This Sunday

Yes! Finding Well-Being in the Land of Despair

Part of my responsibility as a community member is to care for myself. To care for myself is not about stepping away from the world, but to keep discovering what helps me to live with curiosity, compassion, calmness, clarity, confidence, creativity, courage, and connectedness.

Learning at CVUUS

Learning at CVUUS

We provide children, youth, young adults, and adults an opportunity to explore, reflect, and learn in a nurturing spiritual community.

Religious Exploration

Welcome to CVUUS

Welcome to the CVUUS website! We’re glad you’re here.
Ground Floor Construction to Begin in September!

Ground Floor Construction to Begin in September!

Funds for Kitchen and A/V Still Needed. Click for more information.

THANK YOU!

Rev. Barnaby Writes

From the Minister

Rev. Barnaby Feder, Minister

 You won’t meet the ten members of an adult religious education class I began teaching in November: Chris, Tracey, Florida James and Illinois James, Tim, David, Ryan, Robert, Felipe, and Zebediah. All of them belong to the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger Fellowship – the UU group for people who can’t conveniently get to a regular UU congregation. These ten can’t get to any UU church because they are in prisons scattered across the South, Midwest and New England.

          The class addresses five fundamental questions. What is the nature of humanity? What is the truth (and how do we know it)? Who – or what – is in control of the universe, if anything? What happens when we die? What makes life meaningful?

       These questions are best explored in a group, but that’s not possible in this case. All of our communications are by old-fashioned letters, most of which are hand-written rather than typed. Nor do they have each other’s addresses. Read More about “From the Minister”…

Save the Dates!

Love: Take It to a New Level Party, Pledge Sunday March 3

We’ll celebrate the start of our new canvas campaign with a Pledge Sunday Service on March 3 followed immediately after by a fun, family friendly, luncheon party in our NEW ANN ROSS FELLOWSHIP HALL on the lower level.  We’ll share food, music, dance, skits and hear from our friends what CVUUS means to them.  All ages are invited to participate in the entertainment program.  
This year, we’ll conduct the canvass by mailing all the pledge information and materials to each home in February.  We invite you to think about your pledge and bring the completed pledge card with you to Pledge Sunday in March.  Or, if you prefer a visit, let us know and a member of our canvass team will schedule a visit with you.
The Canvass Team will have a table in the foyer after service beginning Sunday, Feb. 3rd to answer any questions you might have, request a home visit, give us your pledge if you can’t be there on March 3rd, or sign up to be part of the entertainment. Come to the first party in our new space!

Julie and Neil Chippendale, Canvass co-chairs
Read More about “Love: Take It to a New Level Party, Pledge Sunday March 3”…

Member Stories

Love is the doctrine of this church, the search for truth is its sacrament, and service is its prayer.

I love those words, and to me they capture the essence of CVUUS, what we do here together each week, and what we take with us when we leave and go out in to the greater world.

I believe that everything in this life at its most fundamental level is based on love, and that everything we do in life must have love as its foundation.

I believe that justice, compassion, and respect are all born of love, and I feel that righteous anger, too, springs from love and a passion to make things equitable and just.

I believe that love will always win in the end. Always.

This may all sounds well and good, and I will readily admit that I am an idealist. But am I a PollyAnna? Not by a long shot. I know there are tremendous obstacles and trials on the path of love. It’s something we all deal with every single day.

But I see CVUUS as an incubator of love and hope, as a safe haven in which to envision and build the stepping stones to a more loving and peaceful world. CVUUS is a place where I come precisely because we don’t all look the same, we don’t all think the same way, and we don’t all approach things from the same perspective. That’s the way life is. We respect and value our differences, and even though we may not always be perfect when it comes to bridging our differences, it is something we yearn for and strive to do.

Every time we welcome someone through that door and every time we walk out of it, we are ambassadors of justice, of compassion, and of love. And at CVUUS we are committed ambassadors.

I see it time and again in our readiness to face challenges, in our passion to act, in our fearlessness to confront hatred and violence, in our willingness to admit mistakes and to regroup and go at it again; in our eagerness to reach out and share, I see it when we look in each other’s eyes, clasp hands and honor each other and our work together.

We may be small here at #2 Duane Court in Middlebury,VT, but we are mighty. I know that our efforts and the love we build here together does and will have an impact far beyond our little burg.

So, let’s squirt some WD-40 on the hinges of our hearts and open them even wider. Let’s continue to be resilient and creative in the face of animosity and difficulties; let’s build and share more love in every possible way we can.

Because love in all its manifestations is the only way forward.