Summer of Love 2026

Music, Justice, Spirituality, and the Search for Beloved Community
A Six-Week Religious Education and Worship Series for Adults

What if the story of the US since World War II is not just a political story or a musical story?
What if it is a spiritual story?
What if the rise of Civil Rights, feminism, environmental consciousness, interfaith understanding, LGBTQ+ liberation, Humanism, Earth-centered spirituality, and global awareness are all part of a larger awakening?

Join us this summer as we explore the evolving soul of America through music, culture, religion, justice movements, and spiritual transformation from 1945 to 2026. Beginning in the aftermath of World War II, we will journey through the decades to discover how people sought meaning, belonging, liberation, and connection in times of extraordinary change. Together we will explore:

• The rise and decline of Protestant cultural dominance
• The election of the first Catholic president and changing religious identities
• The influence of Jewish thinkers, artists, and activists – The arrival of Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga, and Eastern wisdom traditions into mainstream American life
• The growth of Humanism and secular spirituality
• The emergence of Pagan, Earth-centered, Indigenous, and ecological spiritualities
• The Civil Rights Movement as a spiritual movement – Feminist, LGBTQ+, and liberation theologies – Interfaith dialogue and global religious understanding
• The climate movement and the sacredness of the Earth
• The search for meaning in the digital and AI age

Through music, discussion, film clips, history, and spiritual reflection, we will encounter artists, prophets, visionaries, activists, and wisdom teachers whose voices changed America:

Martin Luther King Jr. – Malcolm X – Bayard Rustin – Fannie Lou Hamer – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel – Howard Thurman – James Baldwin – Thich Nhat Hanh – The Dalai Lama – Matthew Fox – Starhawk – Maya Angelou – Nina Simone – John Coltrane – Aretha Franklin – Prince – Kendrick Lamar – Beyoncé – and many others.

We will listen deeply to the music of each era from Big Band and Jazz to Rock, Folk, Soul, Funk, Disco, Punk, Hip-Hop, Country, World Music, and today’s global sounds. We will ask what these songs reveal about our collective hopes, fears, dreams, and spiritual longings.

Each Adult RE session is paired with a worship service exploring the deeper questions beneath the music and the headlines:

• Where do we find the Sacred?
• Who belongs in the circle of human dignity?
• What wisdom do diverse religious traditions offer?
• How do we live in right relationship with one another and with the Earth?
• What does Beloved Community look like in our time?

As Unitarian Universalists, we affirm that truth is not confined to one tradition, one scripture, one people, or one path.

The Spirit speaks through many voices.
The Holy is revealed in many cultures.
Wisdom arises from many sources.
The Earth itself is our teacher.

Join us as we listen for that wisdom in the soundtrack of the last eighty years and imagine together the future we are called to create.

Come listen.
Come learn.
Come question.
Come celebrate.
Come discover the evolving soul of the US and our place within the great web of life.

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For more information and access to other events, sign our Guestbook!