September 2026 – Beginnings
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: Transformational Joy
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesJen Philbin, preaching Chela Metzger, Worship Associate The Transgender community invites all of us on a journey of self-exploration and self-love. Regardless of gender or sexuality, Trans and Queer communities […]
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Sunday Worship: Resourced
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Diana Smith, preaching Cassie Winters, Worship Associate Join us for our annual Water Communion and Ingathering worship service. We will be celebrating what re-sources us in these times of […]
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Sunday Worship: Articulating (Y)Our UU Faith
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Diana Smith, preaching Chela Metzger, Worship Associate What is Unitarian Universalism? How do we talk about it with others and invite them to learn more about Unitarian Universalism? Join […]
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Sunday Worship: How We Love and Care
Sanctuary 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, United StatesWorship ServicesRev. Diana Smith, preaching Karen Hsu Patterson, Worship Associate Come join us to welcome new members to our congregation and to celebrate and explore some of the ways we can […]
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 Westside Coalition, an alliance of 81 organizations, public agencies, faith communities, and individuals and families, all committed to working collaboratively on issues of housing, hunger, and health through service coordination, public education, and advocacy.
The Westside Coalition is a non-profit volunteer organization whose monthly Coalition meetings take place at Mount Olive Lutheran Church. The coalition was founded in 1982 to serve the Westside of Los Angeles County and is reportedly the oldest coalition in the county working on behalf of the poor and homeless. Throughout its history, the Westside Coalition has proven to be an effective tool in providing collaborative, high-quality programs and services for those in need in our community.
Thank you for your generous support of our beloved community and Westside Coalition. 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.
Beginnings
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning…
best preacher that ever was…
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness. ~ Mary Oliver, full poem
May this flame
symbol of transformation since time began,
fire our curiosity,
strengthen our wills… ~ Rev. Bets Weinecke, full piece
Reverently we covenant together…
Mindful of truth ever exceeding our knowledge
And community ever exceeding our practice,
Reverently we covenant together,
Beginning with ourselves as we are,
To share the strength of integrity
And the heritage of the spirit
In the unending quest for wisdom and love. ~ Rev. Walter Royal Jones
It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work;
and that when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings. ~ Wendell Berry
Bring your broken hallelujah here
Bring the large one that is beyond
repair. Bring the small one that’s
too soft to share…
As a community, we begin again. And
from the pieces we will build something new…” ~ Rev. Julián Jamaica Soto, found in Spilling the Light
A Litany of Atonement
For remaining silent when a single give would have made a difference,
We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.
For each time that our fears have made us rigid and inaccessible,
We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love. ~ Rev. Robert Eller-Isaacs, #637 in our hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition; full piece introduced and recorded here
And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here. ~ Wendell Berry
[The Rev. Amy McCreath set the poem’s last five words to music, recorded here.]
Our service in the world continues.
