First Unitarian Church Pittsburgh

08/11/2026

Pastoral Care and Connection

10 August 2026


Rev. Kate’s Connections

I remember my eyes relaxing. It was subtle, yet so wonderful. I wasn’t used to the feeling. I was looking at acres of flowers with orange, red, green, yellow (lots of yellow), along with trees, birds, lots of bugs, and some gorgeous lizards darting in their fantastic irregular fashion across the grounds. I was in Costa Rica, one of my favorite countries, soaking up the sights, sounds and smells of rain nourished forest.

My eyes relaxed. I could feel the corners of my face around my eyes release their tension, built up over too many hours of looking at screens filled with words and moving images. Some of those images were of what I wanted to look at in person – rain forest. I was soaking up the beauty like a parched dessert. My body joined the relaxation party my eyes had begun. Hmmm, such beauty.

One thing that happens during time off, sabbatical or vacation, is less time on electronic devices, phones, tablets and computers. Now having read “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haight (highly recommend), I am even more aware of the impact of screens on my body, and particularly my brain. I’m even more aware of the impact of social media on my mental health. I’m even more aware of the impact of the news on my spirit.

Maybe the ancient religious teachers didn’t know about the prevalence and impact of the Internet, but they understood about time away from the mundane aspect of living. Sabbath is a religious practice that is making a comeback. Some are calling it a time to “unplug” from the digital world. People are feeling the need to reclaim their lives from the many stresses that come with emails, notifications and alerts of all kinds. Each one is triggering our central nervous system like a thousand tiny darts.

Unplugging is a trend worth noticing. The digital screen impacts our eyes and brain processing, so some people are going full real-world experience by taking a walk or talking to someone in the same room!

To set aside time for rest and to focus on what we hold as most valuable, sacred and/or God, is a practice that can help deepen our reason for being alive.

I’ve long embraced a sabbath on Friday, it’s my day off from work which I treasure and protect. But recently, since feeling my eyes relax, I’m unplugging. If something is on fire, call me. Otherwise, I’m looking at the flowers.

Cheers, Kate

Question Box Leftovers
From Sunday, August 2, 2026
A series of good questions on one paper:
Q. How do you plan your services?
A. Carefully, over many months. I keep track of articles and books that interest me, things people say or TV/movies that might be a launching point for a deeper reflection. I have files and files with ideas, far more than I have time left in my career. I look at the calendar and plan worship about six months out so that the rest of the program staff and plan for music and stories. I’m planning right up to the point when worship is beginning. When it’s over, I let go because the next one is coming up fast.
Q. Is it hard to be a Reverend?
A. Not usually. Just when someone is angry at me for something they think God did.
Q. How long have you been a Reverend?
A. I was ordained on June 7, 1998.
Q. What is your favorite dragon?
A. If I tell you, all the others will get mad. I don’t want angry dragons. Really, I love all of them for their unique gifts and beauty.

Love and joy, Rev. Kate

08/07/2026

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1480562940774747&set=a.634014388762944&type=3

We, the People: A Multi-faith Call to Consciousness for the United States

We’re living in a moment that calls for moral clarity—and imagination.

Together, we can help shape a shared vision for the world we do not yet have—one where all humanity and all creation can thrive. This project brings people of faith together to name this moment and give voice to what comes next.

Event Details:
Via Zoom
Monday, August 17th
8:00 pm ET, 7:00 pm CT,
6:00 pm MT, 5:00 pm PST
Register Here:
https://www.synanim.com/registerwethepeople

08/04/2026

3 August 2026


Rev. Kate’s Connections

Some of you have wondered how to talk with someone who has a different point of view about, oh heck, any number of deeply held values. One path is to argue with them.

During an argument, if we’re smart, or want peaceful sleep, at some point we respectively listen to the other person for deeper understanding. When we listen to an opposing view there are a couple of things to focus on: Interest and narrative. They are connected.

Sure, we can try to argue with facts, but we’ve seen lately facts can be manipulated, minimized and ignored. Arguments are rarely purely rational. Instead, they have an emotional foundation that pushes an interest, aka something that we need or want. That interest or need has attached to it a narrative; a story or event that carries meaning.

Sometimes we’re not aware of what is driving us to take a position, making arguing with others quite challenging. Sometimes can’t quite defend our position on anything concrete; it’s more of a feeling. Unless we have a therapist on duty, it’s good to pause before responding when someone is listening to our position and dig in to explore what it is we really need, or want, and why we need it.

