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		<title>June 2026 Services</title>
		<link>https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/june-2026-services/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[uucl administrator]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:22:01 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[<p>The Worship and Programming Theme for June is: Flourishing Together June 7&#160;Flourishing Together: A Utopian Dream?&#160;sermon June 14&#160;Pride Themed Community Sunday&#8211;Spiritual Practices that nurture the ways we, queer and straight &#8230; <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/june-2026-services/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">June 2026 Services</span></a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/june-2026-services/">June 2026 Services</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>The Worship and Programming Theme for June is: Flourishing Together</strong></p>



<p><strong>June 7&nbsp;</strong>Flourishing Together: A Utopian Dream?&nbsp;<em>sermon</em></p>



<p><strong>June 14&nbsp;</strong>Pride Themed Community Sunday&#8211;Spiritual Practices that nurture the ways we, queer and straight alike, flourish together</p>



<p><strong>June 21&nbsp;</strong>Live Streamed Worship Service from the UUA&#8217;s General Assembly 2026</p>



<p><strong>June 28&nbsp;</strong>Summer Solstice: A Season of Flourishing</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/june-2026-services/">June 2026 Services</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">8558</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>June 2026 – other UUCL programs, worship and gatherings</title>
		<link>https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/june-2026-other-uucl-programs-worship-and-gatherings/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[uucl administrator]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[<p>After Sunday Services June 7&#160;Social Justice Committee Meeting June 14&#160;Potluck and Board Meeting June 21&#160;Post UUA&#8217;s General Assembly Worship Service Discussion June 28 Farewell Celebration Wednesday Nights, 6:30 pm June 3&#160;Dinner &#8230; <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/june-2026-other-uucl-programs-worship-and-gatherings/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">June 2026 &#8211; other UUCL programs, worship and gatherings</span></a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/june-2026-other-uucl-programs-worship-and-gatherings/">June 2026 &#8211; other UUCL programs, worship and gatherings</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>After Sunday Services</strong></p>



<p><strong>June 7&nbsp;</strong>Social Justice Committee Meeting</p>



<p><strong>June 14&nbsp;</strong>Potluck and Board Meeting</p>



<p><strong>June 21&nbsp;</strong>Post UUA&#8217;s General Assembly Worship Service Discussion</p>



<p><strong>June 28 </strong>Farewell Celebration</p>



<p><strong>Wednesday Nights, 6:30 pm</strong></p>



<p><strong>June 3&nbsp;</strong>Dinner Worship</p>



<p><strong>June 10&nbsp;</strong>Starting Point Session</p>



<p><strong>June 17&nbsp;</strong>The Sitting Room: Let&#8217;s Start a Journal Club! (Bring a journal)</p>



<p><strong>June 24&nbsp;</strong>Creativity Matters: Sketchbook Exchange (Bring a sketchbook)</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/june-2026-other-uucl-programs-worship-and-gatherings/">June 2026 &#8211; other UUCL programs, worship and gatherings</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">8556</post-id>	</item>
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		<title>Ponderings June 2026</title>
		<link>https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/ponderings-june-2026/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[uucl administrator]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:17:30 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://uuclakeland.org/?p=8554</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>The sweet (or is it sweltering? sweaty?) June days have come again (this isa hymn, written by Longfellow, in our gray hymnal, #63. Maybe we shouldwrite a version for Floridians!). &#8230; <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/ponderings-june-2026/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Ponderings June 2026</span></a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/ponderings-june-2026/">Ponderings June 2026</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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<p>The sweet (or is it sweltering? sweaty?) June days have come again (this is<br>a hymn, written by Longfellow, in our gray hymnal, #63. Maybe we should<br>write a version for Floridians!). Whatever the weather, we had a beautiful<br>Flower Communion this morning!<br>As I was preparing this year’s service, I was looking back on previous<br>services to get me started. Sometimes I reread my sermons (or<br>sermonette, in this case) and just think, eh, it was ok. But when I read my<br>words from last year I thought oh, I actually needed that! I had forgotten my<br>own message and I needed the boost. So, I thought I’d share it with you for<br>this month’s Ponderings because I want you to know that you really are<br>unique, you have beautiful gifts to offer, and you are loved!<br>And, coincidentally, this message jives nicely with the small group I led<br>during our last community Sunday–Awakening Curiosity through<br>photography by trying out new perspectives. Tom M, Oliver, Dave, and I<br>had a fun little adventure trying out worm’s eye and bird’s eye views! <br>From Flower Communion 2025:<br>Have you ever had the feeling that you are, well, different? Have you ever<br>felt like maybe your differences meant you didn’t fit in?<br>I spent a lot of my life feeling that way. And I did a good job of hiding it, just<br>trying to blend in, or even disappear. I was an usually quiet child and I<br>preferred not to stand out. And that means I was too afraid to share myself<br>with others.<br>When I was about 25 years old, I decided to take a life detour. Inspired by a<br>photography professor I encountered at the local community college in<br>Boca Raton, I signed up for the Art program at Florida Atlantic University<br>and began a short journey into the world of photography and design.<br>Although I didn’t finish the program, thus my reason for describing this as a<br>detour, I learned invaluable lessons about myself. Because in art classes,<br>you have to share your work.<br>This particular photography professor I had, Mr. Novak, also taught photo<br>and design at FAU. I took every one of his classes as I found him to be not<br>only amazingly supportive of my work, but he also challenged my</p>



