Published by Church of the Larger Fellowship
Worship services from the Church of the Larger Fellowship, a Unitarian Universalist congregation without geographical boundaries or walls.
Listen on Apple PodcastsGlobal extractive capitalism manufactures scarcity and inflation for the masses by hoarding resources for a few elites. Then, Empire and it’s agents coerce us to trade our sacred bodies (labor) for very trivial amounts of money (a thing that literally has no inherent value). Many of us are so busy on the hamster wheel of capitalism that rest feels like a luxury we cannot afford; but what if, REST is the only thing that can free us from the evils of the Empire? Suggested Resources: Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey; The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk ; The Deepest Well by Nadine Burke Harriss, MD; Loving the Body ed. By Anthony Pinn and Dwight Hopkins; Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy DeGruy Leary, and Crisis Contemplation by Barbara Holmes
Robin Wall Kimmerer takes us on a journey illustrating how nature teaches us the lessons of abundance and reciprocity. We will explore her book The Serviceberry, and lean into the ways we can show up for each other and build a better world.
Description Centering folks with lived experiences of oppression creates greater equity, more people getting needs met, a safer society, and draws on gifts that are otherwise ignored. Pip discusses this orientation to disability justice, prison abolition and restorative justice, and antiracism with a UU lens of placing love at the center. Bio Pip Paris is a trans man (he/him/his) living in Chicago Illinois. He graduated from seminary in 2025, and is a Candidate for ministry with the Unitarian Universalist Association. Pip has been a Pagan for 25 years, including 6 years as a Heathen (Norse Pagan), and has been UU for 12 years. His home church is Second Unitarian Church of Chicago, and he completed a parish internship at Broadway United Methodist in Chicago. He is on the steering committee of the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois, where he began volunteering for inside ministry in 2018.
Violence is a tool used by empire to keep people subjugated. It is expressed through all systems of oppression in different ways--white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism, and ableism all require violence to sustain themselves. How do we maintain the inherent dignity of all people when violence is the dominant political narrative?
This July 4th weekend, the United States of America will be celebrating 250 years. It is hard to fully celebrate in light of the current political climate, and yet I think there is plenty of reason for hope and celebration in spite of the ways this country has been the gold standard for oppression.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu taught that we become human through one another. In a culture that often values independence more than connection, this service explores the everyday practices that help us build communities where everyone can flourish. From the unseen work that sustains our lives to the relationships that shape who we become, we'll reflect on what it means not only to recognize our interdependence, but to practice it with intention.
What do our faith, shared values and covenant call us to do about the Prison industrial Complex? The ministers, staff, and incarcerated members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship will invite us to embody our Universalism as we unlearn theologies of punishment and embrace one of inherent worthiness.
250 years ago, a group of privileged colonizer men declared the United States an independent nation. What might it mean to understand instead a world community of interdependence? Who gets to declare that?
Interconnectedness is a central tenet of Buddhist teaching. We will explore the ways Buddhist teachings illustrate the ways we cannot escape the ways what we do impacts each other.
For a few brief days, the world got to experience collective wonder and exhilaration through the crew of the Artemis II spacecraft as they circled the moon and came back to Earth. “Moon joy” has awakened in me a curiosity about what it really means to thrive, and how we can make such a thing available to everyone.
Why do we expect justice from imperial systems that are designed to perpetuate injustice? When you live at the margins, like Alice in Wonderland, we must learn to navigate the world differently; our vision and pursuit of justice must be reimagined.
Justice has always been contextual. It is a hard truth and one that we must understand as we work to dismantle systems of oppression. As an abolitionist, I am called to understand what justice looks like when we dismantle the idea of locking people away.
We are called to create communities where all people can thrive. For this to happen, we need to be able to bring our whole selves, unapologetically. Our identities, our backgrounds, and our accomplishments, and also our struggles, our mistakes, and our places of brokenness. Unitarian Universalist theology creates a space for this to happen. Will we make it possible?
What do we owe each other? Not in theory. Right now, in this country, in this moment — when people are being taken from their children, their homes, their languages, and placed behind walls designed to make the rest of us forget they exist. This sermon is about the covenant that follows us into the wilderness. Bio (feel free to edit): Rev. JeKaren Bell (she/her) is an ordained and fellowshipped Unitarian Universalist minister, certified Death and Grief Doula, artist, and poet with more than fifteen years as a religious professional. Rooted in African earth-based and Womanist traditions, her work sits at the intersection of grief, transformation, and communal care. She is the founder of The After Practice, offering guidance for leaders and communities navigating loss, conflict, and institutional change. She currently serves the Unitarian Universalist Association as Co-Director of the New UU Communities Fund. She is married with two bonus kids and two dogs.
It has been 63 years since Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. handwrote one of the most famous letters in United States history. We will read excerpts from the letter and consider how far we have and have not come as a country.
In the West, we are socialized by the logic of empire to understand identity as a static or fixed self. However, as embodied beings, we change and grow from every lived experience, emotion, and life lesson. What happens when we pay close attention to the various selves we have been and are becoming?
Many years ago, I heard a line in the movie Kung Fu Panda, "You meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it." I learned later that this sentiment is attributed to French poet Jean de La Fontaine. We will explore what this means for our lives and our communities.
Twenty years ago this week, I brought a group to volunteer in New Orleans, and began a spiritual journey of understanding resurrection in a new way. On this Easter Sunday, I will wrestle queerly with the notion that what is dead might once again live.
The phrase "it's easier to wear slippers than to try and carpet the world," has stuck with me since first hearing it many years ago. The phrase is a way to embody our role in movement work. This week, we'll explore the ways we can wear slippers and impact what we can locally as a way to keep from falling into despair at the state of the world.
In the Northern Hemisphere, this weekend marks the beginning of spring. In this service, we will connect our spiritual journeys to the Earth, honoring the green shoots of new life that herald the beginning of something beautiful.