Our Sunday morning services begin at 10:00 a.m. Most services are led by lay ministers who plan a series of programs, invited guest speakers, or by individuals from our congregation. About one Sunday each month our consulting minister, Rev. Jane Esbensen, conducts the service. Several participatory services are Prairie favorites. You will find a wide variety of topics and perspectives presented, as shown by the past program listings in the table at the end of this page.

Lay ministers are Prairie members who agree to present 3 to 6 services on a given topic. Lay ministers and their topics are proposed to the Committee on Committees and approved by the Prairie Board. Lay ministers work with the Program Committee to develop their series of presentations which may include guest speakers.

Guest speakers are presenters from outside Prairie membership. They are invited to speak at a Prairie Sunday service by the Program Committee or a lay minister. They speak on timely issues which can be related to the UU principles.

The consulting minister works to improve ministry to our congregation, including providing one Sunday service each month.

A typical service is likely to include the following elements:

Favorite participatory Sunday services

• The Ingathering water ceremony held at the beginning of the school year
• The Day of the Dead service during which people are invited to share memories of loved ones
• The Symbol Tree service around Christmas time when people share important milestones in their lives from the past year
• Intergenerational services usually arranged around holidays and which often include crafts, dance, music, skits and readings.

Transcripts, Resource Lists, and Audio Recordings from Talks and Sermons

A sampling of talks and sermons enjoyed by Prairie members at Sunday services in recent years (most recent at the top) are available through the links below. For services with online audio recordings of speaker's remarks but no transcripts, see our Audio Recordings page. Audio cassettee recordings of many entire services are also available at the Meeting House, as indicated by the endnotes in the lists at the bottom of the page.

• February 5, 2012 - “Striving for Sanity in a Crazy World,” Rachel Long

• January 29, 2012 - Slides from “What the United States Can Learn About Improving the Status of Women from Other Countries,” Dr. Myra Marx Ferrer

• January 8, 2012 - “Karen Armstrong's 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life,” Phyllis Long   Hear (46 MB mp3)

• October 9, 2011 - “What Is Mental Illness?,” Rachel Long   Hear (51 MB mp3)

• July 3, 2011 - book list from “How Can I Keep from Reading,” Rose Smith

• May 22, 2011 - “Singing the First 100 Years of Universalism,” Barbara Park (unabridged)

• April 3, 2011 - “A Humanist Look at Myth, Symbol, and Art,” Fred Edwords

• August 22, 2010 - “Testing and Teacher Accountability,” Dr. Jim Carpenter

• August 15, 2010 - “To Do Good is My Religion,” Rev. Jane Esbensen

• August 8, 2010 - resource list from “Worth and Dignity of All People: UU's and Arizona Migrants,” Prairie's delegates to GA 2010 in Minneapolis

• August 1, 2010 - book list from “Summer Reads,” Rose Smith

• July 4, 2010 - “Reclaiming the Flag: What We Love About Our Country,” Mary Mullen

• June 28, 2009 - book list from “Summer Reads,” Rose Smith

• March 1, 2009 - “This I Believe,”: Phyllis, Rachel

• February 1, 2009 - “Darwin and His 'Dangerous Idea',” Jane R. Shoup   Hear (40 MB mp3)

• December 7, 2008 - “What I Believe,” Marcia

• December 7, 2008 - “This I Believe,” Rick Ruecking

• August 31, 2008 - “The American Worker - From Joe Hill to Joe Walmart,” Steve Blank

• May 4, 2008 - “The Music of What Happens,” Christina Klock

• January 6, 2008 - “This I Believe,” Erin Bosch

• August 12, 2007 - book list from “How Can I Keep from Reading?,” Rose Smith

• April 8, 2007 - The poems from “A Line of Poetry Strays Into Memory,” Mary Mullen and Anne Lundin

• March 25, 2007 - “Molly Ivins, A Heroine of Our Time,” Paula Pachciarz

• August 20, 2006 - “Making Memorial Services Meaningful,” Mary Mullen, Erin Bosch, and Sonya

• April 16, 2006 - “The Wilderness Requirement for Change: Easter, Passover and the State of the Congregation,” the Rev. Jody Whelden

• February 5, 2006 - flipcharts from “God's Shadow: The Archetypes of Antichrist and Apocalypse,” Steve Vorass (audio tape available)

• December 11, 2005 - “Lighting Our Lives with Hope - The Christmas Message,” the Rev. Jody Whelden

• December 4, 2005 - “Jesus and Empire,” Bob Reuschlein

• November 20, 2005 - “Our Blessings: Apparent Or Not,” the Rev. Jody Whelden

• October 16, 2005 - “The Language and Practice of Reverence,” the Rev. Jody Whelden

• October 9, 2005 - “Gaylord Nelson: Not a Unitarian Universalist, But...,” Mary Mullen

• August 21, 2005 - “Citizenship, Politics, and Liberal Religion,” the Rev. Jody Whelden

• October 3, 2004 - “Church/State Issues 2004,” Leona Balek

• September 26, 2004 - “Coming Together,” the Rev. Sarah Oelberg

• July 18, 2004 - “Pledging Allegiance,” the Rev. Sarah Oelberg

• April 4, 2004 - “Reasonable Religion,” the Rev. Sarah Oelberg

• January 20, 2002 - “Martin Luther King - Nonviolent Peace Activist,” the Social Action Committee