What would it look like to radically change the way we interact with the world around us? Changed our framing from that of consumerism, consumption, and property to one of gift, exchange, and community ownership? This topic was originally inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass,” and current events have put a new spin on it. Let’s ga…

The new day-to-day reality we are living is a rapidly changing and frequently heartbreaking one. And there are ways even now, so early in the tragedy of a global pandemic, to both find and build silver linings. Let’s come together in community, create some alchemy while we create community, and be reminded that the interdependent web has many incre…

What does it take, as individuals and as a community, to welcome wisdom? Cultures change, norms change, language changes… but where is wisdom in all this? Naguib Mahfouz wrote, “You can tell whether one is clever by their answers. You can tell whether one is wise by their questions.” Let’s throw open the doors of our hearts to questions, and think …

We teach the Golden Rule to children, because that is when we began to understand this important concept. And there are situations where the Golden Rule is the best option, but what about those moments when it isn’t? Join KUF Sunday morning to explore the idea of the platinum rule, and what it means in a community grounded in stories, relationships…

KUF joins congregations across Canada in marking International Women’s Day. How can we together see both how far we’ve come and the work that remains? What is our work to do as we move through what we’ve inherited and build a new way of being? As Unitarian Universalists how do we use our commitment to always search out truth and meaning in this wor…

Our faith calls us to create a world with ever increasing justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. What are the causes and conditions we need to cultivate to build the resilience we need to practice beloved community in this work?

As the days lengthen and our steps lighten with the growing daylight, how can we appreciate and honor the beautiful, the wonderful, the awe-inspiring things, large and small, that grace our days? Join Anne Coward as she reflects on how purposely practicing Gratitude can help make us more resilient and how that Resilience can allow us to offer our s…

The idea of ‘happiness’ as a goal is a modern myth. Our lives, of course, include moments that are happy and moments that are not, however, making happiness itself a goal becomes a trap. How can we, as a people of faith, unwind this misunderstanding and find a new path that leads us into the bounty of resilience in lives that are sometimes profound…

World Religion Day just passed and World Interfaith Harmony Week is coming up, but have we truly started down this path? What would it take to get better at the skills we all need to make this a reality?

Last week we reflected on our personal values and set an intention to use them as priorities in the coming year. When we reflect on Unitarian Universalist history what do we see are the values of our faith? And of our congregation?

It is the time of year to pause and reflect on the past year and take our insights and learning into a new year. While ‘resolutions’ are one way to do that, what if we reflected on our personal values and set an intention to use them as priorities in the coming year instead?

The holiday season brings with it joy, celebration, and revelry—and sometimes it’s harder than others. Bring a photo of someone who isn’t here to celebrate with us this year, a memento of years past, or your precious memories. And most of all bring love and compassion for the breadth of experience among this wonderful community’s members—from the n…

On this special Sunday we will celebrate KUF’s musical history and the contributions of our long-time volunteer Music Director Phyllis Robbins, who is retiring 31 December. Special musical guests and musical gifts will be partnered with reflections on the gift of music itself in the context of a community making meaning together.…

As a community that is seeking wisdom our 3rd source calls us to look to the world’s faith traditions in order to inspire and deepen our capacity for both the ethical and the spiritual in our lives. As we prepare to move into the holiday season, let’s turn our attention to what inspires us to become the best individuals we can be, and lights a fire…

Nations, faith communities, and all human systems carry the stories of their pasts whether they pay attention to them or not. It is our stories that shape our understanding of ourselves and lay the walkway to the future. Let us gather for Remembrance Day taking time to honour our stories, and as always to pay attention to these tales for the benefi…

How can we navigate attention, awareness, and consciousness in our listening, speaking, and the building of beloved community? Sylvia Boorstein wrote, “Suppose people everywhere, simultaneously, stopped what they were doing and paid attention for only as long as it took to recognize their shared humanity.” Let’s gather for Sunday Service and spend …

The Unitarian Universalist Sixth Principle calls us to come together to work for a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. This United Nations Sunday service will delve into what it means to be a world community in the context of intersectional gender equity. How do people of faith answer the call to defend human dignity and right…

