The Pagosa Unitarian Universalist (UU) Fellowship shares this month’s Sunday Services below. Our schedule includes time for building community, growing spirits and doing good, which we hold as our motto. We invite our Pagosa community to a welcoming space, as we embrace inclusion and all of who you are.
Dec 7 – Sunday Service, 10:30 a.m., Gratitude and Joy as Resistance
Guest speaker Tami Bradshaw, who comes to us from Durango, will share on the theme of gratitude and joy. Bradshaw believes that cultivating joy, wonder, and awe is perhaps the most practical thing any of us can do to serve the world and to serve others. From this place, she will share some insights and practices gleaned from the Spiritual Directors International webinar called Awakening Joy: Cultivating Presence. The three areas of exploration Bradshaw will speak to are; activating a deeper sense of relaxed present moment awareness, mine the gold of personal experience to consciously cultivate more elevated states of being, and begin to habituate those states through a simple 3-5 minute practice.
She shares that her most consistent spiritual practice is walking in the woods and talking with the trees, and where she enjoys the company of spiritual companions that include ponderosa pines, wild turkeys, grey tufted squirrels, and little black bears. She most often feels the Spirits’ loving presence when she is slowing down and connecting to nature. Tami Bradshaw is a Spiritual Director certified through the Stillpoint Center for Christian Spirituality at Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico. For more than 25 years Tami has facilitated spiritual formation programs for children, youth and adults. She holds a Master of Arts in Religion from the Iliff School of Theology where she learned great respect for all the world’s Wisdom Traditions.
She has served United Methodist Churches in the Sky Mountain Conference as program staff, pastor’s spouse and as a volunteer, and is currently a member of Summit Church Durango, a United Methodist Church where her husband Jeff Huber is the lead pastor. In her spiritual companioning work, she accompanies individuals and facilitates spiritual direction groups both in person and online.
Dec 14 – Going Deeper Sharing Circle – 10:30-12:00 pm
In this small-group setting, we practice deep listening and sharing from our hearts. The fourth in the series from the On Being podcast, we will hear an excerpt with Ocean Vuong. Poet, novelist, essayist, and professor of creative writing in the MFA program at New York University, Vuong is a teacher with words about words, says Krista Tippet, host of On Being. With space for reflection and sharing we practice the art of listening with others. Light refreshments are offered.
Dec 21 – Winter Solstice Gathering
Beginning around 10:00 a.m. with an informal drum circle we will honor the dark and light of the season. The Spark Within will be our theme as we welcome the growing light after the longest night of the year. We’ll begin with an outdoor drum circle for those interested, and move in for music, reflection and ritual to honor both the dark and the light. More information to come.
Dec 28 – A Rest Sunday
We’ll pause our Action Sunday! this month for a continued rest from the holiday rush. Join us in January on the 4th Sunday to continue the UUA Common Read Book Group to explore Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection by Deepa Iyer.
The new year brings a recommitment and renewal of our Welcoming Congregation status with the Unitarian Universalist Association. This process includes holding worship services, days of observance, education components, and a service project in support of the LBGTQ+ / TGQNB communities. We are a community of open minds and loving hearts as we continue a path of life-long learning. We open our Fellowship space with various Community Groups in our Hub, a place for groups to gather and grow as part of that life-long learning. The Tara Pagosa Meditation practice meets Sunday evenings from 4:30-6:00 p.m. through the winter months. Also, a weekly Qigong practice is offered on Mondays at 1:00 p.m. The Wise and Wakeful Circle continues to meet on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays at 10:00 a.m.
More information can be found at PagosaUU.org where you will find our current newsletter. Pagosa Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is located at Greenbriar Plaza, Unit B-15, 301 N. Pagosa Blvd. on the north side facing the Pagosa Peak. For more information about the Fellowship, please see the website and look for our current newsletter.