May’s Ministry Theme is Awakening Curiosity
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: Awakening Curiosity
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching; Chela Metzger, Worship Associate. Liberal religion is characterized by its open-mindedness and expansive love. Unitarianism freed people from the constraints of creeds and doctrines, and Universalism declared love and not law to be supreme. Our Unitarian Universalist movement remains a living tradition because it continues to awaken the curiosity that is central to liberal faith. Today we'll explore this month's new theme of Awakening Curiosity And Jessica TenHave Place, DMRE, will share a story for the pagan holiday of Beltane about showing love and care for the gifts of 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: Living Love
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching John Hart, Worship Associate Our Unitarian Universalists Values proclaim: "Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our […]
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Sunday Worship: Enlivening Spirit
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching. Judith Martin-Straw, Worship Associate. How do we enliven spirit when the world at times feels so heavy and bleak? We turn to ancient teachings from the Buddhist and Christian traditions as we reflect upon the times in which we are living and how we might finding meaning and inspiration in the midst of it all. Join us for Sunday morning worship in our historic Sanctuary at 18th and Arizona, online or in person.
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Sunday Worship: What is the Story?
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins, preaching. Karen Hsu Patterson, Worship Associate. Pentecost, Memorial Day, and Hajj ask a shared human question: What does it mean to give yourself — your voice, your body, your life — to something sacred or worthy? They remind us that: Spirit creates community; Memory demands responsibility; Pilgrimage changes those who undertake it. Join us for Sunday morning worship in our historic Sanctuary at 18th and Arizona, online or in-person.
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Sunday Worship: Flower Communion
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae, preaching; Rebecca Haggerty, Worship Associate. While fascism was on the rise in Prague in 1923, Rev. Norbert Čapek, founder of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia, created the Flower Communion to celebrate the beauty of pluralism, community, and spiritual life in the face of the ugliness of fascism’s conformity, exclusion, and death. It was later brought to the US by his partner Rev. Maja Čapek, and it remains a late spring tradition celebrated in many contemporary Unitarian Universalist congregations. Please bring a flower (or a few) to church with you this morning for this special service. Join us for Sunday morning worship in our historic Sanctuary at 18th and Arizona, online or in-person.
Generous Congregation Recipient: CLUE 
We come together for more than ourselves. This month, half of our Sunday offerings will go to Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) to help support those least protected in our economy — low-wage workers and immigrants.
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. CLUE is a longtime UUSM partner that 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. In 2023, members of our congregation walked the picket lines 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. 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.
May 2026 Theme: Awakening Curiosity
Our theme this month invites us to consider our world, our community, and our lives in the light of the practice of Awakening Curiosity. What if we greeting more moments of our day with curiosity instead of in emotional terms? Can we pause periodically to notice the beauty of the natural world and the skies above, the alertness of animals, the kindness of people? How do we awaken and nurture curiosity?
We seek our place in the world
and the answers to our hearts’ deep questions.
As we seek, may our hearts be open to unexpected answers… ~ Julianne Lepp, full chalice lighting
This flame is for the questions that follow us home.
The ones that refuse to settle, that sit beside us at night.
Not every riddle is meant to be solved.
Let this light keep open a space
where not knowing is allowed to breathe. ~ Rev. Michelle Collins
With Love for Mothers and Foremothers
We kindle this flame with love for mothers and foremothers past, present, and future;
We kindle this flame in celebration of community and its generations… ~ Selena Fox, full chalice lighting
Called by Loss, Called by Peace
We come this day, called by war…
We come this day, called by loss…
We come this day, called by hope…
And we come this day called by peace…
May we hear its song, may we proclaim its promise.
May our remembrance today renew our struggle
We can never stay or rest. ~ Rev. Heather K. Janules, full poem
Blessing the Questions
Let them come:
the questions that storm through
the crack in the world…
Let them come:
the questions… that draw you into rest,
into dream,
the questions that stir
the wakening world. ~ Jan Richardson, full piece
May we notice anew what we have walked past a hundred times.
May we listen for stories we have never heard before.
May we meet this day not as a problem to solve
but as a mystery to explore.
And my this help us better know the mystery that is us.
Amen and blessed be. ~ Rev. Michelle Collins (excerpt)
Prayer for All Who Mother
We reflect in thanksgiving this day for all those whose lives have nurtured ours.
The life-giving ones
Who heal with their presence
Who listen in sympathy
Who give wise advice… but only when asked for it…
let us honor all mothers…
who from somewhere in their being
have freely and wholeheartedly given life, and sustenance, and vision to us… ~ Rev. Victoria Weinstein, full piece
Our service in the world continues.
