April’s Ministry Theme is Embracing Possibility
Join us in-person and online on Sundays at 10:30 am. All are welcome! We as Unitarian Universalists in Santa Monica look forward to being with you.
Masks are optional, but always acceptable and welcome. If you or someone in your household is not feeling well or has tested positive for COVID, please stay home; you can still join us via our Facebook or YouTube live-stream worship.
Parking at the UCLA parking structure at 1311 16th St. is available to people attending Sunday services. The entrance is from 16th St. between Santa Monica Blvd. and Arizona Ave., on the SE corner of Arizona and 16th; ask the attendant for a free UUSM parking permit to place on your dashboard. For those with a handicap parking tag, several spaces are also available onsite, via the alley west of 18th St., as well as in the UCLA structure.
Worship Online: We livestream our service from the sanctuary. Join us by clicking the WATCH NOW button above where the video is live every week beginning at 10:20 am, or watch on YouTube or Facebook. You don’t need to have a YouTube or Facebook account, or be logged in, to watch the service. You do have to be logged in to comment and chat with other members of the congregation.
Explore past services on our Sermons page, available 24/7. Tune in anytime to catch up and worship with your community. We encourage you to light a chalice or candle at home, meditate, and sing along.
Events
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Sunday Worship: Our Easter Celebration
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching; Rev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins and Rebecca Haggarty, Worship Associates. Joyful, joyful, Easter has arrived! The jasmine flowers are blooming and the vitality of life is everywhere present offering us new possibilities. Join us for our annual holiday celebration of the springtime and the renewing songs, stories, and spirit of Easter! Come to morning worship in our historic Sanctuary at 18th and Arizona, online or in-person.
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Sunday Worship: Earth Day
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesJessica TenHave-Place, DMRE, preaching; Chela Metzger, Worship Associate. In this kid-friendly, multigenerational service, we will celebrate Earth Day by listening for the voices of the non-human life around us, guiding us to embrace the possibility of lifestyles that walk in harmony with the earth. Join us for Sunday morning worship in our historic Sanctuary at 18th and Arizona, online or in-person.
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Sunday Worship: Rev. Diana Smith, Our Candidate for Settled Minister
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesOur Search Committee is pleased announce that the Rev. Diana Smith is our Candidate for Settled Minister. Today, Rev. Diana will reflect on and celebrate the possibilities that can emerge when we create communities of mattering. (Following events all week and next Sunday's service: we'll vote.)
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Sunday Worship: Our Settled Minister Candidate, then a Congregational Vote
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Diana Smith, preaching on "The Possibilities of Creating Community" followed by a Special Meeting of the Congregation. Join UUSM’s Candidate for Settled Ministry to celebrate the many ways we can create communities of caring together and live Love ever more fully and fiercely into the world. After today's service, we'll vote on whether to call Rev. Diana as our Settled Minister. Plan on joining in a week of meetings and events beginning April 19 and in today's significant occasion in the life of our community!
Generous Congregation Recipient: Rainforest Action Network
This month we’ll share our Sunday Offering with Rainforest Action Network (RAN), “fighting for people and planet.” This environmental organization preserves forests, protects the climate, and upholds human rights by challenging corporate power and systemic injustice through frontline partnerships and strategic campaigns. RAN works toward a world where the rights and dignity of all communities are respected and where healthy forests, a stable climate, and wild biodiversity are protected and celebrated.
Thank you for your generous support of our beloved community and the Rainforest Action Network. To give $10 right now, text “$10 GCC” (or another amount) to 844-982-0209. (One-time-only credit card registration required.) Or visit uusm.org/donate.
April 2026 Theme: Embracing Possibility
Our theme this month invites us to consider our world, our community, and our lives in the light of the practice of Embracing Possibility. It’s not unusual these days to feel worried, anxious, or stuck in a rut, to be angry or fearful — or all of the above in one morning. These feelings can make us shut down, keep us from doing the positive activities that help us cope. What if we can take a few breaths and enter into Embracing Possibility?
“For a New Beginning”
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge… ~ John O’Donahue, full poem
“Imaginary Conversation”
You tell me to live each day
as if it were my last…
But why the last? I ask. Why not
live each day as if it were the first—
all raw astonishment, Eve rubbing
her eyes awake that first morning… ~ Linda Pastan, full poem
Whether it will ever be recognizable by anyone else I don’t know,
but I feel that great new things are happening very quietly inside of me.
And I know these things have a way, like the maple tree,
of finally bursting out in some form. ~ Corita Kent
Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. ~ Henri-Frederic Ariel
Time exists in order that everything doesn’t happen all at once. ~ Susan Sontag
I disliked the term “languishing” the minute I heard it. I’m not languishing, I’m dormant. Like a plant. Or a volcano. I am waiting to be activated… ~ Austin Kleon, blog post
“Don’t Hesitate”
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left… ~ Mary Oliver, full poem
Our service in the world continues.
