Emerson Unitarian Universalist Chapel Saint Louis Missouri

February 2012

Rev. Taves will return from sabbatical April 1, 2012.

February 5, Is Unconditional Empathy Possible in a Divided Nation? Lauren Mackey. Lauren is a graduate student in community counseling at UMSL and is interning at Queen of Peace, a drug & alcohol treatment center for women. In her free time, Lauren enjoys singing, watching movies,live music, theatre, and family time with her partner, Chris Gamlin, and their dog Tivoli. As UU's, we pride ourselves on being an exceptionally empathic congregation, especially in our devotion to groups of people who are oppressed in society. Having empathy for minorities is easy for us, but what about for people who seem to lack empathy, particularly people in power? Lauren will explore how judgment and hatred of the "haters" hurts only ourselves, and what we can do to rid this negativity from our spirit, thus creating more peace within our hearts. Special Music: Worship Band. Pianist: Todd Painter.

February 12, Children and Youth Service: Petunia, Beware! Emerson Children and Youth RE Program Come and see our adaptation! Special Music: John Terhune,saxophone. Pianist: Todd Painter.

February 19, Just How Lucky Are We? Jim Lyonfields. Born Jim Lyon, Jim was lucky enough to marry Shawna Fields while she completed her engineering degrees and he his psychology degrees. He completed his internship as a Captain in the Air Force where he supported rescue/recovery efforts for the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. In this sermon, Jim moves beyond the more common factors to clarify what really makes people successful, particularly factors that most people may not have considered; how we integrate success and failure on a psychological level. How do we keep these in perspective? Special Music: Camille Herman, vocalist. Pianist: Todd Painter.

February 26, Step off the Train: Judging or Participating Susan Stafford. Susan is a lifelong UU and has been a member of Emerson Chapel since 2005. She and her husband, CharlesLandauer, have two children, Megan, 15, and Ben, 12. She works as a psychiatric nurse at Centerpointe Hospital. She notes, "Sermon writing gave me a chance to explore things I had been contemplating in a new way." She explores humans as judging creatures. Yet, how do we judge and be authentic to our UU Principles? Special Music: Walden Pond. Pianist: Todd Painter.

Read sermons delivered at Emerson Chapel during the past year. This page will provide a link to our archived sermons.

Learn more about Adult or Children/Youth Religious Education programming for this month.

Emerson UU Chapel: A heart-filled community.
Emerson's Sanctuary in the evening (photo credit: Bob Layne)