February 2025 Worship Services

a large group of penguins standing next to each other

February’s Ministry Theme is Inclusion

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 Given that the state of emergency has been lifted, they are no longer in effect.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 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 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. 


Event Series Sunday Worship

Sunday Worship: Unitarian Universalist Inspirations

Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United States

The Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching; Chela Metzger, worship associate. Unitarian Universalism is covenantal and non-creedal and so we are free to draw upon many inspirations in our spiritual lives. While our movement formerly acknowledged six sources of our tradition—from Direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder to Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions—these sources have evolved into a new statement of UU Inspirations. We will consider what this change entails and what it might mean for how Unitarian Universalism is practiced in our time.

Event Series Sunday Worship

Sunday Worship: Taking Refuge, Making Refuge

Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United States

The Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching; The Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins, worship associate. Taking refuge in the Awakened One is a common spiritual exercise in the Buddhist tradition. The practice of finding shelter in a transcendent source is expressed in many religions. As we reflect on our ministry theme of Living Love through the Path of Inclusion this month, we will consider the ways religion invites us to take refuge ourselves and to make refuge for those in need of safe harbor. Join us for worship in-person or online.

Event Series Sunday Worship

Sunday Worship: Opportunity is Knocking

Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United States

The Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins, preaching; Cassie Winters, worship associate. At the beginning of a new Presidential Era we find ourselves full with a mixture of sometimes conflicting feelings. It is important to remember that this is not the first time there have been serious concerns about the leaders of our country, nor will it be the last. The difference this time is that we think we know what is coming and the news and social media fill in the gaps left by our imaginations. This Sunday we will look at how to apply our UU values and the wisdom of our ancient teachers to the political challenges we face today. Join us for worship in-person or online.

Event Series Sunday Worship

Sunday Worship: One Light, Many Windows

Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United States

The Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching; Rebecca Haggerty, worship associate. Join us for our annual service honoring the Hindu tradition and the Festival of the Universal Dance of Shiva—Maha Shivaratri. Hinduism is the oldest of the great religions of the world and it is one of the most inclusive as it embraces monotheistic, polytheistic, and atheistic conceptions of existence. We will consider the sacred literature, traditions, and practices that inform and support such a broad and embracing mosaic of spiritual life. Join us for worship in-person or online.

 


Generous Congregation Recipient: CLUE

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 Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). This longtime UUSM partner brings together faith leaders and community members across Southern California to act in solidarity with low-wage workers — mostly women, immigrants, and people of color — as they seek dignity, justice, and fair work. Members of our congregation walked the picket lines in 2023 with CLUE in the successful action against unfair wages and labor practices at hotels in Santa Monica and nearby.

UUSM’s Generous Congregation program supports our church community. And together, we uplift the reach and impact of vital organizations doing work we could not do on our own. This month, half of our Sunday offerings will go to CLUE. Your donations will help strategize tactics for winning campaigns and support hotel workers, in intimate solidarity, to win real benefits for those at the bottom of the economic ladder. 

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

 


February 2025 Theme: Inclusion

Our theme this month invites us to consider our world, our communities, and our lives in the light of Living Love Through the Practice of Inclusion. Have you ever invited and included someone or something in your life that unexpectedly (and wonderfully) altered the trajectory of it? If you could go back and change a moment of being excluded or excluding someone else, what would it be? 

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. ~ Audre Lorde

Inclusion isn’t better just because it’s kinder. We should bring disabled perspectives to the center because these perspectives create a world that is more imaginative, more flexible, more sustainable, more dynamic and vibrant for everyone who lives in a body. ~ Rebekah Taussig

There is something to being chosen that is uniquely healing. ~ Cole Arthur Riley

Being excluded kills. It kills the spirit and sometimes it kills the body. So, here’s my thought. If – like me – you’re attachment rich, if you are included in most or many circles, if you belong in almost any place you find yourself, we have the opportunity and responsibility to include the unincluded… Look for someone who appears not to belong today and choose them. ~ Jan Edmiston

They want thinking you’re bad at being a girl
Instead of thinking you’re great at being yourself…
They want you to blend in,
like you’ve never seen a blender… ~ Andrea Gibson

The situation facing trans and gender non-conforming people in the United States right now is really bleak. And I really want to have an earnest plea that people stop framing this as a minority issue and reframe this as a universal attack on self-determination. Every one of us should be able to determine our own gender. No one else should be able to tell us what we should look like, how we should act, and what we should do with our bodies. So we need you to show up in this moment, not just out of an ethics of allyship. That doesn’t feel like enough for me, but out of an insistence and your own dignity, your own capacity to transform, your own love of self. ~ Alok Vaid-Menon

If justice is what love looks like in public, then inclusion is what love looks like among groups. ~ Rev. Matthew Johnson

This is almost always the by-product of expanding the table: God is right-sized. Rarely, if ever, do you do the work of hospitality, authenticity, diversity, and agenda-free relationships and encounter a smaller, more selective God. ~ John Pavlovitz

Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance. ~ Verna Myers

Inclusivity is not “how do we make you a part of what we are?” but “how do we become more of what you are?” ~ angel Kyodo williams Sensei

Put the mantle of your protection
Around the bodies of 
The young and defenseless… 
Take the hand of the despised 
And diseased and walk proudly with them 
In the high street. 
Some might see you and 
Be encouraged to do likewise. ~ Maya Angelou

 

UUSM flaming chalice, round logo

Our service in the world continues.