<p>perceptions and taught me to look—visually and intellectually—at the world<br>in different ways.<br>So, in Mr. Novak’s classes, you were given an assignment each week and<br>the following week you would come in and hang it on the wall for the entire<br>class to review. How terrifying. Not only was I still trying to hide myself, but<br>I really had no prior art experience. I only knew deep inside me that I<br>wanted to be creative.<br>And so it was, every week, I would hang my work on the wall with the<br>others, and every week it would just look so completely different than<br>everyone else’s that I felt super uncomfortable and wondered what I was<br>doing wrong. I wanted to hide. But that Mr. Novak, he insisted on using my<br>work as an example—as a good example—on a regular basis. I was<br>unable to hide. And I began to realize that what was happening was that<br>my unique creative approaches were significantly contributing to the<br>classroom community to help us all learn and grow. I was truly astounded<br>each and every time.<br>We all have thinking patterns that are ingrained in our way of being in the<br>world. I spent the first 25 years of my life fearing my differences, my<br>uniqueness, my own creativity. But I learned, on this 2 year detour into the<br>art world, that differences, uniqueness, and creativity are a gift. And when<br>we don’t use them, we deprive not just our own spirits, but the growth of all<br>those we are in community with. When we do not honor our diversity, we<br>do not evolve.<br>When the Japanese Zen master Roshi Soen Nakagawa wrote: “in a<br>blossoming universe, we are all flowers,” he seems to have understood that<br>we are all a part of the patterns of nature–patterns and processes that<br>create us each in unique ways but also make us vital and sacred beings in<br>the interdependent, ecological communities into which we are born. Each<br>flower, and each of us, is beautiful and unique, but yet cannot exist outside<br>of our relationships with all the diverse beings in our ecosystems. We exist<br>in a network of complex and dynamic relationships. We must show up just<br>as we were created to be.<br>Unitarian Universalism is a faith in which we recognize this. UUism has<br>long had a commitment to a freedom of belief for each individual and an<br>orientation toward interdependence and pluralism. In the UUA’s Widening<br>the Circle report it is stated (Widening the Circle p10):</p>



<p>Each flower, each person, is unique but we can’t survive without our<br>ecological community<br>Our Shared UU Value of Pluralism states that:<br>● We celebrate that we are all sacred beings diverse in culture, experience,<br>and theology.<br>We covenant to learn from one another in our free and responsible search<br>for truth and meaning. We embrace our differences and commonalities with<br>Love, curiosity, and respect.<br>We humans are a part of the diversity of nature–this is the very spirit that<br>we need to get in touch with so that we can live our faith on this great<br>Earth. And so the Flower Communion, a ritual that celebrates our diversity<br>and our unity, feels like an important spiritual practice that helps us erase<br>boundaries of separateness from nature, and separateness from each<br>other.<br>You Are Loved, You Are Worthy, and You Are a Blessing!</p>



