First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans
@firstuuneworleans.bsky.social
A vibrant, multigenerational, justice-oriented UU congregation in New Orleans. Sunday services at 10:30 in Rayne Memorial Chapel at 3900 St. Charles uptown.
Arresting clergy is bad enough but ICE arrests anyone it freakin' wants to and doesn't care about due process. Thank you to the Unitarian Universalist (yellow stole) and to all these brave souls defending democracy
Bad Carla@roxy-bailey.bsky.social · last wk."Ultimately, Girrell was arrested by Vermont state police alongside six others..." Sounds like Vermont state govt. is MAGA. www.ncronline.org/news/7-vermo...
Every five years, Congress passes legislation to set national agriculture, nutrition, and environmental policy. The “Farm Bill” is an opportunity for lawmakers to address farming and food needs while securing critical funding for agricultural programs. 🔗 uusj.salsalabs.org/2026-may-env...
Rosh Hashanah, Memory, and Who Belongs Tonight begins Rosh Hashanah, and today also marks the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001. One of the recurring themes of our holiday is that we are asked to remember. rabbisandra.substack.com/p/rosh-hasha...
Rosh Hashanah, Memory, and Who Belongs
Tonight begins Rosh Hashanah, and today also marks the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001.
rabbisandra.substack.com
So this is incredibly cool (to me): the Institute for Jewish Spirituality has invited me to teach for them this year! I’ll be sharing weekly essays connecting the parsha, poetry, and mindfulness. Each will end with prompts for journaling, (optional) poetry-writing, and spiritual practice. (1/)
Announcing Accept Our Prayers - a gorgeous new #Amidah companion co-published by @bayit.bsky.social and @benyehudapress.bsky.social. Available for pre-order now (on sale for $19.96!) velveteenrabbi.com/2026/08/31/a...
Announcing Accept Our Prayers!
One of the things we most wanted to do, when we started Bayit (the Jewish spiritual innovation incubator that I co-founded with several friends and colleagues several years ago now), was uplift bot…
velveteenrabbi.com
Shabbat shalom. Sending a little extra light your way for this last Shabbat of 5786.
"I’m always reluctant to let go of summer. But the coming of Selihot — in Ashkenazi tradition, a special service on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah — tells me the season is changing, ready or not..." velveteenrabbi.com/2026/09/05/s...
So this is how.
I’m always reluctant to let go of summer. But the coming of Selihot — in Ashkenazi tradition, a special service on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah — tells me the season is…
velveteenrabbi.com
"Remember, said God, that I am / becoming what I am becoming, as are you..." We Are Verbs: a poem for the Days of Awe by Blaze Ardman. (Which we prayed at #Selichot tonight at my shul.)
the teshuvah (repentance / return / moral realignment) needs to be from the people running these companies, and I'm not holding my breath. Anyway also read this thread from @emilymbender.bsky.social: bsky.app/profile/emil...
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · last wk.It seems like there's a new round of "stochastic parrots has been proven wrong" discourse going on, so I'm going to re-up this: medium.com/@emilymenonb... >>
I still think the teshuvah question is on point, but am realizing it's not about whether the tech itself can make moral choices (and as @emilymbender.bsky.social points out in another thread I will uplift in a sec, that's anthropomorphizing the AI in problematic ways) --
I am guilty of believing (and being horrified by) the hype about "AI could kill us all" - I shared a Guardian link about it yesterday - framed as a question about whether "AI" is capable of teshuvah. Am grateful to friends for pointing me to @timnitgebru.blacksky.app's work.
Timnit Gebru@timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 5d agoThe last few days is like a DDOS attack from these companies 🙄 I just finished drafting an op-ed and then see another OMG Machine god is going to kill everyone 😱 post Ok walk me through the step by step action this super intelligent chatbot takes to render everyone us extinct?
To all my Jewish friends and readers, and everyone else like me who needs a new beginning and loves Rabbi Rachel's words.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat@velveteenrabbi.bsky.social · 4d ago
Happy new year to everyone who celebrates here! Let this year and its curses end and let a new year and its blessings begin.
A thread of Rosh Hashana things to read, if you would like to: Some thoughts on what prayer is, might be, even if you don't "believe in God" - and why maybe that's not always what matters-
seasonal goodies
permission, inspiration, and more
lifeisasacredtext.com
And meanwhile, here's the sermon that he delivered so well. On hope and despair, and balance, and living in These Difficult Times. velveteenrabbi.com/2026/09/12/k...
Keeping Our Balance: Rosh Hashanah 5787
I know this hasn’t been an easy year. I know this year has often felt like walking a balance beam that mysteriously got narrower when we weren’t looking. Or maybe even like walking a balance beam w…
velveteenrabbi.com
Meanwhile, just now he said, "We need to get you some of those cat buttons, like Elsie has. So you could say," (pantomiming pressing buttons), "Laryngitis. Litterbox. Litterbox." @maryrobinettekowal.com Your cat's lingo has entered our household lexicon.
So it's Rosh Hashanah and I have laryngitis. NO VOICE. at all. Thank God for my cantorial soloist, board members who made me tea, and my teen who did a surprisingly top-notch job of delivering my sermon.
Grateful to @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social, @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social, and R. Jonathan Sacks and Wendell Berry of blessed memory, for helping me find what I could say today about balancing between despair and hope in this Jewish new year. velveteenrabbi.com/2026/09/12/k...
Keeping Our Balance: Rosh Hashanah 5787
I know this hasn’t been an easy year. I know this year has often felt like walking a balance beam that mysteriously got narrower when we weren’t looking. Or maybe even like walking a balance beam w…
velveteenrabbi.com
The Wendell Berry quotation: "The young ask the old to hope. What will you tell them?" has become my guiding principle. It is hard, but keeps me honest. And hopeful.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat@velveteenrabbi.bsky.social · 2d agoGrateful to @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social, @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social, and R. Jonathan Sacks and Wendell Berry of blessed memory, for helping me find what I could say today about balancing between despair and hope in this Jewish new year. velveteenrabbi.com/2026/09/12/k...
Respite with Kermit and Debbie Harry (from 1980). 🐸👱🏻♀️🌈
September is African Immigrant Heritage Month — a time to celebrate the many African communities that have helped shape New York and our nation.
A tiny mushroom in amongst the mosses in a West Lothian woodland yesterday. #Fungi #Mushrooms #Nature #Photography #Nikon #Scotland
Had an amazing time making new friends today at Global Black Pride in Paris! 🌈
Liza Adamczewski (aka the Accidental Ecologist), contemporary artist who has created a series of 'Garden Icons' - mini paintings inspired by local wildlife #womensart
This may be the best compliment I’ve ever had. What I love is she clearly doesn’t value people based solely on appearance. What i find interesting is that she (a young child) has already discerned a difference between “nice and mean Christians”.
If everyone who swarmed online spent the same amount of time calling or writing to the candidates in question telling them that they’re throwing the race to the GOP with their anti-trans rhetoric, we might actually solve the damn problem. Be parasocial in the direction of power, please.
Tamra Bonvillain@tamrabonvillain.bsky.social · 2d agoVery disheartening to see more and more Dem politicians lean into anti trans positions and when trans people say "man, this sucks" they get swarmed by people yelling at them for handing elections to the GOP. Wish they had that energy for the politicians.
