UUCA – Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta

I was a gang member when I was a teenager. A serious gangmember. Our gang — we called it a “club” — was divided into companies of six. The proud owner of a 1938 Oldsmobile sedan, built like a tank, I was the driver for my company of six. We had corporals and lieutenants and [...]

Some may recall a sermon last spring in which I mentioned that, calling for information about Unitarian Universalism, a woman had once asked me if we are a cult. I informed her that Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Bronsons and the Alcotts, some say Thomas Jefferson – definitely the two Adams presidents — and a host [...]

"Zorba, have you ever been married?” Zorba answers, “Am I not a man? Of course I've been married. Wife, house, Kids, everything … the full catastrophe!” This really was not a lament on Zorba's part. He didn't mean that being married or having kids was a disastrous state to be in. Zorba's position before life [...]

Sammy Davis Junior notwithstanding, most of you have probably guessed that I am not Jewish. All the more reason for me to feel honored to have been asked to participate in this service. Few things are more flattering than to be entrusted with not making a mess of someone else's heritage. I must also confess [...]

As a male in this culture, one of the most embarrassing confessions I have ever had to make is that I'm not into sports. I am quite seriously not into sports. I am, in fact, so not into sports that until more recently than I would care to admit, I actually thought the Superbowl was [...]

There's a new fad abroad in the land, mostly among teenagers. Teenagers around the country are wearing jewelry– rings (a few actually worn on fingers), bracelets, necklaces– which bear the letters WWJD. WWJD can also be found on hats, book bags, denim shirts and writ large on t-shirts. A CD album entitled WWJD is at [...]

Someone asked me recently when I became a minister. Ordinarily, I would have simply said, “Oh, about thirty-five years ago, I guess. I was ordained about thirty-five years ago.” But, this time, my mind chose to make a big deal out of the question, complicate it, mess with it, analyze and philosophize with it. In [...]

During the holidays, I overheard our youngest daughter, Jennifer, say to her older brother-in-law that the ice cream they were eating was “awesome.” Brother-in-law said, “No, Jennifer. The Grand Canyon is awesome. This ice cream is merely very good.” Well, he got the kind of unrepeatable response for that that one might expect. Then, shortly [...]

This is a portion of Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham City Jail. King was a Christian, and used Christian symbolism to make powerful statements. Though many of us here today are not Christian, I ask that you accept King's use of Christian language and symbol because for me to alter them would detract from [...]

Ministering at the time of death is never, of course, a routine, simple task. There are those deaths that are called "good deaths." The "good death" comes at the end of a long and productive life, comes as an anticipated visitor, comes quietly, bringing peace and release. In such situations, the minister is truly, in [...]