The first duty of love is to listen.

Paul Tillich

This is a fundamental view of the world. It says that when you build a thing you cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at that one place becomes more coherent, and more whole; and the thing which you make takes its place in the web of nature, as you make it.

Christopher Alexander

After a tumultuous election season in the US, and a year filled with horrors of genocide, famine, and extreme weather, how do we as UU's move forward with a mindset of repair?

In 2016, after the Pulse Nightclub shootings, an encounter with the minister of Poughkeepsie’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and other leaders of liberal faiths, led Taylor on a journey of deconstruction of his evangelical history towards a more expansive, open and affirming faith. The service will examine in a new way a poignant moment in the Christian faith when John the Baptist questions whether his cousin Jesus is the chosen one.

Rev. Taylor Holbrook is the retired pastor of the Hopewell Reformed Church, where he served for 20 years, current President of the Dutchess County Interfaith Council, and head of the Dutchess Interfaith CROP Walk, which raises funds to fight hunger locally, nationally and around the world. He and his wife, Cathleen Bast Holbrook (who also comes from a line of RCA ministers), have three adult children and five (soon to be six) grandchildren.

A sense of the universe, a sense of the all, the nostalgia which seizes us when confronted by nature, beauty, music - these seem to be an expectation and awareness of a Great Presence.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Many of us experience discomfort when faced with conflict, both individually and as a congregation. All congregations experience these challenges, but conflicts need not be an adversity. Instead, they can be embraced as an opportunity for growing individually and together. Unitarian Universalist history shows us that when addressed appropriately, conflict can lead to positive change.

The  stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, you need to change your story.                                                          

Michael Margolis

Diversity is a fact. Inclusion is an act.

All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.
 J.M. Barrie

Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

Stephen Covey

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Rabindranath Tagore

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Albert Einstein

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Nelson Mandela