"Transformation: It's What Liberal Churches Do!" -- UUSE Virtual Worship, October 11, 2026

Gathering Music (Mary Bopp)

Welcome (Rev. Josh Pawelek)

Centering

Prelude

"Hotel"

by Francis Poulenc

Arr. by Mary Bopp

Chalice Lighting and Opening Words

"Turn Scarlet, Leaves"

Words by Raymond J. Baughan

Music by Mary Bopp

Turn scarlet, leaves

Spin earth

Tumble the shadows into dawn

Tumble the shadows into dawn

Opening Hymn

"I Will Change Your Name"

by D. J. Butler

I will change your name

You shall no longer be called

Wounded, outcast

Lonely or afraid

I will change your name

Your new name shall be

Confidence, joyfulness

Overcoming one

Faithfulness, friend of God

One who seeks my face.

New Member Welcome

Introductions (Membership Committee co-chairs)

The Charge (Minister)

As you take up membership in the Unitarian Universalist Society East, I charge you to share with us who you are. Share your creativity, your experiences, your questions, your doubts, your beliefs, and all your discoveries of life's meaning. I charge you to shake us up with your ideas, to stir us up with your conscience, to inspire us with your actions, and to stimulate our hopes with your dreams of what life can be.

Congregational Welcome (Congregation)

We welcome you as companions in the search for truth and meaning. We invite you to share in our mission of caring for one another, encouraging each other in spiritual growth, working for justice and peace in the wider community, and living in harmony with the earth. We join our gifts with yours, trusting in the power of community to bring freedom, healing and love.

New Member Affirmation (New members)

We join the Unitarian Universalist Society East out of a desire and willingness to participate in a liberal religious congregation. We pledge to share our time, energy and gifts; to diligently seek our spiritual truths; and to strengthen the bonds of community.

Responsive Hymn

"This Meetinghouse"

words adapted from Eugene Sander by Josh Pawelek

Music by Jean Sibelius

This meetinghouse,

A place of love and gladness

Where all may meet, to seek the common good.

A source of strength, to face each doubt and sadness.

Where every dream is known and understood.

This meetinghouse, ask those who came before,

And found themselves, by crossing through its door.

Musical Interlude

Announcements

Joys and Concerns

Musical Interlude

Offering

MARC, Inc. provides the opportunity for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live meaningful lives of independence, choice, inclusion, and continuous personal growth. MARC, Inc. was founded in 1952 by seven families who were working together to support their children who were living with disabilities. Today, they have a campus on Sheldon Road in Manchester where they provide multiple services and programs, in addition to managing eleven residential homes. MARC supports almost three hundred individuals from twenty-seven towns in the Greater Hartford area.

UR Community Cares' mission is to keep older and disabled neighbors supported in their homes and active in their communities. Their programs include: "Neighbors Helping Neighbors," which provides volunteer support so that older adults and people with physical disabilities can live safely at home; "Cycling Without Age Manchester," which deploys an e-bike rickshaw to provide free recreational rides for older and disabled residents in Charter Oak Park and along the East Coast Greenway; the UR Community Tech Center, which offers free technology support and volunteers to answer questions about smartphones, tablets, laptops; and UR Vision Resources, a 100-page printed Blind/Vision Impaired Directory to ensure more people know what services are available.

Offering Music

#205 "Amazing Grace"

Words by John Newton

Music, Virginia Harmony, 1831

Sandy Johnson, vocals

Sermon

"Transformation: It's What Liberal Churches Do"

Rev. Josh Pawelek

Closing Hymn

"There's a River Flowin' in My Soul"

#1007 in Singing the Journey

by Rose Sanders aka Faya Ora Rose Toure

There's a river flowin' in my soul.

There's a river flowin' in my soul.

And it's tellin' me that I'm somebody.

There's a river flowin' in my soul.

There's a river flowin' in my heart...

There's a river flowin' in my mind...

Extinguishing the Chalice

"The flame in our hearts never ceases burning."

Closing Circle

May faith in the spirit of life

And hope for the community of earth

And love of the light in each other

Be ours now, and in all the days to come.