UNIVERSITY UNITARIAN CHURCH

Reflection Groups

Fall 2025 Soul Matters Reflection Groups:

Personalize the  Spiritual Experience to One's Life


Please read this information before applying

Reflection Groups at UUC were introduced  in Spring 2022 to encourage the experience of discovery, solace, hope, and courage through UU spiritual exploration, reflection, and meditative practice in the supportive company of others. Since that time, we have offered six such experiences*, and fall 2025 marks our seventh program. You’ll join a group of 8-10 participants, including a trained facilitator or co-facilitators, for six sessions meeting twice a month for two hours each time. Participants are asked to make a commitment to attend for the duration of the group. The fall 2025 reflection groups will meet Oct-Dec.


PLEASE NOTE: 

  • Reflection Groups are specifically grounded in the experience of regular spiritual practice, both independently and with your group. Participants are encouraged to engage in practices that may be well known or new to them, such as Lectio Divina, meditation in many forms, introspection, sharing in covenant, and contemplative spiritual discernment. Journaling (through writing, art, music) is an important aspect of this program.


  • These are not discussion groups. Rather, they invite personal reflections offered from the heart, and are met with deep listening rather than immediate response. Reflection groups develop the capacity to be present with open acceptance, refraining from cross-talk, critique, offering advice, or trying to identify and fix a problem. Agreements on engagement are held in covenant among group members, who may choose to mutually amend their chosen practices any time.

 
Soul Matters Reflection Groups: Personalize the Spiritual Experience to One's Life

Why this program? 


Soul Matters’ distinguishing characteristic is a focus on deep listening that helps us heal spiritual disconnection, but in a unique process. Soul Matters invites us to listen to each other deeply and with discipline. Deep listening is not passive, but requires effort and intentionality. Participants are invited to practice three distinct disciplines of deep listening during their meeting time:

  • Hold still—the practice of offering inviting presence and witness
  • Hold at bay—the practice of offering inviting presence and witness
  • Hold up and hold out—the practice of responding with gratitude and noting meaningful connection.

Soul Matters invites us to experience the themes, not just analyze them. Spiritual analysis without spiritual practice leaves us unchanged. Spiritual exercises force us to come down from the lofty perch of analyzing life and instead invite us into the nitty gritty work of engaging our lives.


Soul Matters offers questions that walk with us, rather than quiz us. Soul Matters treats questions as tools for individual exploration and spiritual discernment. We are invited to choose a question that “hooks us” or seems to contain a personal message, then walk with that question for a couple of weeks before group. At group one does not answer the question but shares how the question led you to seeing your life differently.


Soul Matters offers us conversation partners throughout the entire month. Soul Matters’ packets are designed to give participants the experience of a month-long conversation with multiple conversation partners. Along with spiritual exercises and personal discernment questions, the packets contain extensive recommended reading, poetry, quotes and multimedia on the monthly theme.


Soul Matters small groups are part of a greater whole. They are part of a larger church-wide conversation and journey that the whole congregation is engaging in during the month.


How does it work?


At the outset each member receives a Participant Guide. Then 1-2 weeks prior to the first meeting in each month, participants receive a link to the Small Group Packet for that month’s theme. Participants are invited to select one of a dozen spiritual exercises and one of a dozen questions that speak to their life. Each session includes Centering, Check-in, Spiritual Exercises Reflection, “Your Question” Reflection, Check-out, and Closing Words.


About the Program


Soul Matters was started by UU minister Rev. Scott Tayler over 10 years ago, but now a whole staff of religious professionals research and publish the monthly packets.


The Soul Matters themes for 2025-26 are: September: Building Belonging; October: Cultivating Compassion; November: Nurturing gratitude; December: Choosing Hope; January: Practicing Resistance; February: Embodying Resilience; April: Embracing Possibility; May: Awakening Curiosity; and June: Flourishing Together. UUC will cover Oct-Dec this fall; second spring sessions will cover Feb-Mar through May/June.


How are the small groups formed, and how do I sign up?

Applications are available online (use the button below), and printed application forms are available at the Information Table at the lower entry and in the UUC church office. Applications are due by 5 p.m. Sunday, September 14. Groups will be formed based on availability of participants and facilitators, with an eye to balancing warm companionship and diversity of perspective.


Groups meet in person at the church or in a member's home. Arrangements for Zoom participation may be possible in the event of illness or travel. Some cohort groups—parents, young adults, Wise Women—may be available if there is sufficient interest. Be sure to mark your application to indicate all groups and times/dates you are open to, so that we can maximize options for your participation.


We may not be able to place all applicants in groups. Confirmation and group assignments will be communicated by Friday, September 19.  Groups begin in early October.


Need help with your application or have other questions? Contact Morgan Sherwood, UUC Congregational Engagement Coordinator.



*  Previous guiding texts chosen for UUC Reflection Groups:


  • Spring 2022: Welcoming the Unwelcome, by Pema Chödrön
  • Fall/ Winter 2022-23: Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Winter/Spring 2023: See No Stranger, by Valarie Kaur
  • Fall 2024: The Book of Joy, by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu
  • Spring 2024: Fierce Love, by Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
  • Fall 2025: We Were Meant for These Times, 10 lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption by Kaira Jewel Lingo
  • Spring 2025: Heart to Heart and Soul to Soul both by Christine Robinson & Alicia Hawkins


CLICK HERE TO APPLY