Speaker & Worship Leader:- John DiLeo

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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.”

Speaker & Worship Leader:- John DiLeo

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

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.

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 

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 

with John DiLeo

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

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

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

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

with John DiLeo

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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.

with John DiLeo

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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.

with John DiLeo

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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:-

• Are we giving enough?
• Are we giving for the right reasons?
• Are we giving what’s needed?
• Do we know what’s needed?
• If not how can we find out?

with John DiLeo

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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.

with John DiLeo

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.

with John DiLeo

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

John DiLeo © 17th October 2021.

Well, it finally happened. On the 17^th 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.