First Unitarian Church of Dallas

Sharing Ministry
2023-10-01 09:30 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | First Unitarian Church of Dallas, 4015 Normandy Ave., Dallas, TX, 75205, United States
What does it mean to minister? Let’s find it in the church but also in our lives.
This is the final sermon in our Living a Purposeful Life series, during which we are exploring the spiritual inner work required to transform our personal lives.
Rev. Dr. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: First Church musicians Mary Hestand, Debra Morrison, Jean Ann Powers, Les Sellers, April Sellers, George Cornelius, Tom Cook, Bart Chaney, and Gary Eckert.
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Connection Sunday
2023-09-24 10:30 - 14:00
With the start of a new church year, now is the perfect time to find your special place within our church community! Join us for an opportunity to connect with groups and service opportunities in the church. Grab some coffee and a donut and visit with group leaders in Channing Hall after each service. There will be extra fun for kids of all ages in the courtyard playground area.
Make sure to bring your mobile device with the Realm Connect app to make connecting with groups even easier!

Connection Sunday
2023-09-24 09:30 - 12:00
What does it mean to be part of a wider community and what does it do for us as individuals? Maybe that’s where real power is.
Living a Purposeful Life is the first sermon series of our theme year “Waves of Purpose, Tides of Change.” Join us to explore the spiritual inner work required to transform our personal lives.
Rev. T. J. FitzGerald is preaching MUSIC: Sanctuary Choir
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

First Church Community Picnic
2023-09-17 12:00 - 14:30
All are welcome for a Community Picnic as we kick off our 2023-2024 church year! Join First Church ministers, staff, members, and friends for an afternoon of food, fun, and fellowship. It won’t be the same without YOU and your crew!
Enjoy live music, activities for kids, and lunch from Savory Catering including:

Pork and Beyond Beef (vegetarian) Sliders,
Cool Pesto Pasta Salad
Watermelon Salad with Blueberries
Brownies and Cookies

Feel free to bring a friend, all are welcome!
Donations are welcome and appreciated to cover the cost of food. Pay what you can by clicking here.
Please help us with ordering the right amount of food by registering in Realm. We look forward to seeing you there!

Wherever We Go
2023-09-17 09:30 - 12:00
How do we take our faith with us into the rest of our lives? Together we consider ways to bring together parts of our own lives.
Living a Purposeful Life is the first sermon series of our theme year “Waves of Purpose, Tides of Change.” Join us to explore the spiritual inner work required to transform our personal lives.
Rev. T. J. FitzGerald is preaching MUSIC: Jazz Combo
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Ingathering Sunday
2023-09-10 09:30 - 12:00
Join us for our yearly tradition of re-gathering from our summer sojourns on the first Sunday of the program year. We will be kicking off our theme year “Waves of Purpose, Tides of Change”
🌊 What does living with purpose really mean for a Unitarian Universalist?
🌊 What does grounding ourselves in rituals and activating our spiritual lives look like?
🌊 Where do we find resources to grow and guide our actions as UUs to make the world a better place?
These are all questions we will be asking and discussing throughout the 2023-2024 theme year. Our goal is to locate ‘Faithful Geographies’ that become touchpoints for living impactful lives that matter. By creating depth in ourselves, connections with others and commitments beyond our own desires we can turn purpose into change together.
So we look ahead to riding the ‘Waves of Purpose’ into ‘Tides’ that make a difference in the world. We will ask another question of ourselves as we navigate through the seas of social and political challenges which is ‘What are people for?’ or to put it another way, ‘what are we really for as progressive religious people in community?’
Rev. Dr. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: Sanctuary Choir & the Eckert Family
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Unitarian Universalism 101: Hell? No.
2023-09-03 09:30 - 12:00
We draw from our Universalist heritage and seek to answer one of humanity’s burning questions together.

