Sermons at First UU
Reverend Holly Baylies' most recent sermons are available for you to read below. If you would like to read her previous sermons click here.While you're here, why not also check out a sampling of our lay-led sermons?
Reverend Holly Baylies' recent sermons
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June 6, 2010
Nothing worth doing ever comes cheaply or easily. For all those moments in life that took all we had to give and more, so much was learned in the process, friends were found, dreams came true. |
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May 23, 2010
This week I am going focus on the beliefs and practices of the Islam Faith beginning with the source of Islamic law and The Five Pillars of Faith upon which Mohammed built the foundations of the Islamic traditions, beliefs and practices through the teachings of the Koran. As we learn about the Islamic faith we find that we are very much connected, not only our histories are entwined, but we here, today are blessed by anyone who joins us in worship, who strives to live a kind and helpful life. |
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May 16, 2010
When I began to research this sermon, I had many reservations about trying to explain to you and to myself the meaning of a faith whose language and customs seemed so remote from our own. It is not my goal this morning to prove or disprove the validity of any terrorist action in the name of this great faith, rather it is to explain in the best way I can, Islam's origins and history in a way that we can comprehend and appreciate its beliefs and teachings and put them into the proper perspective. I also hope this will help explain the deep rooted connections between the Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths. |
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April 18, 2010
How did it happen that we chose to isolate and sort ourselves by colors and ethic groups that ignored the common ground we all share? |
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April 4, 2010
Fear is a very present aspect of our living, and is the very reason why we have come together this Easter Sunday to recognize its power and meaning to this congregation. It could not fall at a more appropriate time than on Easter Sunday, as it is the story of death of Jesus, his rising from the tomb and the interpretations of the meaning of his death, "to save all men from their sins" that spawned the necessity for a Universalist Church in Syracuse. |
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March 28, 2010
An interesting look at Palm Sunday, Easter, and how we might live our lives if we knew we only had one week. |
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March 7, 2010
Anything really worth achieving takes work, sweat and sometimes tears. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves how extraordinary we are, how Unitarian Universalism has broken a pattern and a mold for religious exclusionism that has permeated our culture for centuries. This morning as we launch our all member canvas campaign and pledge drive I would like to address the fact that you are asked to give often and much to the life and the future of this Society. |
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Febuary 14, 2009
Love and its supreme expression of a united relationship is of course recognized as the rite of marriage, most often performed by the clergy or an authorized member of the religious community. Today a battle rages in churches and in our own legislative chambers as to the status of same sex marriages, and who decides its validity, the church or the state? |
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February 7, 2010
Holly's thoughts on creating a vibrant sense of who we are, why we are here, and exactly where we want to go, as an alternative spiritual community. |
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January 31, 2010
There is no greater challenge to any faith community and its leadership than the concept of forgiveness, for it is one of those ideas that is easily commanded and difficult to practice. - Rev. Holly Baylies |
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January 17, 2010
Many kids today are becoming more and more alienated from the adults around them and as the bad rap in the press continues, this sermon will take a look at how we can use our faith to become a part of the solution. - Rev. Holly Baylies |
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January 10, 2010
embracing the inevitability of change keeps us honest with ourselves and ready to welcome the present, rather than to dread the future |
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December 13, 2009
How often have we dreamed of something, had a picture in our minds as to what it would look like and how it would happen, and when it did finally materialize ... - Rev. Holly Baylies |
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December 6, 2010
What I am getting at, is a true need for genuine humbuggers to protest and to speak up and to focus once again on what this season is all about before it gets any worse. It is about simplicity, love and creation. - Rev. Holly Baylies |
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November 15, 2010
May our gifts be the visible prayer we all hope for, that our actions today, will mean justice for another, tomorrow. - Rev. Holly Baylies |
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November 1, 2010
Whatever one chooses to believe, in an afterlife, a spirit world, a white light, ghosts or nothing, humankind will always seek out the wild, the weird and the wonderful. We will give it names, tell our stories, mourn and celebrate in the hope that there lies beyond a home for the mysterious energy within us that science tells us can neither be neither created nor destroyed. - Rev. Holly Baylies |
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October 25, 2010
As Unitarian Universalists, as a rational cognitive faith, there is a hesitancy to openly discuss and embrace the aspects and lessons of synchronistic experience, of clairvoyance and dreams or visions as a valid aspect of our spiritual selves, for fear of being thought of as wooly brained or too spiritually impractical. - Rev. Holly Baylies |
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October 4, 2009
Heralding the end of National Burned Book week, Holly will discuss the effect that censorship and the lack thereof has influenced society in the past and in the present. Rev. Holly Baylies |
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September 20, 2009
The origins of our evolution contain lists of hundreds of liberal religious reformers, heretics and social activists through 20 centuries and all over the world. Talking about individuals that did and do call themselves Unitarians or Universalists would mean a month of Sundays to cover in detail; but today I would like to take a look at us, right here, and right now and who we are in this church, in the present. Rev. Holly Baylies |
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June 21, 2009
Reading and Sermon - Hatred is Not a Family Value |
Lay-led sermons
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July 19, 2009. Sermon by Jerry Clausen, M.D.
