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In The Shelter
Sunday, February 25 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
This month our theme is Love, and we UUs believe in expressing love through service. Our partner for Share the Plate on February 25th is PorchLight, formerly Congregations for the Homeless (CFH). East Shore has partnered with them for many years through hosting their Rotating Shelter each October.
This month we celebrate the expansion of our partnership to include support of PorchLight’s new, low-barrier Emergency Shelter located near our campus. On February 25, Tom Kerby, the Director of this wonderful new home for unhoused men, will join us at our 10:30 a.m. worship service and hold a talk / Q&A session at 11:45 a.m. Please come and participate!
We will share our collection plate with PorchLight that day, so please donate in person or through text-to-give/online. You also can participate by donating winter supplies for the PorchLight men in donation boxes around campus. Our PorchLight Ministry Team will plan regular events where East Shore members can participate in activities such as meal preparation, visits, or other services.
Please come and show your love to our Porchlight friends!
Rev. Dr. María Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa will be preaching.
How to Attend
We encourage masks in all buildings. Read more about our In Person Guidelines here.
• To virtually attend, please Zoom in using room number 989 3107 9078, passcode: chalice.
• To phone into the service, call 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 989 3107 9078.
For those joining, please mute as soon as you enter the room, so everyone can hear. Please note, the services will be recorded, but at this time, there are no plans to share the recording.
More Information
Religious Education for children and youth happens during worship on Sundays. Children and youth arrive in the Sanctuary for the just a little bit and welcome in Sunday with a story and song. Then, they attend their own programs in the Education building. Learn more here!
If you don’t have a chalice, but want to light one, check out our Making a Chalice at Home page.
In person services are followed by coffee hour.
Children’s Story
Sermon Audio
In The Shelter
Sermon Text
One of the many blessings I receive by virtue of being your minister is journeying together, supporting your efforts to bring more love and justice to this hurting world, being able to practice and live into our Unitairian Universalist values. All faith traditions call us to be in solidarity with and lift up those in need. This is how we show unconditional love: to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit those in prison, and to provide shelter for those who need it. This is how we teach our children how to love and make a difference in the world. This congregation has been a loving shelter for many years. Through our Social Justice Ministry Teams, we support both Sophi’as Way and Porchlight. This morning we are blessed to have the opportunity to make real our commitment to justice and to centering love by supporting our community partner, Porchlight. We welcome Porchlight staff Tom and Priya and our own Porchlight volunteers: Peggy, Doug, Margot, Mike, Carrie, Carol, Bob, Bert, Beth, John, among a growing number of volunteers.
During my first year here the number of volunteers was dwindling, but this year has seen a rise in the number of people showing up to donate money, do grocery shopping, make sandwiches, contribute to a winter clothing drive, and hosting our Porchlight guests. Last year I volunteered making sandwiches and this year I volunteered to host and cook meals which gave me a wonderful opportunity to get to know our guests, to have amazing conversations about theology, social justice, and the meaning of home. I don’t know what it is to sleep on the street or be separated from my family in order to have access to a shelter. I only know the pain of losing home because of immigration, losing home due to divorce, hiding that reality in shame, being a seminarian at Harvad while working at a hotel as a housekeeper so that I could have a bed to sleep in. That was temporary and lasted only a couple of months, and when my classmates and my professor noticed me carrying my possessions in plastic bags, staying at the library until it closed because it was warm, and noticed that I was sleep deprived, stressed, and anxious, they helped. And in the process restored my dignity and my faith. I could think of the future. I could dream again. I could graduate and know that my success was largely due to the kindness and compassion of friends and strangers alike, who contributed to a collection to help me pay my first month’s rent and deposit. Today I am more committed than ever to join forces with community organizations like Porchlight to hopefully make a difference and bring to this solidarity network our humanity, our best selves, to give of ourselves with pride, dignity, and joy! The joy of meeting people who bring out the best in us, who remind us to be grateful for community, and to be hopeful and keep dreaming, especially during hard times. I welcome the chance to pay it forward. Someone was there for me when I needed them, so I will be there for someone too. Someone was once my shelter, now it is my turn to be a shelter for someone. A shelter of unconditional love.
“In the shelter of each other, we are open, we are dreaming, we are wise.” [Lyrics by Reggie Harris]
