Please join us on Sunday, April 28th for our Soring Membership Ceremony as we welcome 9 new members to our beloved community!🫱🏻‍🫲🏾 Service begins at 11am PT in person or online. ❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜 #firstuula #progressivechurch #unitarianuniveralist #unitarianchurch #unitarian

This Sunday we are welcoming back Rabbi Heather Miller! 🩵 Her talk is titled "Lessons Relating to Moses: Prophet in a Multicultural World." The week of Passover, Rabbi Miller will share insights on biblical Moses’ life as he navigated the multicultural society around him. 👉🏽 Join us at 11am PT in person or online! More about the Speaker: Rabbi Heather Miller is founder of the spiritual community known as Keeping It Sacred (KITS). The KITS community is dedicated to engaging learning experiences, transformative ritual observances, and the intrepid pursuit of social justice. 📚 Rabbi Miller authored RESOULUTIONS: A Practical Guide for Self-Repair, and selections in Prophetic Voices, and Mishkan Ga’avah, and is featured in notable publications and podcasts including the LA Times, The NY Times. The Christian Science Monitor, Sh’ma Magazine, The Jewish Journal, the Women Rabbis Talk Podcast, and the Torah for Christians Podcast. She was named a Liberty Hill Foundation Leader to Watch, a  CLUE-LA Giant of Justice, and a Center for Rabbinic Innovation Fellow. As a fourth generation Angeleno, she is committed to building communities across all lines of difference across Los Angeles and beyond. 👉🏽 Please find her on the web at keepingitsacred.com. #progressivechurch #firstuula #unitarianuniversalist #layledchurch

This Sunday's speaker is Hiram Sims! ▪️His talk is titled "Poetry and the Scripture." ▪️Hiram will explore the ancient relationship between poetry and the scriptures written by King David. ▪️This talk also gives reverence to the Los Angeles poetry experience and its rooted relationship with faith. Join us at 11am PT! ▪️More about the speaker: Hiram Sims, born and raised in South Los Angeles, is a poet, essayist, and Creative Writing Professor. He teaches with The Community Literature Initiative and at USC, holding degrees in English: Creative Writing and a Masters of Professional Writing in Poetry from the USC. Aside from teaching, Sims is a published author with three poetry collections: "Poems of a Young, Troubled Mind" (2007), "Write or Die: An Anthology of Poetry from the Urban Poet's Workshop" (2008), and "PHOTOETRY: Poetry and Photography from South Central" (2013). He's also the author of the creative writing textbook "These Pages Speak" (2015). Sims is involved in literary initiatives, co-founding World Stage Press and establishing The Sims Library of Poetry, which houses the largest poetry collection in Los Angeles. 📚 He also currently serves as Commissioner for the Los Angeles Public Library. 📚 #firstuula #progressivechurch #unitarian #unitarianuniversalist

Our speaker this Sunday is Rev. Rayna Hamre! ▫️Her talk is titled "Preach it, Sister!' At a time when women's public voices were severely restricted, our Unitarian and Universalist foremothers were bold individuals who refused to be silenced. 🔥 Join this exploration into the world of the Unitarian, Universalist, and spiritually related women preachers of earlier times! ▫️Join us at 11am PT! ▫️More about the speaker: Rev. Rayna Hamre has served as a preacher in both a lay and professional capacity. Fascinated by the role of women in world religions, this is reflected in her background. She holds a MDiv degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School, where she earned the Bowen Prize for her paper on the Gospel of John; she holds a MA in history and completed her Master's thesis on women in early Gnostic Christianity; and she holds a BA in Classical Civilizations. Rev. Rayna has taught the History of American Women at the college level, as well as UU history to congregants of all ages as a Director of Religious Education, and currently as an ordained minister. Rev. Rayna lives with her husband Stephen and their cat in Huntington Beach. She grew up in Long Beach and Orange County. She is currently a member of the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council, where she is the committee coordinator for an upcoming Interfaith Café series for interfaith dialog. She serves as the Affiliated Community Minister at the UU Church in Anaheim. She is delighted to return to First Unitarian Church of LA and share our wonderful and often surprising UU history with the congregation. #firstuula #unitarian #unitarianhistory #unitarianuniversalist #progressivechurch