The First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa

This service is the first of several opportunities for reflection, conversation, and listening as we consider this important step in the life of our congregation, and will mark the official beginning of our congregational discernment process as we listen together for the wisdom, hopes, and commitments of our beloved community. Click here to view the service in full Use the 34:56 timestamp to jump directly to Fish Stark's Reflection.

Two hundred fifty years ago, Thomas Paine wrote that "we have it in our power to begin the world over again." The scientist Stuart Kauffman gave us a newer name for the same hope: the adjacent possible — the better world that already exists in potential, hovering at the edge of this one, waiting for us to take the single step that makes it real. Humanists have never believed that a better world descends from on high or arrives all at once. We believe it is built, here, by ord

Our UU Fourth Principal states that we are all entitled to our own "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". For a covenantal faith, with deeply held shared values, but no expectation that everyone in a given congregation will have the same beliefs about the nature of the cosmos and their place in it, the "Free" part of our Fourth Principle is self-explanatory. But what is a "Responsible Search"? How do we discern what makes truth true or what makes meaning meaning

Grounded in science and spirit, this service invites us to consider our place in an ever-unfolding universe - and the wonder that awakens us to belonging. Click here to view the service in full Use the 44:10 time stamp in the description to jump to Reverend Lara's Sermon