Our fifth annual “Love is Like a Box of Chocolates” Valentine’s celebration provides an opportunity to reflect on all the many things we mean when we use that overworked word, Love. As usual, we’ve asked an assortment of people to give us their thoughts on love — in word, verse and song — each in 1-3 minute bite-sized morsels. While not everyone may get a Valentine with their name on it this year, everyone who joins us this Sunday will get a piece of chocolate as part of the chocolate communion that concludes the program. As Lucy says in Peanuts, “All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!” Lay leader, Peter Pierson. Accompanist, Laurel Holmes.

Note: The podcast includes just two of the morsels presented in 2009 – a song by Marsha Sousa and a story by Susan Johnson.

How does Zen practice help people negotiate the ups and downs of every day life? Zen Master Bon Soeng (Jeff Kitzes) is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice and a Zen Buddhist abbot and guiding teacher of the Empty Gate Zen Center in Berkeley, California. His specialty is the integration of Zen Buddhism and Western Psychotherapy. He has been practicing Zen since 1975, and began practicing with Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1979. He received transmission in April 2001. In addition to his work at the Empty Gate Zen Center in Berkeley, he is the guiding teacher of Cold Mountain Zen Center in Fairbanks. Lay leader, Susan Kessler. Accompanist, Marsha Sousa.

Join us for this special service at UUFF when members will present a ‘radio drama’ version of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Although Dickens never officially joined a Unitarian church, he attended services at at least two Unitarian chapels in London, and counted numerous English and American Unitarians as friends and kindred spirits. He wrote “A Christmas Carol” in 1843 at the time when he was attending the Little Portland Street Unitarian Church. We’ll revisit merry old England in song and story, and rekindled our connection with our Victorian Unitarian ancestors. Lay leaders, Shaun Lott and Susan Seefeldt. Pianist, Marsha Sousa.

The subtitle of Rich Seifert’s talk on the ethics of energy is “How to stop burning Picassos for heat.” Rich will focus on moving to sustainability as not only necessary, but the only ethical choice. Applied hope, with applied love for place, will answer the questions of how we sustain ourselves. Renewable energy choices and knowing how to answer the question: “How much is enough?” is the immediate problem. This is the second of our 2008-09 series on ethics. The first service in the series focused on economics. A later program will focus on politics.

British historian, Lord Acton, earned himself an honorable mention in history when he coined the aphorism, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” At the end of a week in which Barack Obama will arguably become the most powerful person on Earth (others may argue for Rupert Murdock or the chair of the Federal Reserve Bank), it is a good time to reflect on the ethics of power. What roles do we play in life in which we are in a position of power? How can we wield power ethically either as individuals (parents, employers, supervisors, professionals) or as a nation or even a superpower? After service there will be Crosstalk in the sanctuary—an opportunity to explore over coffee hour the varied and individual responses to the ideas raised during the service. This will be the third in this year’s series on ethics, following services on the ethics of greed and the ethics of energy. Speaker, Mike Walleri. Lay leader, Cam Leonard. Accompanist, Laurel Holmes.