Past Services

We celebrate ending and beginning, leave-taking and return.

Special musical guest, much-beloved Gordon Kent, returns after more than two years of medical treatment and rehabilitation. 

We sing together with Keith Arnold, now our settled Director of Music and Arts, newly relocated from Colorado after a cross-country drive.

Rev. Louise Green concludes her service at All Souls as Interim Minister of Congregational Care.

Join us in-person or online for this ASL-interpreted worship service! Stay afterward for coffee hour in Pierce Hall or visit with the Connecting Souls for social time on the same Zoom link!

We are all tangled up together in a great web of life that is woven with beauty and hardship, love and loss, thriving and struggle. How do we tend well to the weaving so that all of us are held in care?

This Sunday we will join the largest annual gathering of UUs in worship directly from our sanctuary at All Souls DC.

Rev. Molly Housh Gordon will be joined by Violet Vonder Haar, Jamila Bachelder, Rev. Leon Dunkely, Rev. Eric Kaminetsky, Rev. Joan Javier-Duvall, Rev. Jordinn Nelson Long, Rev. Aaron Wisman, Rev. Sadie Lansdale, and Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan.

Featuring musicians: Natasha Steinmacher, GA Music Coordinator; Lea Morris; Francisco Ruiz; beheld; Violet Vonder Haar; Paul Winchester; and choirs from All Souls Unitarian Church, Indianapolis, IN; First Parish in Concord, MA; First Parish UU in Lexington, MA; First UU Congregation of Ann Arbor, MI; UU Fellowship in Athens, GA; UU Fellowship of Poughkeepsie, NY; UU Church in Cherry Hill, NJ; UU Church in Reston, VA; and UU of Minnetonka, MN.

Our services include ASL interpretation.

When we think about the work of social transformation, it’s easy to picture loud voices and confrontational actions. These are important and valid tactics, of course, but they’re not the only way. In some circumstances, we can make significantly more progress with different approaches. How can we be honest about our genuine feelings of fear, anger, and outrage, yet also effective in how we show up with and for each other?

FULL SERMON TEXT

Please join us in-person or online for our Vespers service this month!

Our Vespers worship service is modeled after the traditional Taizé worship service, which uses silence, scripture, prayer, and repetitive singing of short chants and rounds to quiet the mind and promote deep meditation. The Taizé Community promotes peace and justice through prayer and meditation. Our Vespers service mirrors Taizé-style attention to silence, holy words, prayer, and singing, but has also evolved to include other meditative traditions such as yogic singing and Buddhist chanting. Followed by a time for community gathering. Every second Wednesday of the month.

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Dial in: 301.715.8592; meeting ID: 997 7201 2495; passcode: 927624

“It has been my privilege to preach from this pulpit for the last two years. You have heard the themes of love and possibility that sustain me in this faith. What last word can I offer?”
—Rev. Bill

If love is the mystery at the center of things, perhaps gratitude is the best invocation and benediction on this journey of the spirit. Perhaps love is the word we need most to sustain hope.

This is Rev. Sinkford’s last day in the pulpit.

What is transformational blessing from a Unitarian Universalist perspective? This service features a six-movement Cantata composed by Keith Arnold with words from Rev. Wendy Williams, sung by the All Souls Choir and chamber orchestra. A central element of the Cantata is a blessing of the hands. All Souls’ annual congregational meeting follows this service.

Join us in-person or online for this ASL-interpreted worship service! Stay afterward for coffee hour in Pierce Hall or visit with the Connecting Souls for social time on the same Zoom link!

Unitarian Universalism proclaims that our differences can be blessings rather than curses and that the wisdom of all the world’s faith traditions can be spiritual resources for us. How can we live that out without “cherry-picking” or “colonizing” traditions we do not know well? What have we learned about respect for traditions that are not our own? What are we still in need of learning?

Join us in-person or online for this ASL-interpreted worship service! Stay afterward for coffee hour in Pierce Hall or visit with the Connecting Souls for social time on the same Zoom link!

Unitarian Universalism proclaims that our differences can be blessings rather than curses and that the wisdom of all the world’s faith traditions can be spiritual resources for us. How can we live that out without “cherry-picking” or “colonizing” traditions we do not know well? What have we learned about respect for traditions that are not our own? What are we still in need of learning?

Come to Pierce Hall after service for Coffee Hour or stay on the same Zoom link to chat with the Connecting Souls!

We are all shaped by-and limited by – messages from external sources about who we are and who we can be. They come from our families of origin, they come from friends, they come from society, and so on. As strong as they might be, however, the most powerful story is the one we tell about ourselves. Whether it’s dealing with external messages, or wrestling with things we’ve done that have harmed others, how can we break through the limits of our own stories?

Come to Pierce Hall after service for Coffee Hour or stay on the same Zoom link to chat with the Connecting Souls!

The religious community bears witness to our lives, to growth and change at every age and stage. We will recognize the transition from youth into young adulthood, creating a bridge of blessing as youth of the congregation are welcomed into the community of Young Souls.

After service, stay on the same Zoom link to chat with the Connecting Souls or join us in Pierce Hall for Coffee Hour!

This Sunday we will celebrate 100 years of regular worship services in the current building, which started on April 27, 1924. A lot has changed in the world since then, and there are massive shifts happening now in the American religious landscape. COVID and other factors seem to have turned a slow, steady decline in religious attendance into a steep steady decline. At the same time, 83% of all U.S. adults believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body. And new spiritual communities are being formed all the time by people who want to explore their beliefs in a group context. So what is the future of religion?

Join us for this hybrid, ASL interpreted worship service! Stay afterward for coffee hour in Pierce Hall or visit with the Connecting Souls for social time on the same Zoom link!