We belong to the world around us, and to each other, in ways that will take an entire lifetime to fully explore. Our respect for the interdependent web of all existence, and our work to be responsible stewards within it, is one way we manifest our belonging. When have you experienced a sense of belonging? Who is sitting just outside our circle and …

We approach conversations of generosity from many angles within our faith, which can be a difficult topic due to how individuals, generations, cultures, and families are profoundly different. Let’s gather together for an enriching time in the community seeing the bounty of the whole, and the ways we can each give wholeheartedly to this precious net…

When reconciliation is mentioned in the media these days conversation typically revolves around helping non-Indigenous settlers understand the impact that past colonial policies have had on Indigenous Peoples. Very little, if any, attention is given to how colonization is continuing today, the privilege we would need to relinquish to end it, and ho…

Our annual ingathering and water ceremony celebrates our formal re-entry into another year of gathering, working, and welcoming work in the community. This Sunday we celebrate where our paths have taken us, and how all of the gathered waters from our individual journeys nourish our roots and help us grow. Please bring a small amount of water from y…

How does faith formation impact our evolution and connections as a community? Join Rev. Beckett and our shared ministry teams for the second Sunday of our 2019-2020 congregational year for some playful exploration in theory and engagement.

When we participate in community we can choose do so with a stance of hopeful expectation. What does it mean to allow this stance to become an inspiration towards our life together in community? And how can we begin to look at the ‘Why?’ of community through this lens? Join Rev. Beckett and many others for our first service of the 2019-2020 congreg…

Today we close one congregational year and cast our attention forward toward the next. This is a moment for reflecting on all the gifts and joys that community brings into our lives, and we will even have some special guests sharing their gifts with us. After Sunday Service we will gather for food and conversation before heading out to the summer s…

Kingston Unitarian Fellowship is once again planning to participate in the Kingston, ON Community Fair & Pride Parade 2019 next Saturday, 15 June. During this service we will be both lifting up and welcoming diverse voices as we celebrate our aspiration to radical inclusion and love in our world. #KUF #YGKPride #UUFaith (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppo…

You are invited to bring a few of your favourite flowers as we gather in our annual celebration of beauty and community. You will go home with a different flower from the one you brought, and hopefully with a new memory, a new friend in the KUF community, and some new ideas taking root. This year’s service will be multigenerational, with all ages g…

Have you ever conducted experiments with curiosity? Perhaps an investigation of thoughts, stories, or reactions to specific people? Or specific experiences? The intention here is to infuse hope and play and forgiveness into investigations, so that we can evolve a capacity to be curious even when we find ourselves in hard conversations and the work …

What does it mean to be a people organized in religiously pluralist communities oriented towards a living free faith? Join Rev. Beckett and the KUF community this morning for a Sunday dedicated to our finding ourselves more and more deeply each year thanks to the benefits of belonging. (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)…

How do we promote a sense of belonging and wholeness amongst ourselves as we live into community together? Join Rev. Beckett for a time engaged in thought, inquiry, and action. (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)

Please join us this morning for our annual recognition of the spring seasonal holidays from the world’s wisdom traditions, and the inspiration provided by Earth Day’s reminder of our interdependence. (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)

Being a member of a community means supporting each other through sickness and in health. When we come together in both challenging times and easy ones we create an opportunity to grow deeper into community. How do we draw upon that power of community in moments of hardship? How can we keep a little light shining on all our paths as we walk togethe…

Explore and experience the possibilities of a world where every body from 4 year olds to 90 year olds experience the program of OWL – Our Whole Lives – an honest and comprehensive sexuality education program. Honest, accurate information about sexuality changes lives. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem…

The holiday season brings joys, celebrations, and revelry at times. And some years it’s harder than others. How can community bring comfort? How can we feel both the uplift and the difficulties of this particular holiday season? Bring a photo of someone who isn’t here to celebrate with us this year, a memento of years past, or your memories. Physic…

In early November Rev. Beckett spent 7 gloriously overwhelming days at the 2018 Parliament of the Worlds Religions. Thebulk of the programming, over 1000 programs, were offered on the 5 core days of the event. A few highlights and reflections on core takeaways will be explored, including the power of pluralism in global community. (Speaker: Rev. Be…

