My mother was pretty solidly UU, and if there'd been a strong community in the town where I grew up, it's without question where I would have attended services. So all I remember is the literature she used to get in the mail on a regular basis.

Your experience sounds really neat.

Ha! I actually forgot the second-coolest part of the service. (La Catrina very much took the cake.)

The pianist. The music in general, but specifically, the things the pianist chose for prelude/background music.

The prelude? Masquerade. From Phantom of the Opera.

During the children's pumpkin processional, she was playing the Harry Potter theme (which is spooky on the piano), and when she got done with that, she went into the Imperial March. As in, Star Wars. Darth Vader's theme. Yeah.

We sang the Doxology (a genericized version with no specific mention of God) in English and then in Spanish. And the closing hymn was "My Life Flows On in Endless Song," which was a Quaker hymn before Enya put it on her Shepherd Moons album as "How Can I Keep From Singing?"

I've had it in my head all day. I've been thinking about the service in general all day. I think this is a good sign.

Ooh... I found the Unitarian Doxology on Wikipedia.

Shollin, I find this all very interesting. Several years ago my girlfriends mother died. I was there with her during the last few days (while she was in a coma) and then back again for the funeral. Her mother was a Unitarian (not sure if it was that or UU, or what the difference is)

I recall being very impressed and surprised by the congregation. Everything from the members who visited the hospital at length, to having an art gallery in the church, to the 'greeter' who happened to be a transvestite, to the startling lack of the word God during the service. I was pretty confused as to what exactly made this a church, but given the stress of the situation, didn't give it too much more thought.

I had pretty much forgotten about them until now. (FWIW, my background is irish catholic upbringing until about 5th grade, when my family moved to the west coast, away from the grandparents, and all church-going abruptly ceased. Very secular family from there on out, and the only times I've been in a religious building of any kind since was for weddings and funerals, most of which left me feeling very excluded and reaffirmed my desire not to have anything whatsoever to do with religion.

However, at almost-but-not-quite 40 years of age, I have been noticing the gnawing of a slight spiritual crisis around my edges. I wonder if the UU'ers might be something to investigate.

There's much more to the story, probably, but this probably isn't the place (I should resurrect my own blog, I suppose) but wanted to say that I'll be following this should you post any more about it, as I'm very curious about it, and thank you.

Hi! I was off to leave you feedback and hit your blog link by accident. What serendipity. I'm UU, so I find it fascinating to read of other's journey to and through the UU community.