 

Getting Through the Night

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Getting Through the Night
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Todays sermon:- a reading of Getting Through the Night” By Mary Wellemeyer


Meditation / Conversation starter:

  • Do you think I’m being overly pessimistic, or will things really get that bad?
  • However bad things do get, how can we prepare – individually and as a congregation – to get through it?
  • What can we do – again both individually and as a congregation – to help others get through it?
  • What should we be doing to break this cycle?

Links

Welcome:- includes Welcome Home” By Rachel Rott

Opening Words:- Call from Beyond” By Susan Maginn

Our songs today are from Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” a performance by the Temple University Symphony Orchestra and Temple University Combined Choirs on April 1, 2016. The performance was filmed at Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadephia, and was conducted by Andreas Delf.
Opening Song:-O Fortuna” from start through to 2 minutes, 45 seconds.

Chalice Lighting:– This Chalice Is Lit for You” By Tara Humphries

Song:- “Spirit of Life” by Carolyn McDade,
Performed by members of All Souls Church Unitarian, Washington DC, USA.
Intermediate Song:-Tanz” from 14:02 – 15:43

Todays sermon:- a reading of Getting Through the Night” By Mary Wellemeyer

The New Yorker article referenced in the sermon is: “Eviction: The day they came for Addie Polk’s house,” by Peter J Boyer, published 24 November 2008.

Closing Song:-Dulcissime-Ave formosissima-O Fortuna” from 54:18 – 58:41

Closing Words:- We have a calling in this world” By Jean M Rickard

Whose holiday is it, anyway?

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Whose holiday is it, anyway?
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John DiLeo © 30th October 2022

When I signed up to lead today’s service, I figured it would be easy to come up with things to say. I mean, after all, there’s no shortage of writings and opinions around the Church’s appropriation and subjugation of non-Christian customs and occasions.

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Why Do Birthdays?

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Why Do Birthdays?
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John DiLeo © 2nd October 2022

As I’ve mentioned a few times in the past, the themes and musings present in the services I lead tend to reflect things that are on my mind at the moment. In this case, it happens to be birthdays. Mine is this coming Tuesday. It also happens to be one of those “milestone” birthdays – I’ll be turning 55.

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Because We Can!

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Because We Can!
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Today’s talk was a reading of The Answer I Wish I’d Given” By Erika A. Hewitt


Meditation / Conversation starter:

These questions can be answered either individually; or as a Unitarian Community; or as a wider society:-

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Am I Doing This Right?

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Am I Doing This Right?
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John DiLeo © 14 August 2022

I grew up in a rural part of Connecticut, in the northeastern United States. My home town, Plainfield, was small, the population was almost entirely white Europeans, and – as far as those in authority in my life were concerned – everybody was cisgendered and straight.

As was the social norm of the time, when someone we knew was gender non-conforming, we were all expected to act as though that fact didn’t exist. Our parents referred to their gay and lesbian relatives and acquaintances as ‘eccentric,’ and to their life partners as ‘roommates.’

We were indoctrinated to the “fact” that being cisgendered and straight was the one true “lifestyle choice,” in much the same way we were indoctrinated to believe our mainstream Christian sect was the one true religion.

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Freedom from what, exactly?

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Freedom from what, exactly?
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John DiLeo © 30 January 2022

For much of my life, my conscious perspective on ‘freedom’ was always in terms of “freedom to.” As a child enjoying nearly every privilege one could – an able-bodied White, Christian, cis, hetero male of European descent, born to a reasonably stable two-parent household, and living in a quiet, small, lily-white town in rural Connecticut – “freedom from” wasn’t something I ever thought about.

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The ills of fearing “the ills of socialism”

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No recording this week

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John DiLeo © 2 January 2022

Since I mentioned it at the beginning of our time together, let me start my musings with a bit more background on my hospital stay. As I mentioned when I last led our service, in October, I’ve found myself during this lockdown eating less well, gaining back weight I’d thought I was long rid of, and becoming more and more sedentary. My workdays have gotten really long, resulting in my spending as much as 15 hours a day sitting in this very chair.

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Livin’ La Vida Lockdown

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Livin’ La Vida Lockdown
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John DiLeo © 17th October 2021.

Well, it finally happened. On the 17th of August, New Zealand joined the rest of the world in dealing with an outbreak of the Delta COVID variant in the community. Our government’s “short, sharp” response announced that afternoon turned out not to be all that short…and, recently, has lost a great deal of its sharpness, as well.

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