June’s Ministry Theme is Freedom
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 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: Freedom to Seek the Truth
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesThe Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins, preaching. The adults who completed the Building Your Own Theology course will share aspects of their spiritual journeys and their statements of faith. What do you believe? Can you summarize your beliefs in a three-minute presentation? Join us in-person or online.
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Sunday Worship: Spirituality at the End of Religion
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesThe Rev. James Ishmael Ford, preaching; Judith Martin-Straw, worship associate. UU minister and Zen teacher James Ford will be visiting us once again. These days he finds himself thinking about the spiritual life, and what it means in hard times. In particular, he finds himself thinking of the current assaults on civil liberties, especially the scapegoating of the Trans community and immigrants. But also he's mindful of Pentecost, that moment when tongues of fire rest on hearts, transforming lives. Today he touches on his reflections in his new book, Zen at the End of Religion, to find some pointers for all of us. Join us in-person or online.
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Sunday Worship: Flower Communion
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesThe Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching; Dr. Susan Hendricks, worship associate. Together we create a a bouquet of flowers more beautiful than anything we could create by ourselves. Please bring a flower (or a few) for our annual Flower Communion Ceremony. First celebrated in Prague in 1923 by Norbert Čapek, and later brought to the US by Rev. Maja Čapek, this is an annual tradition reminding us to celebrate the pluralism of religious community and life. The ceremony is one of communion and resistance in the face of brutality and oppression. Join us in-person or online.
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Sunday Worship: UUA General Assembly Service
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Dr. Nicole C. Kirk (streamed service), preaching; Chela Metzger, worship associate. Embrace the electrifying spirit of the year's largest UU gathering, where we come together in unity for an awe-inspiring Sunday worship celebration like no other! It's a vibrant, communal worship experience that promises to uplift your soul and ignite your passion. Don't miss out on this extraordinary national gathering of hearts and minds! Join us in-person or online.
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Sunday Worship: A Community of Gratitude
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesThe Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching; Cassie Winters, worship associate. We enter the summer months each year by celebrating the many volunteers, leaders, and professional staff who contribute their time, efforts, skill, passion, creativity, caring, and love to our community. Join us this Sunday as we name our gratitude and review the many accomplishments of this congregational year. Rev. Jeremiah will deliver the minister's Annual Report during the service to hopefully reduce the length of the Annual Meeting. Members please plan to attend the Annual Meeting of the Congregation following the service. We appreciate you!
May Generous Congregation Recipient: Advocates for Trans Equality
Our practice here at UUSM is to dedicate half of our non-pledge Sunday offerings to support the life of our church and the other 50% to organizations doing work in the world that advances our Unitarian Universalist principles. This month we’ll share our Sunday Offering with Advocates for Trans Equality, a group that fights for the legal and political rights of transgender people in America. Leveraging decades of experience on the frontlines of power, A4TE was founded in 2024 as the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF), two long-time champions for the trans community, merged together as one organization to declare:
- A4TE builds on successes to boldly imagine a world where trans people live our lives joyfully and without barriers.
- In a time of increased extremism against trans people and our allies, protecting and expanding our freedom to be who we are has never been more important.
- Trans people deserve equality. Trans voices matter. Partnership brings progress. A brighter future is possible.
Thank you for your generous support of our beloved community and Advocates for Trans Equality. 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.
June 2025 Theme: Freedom
Our theme this month invites us to consider our world, our communities, and our lives in the light of the Practice of Freedom.
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning… it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. ~ Frederick Douglass
the days are all too heavy; and then we lift together ~ adrienne maree brown
Juneteenth exists as a counterpoint to the Fourth of July; the latter heralds the arrival of American ideals, the former stresses just how hard it has been to live up to them. ~ Jelani Cobb
I try to understand why trans folx are so terrifying to people, why we are seen as such a threat. And ultimately, I think the scariest thing we represent is possibility and freedom. We have resisted the imposition of overly-determined stories of our lives and bodies, and we have demanded more. And that is our gift to all of you. ~Chase Strangio
Nobody’s free until everybody’s free. ~Fannie Lou Hamer
True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous people are not free people. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt
The bird you put inside a cage, you will have to find it another name, for it is no longer a bird. ~Shenaz Patel
Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s. ~Anaïs Nin
The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages ~Virginia Woolf
As long as you make an identity for yourself out of pain, you cannot be free of it. ~Eckhart Tolle
“On The Surprisingly Complex Relationship Between Freedom And Happiness” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFUAZ_YVVKI
“On Breaking Free From The Stories We Tell Ourselves” https://www.ted.com/talks/lori_gottlieb_how_changing_your_story_can_change_your_life
“The Long Road to Pride” https://www.facebook.com/DublinBusNews/videos/836998473340636/?v=836998473340636
“Dehumanizing Trans People as the First Step Against Everyone’s Freedom” https://www.bestoftheleft.com/1700
“We’re Still Not Free Yet” https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/19/tv/video/amanpour-stevenson-juneteenth
Our service in the world continues.
