Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church

Epiphany is the moment we knew our lives would be the same. In a thousand huge and miniscule ways, we experienced epiphany all throughout 2021. Now we are in 2022, knowing differently. What did we realize and when? What might we know next?

Join us Christmas Eve for a night of classic Christmas readings, carols, and candlelight. 

Whose holiday is it, anyway? Historians point out the pagan roots of Yule amidst voices calling for a more religious and less inclusive Christmas. In truth, the holiday has always been a melding of traditions, a pluralistic celebration of humanity and the world in which ... read more.

Note: There will be only one service on December 12th. “A Very Unitarian Christmas” will be held at 9:30 AM, in person and online, and it will be followed by a Congregational Meeting at 10:30 AM. Join all ages as we explore the Christmas holidays through ... read more.

Thousands of years of evolution have wired us for a winter holiday season … and this past year has amplified the need. It’s a time for celebrating transformation, hope, and joy. 

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on YouTube, 9:30 am There is so much anxiety, fear, and worry living inside and around us in these chaotic times. Creating intentional joy through resistance is a way to help increase our resiliency and secure sustainability – so we can ... read more.

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on YouTube, 9:30 am We gather again as we have in years past for our annual Bread and Cider ceremony. Please bring a bread from your heritage, or that is significant to you in some way, to share.

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on YouTube, 9:30 am Across the United States, people are showing up at school board meetings to protest various recent controversies. But there is an underlying battle that has been waged since 1848 when Unitarian Horace Mann said “Education ... read more.

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on YouTube, 9:30 am There is one thing you can change in your theological thinking that will allow you to live a happier and more fulfilled life and will also make you more effective at designing a world that you want ... read more.

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on YouTube, 9:30 am We complete our month's theme of “Design Your Life” by lifting up an important part of living: FUN. Wear your costume and come ready to celebrate!

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on YouTube, 9:30 am The pandemic has brought new revelations to us … about us. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do you want the same things you wanted before spring of 2020? Who are you, and more importantly … who do ... read more.

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on Youtube, 9:30 am The labor movement worked for a vision of a life designed to hold meaningful work, adequate rest, and joy-filled living. As we design our own lives, are we honoring what they fought for?

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on Youtube, 9:30 am This month, we're talking about how to design a life worth living. Unitarian Universalism is a faith that knows we do not live for ourselves alone. Our theology is one of collective liberation and collective salvation. What ... read more.

Carrie Krause, Dir. of Lifespan Faith Development Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on Youtube, 9:30 am Somewhere along life’s journey, most of us in the United States are taught that staying in the lines is valued, even when those lines are strangling us as individuals and a ... read more.

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on Youtube, 9:30 am We had expectations for what Fall 2021 was going to be like … and those plans have changed. As we move into another year where covid shapes much of what we do (and don't do), perhaps we ... read more.

Multiplatform – Outdoors and Livestreamed on Youtube, 9:30 am Join us either in person, outdoors at Live Oak, or on our Youtube channel for our annual Homecoming/Water Communion service.

How is your anger showing up? Are you more irritable, or carrying a slow-simmering rage? There are many justifiable reasons to be mad right now. How do we best channel that anger in a way that is productive and doesn't harm us or the people ... read more.

The last 5 years, and especially the last 8 months have given us ample reason to question some things we took for granted. We may be feeling disillusioned with humanity and with life itself. What do we do with those feelings? This service will be streamed ... read more.

“Tolerance” used to be one of the unifying principles of our faith. Is it still? (Originally streamed on May 2, 2021.)

Since the 1960s, the terms “welfare” and “welfare state” have been used disparagingly, often with scorn and stereotypes. Let's examine its history stemming from life during the Blitz in England. (Originally streamed on November 15, 2020.)

The Blitz of England by Nazi Germany holds many parallels to life right now. What can we learn from their experience? (Originally streamed on September 20, 2020.)

Most family trees contain some outlaws or skeletons in the closet–people we might wish to forget or hide away. What do we lose when we cut off part of our heritage? We can find lessons about who we are today, and how we can be ... read more.

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” – Hamilton You have lived through an epoch. Now it's time to begin putting together our individual and collective stories of this time. Live Oak is honored to welcome attendees of the Southern Region's virtual “The Point” summer conference ... read more.

Societies have used public censure and shunning to punish social transgressions for thousands of years. Today, our instant communication has added a new twist to this. But after someone is shunned for bad behavior what comes next? How do we, as members of society, leave ... read more.