Rev. T. J. FitzGerald is preaching MUSIC: violinist Kristin van Cleve
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

WADE Event - On Working Without Certainty with Dr. Anthony B. Pinn
2023-09-02 17:00 - 18:30
First Unitarian Church of Dallas presents the next installment of our Worth and Dignity Engagements on Saturday, September 2 at 5pm with renowned humanist author, professor, and theologian Dr. Anthony B. Pinn.
Worth And Dignity Engagements (WADE) at First Unitarian Church of Dallas help us go deep, encourage understanding, and transform lives in the pursuit of worth and dignity for all.
This event will begin with a talk from Dr. Pinn, where he will share his insights on questions like “In a social world marked by the persistence of dehumanization, what can serve as a sanction for justice work?” and “When efforts towards social transformation are met with new examples of injustice that bring into question outcome driven strategies, what motivates continued effort?”
You are invited to stay after the talk for a signing of the book “A Master Class on Being Human: A Black Christian and a Black Secular Humanist on Religion, Race, and Justice,” co-written by Dr. Pinn and Brad R. Braxton. In this book, the authors invite us to join them in a master class as they strive to create a world where differences are not tolerated but instead celebrated. In that kind of courageous classroom, all can learn how to be better people who in turn transform the world into a better place.
You are welcome to bring your own book to have signed or local bookstore Interabang Books will have copies of “A Master Class on Being Human” available for purchase for $28.95. They accept credit and debit cards, no cash please.

Click here to register in Realm Connect
About Dr. Anthony B. Pinn

Anthony B. Pinn (Harvard PhD, 1994) is currently the Agnes Cullen Arnold Distinguished Professor of Humanities and professor of religion at Rice University. He is also Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa. In addition, Pinn is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Pinn is the founding director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning, and he served as the inaugural director of the Center for African and African American Studies both at Rice University. He is managing editor of Religious Studies Review. Pinn’s research interests include African American religious thought, religion and culture; humanism; and hip hop culture. Pinn is co-editor of numerous book series, including (with Stacey Floyd-Thomas) “Religion and Social Transformation (NYU Press) and (with Monica Miller) “Routledge Studies in Religion and Hip Hop” (Routledge). He also serves on the board of several journals, including the Journal of Religion, the Journal of Africana Religion, and the journal Body and Religion. He is the author/editor of over 35 books, including The Interplay of Things: Religion, Art, and Presence Together (Duke, 2021) and the novel The New Disciples (2015).
Pinn is active with numerous professional organizations, including service as a member of the American Academy of Religion’s Board of Directors; Executive Director of the Society for the Study of Black Religion; and co-founder of the Society of Race, Ethnicity and Religion. He is a member of the American Theological Society. Pin has worked with the Aspen Institute, the HistoryMakers Project, and he is a member of the National Advisory Team for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (2022). He is also involved with many community organizations, and has held leadership positions in a variety of them, including Meadville Lombard Theological School Board of Trustees (Executive Committee and Chair of the Education Team); the Rothko Chapel Board of Advisors; the Unitarian Universalist Panel on Theological Education as well as the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

Ingathering
2023-08-30 09:30 - 12:00
Join us for our yearly tradition of re-gathering from our summer sojourns on the first Sunday of the program year. We will be kicking off our theme year “Waves of Purpose, Tides of Change.”
Rev. Dr. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: Sanctuary Choir
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Unitarian Universalism 101: Essentially Good
2023-08-27 09:30 - 12:00
When we think about the world, how can we commit to the idea that Unitarians have protected for centuries that humanity is good?

Rev. Dr. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: Marimbist Drew Lang
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

This American Life: Neighbors
2023-08-20 09:30 - 12:00
Who is our neighbor today? And how can we be good neighbors? Together we will hold all of the many things it means to be a neighbor today.
Our summer sermon series “This American Life” is based on NPR’s famed radio show. We will explore various stories that illuminate the importance of story and particular experiences to help us recognize our common humanity.
Listen to the This American Life episode
Rev. T. J. Fitzgerald is preaching MUSIC: Church member Rosana Eckert
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

This American Life: Promised Land
2023-08-13 09:30 - 12:00
“Geography is destiny.” Where we are now and what is promised in the future is at the core of many beliefs. We look at what answers to these questions mean to our faith.
Our summer sermon series “This American Life” is based on NPR’s famed radio show. We will explore various stories that illuminate the importance of story and particular experiences to help us recognize our common humanity.
Listen to the This American Life episode
Rev. T. J. Fitzgerald is preaching MUSIC: cellist Gayane Fullford
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