<p></p>



<p></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/06/news/ponderings-june-2026/">Ponderings June 2026</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">8554</post-id>	</item>
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		<title>May 2026 Services</title>
		<link>https://uuclakeland.org/2026/05/news/may-2026-services/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[uucl administrator]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2026 19:40:07 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://uuclakeland.org/?p=8550</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>May 3&#160;Awakening Curiosity! A sermon with a curious approach to curiosity. May 10&#160;Crystal and Heather engage their curiosity by exploring &#8220;The 21 Taras&#8221; May 17&#160;Community Sunday: Spiritual Practices for Awakening &#8230; <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/05/news/may-2026-services/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">May 2026 Services</span></a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/05/news/may-2026-services/">May 2026 Services</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
]]></description>
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<p><strong>May 3&nbsp;</strong>Awakening Curiosity! A sermon with a curious approach to curiosity.</p>



<p><strong>May 10&nbsp;</strong>Crystal and Heather engage their curiosity by exploring &#8220;The 21 Taras&#8221;</p>



<p><strong>May 17&nbsp;</strong>Community Sunday: Spiritual Practices for Awakening Curiosity</p>



<p><strong>May 24&nbsp;</strong>Helen presents: Questioning and curiosity as Unitarian Universalist spiritual practice from the sermon &#8220;Holy Curiosity&#8221; by Rev. Sandra Fees.&nbsp;<strong><em>Before this service there&#8217;s homework!&nbsp;</em></strong>Make a list of 100 questions. The list can include anything you consider significant. Make the list in one sitting, and don’t be concerned if the questions are somewhat repetitive. We will talk about this during the service.</p>



<p><strong>May 31&nbsp;</strong>Flower Communion:&nbsp;<strong>BRING A FLOWER to share&nbsp;</strong>for this unique Unitarian ritual.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/05/news/may-2026-services/">May 2026 Services</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">8550</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>May 2026 – other UUCL programs, worship and gatherings</title>
		<link>https://uuclakeland.org/2026/05/news/may-2026-other-uucl-programs-worship-and-gatherings/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[uucl administrator]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2026 19:37:51 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://uuclakeland.org/?p=8548</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>After Sunday Service May 3&#160;Newcomer&#8217;s Meet n Greet May 10&#160;Potluck! Happy Mother&#8217;s Day! May 17&#160;Social Justice Meeting, Board Meeting May 24&#160;Heather&#8217;s Sunday Off May 31&#160;TBD Wednesday Night Programs, 6:30 pm &#8230; <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/05/news/may-2026-other-uucl-programs-worship-and-gatherings/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">May 2026 &#8211; other UUCL programs, worship and gatherings</span></a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/05/news/may-2026-other-uucl-programs-worship-and-gatherings/">May 2026 &#8211; other UUCL programs, worship and gatherings</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>After Sunday Service</strong></p>



<p><strong>May 3&nbsp;</strong>Newcomer&#8217;s Meet n Greet</p>



<p><strong>May 10&nbsp;</strong>Potluck! Happy Mother&#8217;s Day!</p>



<p><strong>May 17&nbsp;</strong>Social Justice Meeting, Board Meeting</p>



<p><strong>May 24&nbsp;</strong>Heather&#8217;s Sunday Off</p>



<p><strong>May 31&nbsp;</strong>TBD</p>



<p><strong>Wednesday Night Programs, 6:30 pm in the Sanctuary</strong></p>



<p><strong>May 6&nbsp;</strong>Dinner Worship</p>



<p><strong>May 13&nbsp;</strong>Popcorn Theology</p>



<p><strong>May 20&nbsp;</strong>The Sitting Room: Game Night! Bring a game to play</p>



<p><strong>May 27&nbsp;</strong>Creativity Matters</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://uuclakeland.org/2026/05/news/may-2026-other-uucl-programs-worship-and-gatherings/">May 2026 &#8211; other UUCL programs, worship and gatherings</a> appeared first on <a href="https://uuclakeland.org">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lakeland</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">8548</post-id>	</item>
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