If the argument (can we now call it a disagreement?), is going well, the listener and insightful sharer will swap, and the listener becomes the speaker.

If the disagreement (can we now call it a negotiation?), is going well, a path forward can be seen in the warm light of open sharing where mutual interests and precious stories shine on new territory.

If the disagreement (can we now call it a normal relationship?), is going well, mutual understanding is gained, trust is deepened and maybe the relationship has morphed into something better.

If this all blows up into something nasty with no resolution and no sleep, then perhaps it wasn’t really meant as an argument or a talk at all. Maybe it was meant to be “let me reshape your brain so you’ll agree with me and finally see how wrong you are” event, ie: wrestling match.

I think we’ve seen quite enough of those.

Cheers, Kate

08/02/2026

All About August... - https://mailchi.mp/3d1e11d12230/hi-there-from-brian-junker-music-12871169

07/05/2026

AAMI / Unitarian Community Singers are pictured in the PGH Tribune Review honoring Dr Johnson at the Juneteenth Festival on June 19, directed by Rev. Deryck Tines & Kris Rust

06/30/2026

29 June 2026


Rev. Kate’s Connections

Earlier in June I shared during worship that my celebration of the U.S. 250th anniversary is focused on religious freedom. As a religious leader in a small denomination, I take my public role seriously, particularly the trust that is placed in me to proclaim UU values.

During the current painful havoc in the U.S. our religious freedom is under serious threat. Project 2025 was the result of decades of planning and organizing to place political leaders in office and judges in courtrooms. The goal is to establish a particular form of very conservative Christianity as the state sponsored religion and to bring about Armageddon.

There are some serious flaws in their plans. Starting and ending with resistance.

Their Armageddon is just not going to happen on my watch, and I have it on good authority that a wide spectrum of religious groups in the U.S. are going to join me on the front line of religious defense.

Here’s the heart of life in the U.S. with religious freedom. The tension between religious freedom and other freedoms and values has been a part of the fabric of the U.S. since its inception, creating some weird allies that in other conflicts might be enemies. Right now, my hope is that those of us under threat can put aside our important, but relatively minor differences, and take our public role to defend religious freedom seriously.

As a woman, as an ordained woman in a liberal faith, and as a citizen of the U.S. I’m going to be honoring my existence in a country that is fundamentally changing. Some of those changes need to happen (more socialism to put guardrails on capitalism is a good start, celebrating the working class, establishing equity and inclusivity are just a few changes). I know that I have a public voice that can influence these changes, so they benefit all of us.

While U.S. history holds both horrific and glorious events, the future is ours to claim. Will you join me in honoring our UU religious identity and do so loudly and publicly?

Find your way to celebrate something this coming week. Don’t let anyone take away your joy!

Love and joy, Rev. Kate

06/29/2026

06/22/2026

22 June 2026


Rev. Kate’s Connections

In the United States the word patriotism is a tough word for many people no matter where one lives. It carries a heavy load of complex history and destroyed cultures. It has been intentionally associated with stringent values that many do not hold. It has become a test of one’s character and worth. To not be patriotic one can be accused of slander or worse, a heretic worthy of death.

Along with the word patriotism, there are symbols like national flags and national anthems. Even rituals like standing for the national anthem can trigger such a strong response that some may choose to counter it in protest such as not standing or placing a knee on the ground.

Language, symbols and rituals are tools after all, yet they are powerful. Therefor I’m a big fan of reclaiming language, symbols and rituals when they’ve been misused, manipulated or stolen. It’s not always possible to reclaim them, and sometimes not worth the trouble. An obvious example is the US is no longer issuing pennies. Such a change (sorry, had do it), impacts some jokes about pennies and famous one liners such as “penny for your thoughts.” It’s literally not worth hanging onto the symbol, so we say goodbye to the copper-looking, zinc loose change in our pockets. Alas, the penny has now become a historical symbol.

Over my many years I too have struggled with using the word patriotic, and feeling patriotic, as I shared in my sermon yesterday. I’ve kept in the struggle in part because I do not want to give up the word to those who lay claim to its purity. The word and the feelings associated with it have value for me.

I think that value is tied to the deep human need to belong to something. Human beings have evolved in part because belonging to a group, for example a pack or tribe, has kept us alive and able to pass along our genes. Belonging to a community, like a religious community, provides emotional and spiritual support, and affirmation for living our values. All of these, including feeling like we belong to a country can provide a powerful sense of identity through association with ideals. There may even be pride, given the right set of challenges.