This American Life: Get a Spine!
2023-08-06 09:30 - 12:00
It takes courage to move past our fear in order to speak up, say what needs to be said, and do what we’ve been scared to do. It requires us to “get a spine!”
Our summer sermon series “This American Life” is based on NPR’s famed radio show. We will explore various stories that illuminate the importance of story and particular experiences to help us recognize our common humanity.
Listen to the This American Life episode
Rev. Beth Dana is preaching MUSIC: Trumpeter Joel Adair and Don Krehbiel
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Wild DFW Book Event with Amy Martin
2023-07-30 12:30 - 13:30
Wild DFW: Twenty Top Surprises of North Texas Nature
As author Amy Martin explored North Central Texas to write Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth, twenty facts, places, flora, and fauna surprised her, even after decades as an eco-journalist. Take the journey with her in this talk and learn what she discovered. Enjoy some of the book’s more rhapsodic passages about prairies, creeks, and the Moon, and peak experiences from its 25 hiking adventures through hardwood bottomland forests, soaring limestone escarpments, vast wetlands and winding waterways, rare remnants of Blackland and Fort Worth Prairies, and well-preserved swaths of Eastern Cross Timbers “cast iron forest. ”
Click here to register in Realm Connect
Amy will have copies of Wild DFW available for purchase for $26 at the event or you can purchase in advance HERE
A journalist and writer for over 40 years, Amy Martin is the author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth ( Wild-DFW.com), Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant (Itchy.biz), and co-author of Speaking of Mother Earth. She is currently senior features writer for Green Source DFW (GreenSourceDFW.org). Her current project is Ned Fritz Legacy (NedFritz.com), a biographical website of Ned Fritz, Texas’ most famous environmentalist. Martin sits on the Dallas County Open Space’s (DallasCounty.org/parks) Trails and Preserves Program board and serves as state social media director for Native Prairies Association of Texas (TexasPrairie.org). For twelve years, she managed wildlife habitat rehabilitation on a private nature preserve in northeast Texas, including converting fifteen acres of pasture into tallgrass prairie. She is a certified Texas Master Naturalist with the North Texas chapter (NTMN.org). Find her writings at Moonlady.com.

This American Life: Fiasco!
2023-07-30 09:30 - 12:00
What do we do when it all falls apart? For millennia religious people have been asking this very question. Let’s try to answer it together.
Our summer sermon series “This American Life” is based on NPR’s famed radio show. We will explore various stories that illuminate the importance of story and particular experiences to help us recognize our common humanity.
Listen to the This American Life episode
Rev. T. J. FitzGerald is preaching MUSIC: Church members April and Les Sellers and George Cornelius
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

This American Life: Ends of the Earth
2023-07-23 09:30 - 12:00
What would you do for someone you love? The podcast this week asks us questions about love and friendship. Let’s dig into it.
Our summer sermon series “This American Life” is based on NPR’s famed radio show. We will explore various stories that illuminate the importance of story and particular experiences to help us recognize our common humanity.
Listen to the This American Life episode
Rev. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: pianist Kent Ellingson.
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

This American Life: Burn It Down
2023-07-16 09:30 - 12:00
Our summer sermon series “This American Life” is based on NPR’s famed radio show. We will explore various stories that illuminate the importance of story and particular experiences to help us recognize our common humanity.
Listen to the This American Life episode
Rev. Daniel Kanter is preaching. Music will be provided by clarinetist Danny Goodman.
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

This American Life: Spark Bird
2023-07-09 09:30 - 12:00
Birders talk about their “spark bird” – the first bird that got them hooked on bird watching. Each of us, whether we are birders or not, has a “spark bird” – something that grabbed our attention, kindled our passion, and changed our life. What is yours?
Our summer series “This American Life” is based on NPR’s famed radio show. We will explore various stories that illuminate the importance of story and particular experiences to help us recognize our common humanity.
Listen to the This American Life episode
Rev. Beth Dana is preaching MUSIC: TBD
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Luncheon with Rev. Nangroi Suting
2023-07-02 12:00 - 13:00
Come meet Rev. Nangroi Suting, our partner from the Unitarian Church of Northeast India, and hear about our ongoing connections with them. All are welcome, including sponsors, past pilgrims, and those interested in going on the pilgrimage to India in January 2024.
Lunch will begin immediately after 11am worship in Channing Social Hall and will include salad and a variety of wrap sandwiches. Please note any dietary restrictions when registering.
Please register in Realm by Thursday, June 29.