What is hidden in Hinduism? First, it is 6,000 years old. Parts of the Veda were composed then from hymns that were already ancient. An Oxford University scholar Fredrick Muller stated that the Veda was written around 1000 BCE because, as a Christian, he believed that the world was created in 4004 BCE as the Bible said. Because of his stature, this was accepted for many years. However, the Veda mentioned a mighty river, the Sarasvati. Satellite imagery in the early l980's allowed people to see a dry river bed 5 miles across at one point. It had dried up around 1900 BCE (before the Christian Era) helping to correct the Veda's dating. |
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June 21, 2009. Sermon by Gracia Sears.
I tend to buy books and tuck them away. It was such with Scotty McLennan's book, "Finding Your Religion" when the faith you have grown up with has lost its meaning". Though no beginner to spiritual questing, I continue to be a seeker and at the time I took this book down from the shelf I was feeling very restless. |
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March 25, 2007. Sermon by H. Richard Levy.
Today Unitarian-Universalist communities throughout the United States are observing Justice Sunday. This is an opportunity for us to remember our principles of justice, equity, and compassion, and to translate that compassion into action. The focus of this year's Justice Sunday is Darfur, the region of Sudan where a genocide has been in progress for the past 4 years. |
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August 13, 2006. Sermon by Jerry Clausen.
Compassion was placed as a first priority by those who built the mission statement. One of the Dalai Lama's main themes is compassion. Two of his best loved books on the subject are The Compassionate Life and An Open Heart. Since all religions "advocate love, compassion, and forgiveness" we need to be specific. The Dalai Lama states, "In Buddhism compassion is defined as the wish that all beings be free from suffering" - - the wish that all beings be free from suffering. |
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January 30, 2000. Sermon by Peggy Sperber Flanders.
When I picked the topic of rejection to talk to you about, it came from my experience of having to send hundreds of rejection letters to writers aspiring to publish their poems in our magazine, The Comstock Review. That definitely put the subject at a distance. |
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Summer, 2003. Jerry L. Clausen, M.D.
Last December I went to Harvard to study forgiveness as a tool of medical healing. I had been using it in my practice of psychiatry for a long time before that. To forgive is a self loving act. |
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June 22, 2003. Kim Reed, the Welcoming Congregation Committee, the Religious Services Committee
Our Annual GBTL Pride Service! This year the service included: a pagan Summer Solstice ritual, some readings including one from Hedwig and The Angry Inch, and a thoughtful reflection from our own Kim Reed. |
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February 3, 2002. Jerry L. Clausen, M.D.
Resentment was described by Father Martin, when he came to Lemoyne College, as "anger that is being re--sensed." That is sensed again. Frederick Nietzsche said, "Nothing on earth consumes a man more completely than the passion of resentment." |
Come Visit Us
Consulting Minister:
Reverend Holly Baylies
Services are at 10:30am on Sundays
We are a Welcoming Congregation that celebrates and supports the lives, relationships, religious quests, and contributions of LGBT people, their families and friends.
We are also an emerging Green Sanctuary striving for recognition by the Unitarian Universalist Association.
