Rev. Jim Magaw

Christmas Eve

These services will feature music, reflections, and readings celebrating Christmas. Our children’s nativity reenactment will occur at the 4:00 service, and our Christmas Eve candle lighting ritual will take place at both services. 

Stillness and the Season

Advent, the season leading up to Christmas, is meant to be a time of quiet expectancy, a time to contemplate mystery and possibility, a time to slow down, a time to make room in our lives for something new to enter and to change us. How do we make room for this spirit of stillness … Continued

Longest Night

The holidays are not always as cheerful as we might pretend. In fact, this time of year often brings painful memories and a profound sense of loss. This special vespers service is for anyone who is struggling during this holiday season or anyone who is looking for a reprieve from the holiday hullabaloo.

Music of the Season

This service will be comprised of holiday­-themed music from various Sunnyhill members and friends, including the choir and other individuals and groups of all ages and many different styles. Come celebrate music and the season!

Choosing Hope in Hopeless Times

Cynicism may be understood as an attempt to protect oneself from the heartache of unfulfilled hopes. While it may be effective in the short term, cynicism ultimately leads nowhere. But how do we go about choosing in hope in what seems like a hopeless time?

Giving Thanks in Thankless Times

One service at 10:00. The great Christian mystic Meister Eckhart famously said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” Of the various kinds of prayers, prayers of thanksgiving might be the most powerful. How do we practice giving thanks, even in challenging times?

Liberating the Holidays

This holiday season brings many challenges. Some are personal–losses of loved ones, losses of relationships, illnesses, changes in employment status, and so on. Others are more political or societal—loss of a sense of safety, increased isolation, divisions among neighbors and organizations, etc. How do we deal with these challenges while still finding something to celebrate?

Bend the Road, Bend the Arc

 As we engage in discernment about next steps for Sunnyhill’s “Be the Future” project, we will focus on how we live into two key aspects of our mission: creating compassion and creating justice. How do we go about living into these aspirations? (One service at 10:00, followed by congregational meeting at 11:00.)

Building Up in a Time of Tearing Down

The book of Ecclesiastes famously states that there is “a time to tear down and a time to build up.” Sometimes both must occur simultaneously. In the current era of tearing down democratic processes and social safety nets, it is time to build something new. What are we building together in this congregation, and why … Continued

All Souls

All Souls Day is a time to remember everyone who has died, everyone who has been part of the gathered community. The phrase “All Souls” has a particularly Unitarian connotation because of something that one of our own “saints,” William Ellery Channing, said: “I am a living member of the great Family of All Souls; … Continued