This American Life: Complicated Patriotism
2023-07-02 09:30 - 12:00
We kick off this series by reflecting on our role as progressive religious people in patriotic celebrations. We will also hear from Rev. Nangroi Suting, minister to the Unitarian Universalist Church of North East India.
Our summer sermon series “This American Life” is based on NPR’s famed radio show. We will explore various stories that illuminate the importance of story and particular experiences to help us recognize our common humanity.
Rev. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: Don Krehbiel and Alan Dyer
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Artists Who Inspire: Keith Haring
2023-06-25 09:30 - 12:00
Join us for this final Sunday in our Artists Who Inspire series, in which we affirm “art is for everybody!” We will explore the personal, public, and provocative pop art of Keith Haring in the 1980s.
June’s Artists Who Inspire sermon series highlights performers, musicians, and visual artists who inspire our spiritual lives to persevere, adapt, find joy, and face obstacles in our way. What makes them unstoppable? What does are do to us? How are we moved by their lives and their art?
Rev. Beth Dana is preaching MUSIC: Melissa Sky-Eagle, pianist

Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

True Colors Workshop
2023-06-24 10:00 - 15:00
True Colors is a fun and entertaining way to identify your unique spectrum of personality preferences using color as a metaphor for personality types.
Discover your True Colors spectrum and dynamic keys to unlocking your success! With the help of the True Colors personality process, you will begin to see yourself and others in a new light and learn to improve relationships that will lead to new successes in all facets of your life.
Open to all adults 20+ new to True Colors and those who have attended sessions previously. Register in Realm.

Artists Who Inspire: Nina Simone
2023-06-18 09:30 - 12:00
We look into the life of Nina Simone and her bold confrontation with race and the power of her voice to confront the times she lived in.

June’s Artists Who Inspire sermon series highlights performers, musicians, and visual artists who inspire our spiritual lives to persevere, adapt, find joy, and face obstacles in our way.artists who inspire our spiritual lives to persevere, adapt, find joy and face obstacles in our way. What makes them unstoppable? What does are do to us? How are we moved by their lives and their art?

Rev. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: vocalist Avanti Dey
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Artists Who Inspire: Stevie Wonder
2023-06-11 09:30 - 12:30
We celebrate the life and inspiration that Stevie Wonder offers this world this Sunday. But Stevie’s gifts to the world go far beyond his music. Come celebrate this inspiring life with us!

June’s Artists Who Inspire sermon series highlights performers, musicians, and visual artists who inspire our spiritual lives to persevere, adapt, find joy, and face obstacles in our way. artists who inspire our spiritual lives to persevere, adapt, find joy and face obstacles in our way. What makes them unstoppable? What does are do to us? How are we moved by their lives and their art?

Rev. T. J. FitzGerald is preaching MUSIC: Jazz pianist and flutist, Matthew Babineaux
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

Artists Who Inspire: Josephine Baker
2023-06-04 09:30 - 12:00
We kick off our Artists Who Inspire series looking into the life of Josephine Baker. Her life inspires persistence, the leveraging of fame for resistance movements and a commitment to sensuality on stage. Join us.
June’s Artists Who Inspire sermon series highlights performers, musicians, and visual artists who inspire our spiritual lives to persevere, adapt, find joy, and face obstacles in our way. artists who inspire our spiritual lives to persevere, adapt, find joy and face obstacles in our way. What makes them unstoppable? What does are do to us? How are we moved by their lives and their art?
Rev. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: Helen Blackburn, flutist
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

"Piece of My Heart"
2023-05-28 09:30 - 12:00
The power of memory and honor are everywhere in our lives. We hold close those who gave the last full measure of their devotion in service this Memorial Day Sunday.
Rev. T. J. FitzGerald is preaching MUSIC: George Cornelius
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

2023 Parish Meeting
2023-05-21 12:30 - 13:30
Everyone is welcome, and Voting Members of the church are especially encouraged to attend. We’ll hear reports on areas of church life.
Childcare is available for this event. Click here to register your child(ren) in Realm.

"Praise to the Rituals That Celebrate Change"
2023-05-21 09:30 - 12:00
Coming of Age and graduating seniors walk before us on this Sunday. We have all come of age and graduated parts of our lives. What does it all mean?
Rev. Daniel Kanter is preaching MUSIC: Sanctuary Choir
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

"Seen, Found, Beloved"
2023-05-14 09:30 - 12:00
How do you know when you belong in a community? We all know the experience of being seen, found, and beloved…and we know its opposite. Join us for worship and the child dedication ceremony.
Rev. Beth Dana is preaching MUSIC: Women’s Sextet
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY

"Bound Together"
2023-05-07 09:30 - 12:00
Liberation does not happen overnight. We envision together building the Beloved Community and how to bring it to life.
Rev. T. J. Fitzgerald is preaching MUSIC: Kindred Voices
Worship at 9:30am and 11am CST in-person or online • 7:00pm ONLINE ONLY
