Category Archives: Revs. Anya & Scott’s Blog

From Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, Senior Co-Minister Perhaps you were present for the “Experiment!” service on March 18, 2018. If not, I encourage you to listen to the sermon podcast (https://uumontclair.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/experiment-03-18-2018/). As senior co-minister with accountability for Worship at UUCM, I...

From Rev. Scott  Sammler-Michael, Senior Co-Minister  “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” –Winston Churchill How do we “make a life by what we give?” At the U we do this...

From Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, Senior Co-Minister I’ve begun to receive holiday cards. One of the notes came, as it does every year, from an intentional community where I lived for a year and a half, while studying for the ministry...

Two Ministers, One Ministry, One Ministry Role: Some Changes You May See in the New Year From Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, Senior Co-Minister Rev. Scott and I are rarely referred to as “two peas in a pod,” but in the role of...

From Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, Senior Co-Minister The vocabulary of reverence allows us “to speak of that which is sacred, holy, of ultimate importance to us, the language which would allow us to enter into critical dialogue with the rest of...

From Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, Senior Co-Minister  A brand is “a particular identity or image.” Our Congregation has a particular identity but is not always communicated with clarity and consistency. This means that we have an identity, but we don’t showcase...

The great African American civil rights leader, Rev Howard Thurman, famously wrote: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who...

We have been asked by nearly everyone who “knows” anything about New Jersey: “What’s your exit?” While we appreciate the cultural introduction to a state that we value for its eccentricities, we aren’t as enlivened about our exit as we are our entrance, our...