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Visit UU Ministry for Earth online at uuministryforearth.org. Please support our work.

Dear UU Ministry for Earth Community,

Thank you for an incredible Winter Solstice service—it was a joy to be in community together, honoring Earth’s longest night. I’m grateful for every service leader who brought gifts of wisdom, magic, and ritual craft to co-create a rich and meaningful evening. On behalf of the entire UU Ministry for Earth team, I’m wishing you all a wonderful remainder of the winter holiday season, however you celebrate. May you be blanketed in beauty, and blessed by the gifts of the dark.

Fondly,

Rev. Lauren

Acting Director, UU Ministry for Earth

Picture of Board Chair Swamini A. Saraswati (top) and Acting Director Rev. Lauren Spivey Levwood (bottom) after our winter solstice service.

Blanketed in Beauty

A Winter Solstice Ritual Honoring the Gifts of the Darkness

About our speakers

UUMFE Acting Director Rev. Lauren Levwood led the ritual. Our special guest speaker was the Rev. Dr. Kristen Harper, UU minister, theologian, and author of The Darkness Divine: A Loving Challenge to My UU Faith. Our special music was provided by Li Kynvi, hospice music therapist and UU minister-in-formation. Incoming UUMFE chaplain intern Chelsea McCoy led our call for earth action. UUMFE Board Chair Swamini Adityananda Saraswati led our meditation.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WORSHIP TEAM

We recorded the full service and edited out participant names and faces for digital safety purposes. The edited version is live on our Vimeo, which can be found on our website as well. Your congregation can stream this video as a service, and we welcome any donations in return. Click here if you’d like to donate through Share the Plate.

WATCH THE RECORDING

If you’d like to participate in the embodiment practice (starting at 31:21 in the recording) led by Rev. Lauren, click the button below to download the quilt square illustration to print and draw on.

We would love to see what everyone created! If you’re open to sharing, please send us a scan or picture of your quilt square so we can edit them into one giant UU Ministry for Earth community quilt. Email the images to comms@uumfe.org.

DOWNLOAD QUILT SQUARE

As part of our Winter Solstice ritual, we invited you all to share your favorite actions for Earth Justice. In the New Year, we will share some of those with you! In the meantime, please enjoy this climate-friendly gift guide crowdsourced by artist Nicole Kelner, which includes more than 200 ideas, and you can add new ones!

READ GIFT GUIDE