Messages

A message from the monthly “Paying Attention.” Join UUSM’s candidate for settled ministry, Rev. Diana Smith, to reflect on and celebrate the possibilities that can emerge when we create communities of mattering.

Worship Associate: Cassie Winters

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hY5Tzpjsxhnzk6JsiQg6Ta4v5FdmSG_VANQB4_-lAPM

A message from the monthly “Paying Attention.” 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.

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zOscvimFFCpt21UAkMuS9va0j_InhdbxCHGcn5DveM/edit?tab=t.0

A message from the monthly “Paying Attention.” 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!

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NNKBlm7ilfcqPF9yoiniVkCHuQzRuIa6eqrE5GNtVL8/edit?tab=t.0

A message from the monthly “Paying Attention.” Join us as we launch our 2026-2027 Stewardship Campaign honoring our past, celebrating our present, and preparing to welcome our exciting future! You’ll have a chance to pick up your Annual Pledge Card and receive your UU Santa Monica Pledge Button and Justice Lanyard and Whistle. We will also acknowledge the Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31) and Pesach/Passover (April 1-9). We hope to be with you in the sanctuary this Sunday!

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16cGJ1FexqYFRaLd7hzOQyTvceFA4ALhXtJoEUqSEJB8/edit?tab=t.0

A message from the monthly “Paying Attention.” This month’s theme is paying attention — and humanism is, at its core, a practice of presence. A choice to focus on the world we can see, the neighbors we can reach, the suffering we can actually reduce. Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association and a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, celebrates the shared roots of humanism and Unitarian Universalism and invites us to rediscover the radical joy of choosing people over abstractions and outcomes over ideals.

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wiHm8ce7Qe9wXPisv-HQ_wrUUxcfcISqP–VOUa7kiQ/edit?usp=sharing

A message from the monthly “Paying Attention.” In this kid-friendly, multigenerational service, we will learn from the Shakers, a mystical Christian movement that believed in religious freedom, the equality of men and women, and the sacredness of the natural world. Through music, dance, and artwork from the Shaker communities, we will learn to pay more careful attention to the “simple gifts” of life that offer us boundless spiritual insights.

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13skPcnEQ4eNkumfV4I-YnibvvnA7QijrfZHyAbPv_zA/edit?tab=t.0

A message from the monthly “Paying Attention.” Our old friend, Reverend James Ford has been thinking a lot about practices of attention and especially spiritual practices that involve giving giving some sustained effort. It happens we’re well launched into Lent. It’s a Christian holiday with powerful associations with ancient pagan Spring holidays. James feels looking at Lent can give us as religious liberals something worth considering.

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n2r4HDdP6nCjKaw9iQSUTch2O9YXAJKW892Nrp2G4jo/edit?tab=t.0

A message from the monthly “Paying Attention.” “What happens when you lean into something that is always there? What do you notice when something that’s always been there goes missing? What can you learn about yourself and your world during this season of fasting and reflection?”

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jfOWRZhCefq_TtPdDK94A2UiTceMoNV0ODU5Pq4Sr4o/edit?tab=t.0

A message from the monthly “Embodying Resilience.” Often, when people are told that they will never again be capable of doing something, they respond defiantly, “Watch me.” Then they work hard to prove the speaker wrong, while proving to themselves that they can, indeed, do that thing. Climbing mountains, learning a new language, walking after a debilitating accident. These things all take the combination of inspiration, motivation and determination that we call resilience.

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/132jBb4SMc_ZuE5qiSDvmuXO5Oo9TR-XmZkaYA2JEudk/edit?tab=t.0

A message from the monthly “Embodying Resilience.” Join us for our special annual service honoring one of the great holidays of the Hindu tradition–MahaShivaratri–which we’ve celebrated in some way for the past six years as we’ve better lived into our multicultural, multiracial, and multireligious commitments. “The Great Night of Shiva” is a time of deeping yogic spiritual exercises to overcome powers of illusion, depletion, and corruption in the world. We will be blessed by our honored musical guests Rohan Ramanan and Dani Ekbote. Please note Ramazan begins on Feb. 17 and Lent begins on Feb. 18. We hope to be with you on Sunday!

Order of Service: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_K2rrbpNhGc6Qgz1–y4Jc5jTdqYtd2Y5o_tdQ33O1A/edit?usp=sharing