The myth of the glorious Phoenix, the Firebird, rising from the ashes of its former self or from the flames of devastation is attributed to ancient Egypt. It was thought to be a sacred bird associated with the sun god.  In subsequent centuries other cultures—Greek, ... read more.

Live Oak Members Joel Bercu, Oliver Goss, Cindy La Greca and Carmen Rumbaut, share their thoughts about changes that could be made in the United States so that we might better live into the promise and potential of this nation.

Every year, members give Rev. Joanna their questions, and she answers them in this service. Come join us for answers about Unitarian Universalism, Live Oak, and anything else members have curiosity about.

As humans, we crave togetherness with others. But the key to the happiest relationships (as well as peace within oneself) is learning how to hold healthy boundaries and differentiate between what is our responsibility, and what is the responsibility of others. Come hear what Dr. Murray Bowen, and Johnny Castle from Dirty ... read more.

Our musicians continue the amazing work they’ve done in our virtual sanctuary, sharing special music in this worship service dedicated to the power of melody. 

Join us online for a worship service full of music, story, and message honoring our UU tradition of the flower communion. Then after the service, from 11-1, come up to Live Oak for a wandering flower communion on our labyrinth and chalice pathway. In case ... read more.

Love is asking us to live our values, be hospitable and inclusive, educate for liberation, restore and repair, and most importantly, to Side with Love. Join us for this special service featuring stirring music, deep-hearted reflection, and moving testimonies from a range of UU leaders.

If a boundary falls in the forest with no one around, does anyone hear it? Join us for Part 2 of this sermon series, as Rev. Joanna explores the freedom we give to other people by articulating our boundaries.  

The word “freedom” has been claimed this past year as a justification for doing as one wishes. But is that really freedom?

Happy Birthday, Unitarian Universalism! This is simultaneously a very old and a very young religion. How did we get here?

“Tolerance” used to be one of the unifying principles of our faith. Is it still?

Rev. Laura Shennum is a guest in our online pulpit this Sunday. Using the Process Theology concept of harmony, she will explore how we can create sustainability in our relations with each other and the world we inhabit. 

We have said that we will return to “life as normal” when it is safe. But the whole idea of safety means different things based on our social location. How can we create a world, and a church, where safety may be available to all? 

We are a liberal religion, seeking wisdom from liberation theology. Join us this Sunday as we explore the continuum of liberal to liberatory, and the religious challenge laid before us.

A year ago, Easter brought the dawning realization that our lives might be dramatically changed by the pandemic, and for longer than a couple of weeks. This year, our circumstances are similar … but the hope we now have changes everything.

Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul.” It is right and necessary to be informed, to struggle with ideas and theology, and to continually work toward doing good and being good. And there also ... read more.

Live over the past 5 years has twisted our conceptions of the continuum between courage and caution. What does courage look like, in 2021? And how can we live it out as a noble virtue?

It has been a year since Covid-19 caused the “life as we know it” to change. During this time, we have experienced sorrow, fear, ingenuity, and expressions of great generosity. Join us for this special service uniting Unitarian Universalist religious professionals around the country as ... read more.

Living during this pandemic is HARD, y’all. Join us for this honest but hopeful service about addressing the reality of the isolation but finding contentment (and maybe even joy) within its limitations.

A week ago, we knew an extraordinary cold front was coming. But we had no idea the trauma that was ahead because of bad decision-making by government and industry leaders. This Sunday, we come together with our sorrows, our gratitude, our anger, and our resolve. 

In the second part of a two-part series, we address the “cult of disorientation,” and how friends and family members can help someone who has been manipulated by a cult. Part 1 of the sermon series can be found here: https://youtu.be/Ab9y5C4jIZc

After World War II, the Allies instituted a program of removing Nazi ideology from Germany and Austria. Combined with modern research about the most effective ways of saving a loved one from a cult, we can begin the work of rebuilding our society with the ... read more.

As Adrienne Maree Brown says, “all organizing is science fiction”. As we organize for social justice individually and as a congregation, we have to be clear about the story we want to tell about our collective future. If we focus only on what ... read more.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King famously shared his dream where his children would live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. In 2021, what does “character” mean?

President-elect Joe Biden called it “an assault on the most sacred of American undertakings: the doing of the people’s business.” On January 6, domestic terrorists forced their way into the US Capitol building. Join us as we reflect on this moment and what it means ... read more.

2020 has been quite the year. Humans are meaning-makers, and even in difficult circumstances, we can find useful lessons. In the philosophy of “if you have to go through hell, don’t come out empty-handed,” Live Oak members share lessons they have learned this year that ... read more.