The SUUF Podcast

How’s the View from Your Perspective?

May 1, 2022

Rev. Barbara Gilday

Each of us comes to every situation with a different set of life experiences. Being able to “walk a mile in your moccasins” can make all the difference in how we interact when things get tough. Curiosity, compassion, goodwill, and the willingness to take risks. What happens when our perspective changes? How does the conversation change?

Teaching Stories and Sacred Poetry from Eastern Traditions

April 24, 2022

Imam Jamal Rahman

The most profound truth is sometimes best expressed by a teaching story or sacred verse that resonates in the heart and stimulates the mind. By reflecting deeply on the story or verse, subtle shifts can occur within and expand our consciousness.

Imam Jamal Rahman is co-founder and Muslim Sufi minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary in Seattle, adjunct faculty at Seattle University, former host of Interfaith Talk Radio and a published author.

Easter for Everyone!

April 17, 2022

Speaker: Rev. Bruce Bode

For many religious liberals the joy and triumph of Easter is diminished – or even blocked completely – by past literalistic understandings. This sermon will – oh, so quickly – roll away the literalistic stone of obstruction to reveal five celebrations of Easter that may be universally embraced.

Thoughts from Clyde Ford

April 10, 2022

Clyde W. Ford

This week is a special joint presentation with Free Church Unitarian, Blaine. We welcome Clyde W. Ford, who won the Washington Center for the Book award in 2021 for his memoir, THINK BLACK, about his father, the first black software engineer in America. That book was a meditation on race, technology and social justice. Ford followed up THINK BLACK with OF BLOOD AND SWEAT: BLACK LIVES AND THE MAKING OF WHITE POWER AND WEALTH, which will be released by HarperCollins on April 5, 2022. Today, Ford speaks not only about what he learned from writing a memoir about his father but also about the historical role that black men and women have played in creating the fabric of America without benefiting in return.

Racial inequalities are not just among the “common man”, in our neighborhoods existed and still do... in our industries, our businesses, where fame and fortune abound. But where is the fame and fortune for the black men and women who have played an important role in our history?

The Ins and Out of Peace

April 3, 2022

Jonathan Prescott

What can peace look like? Perhaps external peace can only happen when we experience internal peace first. Please join Jonathan Prescott for some thoughts on how we can be the light of peace in the world. 

Skagit Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Services

March 27, 2022

Heidi Roy

Skagit Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services is a source of information and healing; a strong voice for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in the Skagit community since 1979. It operates with the following philosophies:

1. Violence by one person against another is not acceptable, anywhere, any time.
2. Each person has the right to expect physical, emotional and sexual safety.

Today we welcome Heidi Roy, Executive Director, to share this philosophy and their goals of empowerment, strength and healing to victims and survivors.

Death in Dual (and Dueling)

March 20, 2022

Rev. Bruce Bode

In Nature, death is not a factor of special importance; it’s simply part of the turning wheel of Being as it rolls onward through time. But to us in our human world, death is a factor of huge significance. Taking my cue from neuro-anatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s book My Stroke of Insight, this sermon will explore our encounter with death from both the “right-brain” (“ego-consciousness”) and the “left-brain” (“cosmic consciousness”) perspectives.

By The Light of the Silvery Moon

March 13, 2022

Rev. Joanna Gabriel

As we move into the increased light that comes with Daylight Savings time and approaching Spring, Rev Joanna Gabriel explores the power of our perceptions, how they ‘light’ our moment-to-moment experience of life and how important this awareness is as we navigate our times.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

March 6, 2022

Nancy Brown, Susan Butler

You will be amazed at what a few people can accomplish! Come today to hear all about a grass-roots program in our own back yard. Suzanne Butler, one of our speakers, writes: "Our work started with taking snacks at night to the 4 month Winter Shelter at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Mount Vernon several years ago. Nancy Brown recruited me and I recruited friends and neighbors to bake, donate money, donate purchased food and other items as needed. During Covid until now, we have been distributing upwards of 70 lunch bags a week to neighbors without homes in the area. When we have the means to get them out to more people, there have been times when 110 Food Bags have gone out weekly."

Update on OPOP

February 27, 2022

OPOP Committee

Today we get an update on OPOP, a program under the umbrella of Chris Hoke’s Underground Ministries. One Parish One Prisoner offers pre-release relationships to prisoners, and continues once they rejoin their community upon release. The intent is not only to help ex-offenders navigate the needs and expectations of the outside world but also to avoid the pitfalls that too often result in re-incarceration. We have a hard-working and resourceful OPOP team right here at SUUF! Come and hear what they have learned and done during the past year.