♦ WHAT'S YOUR CREATION STORY?
sermon presented by Connie at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun (VA), UU Fellowship Laguna Beach (CA)
We UU's pride ourselves in the liberal ethical and religious education we offer our youth, but are we failing to give children (and ourselves) a foundational relationship to the Universe? If other, pre-scientific creation stories no longer ring true, can we nevertheless offer our youth a profoundly inspiring creation story drawn from modern science? Might a cosmic curriculum in UU education attract more families — and maintain that attraction when our youth mature and begin raising families of their own?
Reading (to precede sermon): [from the works of] Brian Swimme
♦ DEEP-TIME EYES: EVOLVING OUR ECOLOGICAL SPIRITUALITIES
sermon presented by Connie at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder (CO), Auburn UU Fellowship (AL), UU South Jersey Shore (NJ), San Dieguito (CA) UU Fellowship, Mid-Columbia UU Fellowship (Hood River OR)
For forty years, since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the ecological sciences have informed our intimacy with and reverence for Earth. We are now entering an era in which the evolutionary sciences will do the same, offering us the teachings of time and thereby deepening our spiritual connection with Earth and Cosmos. Elements of "We Are Stardust" and "Coming Home to North America" are woven into this program, which offers that deep-time eyes can (a) empower us to become native to place, (b) teach us to be more effective in ecological activism, and (c) help us discover a new spiritual dimension of the human, as the deep memory of Earth. Science articles Connie has published that relate to this theme include "Because It Is My Religion" (Wild Earth, 1996); "The Way of Science" (The Humanist, 1996); "Ghost Stories from the Ice Age" (Natural History, 2001).
♦ WHAT IS OUR COSMIC TASK?
sermon presented by Connie at the UU Church in Greenville SC, UU of Yakima WA, West Seattle UU Fellowship
What is the role
of the human in the epic of evolution? As we work to lessen our impress on
planet Earth and to turn around the Sixth Great Mass Extinction we ourselves
have ignited, is there also a nobility we can aspire to? Seventy years ago,
biologist Julian Huxley first observed that we are evolution become conscious
of itself — the Universe awakening to the grandeur of its own story. How
might arts and values complement this scientific understanding by enabling
us to become, as Thomas Berry urges, "Celebrants of the Universe Story"?
Reading (to precede sermon): [from the works of] Julian Huxley
♦ THE EVOLUTIONARY ROOTS OF RELIGIOUS NATURALISM.
presented by Connie at Westside Unitarian Universalist Church of Knoxville (TN); UU Fellowship of Beaufort (SC); First UU Church of Berks County, Reading (PA); UU Church of Southeast Arizona
Drawing upon Joseph Campbell's definition of religion as "that which puts one in accord with the universe," Connie tells of the new movement of "Religious Naturalism," which reframes humanism in ecological-evolutionary ways and celebrates atheism as a truly "religious" path, with a long and distinguished heritage. Along the way, Connie highlights the great "nature writers" past and present who celebrate a "deep time" perspective. Click here for Connie's essay, "An Immense Journey" on her faith as a UU "religious naturalist" (written for our website).
♦ DEATH IN THE HEAVENS FOR LIFE ON EARTH
presented by Connie at Neshoba UU, Memphis TN; Thomas Jefferson Unitarian, Louisville KY; Unitarian Universalist Society of Ridgewood NJ. This is also the central theme of the Fall 2005 interview with Connie Barlow in What Is Enlightenment? magazine: "Even the Heavens Are Not Immortal."
A basic function of religion is to assist the understanding and acceptance of death by putting death in a wider context. How does a science-based understanding of cosmic and biological evolution provide such a context — and is it a context that can console in loss and enliven in life? What does it mean, through science, to learn that the very atoms in our bodies were born inside the fiery depths of ancestor stars who lived and died (and recycled themselves) before our sun was born? What vital roles does death play in biological evolution, in fetal development, in making room for children on a finite planet? Click here for an annotated jpg chart Connie uses during this talk, which depicts scientific discoveries that have led to our modern understanding that death is natural, generative, and pervasive throughout the cosmos. Comment on this Sunday service program:
"Thank you, Connie, for the stimulating address and workshop you gave here about a
month ago. People are still talking about you and how interesting and in
some cases, consoling, they found your subject matter." — Maggie Shoemaker, Sunday Services Committee, Unitarian Society of Ridgewood NJ
♦ IS THIS NOT DIVINE?
presented by Connie at UU churches in Asheville NC, Tallahassee FL, and Midland MI
A celebration of Religious Naturalism, which is a renewed expression of the humanist tradition within our Unitarian Universalist fold that finds in our scientific awareness of cosmos, Earth, and life the basis for a fully naturalistic spirituality — yet one that reclaims religious concepts of what is "sacred, holy, and divine." Science articles Connie has published that relate to this theme include "Because It Is My Religion" (Wild Earth, 1996); "The Way of Science" (The Humanist, 1996); "Ghost Stories from the Ice Age" (Natural History, 2001).
Click here for a text version of the core of this talk/sermon, which Connie always presents extemporaneously.
Click below for streaming audio:
Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville" (2004) (4:30 mins) Part 1: "We Are Stardust!" audio only
"Is This Not Divine?"
(3:00 mins) Part 2: "The Deep Memory of Earth" audio only
