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Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation's Podcast

Sermons by resident and guest ministers on themes like Curiosity, Trust, Mystery, Sanctuary and so much more. Feel free to download and share our podcasts!
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Now displaying: August, 2016
Aug 28, 2016

Sermon delivered by Tony Mitchell on August 28, 2016. An Oak Park resident and Chicago area native, Tony joined Unity Temple in the spring of 2015. He currently is enrolled in the Masters of Divinity program at Meadville Lombard Theological School, where Tony is in formation to become a Unitarian Universalist Minister. A Soul Connections leader in the congregation, he plans to become a Unity Temple intern in the fall of 2017. Tony graduated from Yale University and has been a communications and public relations leader for much of his career. He currently serves as Vice President of Communications for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs – an independent, nonpartisan organization that provides insight and influences the public discourse on critical global issues.

Tony has long been active in community advocacy and action – particularly as it affects the African American community. He serves on the boards of Housing Forward, an organization comprehensively addressing homelessness on Chicago’s West Side and in western Cook County, and Rush Oak Park Hospital. He will begin the Clinical Pastoral Education phase of his seminary work this fall by providing chaplain services in support of The Night Ministry – a Chicago-based organization that works to provide housing, health care and human connection to members of our community struggling with poverty or homelessness.

The theme for August is how to take a path of growth. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.

Aug 21, 2016

Sermon delivered by Kellie C. Kelly on August 21, 2016. Kellie is a student at Meadville Lombard Theological School, steering committee chairperson of UU Class Conversations, and Unity Temple's incoming ministerial intern. Before seminary, she built a career in the staffing industry as a sales manager and technical recruiter. Kellie’s call to ministry began when she worked as a U.S. Navy family ombudsman and deepened during her time as a director of faith development.

Kellie is from a white working-poor family of restaurant workers. As a third-generation single mother, she became the first person in her family to attend college, completing her undergraduate degree at the age of 41. Kellie also is an “out” mental health advocate, trying to reduce the stigma of mental illness. Kellie feels a strong commitment to work with and for the people society pushes to the margins, whether based on the color of their skin, their class, or their perceived disabilitiesKellie can be reached at kkelly@uuma.org.

The theme for August is how to take a path of growth. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.

Aug 14, 2016

Sermon delivered by Rev. Scott Aaseng on August 14, 2016. In this sermon, Scott wants us to ask ourselves if we are as good at receiving as we are at giving. Rev. Aaseng was a musician, a community activist, and a Lutheran pastor (among other things) prior to discovering his call to Unitarian Universalist ministry.

Scott graduated from the St. Olaf Paracollege with a degree in Peace Studies, and spent a year studying and traveling in South Africa during the apartheid years. He volunteered as a teacher in rural Tanzania, before returning to the U.S. and earning his M.Div. at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He interned at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and served a small Lutheran congregation on the southwest side of Chicago for five years in the early 1990’s.

He left ordained ministry to become primary caregiver for his two daughters, while becoming project director and then grant-writer for the Southwest Youth Collaborative, a community-based youth organization he helped found. He also served as musician for a number of church gospel choirs, and went on to serve as Village Musician at Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center in the mountains of Washington state. Upon returning to Chicago in 2005, he became a project assistant with American Friends Service Committee, coordinating a nationally touring display of combat boots and civilian shoes showing the human cost of war. He also began attending Third Unitarian Church in Chicago with his family.

Becoming a musician at Third Unitarian in 2009 re-awakened his call to ministry, now more clearly grounded in Unitarian Universalism. He took classes at both Starr King and Meadville Lombard seminaries, completed his internship at Unity Temple, and went on to serve as Unity Temple’s first Assistant Minister for Social Justice. He has since served as part-time Consulting Minister at the Unitarian Church of Quincy, Illinois and at First Unitarian Church of Hobart, Indiana. He now serves as Director of the Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois. 

Scott has lived on the west side of Chicago for 20 years with his spouse, Gale Holmlund, and their two teenage daughters, Sunniva and Brita. He enjoys bicycling, playing piano, being outdoors, and traveling with his family.

The theme for August is how to take a path of growth. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.

Aug 7, 2016

Sermon delivered by Rev. Brian Chenowith on August 7, 2016. Brian is a lifelong Chicagoan with roots in the South Side. His spiritual upbringing was Catholic and Anglican though he came to Unitarian Universalism in middle school. It was there, in that UU church where he spent his formative years, that he heard the call to ministry most clearly. He earned his degree in Theology & Religion from Elmhurst College in 2008. From there he entered seminary in 2011 after a period of discernment and preparation for theological education and graduated from Meadville Lombard in Chicago in 2014. Brian served two congregations as a ministerial intern for three years. Two of those years were spent at Unity Temple in Oak Park, IL and the remaining year was at First Parish in Concord, MA. Through these two congregations, the real learning in ministry happened. He is currently the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington, Kentucky.

The theme for August is how to take a path of growth. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.

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