Interdependence in Action

Where in my life is there a gap between my values of interdependence and my daily choices and what am I ready to change?

We proclaim the interconnected web of existence but how do we live it? Interdependence is not just a truth – it’s a call to action. It means recognizing that our liberation is bound up with others’, that care is collective, and that our faith must move beyond words into relationship, mutual aid, and justice. This month, we reflect on what it means to embody interdependence not just as belief, but as a daily spiritual and ethical practice.

Significant Dates

05/01 Beltane
05/04 National Day of Prayer
05/10 Mother’s Day
05/17 Anniversary of the School Desegregation Ruling
05/19 Malcolm X’s Birthday
05/21 World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
05/22 Harvey Milk Day
05/25 Decoration (Memorial Day)
05/30 World MS Awareness Day

Celebrating Diversity: Celebrating Asian, Arab, and Pacific Islander Cultures

Introducing Our May Celebrating Diversity Series

At Bridges: A Unitarian Universalist Network, our Celebrating Diversity series lifts up the stories, wisdom, and sacred humanity of communities whose voices have too often been marginalized.

This month, we offer a tapestry of heritage, resilience, and transformation.

We begin by naming that the terms Asian, Arab, and Pacific Islander are designations shaped within the United States. While these terms are now commonly used for institutional clarity, they group together vast and deeply different peoples under simplified labels. We acknowledge this categorization collapses complex distinctions of culture, language, and nation for bureaucratic convenience. This approach is part of a larger historical pattern of erasure. By flattening the specific identities of Native and global peoples into broad categories, systems of power have historically sought to subjugate and oppress, stripping away the unique lineages of billions of people.

In this series, we hold a shared truth: while labels can create visibility within government systems of which we are now a part, they can also obscure the depth and humanity of the individuals they attempt to rename. We pull at these threads to unravel, remember, and name what is being woven into the distinction of AAPI; each thread worthy of being seen and honored on its own terms.

Weekly Themes

Week 1 – Ancestral Roots and Cultural Foundations
Week 2 – Migration, Diaspora, and Resilience
Week 3 – Creativity, Innovation, and Cultural Expression
Week 4 – Justice, Leadership, and Collective Liberation
Week 5 – Healing, Hope, and Future Generations

Sunday Celebrations Overview

NOTE: BridgesUU does not host Sunday Celebrations. Our role is to provide resources and support to our Covenanting Congregations and groups – including monthly and weekly blurbs, Celebration Outlines, Sunday Scripts, Musical Selections, Celebrating Our Youth Stories, Activies, and Resources, as well as, Multimedia Decks.

This month, our theme is “Interdependence in Action,” asking: Where in my life is there a gap between my values of interdependence and my daily choices and what am I ready to change?

From honoring our shared Unitarian Universalist history and the roots of Memorial Day, to celebrating youth transitions and recommitting ourselves to collective care, Through music, memory, covenant, and community, we explore what it means to live the truth of our interconnected lives not just in belief, but in practice.

Together, May invites us to embody interdependence as a daily act of love, justice, and belonging.

Sunday Celebrations

Sun, May 03, 2026 – American Tune: A Music Sunday
Music connects us across time, tradition, and culture reminding us that we do not sing alone. This Music Sunday weaves together Bach, Gospel, and Rock ’n’ Roll, culminating in “American Tune” by Paul Simon. Through harmony and rhythm, we will explore how music reveals our deep interdependence and how our voices, like our lives, are strongest when joined together.

Sun, May 10, 2026 – Covenant and Care
On this Sunday, we honor the anniversary of the 1961 consolidation that formed the Unitarian Universalist Association, while also celebrating Mother’s Day. Together, we will reflect on the ways our covenant binds us across generations and how care, both given and received, shapes our communities. Interdependence is born in relationship, nurtured in love, and sustained through our shared commitments.

Sun, May 17, 2026 – Memory and Meaning: From Decoration Day to Memorial Day
During this service we will explore the history of Memorial Day, once known as Decoration Day, and its roots in communal acts of remembrance following the Civil War. We reflect on how memory itself is an act of interdependence and how honoring the lives and sacrifices of others calls us into deeper responsibility for the present. In remembering together, we renew our commitment to a more just and peaceful world.

Sun, May 24, 2026 – Crossing Thresholds Together
On this Youth Sunday, we celebrate Bridging and Coming of Age, honoring transitions in the lives of our young people and the wider community. As members step into new chapters, we recognize that no one crosses alone ~ we are shaped and sustained by those who walk with us. This service lifts up interdependence as a living promise: that we accompany one another through every threshold.

Sun, May 31, 2026 – Interdependence in Action
We close the month by asking what it truly means to live our values. Interdependence calls us beyond belief into action through into mutual aid, justice, and daily practices of care. This service invites us to reflect on where our lives are out of alignment with our values and to take concrete steps toward deeper connection and shared liberation. Together, we commit to living as if we truly belong to one another.

Creative Arts

Each month we are creating our music that align with our theme for the month. All of our music is available for unlimited use by BridgesUU Covenanting Communities. If you are interested in becoming a BridgesUU Covenanting Community or licensing one of our songs, please let us know. We will be happy to provide sheet music as well as audio and video files.

Song of the Month:

BridgesUU: 3011: Each and Other
Written & Composed by Paul Ermisch

Holding you, holding me, together we thrive in harmony
Parent and child, healer and healed, what each one is given the other revealed.
We are not whole while alone in this place but tended and tending we grow into grace.
We are the arms and the arms that embrace. We are the holding, the held, and the space.

River and shore, root and the rain, what breaks in one body the other sustains.
Seeker and sought, broken and blessed, what trembles in one heart, the other finds rest.
We are not whole while alone in this place but tended and tending we grow into grace.
We are the arms and the arms that embrace. We are the holding, the held, and the space

Additional Musical Selections:
The following musical selections align with our theme for the month.

STLT: 78: Color and Fragrance
“STLT: 188: Come
Come
Whoever You Are”
STLT: 323: Break Not the Circle
STJ: 1012: When I Am Frightened
STJ: 1023: Building Bridges

LifeSpan Learning

In our UU faith, we know that we are all connected to each other, to the the earth and to all living things. This month, our littles will explore what it means to care for one another and out word through acts of kindness, teamwork, and responsibility. Together we’ll discover how our actions help create a community where everyone can thrive.