Fellow Travelers, Common Journey — Lissa Gundlach

Some pilgrimages involve travel to a foreign or holy destination. Others actually can occur right at home. Janne and Worship Associate Mary Baremore will explore the dimensions of staying home, recognizing the sacred lessons available in our everyday lives and the riches to be explored in the pilgrimage within.

Our series on pilgrimage begins with a service for the Day of the Dead. When we move through the world with pilgrim eyes even our memories take on new life. Mary Oliver writes, "it matters how you carry it, books, bricks, grief." Pilgrims have to learn to travel light.

We are all sojourners, strangers, on a quest to find deeper meaning and connection in life. We are all strangers but we are all brothers and sisters. The service will explore the soul’s work of finding a true religious home.

Rev. Abhi Janamanchi has been serving the Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater, Florida since 1999. He is a native of India and a third-generation member of the Brahmo Samaj, a Unitarian-Hindu reform movement. Abhi is a member of the International Advisory Council to the UUA President. He and his wife, Lalitha, have two sons, Abhimanyu and Yashasvi.

San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk used to begin every speech by saying, "My name is Harvey Milk, and I’m here to recruit you." He was asking us all to come out; all of us, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered, queer and each and every ally, all of us together have a right to live open and authentic lives.

What’s Love Got to Do with It? — Janne Eller-Isaacs

Stuck in a dead-end job? Move. Or don’t. Sometimes a change of attitude or perhaps, of consciousness is really what’s called for. Could it be that our upwardly mobile, self-centered culture puts too much emphasis on moving on and too little emphasis on staying put? There are times in our lives when only faith can see us through.

How do we know when we have been "called" to particular work or tasks? How do we respond to numerous calls coming from different directions? How do we do as Quaker educator Parker Palmer says, "Let our lives speak"? Janne explores this dimension of vocation.