On this page:

• Worship Schedule
• Description of Worship Services
• Lay-Led Worship Services
• 2025-26 Worship Arc

Worship Schedule

Each month’s plans for our 10:30 a.m. Sunday worship services appear here. Details about the worship service for the upcoming Sunday also appear on our Home Page. Childcare is always provided without reservations for Worship, Mindfulness Meditation and Forum.

Feb. 1, 2026 – “75 Years of UUCC” – Founder’s Day Sunday – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon and UU Churchers

Join us to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the UU Church of Columbia! We will share reflections about our last 75 years and hope for the next 75!

Feb. 8, 2026 – “What Are We Doing Here?” – Rev. Jordinn Nelson Long

Rev. Long says, “As a social science researcher who is also a UU minister, I spend a lot of time explaining what church is and what it can be. I will confess, though, that the edges of what is known, for sure, definitely, about who we are together are closer than I thought. This means that I spend a lot of time thinking also about who and what we might be. What is church in 2026, as so much of what we have institutionally known falls away? Where is the magic, and what are the dangers?” Join our visiting research minister, Rev. Jordinn Nelson Long, as she returns to our congregation to spend this winter season learning with us.

Feb. 15, 2026 – “And Love Was Not What I Thought It Was” – All-Ages Valentine’s Day Service – DRE Jamila Batchelder and Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon

Has love been what you thought it would be? Or has life been a long lesson in all that love is and is not and can and cannot be? Join us for a creative exploration of this many-splendored thing.

Feb. 22, 2026 – “And a Rose in the Wintertime” – Stewardship Sunday – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon

How do we find hope in the midst of brutal times? What is blossoming in our hearts, even in the cold? Join us to recommit ourselves to being a community of realistic, grounded and insistent hope for and with one another.

The Zoom address for our 10:30 a.m. Sunday worship is
https://zoom.us/j/380411489
You can also join by phone: 312-626 6799
Webinar ID: 380 411 489

Services are also streamed live to Facebook

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Description of Worship Services

We offer a worship service every Sunday at 10:30 a.m.. The current month’s schedule appears above. Services last about one hour.

Children are present for about the first 15 minutes, which includes a stones of joy and sorrow ritual. The children then leave for their religious education classes. Nursery care and our full religious education program for preschool through junior high school are offered at this time.

Although each of our services is unique, services usually begin with a welcome from a member of our Board of Trustees and occasional special announcements.

Interspersed with a variety of music and hymn singing, the typical service also includes the lighting of the chalice, one or more inspirational readings, a sermon or homily, an offertory, an opportunity to express joys and sorrows, and a closing benediction.

After the service we gather for fellowship, conversation and coffee.

Members of the Worship Associates assist in planning worship services and also participate in conducting services.

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Lay-Led Worship Services

Our lay-led services honor our commitment to lay involvement in church leadership and our church’s history. We began in 1951 as a lay-led fellowship, and thus all services were lay led until we called our first minister in 1980.

From September through May, we have occasional lay-led services, and many of the services are lay led during the summer. The Worship Associates organize the lay-led services. These services are often non-traditional and unique and allow individuals to speak to a topic of interest or lead the congregation in exploring a variety of activities related to the many facets of worship and spirituality.

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2025-26 Worship Arc

This year’s worship arc is “Survival Is a Garden.” To develop the themes for our year, the Worship Associates, the Writing for Spiritual Sustenance Group and Rev. Molly took inspiration from a poem by Kyle Tran Myhre called “When It Really Is Just the Wind and Not a Furious Vexation.” In it, the poet reflects that all the post-apocalyptic images of hard-core guys with machetes on motorcycles are false visions of survival. Instead, he realizes, “…in every universe in which / I am alive, it is because of other people.” He lays out a vision of thriving where we all survive because we know we need each other, and then he lays down these two beautiful couplets that have inspired our year:

Survival is not a fortress. It is a garden.
Survival is not a siren. It is a symphony.

In this moment when fascists are trying to sell us a bleak wasteland of survival, built on violent control and betrayal of one another, it is time for us to remember what real, collective survival is… and what it isn’t.

Together with your Worship Associates and Writing for Spiritual Sustenance Group, and some of Rev. Molly’s beloved colleagues, a huge list of things that survival is and isn’t was generated. Nine of them became our themes for the year. They are all worthy of our reflection, and we invite you to bring us even more!

One way we survive is with art, and there will be many ways to creatively engage in collective art and creative prompts around the themes this year, including our new first Friday offering – “Guidebook to the Garden,” when we will explore the theme together in more creative ways.

What is our collective survival, and what is it not? Join us all year to deepen our understanding together.

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