Year: 2022 (Page 7 of 11)

Flower Communion 2022: More Than You Know

June 2, 2022 /
Every person contains contradictions and complexities beyond what you might ever imagine. Even you. There are parts of ourselves that lay dormant or emerge at different stages of our lives and can come as a big surprise when they do. One of the gifts of a diverse, multi-generational community is that through relationship we can better see and know the fullness of our own stories and the fullness in others.
 
This idea is the celebration at the heart of our annual Flower Communion ceremony. Norbert Capek started the Unitarian ritual of Flower Communion to help his Unitarian Czechoslovakian congregation celebrate the diversity in their community. In 1923, Rev. Maya Capek, Norbert’s widow, introduced Flower Communion to the United States. It is an especially fitting ritual for this year as it was created in the shadow of war and Norbert’s own story, which tragically ended when he was killed at Dachau for his Unitarian beliefs.

Join us this Sunday, June 5, as we kick off our Humans of Foothills series with our annual Flower Communion! This year’s Flower Communion theme is More Than You Know.

Details for In-Person Flower Communion 
We will gather at 9 AM at the church for our first flower communion ceremony in our sanctuary since June 2019! 

Please bring a flower cut from your garden, collected from wildflowers, or bought at the store. You will go home with a flower from someone else.

All ages will stay for the service the whole time, although nursery care will be available for kids four and under.
Register for In-Person Flower Communion*

*If you have already registered for summer or if you attended an in person service in May, you do not need to register again.

Details for Online Flower Communion 
We will also gather at 9 AM on Zoom for online Flower Communion ritual! You can also watch a broadcast of our Flower Communion service at 11 AM. Please have a flower next to you during the service.

Join Online Flower Communion
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You’re Invited to Humans of Foothills: June 2022 Series

June 2, 2022 /

It’s a hard time to be a humanist. The evidence for human goodness and the capacity for humanity to save ourselves feels like it’s at an all-time low. The pandemic and the polarization of the last few years have shown us human selfishness, short-sightedness, and stubborn ignorance. Or at least, that’s what it feels like while scrolling through social media or scanning the news.  

Except, when we dig in deeper, there’s another truth. Despite what the internet portrays, people are not stereotypes or memes. Every person has a story that is particular and complex. Choices they have made that shaped their lives and times when they had no choice but to deal with what life gave them. Within those choices, there is pain and there is triumph. Reconciliation and also irreversible loss.

When we move past what’s on the surface and beyond generalities into the deep particulars of someone’s story, we discover the universal. The thread of humanity that connects us all. We see that alongside regret, there is also redemption. Alongside loss, there is also love.  

This June, let’s spend time sharing the stories of the humans of our community. The complex individuals whose lives connect with our own. Let’s celebrate the kindness that surrounds us and the good news that the truth – including the truth of our own lives, our human lives – continues to be revealed – and this moment is not the end of the story. Let celebrate the Humans of Foothills.

In partnership,

Rev. Gretchen

Learn more about Humans of Foothills

The Foothills Storytelling Project

June 1, 2022 /
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Sing with the Music Director Finalists!

May 31, 2022 /

Learn more about our two Music Director Finalists (biographies below), and sign up to meet and sing with them!

Meet and Sing with Benjamin Hanson:

Benjamin Hanson will lead a choir rehearsal at 4 PM on Sunday, June 5th. CLICK HERE to register. 

Benjamin will also lead music during in-person Flower Communion on Sunday, June 5th.

We will have a Zoom meet & greet with Benjamin on Friday, June 10th at 12:30 PM. CLICK HERE to join on Zoom.

Meet and Sing with Emily Jaworski Koriath:

Emily Jaworski Koriath will lead a choir rehearsal at 4 PM on Sunday, June 12th. CLICK HERE to register.

Emily will also lead music during our in-person service on Sunday, June 12th.

We will have a Zoom meet & greet with Emily on Monday, June 13th at 12:30 PM. CLICK HERE to join on Zoom.

We hope you will join us in singing with and getting to know the candidates and be part of this giant step forward for our Music Ministry and whole church. Learn more about the candidates ⬇️

Benjamin Hanson is a conductor and baritone with a background in church music leadership and vocal pedagogy. He holds a master’s degree in Choral Music from the University of Illinois, where he studied conducting with Andrew Megill and Ollie Watts Davis. During his studies he conducted many of the University’s curricular ensembles, including the UIUC Black Chorus, Chamber Singers, and University Chorus, and also directed the choirs at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign. Before moving to Illinois, Benjamin served for several years as the Music Director at All Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, CA.

A native of Wisconsin, Benjamin completed his undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance from the Conservatory of Music at Lawrence University, where he studied voice and vocal pedagogy. Benjamin enjoys performing as a concert soloist, including as the primary soloist in the recent North American premier of Johann Hummel’s Exodus oratorio, “Der Durchzug durchs Rote Meer.” In 2019 he was the Vocal Fellow and featured soloist for the N.E.O. Voice Festival in Los Angeles, CA, where he premiered over a dozen new works for choir and solo voice. For the past two years Benjamin has performed as a Young Artist Fellow at the Illinois Bach Academy, where he has sung as a soloist in several Baroque oratorios.

Benjamin currently lives in central Illinois with his partner and two cats, and is very excited to see where he is called to next.

Emily Jaworski Koriath (DMA, RYT-200) is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she focuses on undergraduate voice lessons. In her private practice, she works with singers on healing emotional trauma to facilitate more authentic artistry. Emily combines voice science, body awareness, and spiritual connection to help singers reclaim their joy and freedom in singing. 
 
Emily enjoys a thriving performing career and appears most often in recital with her husband, pianist Tad Koriath. The duo’s debut recital recording, These Distances Between Us, will be released by NAXOS Classical in June of 2022. 
 
Through her work as a Unitarian Universalist music minister, she has completed training in Systems Theory, Ethics, Multicultural Competency, and Examining White Supremacy Culture. She participated in “Undoing Racism for Community Organizers” presented by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond in New Orleans. Emily has enjoyed fruitful musical relationships with the UU Church of Concord (NH), Arlington Street Church (Boston, MA), Starr King UU Fellowship (NH) and Boulder Valley UU Fellowship. She served as the General Assembly music coordinator in 2018. 
 
During her doctoral coursework at Boston University, she worked closely with choral conductor and human rights activist Andre de Quadros, studying his method of Empowering Song for choral organizations and disenfranchised populations, teaching music to incarcerated youth in Massachusetts, and touring with the social justice choir Voices 21C. At BU, she studied with Dr. Lynn Eustis, author of The Singer’s Ego, The Teacher’s Ego, and The Singer’s Epiphany

May 27, 2022 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51900″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]No in-person service this weekend. Join us online!

As many of you know, we have seen a rise in COVID cases, once again, and unfortunately a few of our internal staff and supports for this week’s service have tested positive in the past few days. We do not know of any exposures at Foothills events. However, out of an abundance of precaution, and due to staffing shortages, we will be moving all online for this week’s service.

Join special guest Rev. Kelly Dignan this Sunday, May 29, for Embodied Practices for Resilience. Kelly is a spiritual guide and ordained UU minister who sits on the Board of Directors and contributes to the curriculum of Wellspring, a program for spiritual deepening.
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We will gather at 9 AM on Zoom. You can also watch a broadcast of the service at 11 AM.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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