As we look toward the end of this year of untold grief, we are in a season traditionally focused on gratitude and joy. It can feel somehow wrong or disrespectful to celebrate when we are immersed in such suffering. Yet grief and gratitude are inextricable, as are joy and pain; life is not divided into neat containers. Let’s explore together how to hold our human experience in ways that honor its sacred complexity.

To see the video, click here and open the file Grief and Gratitude 12-27-2020.mp4

Worship Leader and Guest Preacher Steven Leigh Williams (he/they) is a Unitarian Universalist minister on the path to ordination. He grew up UU in Tulsa, Oklahoma and spent much of his early adulthood in New Orleans, with briefer stints in Dallas and Paris. Steven has held several professional and volunteer roles within the UU world, primarily in pastoral care and youth ministry, which hold a special place in their heart. Currently, he serves as the Collegial Care Assistant at the UU Ministers Association and the chaplain intern at Church of the Larger Fellowship.

Steven holds a Master of Arts in Social Justice from Phillips Theological Seminary, where they recently resumed classes toward their Master of Divinity. They sustain their ministry by reading world-building fantasy novels, spending time outdoors, and being a happy homebody with their spouse, Karyn. They live in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma with two dogs and two cats, and have two mostly-fledged young adult stepchildren.