Rebecca preached her first sermon at the First Unitarian Church in Chicago back in 1991. Appropriately enough, it was called “The Music that Shakes the Soul” and looked at the role of music in the early American form of protestant worship. Needless to say, it involved a lot of musical participation from the congregation. Since then, Rebecca has preached dozens of sermons to congregations – Unitarian-Universalist, Ethical Culture  and others – from California to New York and abroad. She always tries to incorporate participation as an essential element of the spiritual experience. She is especially eager to explore ways in which meaningful ritual can be employed to break open new pathways to insight.

 

How does ritual affect the act of worship?


The term ‘worship’ is an old Anglo-Saxon word and is, curiously enough, non-theistic in its origin. It means, “the crafting of worth” and in that sense is closer to Paul Tillich’s definition of God as “ultimate concern.” It is also an active word, focusing on the ‘crafting’ or ‘making’ rather than mere thought or belief. A definition of ritual worship in this sense might read: Participation of congregants in acts that re-sanctify the values that give meaning and motivation to their daily life.


Rebecca enjoys the diverse range of theologies present in Unitarian-Universalism and Ethical Culture, and-- having come from an Irish Catholic background into a Humanistic mysticism -- she feels comfortable speaking to this eclectic audience. Her deep involvement in three Parliament of Worlds Religions have shaped her understanding of the need for continuing dialogue among these differing viewpoints and the celebration of the great quest itself which is the hallmark of human beings.

 
Sample of Sermon Titles and Topics:

 

The Triumph of Humanism: What Psychology has Taught us about Religion 

I look at the influence that Freud, Jung, and the Human Potential Movement have had on the practice and understanding of religion in the 21st century. Included are stories from my experiences at all three Parliament of the Worlds Religions in '93, '99 and 2004, as well as some extraordinary experiences in my trips to Lithuania in the post-communist occupation.

 

Centering Home: A Pilgrimage to the Soul of the City

- My doctoral work in Hyde Park focussed on the use of ritual and pilgrimage in contemporary spirituality and I created a 3-day intensive workshop which I ran seven times to cities in Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and the U.S. I explore the relationship of the individual to the city and the image of the city as a psycho-mythic phenomenon.

 

Sacrifice & Bliss: What Joseph Campbell Really Meant

- Campbell's phrase "follow your bliss" has been the subject of much use and abuse, yet is quoted extensively and accepted as a new aphorism for our times. I explain the sanskrit origins, comparative ideas in western European thought and the very contemporary spin that Campbell put on it. Then I relate it - as Campbell often did - to the major mythic motif of The Quest for the Holy Grail and muse on what that might be for Humanists in the 21st century.

 

The Music that Shakes the Soul

Music is the weapon of the spirit that has led us through the valleys of fear in the past. It lifts the mind from its attachments to the small and temporal and fixes our sights on the vast and eternal. Only in this way do we make actual progress in the temporal world! The history of religious movements in America is rich with the rise of new musical traditions and hybrids of the past. The real soul of the fierce determination to found a new land free of the old encumbrances can be found in the hymns of the new world – especially when we sing them together!

 

The Greening of Christianity: A Sermon in Seven Verses with Full Chorus

All religion is food for the soul. All religion shares the same fate as food – it gets stale. I write of spiritual hungers that hollow out faces and hearts and souls. Christianity has been around for a long time and must, of necessity, go through phases of renewal and decline. Celtic Christianity lies under the blanket of stale church doctrine like the hidden acorns of an ancient Druidic oak tree, beckoning the hungry soul. Celtic spirituality is slippery; it disappears in the Irish mist, it dives under the water of the unconscious like a silver trout, it gallops off across the moor like a ghostly gray mare, it vanishes like the glimmering girl in tale of the wandering angus. In short, it won’t conform. This is why it still has so much life.

 

The Feminine Face of God

When Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces he was quite explicit that his research was around male heroes – that the female journey had still to be explored. Many have gone forth to do just that. I have also made a study of the central archetypes of the female journey that I explore through myth and poetry that includes: The Goddess of the Hinge, or She Who Opens the Shut Door; Kali, She Who ends All Things; The Flower Maiden, She Who Brings the Beauty of the World; and The Naming, She Who Bears the Sorrows of the World.

 

The Third Mask: The Catharsis of Tragedy, The Transcendence of Comedy

Humans have long languished at the perilous intersection of these two great beliefs: that God is Good, and that Life is Suffering. The difficulty of reconciling these two impossible companions has turned many a traveler into a confirmed atheist, a cynic, a fundamentalist, or worse - has shut down the soul altogether in despair. The way out of the conundrum has always lurked nearby in the shadows - for the crossroads is where the Trickster makes his or her abode as well! Rebecca takes you through the great lore and literature of the diabolical – the dualism of the material world – and shows you how to master the mythic energy that turns the tragedy of life into divine comedy by finding the trickster within.

 

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This is just a small sampling of sermon topics. Feel free to contact Rebecca to discuss ideas that would meet the needs of your congregation. Frequently, the sermon can be tailored to work with an extended seminar topic offered the day or evening prior to the church service.

toll free number:  888.80.RITES      or by email:  ceremonies@aol.com