Many of us, myself included, have a complicated relationship with Christianity and with the Church as a whole. Some of us never grew up inside it. Some of us did, and were hurt there. And all of us are watching the rise of Christian nationalism in this country, a movement whose cruelty confirms every suspicion we already carried about that faith.

Here is what I want to say before Sunday. Christianity has never been one thing. Its beginning, and the liberating moments that have broken out of it again and again across two thousand years, gave us much of the world we live in. The hospital, the school for the poor, the idea that a stranger is owed care, the social safety nets we take for granted: these came out of that story, and they are being dismantled right now by people who want a world where the few own everything and everyone else serves them. If we are going to keep what was good and let go of what was not, we have to know the story. So this November we are telling it. The series is called Heirs of Empire: What we keep and what we let go. Three of the four Sundays are about the empires that changed the globe by conquest, and about our part in their inheritance. This Sunday we start at the beginning, with an innocent man brutally killed by the state and by the religious elites of his time so that their comfort and their self-righteousness could stay exactly as they were.

A historical Jesus of Nazareth existed. Early Christian texts record his life, and Roman and Jewish historians also wrote down his collision with Rome and the Temple leadership in Jerusalem. They were not cataloging one man. They were recording a province in revolt, a people who kept rising against the yoke of empire out of their own understanding of their history, their relationship with the Divine, and their place in the human story. Jesus was not the only one executed in those years, and he was not the only one called Messiah. What set him apart is that he refused the tools of empire to fight the empire. That refusal made all the difference. The people who later saw the Christ in him, the fulfillment of the Hebrew Bible’s hope, found it less in his words, which are all there in the text, than in what he did and in how the empire answered his innocence.

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back after 2:00 am, as we fall back one hour and we enter a new meaningful season ahead. We will see you with one extra hour of rest at our 11:00 am Service this Sunday.



The faith began with a man executed by an empire. Three hundred years later it was the empire. In between, its people did things Rome had never seen: they nursed strangers through plagues, fed the poor who weren’t theirs, built the first hospitals, and so alarmed a pagan emperor that he complained about it in writing. After the crown came the Crusades, the Inquisition, and a reformer who burned a Unitarian in Geneva. After that came the monks who saved the books, the preachers who broke the kings, the abolitionists and the slaveholders’ chaplains, and the churches that marched at Selma. A table and a throne in one body from the beginning. On All Saints, the church’s own day of the dead, we hold the family reunion. Bring a photo of someone you have lost. We set the ofrenda with the ancestors we keep.

AFTER THE SERVICE

FIRST SUNDAY POTLUCK

Join us after the service as we host our First Sunday of the Month potluck! This is a wonderful opportunity for togetherness and connections. Please bring a dish to share as part of the meal. Vegetarian and vegan options are welcomed. We are also a nut-free campus. Need an idea of what to bring? Please reach out to hospitality@uumiami.org, for some guidance

All are welcome to join our Social Justice Community meeting. Come share your voice and your ideas! UUMiami’s Social Justice Community is currently working on immigration concerns, voices for reproductive rights, the tragedy in Israel, Palestine and Gaza, and Climate Justice. Through our Share the Plate initiative, we support the Women's Emergency Network, Pridelines, PACT, and Chainless Change. By supporting local organizations, our hope is to uplift and educate our congregation while also taking action for all of Miami.





Two thousand years ago a man was executed by an empire for saying the last would be first. Within three centuries his followers were running the empire. The faith that began at a table ended up on a throne, and from that throne it sailed, carrying a book that said welcome the stranger and return the land, to shores where it did the opposite.

This November we tell the whole story. We start with the faith itself: how it fed Rome’s poor and kept its libraries alive, how it crowned kings and burned heretics, how it sparked revolutions and blessed conquests, and how both of those bloodlines are still running, in the Christian nationalism of our moment and in the quieter traditions, ours among them, that kept the table and set down the crown. Then three Sundays, three empires that sailed under that cross: America, Spain, and Britain, and the peoples they tried to erase.

Every one of those empires is in this room. Nobody here sailed those ships. Everybody here lives in the house they built. We did not choose the inheritance. We do get to choose what to do with it. We will not spend the month ashamed, and we cannot undo what was done. We can look at all of it, keep what deserves keeping, and let the rest go with care.

Bring your ancestors. Bring your questions. Bring your appetite for a better table.

The Conscious Aging Community is a very caring supportive community, where we feel safe to share about how we really are, about our feelings and our thoughts, and our present ongoing experiences. We are presently reading and sharing about the book A Year to Live by Stephen Levine, which is inspiring us to live as consciously as possible, to investigate and deal with our fear of death and, and among many other things, to find our essential wisdom and joy. We meet in the Emerson Room, the first Wednesday of each month from 11:00 am to 12:15 pm. Feel free to bring a snack or lunch. This meeting takes place in the Emerson Room.



There are moments when the noise of the world settles into our bodies without us realizing it. An hour of stillness can become a quiet act of return, a way of remembering yourself beneath the pressure, beneath the pace. UU Miami invites you to join us for an evening of meditation every wednesday from 7:30 to 8:30 PM in the Emerson Room. This is a simple, welcoming space to pause, breathe, and gently come back into alignment with yourself.

Whether you have an established practice or are stepping into meditation for the first time, you are invited just as you are. No expectations, no performance. Just presence, shared in community. This meditation is led by Judith Echeverria. In a world that constantly asks us to move faster, choosing to be still can be its own kind of courage.



Hero Academy is a leadership academy where teens and young adults earn merit badges across four divisions, level up through ranks, and unlock real-world experiences with their crew, from movie nights and the Youth Fair to Florida Supercon. Built for: geeks, gamers, fandom kids, neurodivergent youth, cosplayers, artists, writers, LGBTQ+ and questioning youth, and anyone who hasn't found their fit in standard programs. Hero Academy meets every other Friday, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM in the Emerson Room at UU Miami. This is where your journey begins!

Thursday November 19 is GIVE MIAMI DAY! On Give Miami Day, hosted by The Miami Foundation, we bring our UU Shared Value of generosity to life by supporting our beautiful congregation and other vital Miami nonprofits. Together, we cultivate a spirit of gratitude and hope. More exciting details coming soon!



UU MIAMI

LABYRINTH

We have a wonderful Labyrinth on the back of our property that all members and friends of UU Miami are welcome to walk.





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Each week, the Side With Love Action Center, provides a brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment, share immediate actions you can take, and provide helpful resources to deepen knowledge and practice of our collective work to side with love.

YOUR GIFT HELPS UU MIAMI MAKE A GREATER IMPACT!

TO GIVE FINANCIAL GIFTS TO UU MIAMI:

• Online with a credit/debit card at givebutter.com/uumiamidonate

• Text “UUMIAMI” to 53-555

• Cash or Check (payable to Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami) in the Sunday Service Offering 

• Mailing your gifts to 7701 SW 76th Avenue, Miami FL 33143