Rev. Alison Duren-Sutherland is Saltwater’s contract minister for the 2023-24 church year, operating in a hybrid/remote capacity from her home in Southern Oregon and onsite at Saltwater one week per month.
At a time when trans* people have became a target of fascist scapegoating, we gather on the Sunday before Trans* Day of Remembrance to name those who have been taken from us too soon, and to commit ourselves as a congregation to being a place of sanctuary for our trans* beloveds. We use the term … Continue reading To Be A Sanctuary: Honoring Trans* Day of Remembrance
In this all-ages service, we will participate in our New Member Ceremony, where people in the community enter into the mutual promises of our freely-chosen faith and are welcomed by the congregation. We’ll also consider the work of covenant building, and return to the promises of Saltwater’s Covenant of Right Relations. On most second Sundays, … Continue reading Covenant in Action: Faith Formation Sunday
In 1988, Salish elder Leonard Sampson told Paulette Steeves (Cree, Metis), a single mother of three whose education had ended in 8th grade, that she had been given work that would reverberate through generations. In 2021, Steeves published a book, drawing heavily from her archeology dissertation, that uses data and story to upend racist assumptions … Continue reading The Ancestor’s Breath: Indigenous Prehistory of Turtle Island
For this service, Rev. Alison will offer a few short reflections on questions submitted ahead of time by members and friends of Saltwater. If you have a question you’ve always wanted to know how your minister would answer, email Rev. Alison or drop a card in the question box at service no later than October … Continue reading What’s in the Question Box?
On this Faith Formation Sunday we will offer the opportunity for all generations to creatively answer these questions posed by a Unitarian Universalist hymn based on the words of artist Paul Gaugin.
Asking big questions together is one way we live our Unitarian Universalist faith, even (maybe especially) the big questions to which there are no answers. Join us as we engage with Mystery to finding meaning together.
Join Rev. Alison and Saltwater’s Racial Justice Organizing Team (RJOT) to practice mindfullness techniques drawn from the Buddhist tradition that can help us work with and through the suffering that arises from racism. This service offers an introduction to the book Mindful of Race by Ruth King. RJOT will lead a study of this book … Continue reading Mindful of Race
Bring a small vessel of water (from a special place or from your own tap!) that we will pour into a shared container to celebrate our coming together in beloved community with the UU Water Ceremony. This interactive, all-ages service invites us into practices that remind us that we are all connected, and that those … Continue reading Practices of Interdependence: A Water Ceremony Worship
If we are committed to the rights of workers, we must also commit to dismantling white supremacy. This Labor Day weekend, Rev. Alison reminds us that race as we know it in the United States began in the late 1600s to allow the wealthy and powerful to extract free labor from racialized groups with the … Continue reading Labor Acknowledgement: The Construction of Race to Disrupt Working-Class Solidarity
As we approach the beginning of a new school year, Rev. Alison imagines a world where the needs of children are our top priority, and lifts up some of the beloved, faithful, prophetic voices that call us to put children at the center.