Our affiliated community minister Rev. Wendy Luella Perkins is also a Canadian singer/songwriter. Her work in Kingston and across Canada includes and celebrates the ministry that is music. How does music play a role in our lives through its connections to our histories and our futures? Come join Rev. Wendy Luella for Sunday Service and find out! (S…

Just like communities of people, we each individually have a collection of stories from our pasts which can evoke responses from us, and these memories have the ability to both hurt and heal. Through faith, community, and intentional practice we can transform the relationship we have with our stories. (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)…

Communities, faiths, and nations all carry the stories of their pasts, and those stories shape not only their understanding of themselves but also their future. Let’s gather together this Remembrance Day in honour of the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1, and let’s do it for the benefit of tomorrow. (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)…

Join us on this special multigenerational Sunday Service exploring the stories of our ancestors, and wisdom traditions of Samhain, All Souls Day, and the Day of the Dead. Come listen to members of the congregation tell stories about their ancestors, as we deepen our connections to the past, the future, and each other. Feel free to bring a picture o…

As we come upon Halloween, All Souls, and other annual fall holidays we also have a wonderful opportunity to investigate the many masks and disguises we wear. Sometimes they are useful, and sometimes they are even fun. And sometimes they become a trap that prevents us from finding our way home. Come join us for a Sunday Service followed by lively c…

Join us for KUF’s Annual United Nation (UN) Sunday, celebrating the work of the United Nations and our Unitarian Universalist (UU) United Nations Office. The theme of the UU UNO’s work this year is the many aspects of just migration, including the increasing need for the global community to address climate forced migration and climate refugees. How…

What does it mean to create belonging and aspire to radical welcome? And how is this related to our call to engage with justice work? Let’s explore an aspect of this topic as we continue to unravel our monthly theme of sanctuary. (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)

This Thanksgiving weekend let’s talk about how, in the words of Rev. Elea Kemler, “our principles call us to walk each other home.” In an era of loneliness, separation, and division the oasis of community is the place where we will build mechanisms to save us from what lies outside our walls. Through the hard times and the easy a people of sanctuar…

The idea of leaning into things when they are hard is intrinsic to any visioning exercise, i.e. if we don’t fail occasionally then perhaps we aren’t really trying hard enough. And there are moments to sit back and allow time, perspective, healing, and more to occur. Join us today for an exploration of the different choices we always have before us,…

Our annual ingathering and water ceremony celebrates a return to the source in gratitude for life and for community. Every drop of water is on an amazing journey, just as we are! On this special Sunday we celebrate a community that gives us life, a beloved community where we water each other and together we grow. Please bring a small amount of wate…

We all have dreams and visions and hopes, for ourselves and for others. And then there’s what actually happens. Come join us for Sunday Service to explore acknowledging the limitations of what we think is going to happen, and how we can use that as a tool moving forward. (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)…

A Japanese proverb teaches us that, “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” How can we use our Unitarian Universalist theology and our Canadian Unitarian Aspirations to create a vision grounded in our theology for us to act on in the world and in our individual lives? Join us at 10:30am for Sunday Service and li…

In meditation there is a teaching of "Fresh Start" within a mindfulness practice. What does it mean to allow this wisdom teaching to become a part of our life together in community? (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)

On this day we will close the fellowship year, sharing messages of gratitude to one another for the path we have traversed over this exciting first year together. Following Sunday Service we will gather in the park for a community picnic, make plans to see one another over the summer, and celebrate that we will come together once again on 26 August…

Lay Chaplains honour the Threshold Moments in the lives of the people who seek their services for ceremonies of significance – usually child dedications, weddings and memorials or funerals. Although most people don’t ask in so many words, by marking these occasions they are seeking a blessing on this important moment in their lives. What draws ordi…

Engaging with the world can feel alienating at times, and like the world is full of people who are different from our experience of things. Lets engage with courage, and open curiosity, about being welcoming to people of all gender, sexual, and relational orientations as we gear up for Kingston PRIDE. (Speaker: Rev. Beckett Coppola)…