News & Updates

Reading — Call to worship Excerpt from “Beyond Vietnam” MLK, Jr. April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church, New York I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this meeting because I'm in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam.

Mark Twain once wrote a sentence which is wise counsel to writers everywhere: “the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”

An old Gospel song sets the question of the day: why do people who act badly not get the punishment they have so richly earned? This type of question philosophers call theodicy: if God is all-powerful, all knowing and all beneficent, why are there people going around committing bad acts? (October 26th, 2025)

For hundreds of years, Christian churches have observed a ritual in early November of remembrance of loved ones who have died. Perhaps the most elaborate ceremonies are those of Mexico, where it is called Dia de los Muertos. Here at UU Marblehead, we will observe it in the service as All Souls Day. Those who wish are invited to bring a photo or some other object which is associated in memory to someone close to you who has died. The time usually occupied by the Heart Ritual

Next Wednesday is one of the holiest days in the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement.  It occurs ten days after Rosh Hoshana, the Jewish New Year.  The Hebrew Bible has elaborate rituals for Yom Kippur which are supposed to atone for any wrongs which have been committed in the year just past.  They involve the sacrifice of animals, including two goats. One of the goats is released into the wilderness. This animal is called the scapegoat.

The Flower Communion honors the memory and spirit of Norbert Capek, founder of the Unitarian Church in Prague, which was then in Czechoslovakia. When the Nazis annexed the nation, they arrested Dr. Capek and deemed him, with his liberal religion, too ‘dangerous to live.’ He was murdered in the course of Nazi ‘medical experiments,’ making him the last martyr to die for Unitarian values. UU congregations in the US carry on the flower communion in tribute to him.

Every year, more and more jobs that people used to do are taken over by machines. What does this development portend? Popular culture sees a danger in Artificial Intelligence, in robots overthrowing their human masters and setting up a machine state.

What are mothers for? Do they really represent unconditional love?

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead this morning salutes Harvard University and its President, Alan Garber, for having the courage to stand in opposition to illegal, illiberal and unconstitutional demands made on it by the current national administration.

How many years of our limited lifetimes have we spent in the pursuit of perfection?

Two hundred fifty years ago tensions were rising between the British government and the Patriots.  A key issue was which side, if...

Love is a religious value as well as a force of nature.  As we celebrate love on Valentines, we consider how Jesus as a great religious...

The new administration in Washington appears to have declared war on government.

This weekend churches around the world are celebrating St. Brigid's feast day. What does Brigid of Kildare have to tell us?