Beyond Sunday: The UUCSB Blog
Reflections, Sermons, and the Monthly Newsletter
Rev. Lori on Navigating Change
“Change is rarely gentle. Even when we know a new way is needed, something in us clings to what is familiar—old habits, old stories, old comforts.The path toward right relationship with one another, with the earth, and with our own deepest values asks courage not just once, but again and again. It asks us to keep choosing love when resentment would be easier, truth when silence would be safer, and responsibility when avoidance would be more comfortable.”
The Messenger: May 2026
“May is a month of change. Planting, budding, sprouting are all words of change that symbolize the spring and symbolize our time now at UUCSB. New life abounds in the activities and new faces we are seeing in our halls and sanctuary. Awakening curiosity is our theme for the month of May. It is a beautiful and apt theme for this month with all the vibrant activity we have planned! We have an intergenerational event, our canvas begins, we have a mother’s day celebration, coffee house, and a new member celebration. All symbols of new life and growth and challenge.”
Rev. Lori Is Asking Questions
“Your question this week.
What is my biggest discomfort when it comes to the issue of homelessness and the unhoused population? ”
Rev. Lori on Taking Responsibility for Finding What is Sacred For You
“There is an invitation and a responsibility for you to define what is sacred to you. You are invited and supported while you explore it in the ways that you do explore it or don't explore it. There is freedom and there is responsibility.”
Easter Sermon: Rolling Away the Stone-The Courage To Begin Again
The Easter story begins in grief.
It begins in fear, in loss, in the sense that hope itself has been sealed away.
The stone is not just across the tomb—
it is across the future.
And yet—
the story does not end there.
In the UU tradition, we don’t ask whether the resurrection happened literally.
We ask:
Where is resurrection happening now?
The Messenger: April 2026
“This month's theme is embracing possibility. It is a perfectly placed theme given all of the holidays and seasonal changes taking place. April invites us into a season where possibility is not abstract—it is visible everywhere. Buds swell on branches, light lingers longer in the evening, snow hopefully has permanently melted for the season, and traditions across cultures remind us that transformation is always underway. This month holds a quiet but powerful invitation: to trust that change is possible, even when the world feels uncertain.”
Rev. Lori: Are We Listening People?
“In a world where everyone seems to be speaking, listening can be a spiritual practice.
Hearing is easy; listening takes intention. It asks us to pause, to quiet our own voices, and to make room for someone else’s truth. Our Unitarian Universalist tradition invites us into that deeper listening—to one another, to the wisdom of many traditions, and to the quiet voice within.”
Rev. Lori on the The Wayside Pulpit in our Modern Age
“I invite you to think about how and where and how much you tap into social media. What do you look at? Consider how it impacts you. Consider how it impacts people younger than you. Consider how it impacts kids. Positive messages promoting love and right relationship must be sent out into the webosphere. It is a pulpit. Another version of a wayside pulpit.”
Rev. Lori: Wake Up!
“There are many kinds of sleep. There is the sleep that comes at night, when our bodies finally release the day. But there is another kind of sleep that can last for years. The sleep of routine.The sleep of numbness. The sleep of believing that nothing can change—not in us,not in the world. We move through our days on autopilot. We answer the same emails. We worry the same worries. We rehearse the same stories about who we are. And we call it being awake.
But every spiritual tradition, in its own way,
whispers the same invitation:
Wake up.”
The Messenger: March 2026
“Paying attention means waking up to the new possibilities that come in and from strife. It is in March that the clocks springs ahead, when we hopefully see more green on the ground thats white, when the sap starts running and when there is an earthy smell in the air from the mud emerging. It is inviting our senses and bodies to wake up. To wake up to the new possibilities that we have yet to even imagine. Every moment we are living in holds the collapse of the illusions of our past. Choose joy and peace that can be found in taking care of one another and taking care of the earth!”
Rev. Lori on Our Quaker Forebears and The Gift of Silence
“Open and affirming, liberal, environmentally focused (especially here) and justice focused, everyone is equal….and here is the theology part, everyone is understood to have their own unique experience of the Divine that informs them how to live their life.’”
Rev. Lori on the Intersection of Love and Truth
“Love without truth can become sentimentality. Truth without love can become cruelty. But where love and truth meet, something holy happens.’”
Rev. Lori on Gathering Together In Community ~ An Act of Resistance & Resilience
“As it is said every Sunday, ‘When we gather together as a community, we bring the gifts of ourselves, our hearts and spirits, our time and energy, our talents and skills, to support the work of this church here within our walls and out in the larger community.’”
Rev. Lori on The Light of Resistance and the Blessings of Imbolc
“I began noticing this week how it gets lighter earlier in the morning and stays light later. In spite of the bitter cold temperatures I feel some encouragement by the addition of the minutes. I feel like light is also returning on in other areas of my consciousness. As hard and sad as things can feel these days, the light of effective resistance is shining. Small wins are popping up in the nation and in our community.”
The Messenger: February 2026
“It is February 2026. The theme for our month is Embodying Resilience. I believe that is perfect after the January we have experienced and the calls to resist in the many ways we can and do! Resilience is an ultimate act of resistance and it is our task and our study this month. We will live our resilience by eating together, worshipping together, saging together, singing together, kit making, and working side by side. We will celebrate our volunteering, and each other and we may even squeeze in a game night….Stay tuned for that. There is also an ecumenical/interfaith service in the works for early February.”
Rev. Lori: Don’t Stay In Your Seats!
“We are a faith community, even if we come from different faiths or no faith. We walk together and support one another on our own individual spiritual journeys. Faith without action is incomplete. Spiritual journey without witness is vacant. It is important to practice our spirituality in the ways that nourish ourselves and our community. And our spirituality also requires we look outward.”
ICE Response & Resources
Beloved Congregation:
Many people have questions about how to respond to the ICE presence in our community.
A hopeful truth:
When communities have verification pathways, legal observer connections, mutual aid readiness, and clear safety protocols, we the people, take back some power. We breathe again, stop freezing and start helping because our local communities help us feel less alone.
This article contains helpful actions and resources from the Regional UU offices.
For Those Who Came Before: Honoring UU Activists and Resistors Through the Ages
“We gather with the memory of Unitarian and Universalist activists, and with the memory of all those across the world who stood against injustice with nothing more than courage, clarity, and love. We gather to consider how our values shaped them—and still shape us. We gather to consider how these values, in shaping our lives, have shaped our communities, our society, and our world.”