Sermon delivered by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor on January 29, 2017. Rev. Taylor prophetically addresses our nation’s current crisis, calling us all to use our voices, drawing from the wisdom of Audre Lorde and living into the call of James Luther Adams: "The prophetic liberal church is the church in which all members share the responsibility to attempt to foresee the consequences of human behavior (both individual and institutional) with the intention of making history, in place of merely being pushed around by it. Only through the prophethood of all believers can we together foresee doom and mend our common ways.”
The theme for January is what it means to be a community of prophecy. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.
Sermon delivered by Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed on January 22, 2017. Rev. Morrison-Reed shares a reflection on riding the Green Line as a youth from Chicago's south side in the 60s, as a seminarian, and now as a retired minister—and his awareness of the function of the church and our larger need for community.
Mark Morrison-Reed served for 26 years as co-minister with his wife, Donna, in Rochester N.Y. and Toronto, Ontario. He also served as vice-chair of the UUA Commission on Appraisal and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. A historian of the African American experience in UUism, he is the author of Black Pioneers in a White Denomination, Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism and The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian Universalism. Mark also wrote the curriculum "How Open the Door? The African-American Experience in Unitarian Universalism" and the book In Between: Memoir of an Integration Baby. A former president of the Canadian Unitarian Council, he's currently an affiliated faculty member at the Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago.
Rev. Morrison-Reed can be contacted at markmr4@excite.com.
The theme for January is what it means to be a community of prophecy. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.
Sermon delivered by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor on January 15, 2017. In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Taylor reflects on what it means to be a Community of Prophecy, especially in light of the current transition of the United States government.
The theme for January is what it means to be a community of prophecy. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.
Sermon delivered by Rev. Booker Steven Vance on January 8, 2017. Rev. Vance joined Faith in Place in February 2015 as the Policy Director working to promote renewable energy sources and energy efficiency in Illinois’ implementation of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
He seeks to communicate a vision for environmental justice for all communities by affecting change at the policy level. Originally from Houston, Texas, he attend Bethany Lutheran College in Lindsborg, Kansas and graduated in 1980 with a BA in Business Economics. He received his Masters of Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago in 1986 and served as Pastor of St. Stephen’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on the Southside of Chicago for over 27 years.
Rev. Vance has extensive experience in faithful advocacy and ecumenical community organizing, including work with Healthy Communities, Urban Gardening, Walmart Good Jobs Campaign, Fight for 15, SOUL (South Side Organized for Unity and Liberation) and HIV/AIDS Awareness Initiatives. He is the proud father of two young men and the grandfather of three. Rev. Vance can be contacted at revvance@faithinplace.org or 312-733-4640, Ext. 119.
The theme for January is what it means to be a community of prophecy. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.
Sermon by Intern Minister Kellie Kelly on January 1, 2017. Kellie shares sources of inspiration that will help us become our own prophets in this new year of resistance and courage.
The theme for January is what it means to be a community of prophecy. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website.