Let America Be America Again

“America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath –
America will be!”
Langston Hughes
Poetry is one way we connect with the despair of injustice and our hope for a more just future. This lay led Labor Day service of poetry and music has been a Starr King UUC tradition since 2003.

Welcome!

We are always delighted to welcome guests! If this is your first time visiting a Unitarian Universalist church or our congregation, here’s some idea of what to expect.

Order of Service

  • Prelude: Spirit of Life #123
  • Ring Tibetan Bowl
  • Welcome
  • Land Acknowledgment
  • Chalice Lighting: #462, Paul Robeson
  • Call to Worship: Come, Let Us Worship Together by Lindsay Bates
  • Reading: The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
  • Special Music: I Shall Not Be Moved by Rollo Dilworth
  • Poetry for All Ages: How Many, How Much by Shel Silverstein
  • Sing the Children to their Classroom
  • Candles of Joys, Sorrows, & Gratitude
  • Sung Prayer: Rev. Rebecca Parker
  • Reading: Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
  • Hymn: #298, Wake Now My Senses
  • Reading: First They Came by Pastor Martin Niemoller
  • Reading: Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall
  • Hymn: #128 For All That is Our Life
  • Reading: How Fascism Will Come by Terry Ehret
  • Reading: After the Election: A Father Speaks to His Son by M. Soledad Caballero
  • Special Music: Justice by Jim Papoulis
  • Reading: Bread & Roses by James Oppenheim
  • Offertory: Special Plate for Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
  • Shared Singing: Hymn #402, From You I Receive
  • Extinguishing the Chalice
  • Benediction: Light Fires That Can Be Seen for Miles by Lynn Ungar
  • Invitation and Final Wave
  • Postlude: #170, We Are a Gentle, Angry People