Every summer the Worship Associates plan and help deliver a series of lay-led services, organized around a unifying theme. We have chosen the theme of Compassion for Summer 2022. Dictionaries define compassion as a sympathetic concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others, and a desire to alleviate that suffering or distress. In the classical teachings of the Buddhist tradition, compassion is often described as “the heart that trembles in the face of suffering.” The Dalai Lama says that compassion “belongs to that category of emotions which have a more developed cognitive component.” Compassion embodies both feeling and action. Certainly these past two years have called upon our compassion in unprecedented ways.
Would you be interested in offering a sermon for one of our summer Sunday services? Please consider how you might help our congregation explore this theme, by sharing any experiences or understanding of compassion in your own life and learning. We want to hear from a wide variety of UU members — older/younger, abled/differently abled, LGBTQIA, working/retired, parenting, partnered/single.
Here are some questions we can all respond to:
- What does compassionate leadership look like, and where have you experienced it, or enabled it?
- Why is compassion important?
- How do you foster compassion? In yourself? In your family? In an organization?
- What are the characteristics/qualities of a compassionate person? Of a compassionate act?
- How do you show compassion to self?
- What is the nature of “compassion fatigue” in today’s demanding and challenging world? How do we move beyond it?
- How do we understand the relationship between empathy and compassion?
- What gets in the way of compassion?
- How do UU principles and Sources of Wisdom help deepen our personal and collective compassion?
Please complete a summer service proposal form (PDF) and share your stories, your thoughts and your insights to these questions to help us plan the summer program. Upload completed proposal forms here.
The deadline for submission is the end of April. The Worship Associates will meet on May 7th to review the proposals and will select those that best fit together. The WA team will follow up with you in May. Thank you for your interest and ideas!