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Carolyn Bjerke and Ruth Ricards
As summer begins to turn, we find ourselves standing at a threshold, not quite where we’ve been, and not yet where we are going. In this first service of our shared ministry, we will mark this beginning, honor the grief still present among us, and open our hearts to what may emerge. Together, we will begin to shape a season of becoming, rooted in love, courage, and deep listening.

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with Carolyn Bjerke and Ellen Deeb

Every journey begins with longing. We know what it feels like to thirst, not only for water, but for connection, healing, and hope. In this opening season of our shared ministry, we will stand in the dry places and listen for what our thirst is teaching us. Sometimes it is in the desert that we most clearly hear the call to begin again.

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with Carolyn Bjerke and Ken Stock

The desert is not the end of the story. From streams and oceans, from faucets and tears, we bring the waters of our lives to pour together. Our annual Water Communion invites each of us to bring water from a place that holds meaning. As we pour these waters into one bowl, we create the living water of our community: a symbol of resilience, of memory, and of the way many streams form one river of love. Here we remember that though each of us arrives carrying our own story, together we become a river. *** Please bring water for our ritual.

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with Kate English and MaryBeth East

The autumn equinox is a moment of cosmic balance—light and dark in near-perfect harmony. In our own lives, finding balance often means holding joy alongside struggle, amazement alongside uncertainty. Huell Howser, with his wholehearted “That’s amazing!” approach to life, practiced this balance every day, refusing to let the beauty of the ordinary go unnoticed.

Mary Oliver once wrote, “All my life I was a bride married to amazement, I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.” This service explores the spiritual practice of wonder as a way to steady ourselves in an unsteady world. Drawing on the UU values of Love, Interdependence, and Generosity, we’ll ask: how can practicing amazement help restore balance—in our hearts, our communities, and our shared life on this Earth?

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with Carolyn Bjerke and Ruth Ricards

Once gathered, the waters move. A single drop finds its course, a stream carves the rock, a river shapes the land. So too, can our lives become currents of change. In the closing service of this opening series together, we will claim the persistent, transforming power of water and of community, to carve new pathways toward justice, healing, and renewal.