And of course, all of this can fall apart when events go terribly, horribly wrong if ideals crash into the reality of human selfishness.

In my struggle, with which I am comfortable, I take my guidance from James Baldwin who wrote in Notes of a Native Son, that while he advocated for constructive patriotism, he did so with a purpose "I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

I won’t say I love America more than any other county, but I do appreciate my country but not as some abstract entity. I love my fellow people particularly those who have chosen to stay in the struggle as together we lay claim to ideals and virtues worthy of our sweat and blood. I affirm my ability to protest, ask questions and pray in my unique way.

May your exploration of patriotism be filled commitment to the journey and willingness to risk (from principles of Improv).

With Yes and Love, Rev. Kate

06/22/2026

A bit late due to user brain failure.

16 June 2026

Rev. Kate’s Connections

On Sunday I introduced an important “box of tools” that can help people cope with the stress of contemporary politics, economics and attacks on what we hold as sacred and valued. While these major stressors impact people differently depending on vulnerability, the tools I offered can be used by everyone if they are grounded in core healthy identity and values.

The “tools” come from the guiding principles of improvisation. Improvisation or “improve” is associated with staged productions filled with unpredictable hilarity.

The gift is these guiding principles or “rules” as some call them, can be applied to life for everyone to pick up and use with integrity. They may even be a life-saving paradigm shift. I’m going to be weaving improv guidelines into reflections and sermons for as long as I have breath.

On Sunday I raised up the most popular principle “Yes – And.” With this tool a practitioner leans in, agrees with what is said and then adds to it. With that simple act, one becomes co-creator of a moment in time. A sacred moment that is unique and precious in the grand length of epic history.

While there are important times when ‘no’ is a life-saving response, the larger ‘yes’ is held as the driving force. Consider, we say “no” to harm because we say “yes” to personal and collective safety.

For some ‘Yes – And’ may be a paradigm shift that is hard to comprehend. It may be near impossible to see past what appears to be relentless waves of painful life events as anything other than a battle against bias and prejudice. It may feel like an insult to the heavy burden of scars carved into proud identity.

Yet, many have found “yes – and” to be a way to put down that burden; to clean the scars and release the anger, resentment and fear so that the waves of life’s inevitability become a powerful source of energy. That force can propel “no” to “yes – and” with a fierce claim upon life as a gift not a curse.

Maybe I’m just another liberal optimist. Or maybe, I’m leaning into reality with clarity of what we all need to thrive with grace, glory and even hilarity.

Yes to Justice. Yes to Equity. Yes to Love. Yes to Beauty. Yes to Hilarity. Yes to You. Yes to Me. And … what shall we become …?


With Yes and Love, Rev. Kate

06/09/2026

8 June 2026


Rev. Kate’s Connections

Yesterday I shared my sabbatical learning that my usual high paced daily thrust forward is no longer working for me. I need to engage in life at different speeds because it’s healthier and more importantly love is relative to speed. It’s not just how we spend our time, but at what speed we spend our days that we cultivate love.

Poet Elizabeth Tarbox, wrote in High Tide, Low Tide, “There is a time for high tide—for being involved and active, taking risks and putting out effort to master the elements—and there is a time for low tide—inactivity and quiet reflection—and both are necessary in our lives.”

Tarbox’s wisdom is more than lyrical, it is lifesaving. Too much time spent in waves crashing repeatedly on the shore is not sustainable. Our frail human bodies cannot endure against the inevitable bruising and broken bones. Mastering the elements can become surviving the elements.

My recognition turned into embracing the sloth to accompany my dragon of speed, the working dog of tasks and the pig of being in the moment.

But how to invite the sloth into the high tide of ministry? Sloth’s don’t swim.

Rafts! I am cultivating different kinds of rafts to grab and sit for a spell of quiet reflection.

Music slows me down, so more music in my office. I pause to sing when passing through the sanctuary.

Food slows me down, so eat my lunch and snacks away from my desk.

Nature slows me down, so more walks in woods and stare out the window if my body must be indoors.

Acceptance slows me down, so more affirmation for inertia, and resisting the capitalist messages that my value is tied to my output (it’s not!).

And I added a new friend who looks at me as a constant reminder from across the room (see below). He needs a name, suggestions are welcome.

I hope the pace of your life, with all the ebbs and flows, helps you cultivate love that is expansive and profound. Mine is! Just grab a raft and sit for a spell.

Love, Rev. Kate