Past services

Rev. Shana Lynngood  – 

This year a member of our community asked me to reflect on the concept of religious naturalism as the auction sermon assignment. 

Religious naturalism, at base, is a view that finds spiritual/religious meaning in the natural world and rejects the idea of any supernatural realm. Many of you often say the natural world is at the heart of your spiritual practice and is where you turn for solace and meaning

How is that a religious or spiritual worldview? What does it mean to place the natural world at the heart of your spirituality? View the service.

Imagination as Spiritual Practice – 

Rev. Melora Lynngood – 

 We delve into this month’s theme of imagination by considering how imagination might deepen our spiritual lives.  

From imaginary friends, to the soundtrack that plays in your head, to talking to trees, to dream fragments — how can imagination lead to insight? How might imagination give us the comfort or encouragement that empowers us to live in the world as the people we wish to be?

Join us online at 10:15 a.m. for the Sunday worship service.

Pablo Gándara Vázquez with Worship Associate Casey Stainsby –

When the connection between culture and identity is so strong, what can learning about others teach us about ourselves? And what can learning about ourselves teach us about the world around us? 

Pablo Gándara Vázquez will guide us on a journey of self reflection and inner discovery, discussing how exploring the wisdom of the indigenous peoples of British Columbia has helped him understand where he comes from and where he wants to go.

Pablo Gándara Vázquez is a Spanish sociologist who came to Canada to study English in 2014. Here he met his wife and became a community organizer for Greater Victoria Acting Together (GVAT).

View the service 

David Tietz, David Vest and Lynne Bonner, Worship Associates – 

This month we have been exploring “Stillness.” Solstice and Christmas are behind us and we look forward to a New Year. For some of us, 2020 has felt like a Year of Stillness!

With so many events, festivities and gatherings postponed or reduced, it seems like there has been too much time for reflection, worry and boredom. And yet – is inactivity the same as stillness? For others, demands of work and caring for family seem relentless and 2020 has felt like a year without stillness.

How can the practice of stillness help us let go and lean into a New Year? Join Worship Associates Lynne Bonner, David Vest, and David Tietz as they reflect on stillness in this time of endings and new beginnings.

Click here to view.

Rev. Shana Lynngood and Arran Liddel with Worship Associate Emily Tietz –

Join us for a virtual Christmas Eve service for all ages.

Rev. Melora Lynngood and Arran Liddel  with Worship Associate Emily Tietz –

An evening service on the longest night of the year.

We invite you to join us in candlelight/reduced light as we explore how darkness can nourish us and help us find stillness in challenging time.

To view the service click here.

Rev. Shana Lynngood with Worship Associate David Tietz – 

The Christian liturgical season of Advent invites us to be intentional and deliberate in preparation for the change that the arrival of the radical ministry of Jesus brought and might yet bring to our world.

In a year that has been transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic, how do we prepare our hearts for more change? How have we already been transformed?

What practices help us till the soil of our hearts to make room for both the changes we want and expect, as well as those we didn’t ask for?

Rev. Shana Lynngood with Worship Associate Casey Stainsby – 

For many years now I have found the idea of simplicity alluring but impossible. The bumper sticker admonition to, “Live simply so that others may simply live,” has seemed both wise and unattainable.

What does simplicity mean in 2020? How do we embrace simplicity not only in terms of material goods and objects but in other life choices? How might stillness be part of the equation?

Rev. Melora Lynngood with Worship Associate Lynne Bonner –

As the days get shorter and shorter, as the dreary weather settles in, as the pandemic stretches on, what brings you comfort?

What’s the difference between comfort that nourishes us and unhealthy escapism or wallowing stagnation?

When the world seems to be falling apart, when our personal lives drag us down and break our hearts, where can a Unitarian Universalist turn for comfort and healing?