December 2024 Worship Services

December’s Ministry Theme is Presence

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.

COVID Update May 2023: The congregation’s Pandemic Policies and Protocols were adopted specifically in response to the pandemic. Given that the state of emergency has been lifted, they are no longer in effect. Masks are optional, but always acceptable and welcome. If you or someone in your household is not feeling well or have 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 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, mediate, and sing along. 

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Generous Congregation Recipient: UNICEF

Our practice here at UUSM is to dedicate half of our non-pledge Sunday Offering to organizations doing work in the world that advances our Unitarian Universalist principles; the other 50% of the offering is used to support the life of our church. This month, half of our Sunday Offering will go to the UNICEF.

Originally called the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, and now officially the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF is the agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. Among the most widespread and recognizable social welfare organizations in the world, it has a presence in 192 countries and territories.

For over 70 years, UNICEF has worked in the world’s toughest places to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. UNICEF’s mission is to help children survive, thrive and fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

UNICEF is the world’s largest provider of vaccines and supports child health and nutrition, safe water and sanitation, quality education and skill building, HIV prevention and treatment for mothers and babies, and the protection of children and adolescents from violence and exploitation.

Before, during and after humanitarian emergencies and despite remarkable challenges, UNICEF is on the ground, bringing lifesaving help and hope to children and families. Non-political and impartial, they are never neutral when it comes to defending children’s rights and safeguarding their lives and futures.

Thank you for your generous support of our beloved community and UNICEF. 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.

 

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December 2024 Theme: Presence

Our theme this month invites us to consider our world, our communities, and our lives in the light of Presence.

We light candles on Hanukkah as a human act of resilience, to pause and get lost in the flames for only a few minutes so that we’re not in this time, but that we are in mythic time. We are in the big time. The arc of history is long. I believe the arc of justice is bending where we want it to bend, towards justice for all, but it is long. And right now we feel small, so being lost inside the flames is a way to be found within the longer arc of the possible. ~ Rabbi Amichai Lau Lavie

Let there be a season / when holiness is heard, and / the splendor of living is revealed.
Stunned to stillness by beauty / we remember who we are and why we are here.
There are inexplicable mysteries. / We are not alone.
In the universe there moves a Wild One / whose gestures alter earth’s axis… ~ Rev. Rebecca Parker, Winter Solstice

…Now is the moment of magic,
and here’s a blessing:
we already possess all the gifts we need;
we’ve already received our presents:
ears to hear music,
eyes to behold lights,
hands to build true peace on earth
and to hold each other tight in love. ~ Rev. Victoria Safford, The Moment of Magic

The edges of darkness, of Winter, welcome the dance of sorrow. And our stumbles. And yearning. And howling that may even turn to laughter. It is all welcome. And it can be done in community. See, the ancients build fires to gather around during these dark cold times. Knew we did not need to grieve alone. ~ Anne Richardson

When everyone had gone I sat in the library
With the small silent tree,
She and I alone… I felt reborn again,
I knew love’s presence near… ~ May Sargon, Christmas Light

Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. ~ Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

 

Our service in the world continues.