This sermon, “Why Would a Practicing Catholic Attend UU Services Every Other Week?: Redux,” was originally delivered to the congregation of Harmony, a Unitarian Universalist Community, on May 21, 2017. It is published here with permission from the writer, with all rights reserved.

By Jon King

Good morning. I think most of you know me but for those who don’t, my name is Jon King. Before I begin I’d like to thank Dale once again for that performance. If it wasn’t clear, the opening song, “Catholic Blues,” was a Dale Bodmer original, written specifically for today, and it captures my feelings regarding the Catholic Church pretty succinctly. He even observed the importance of bingo and beer, the 8th and 9th sacraments, respectively.

And now, as a counterpoint to that…you get me.

By the title of the sermon, you can probably draw some conclusions about today’s discussion, and a good number have already seen a version of this that I did 3 years ago. I am a practicing Roman Catholic, and yet I come to Harmony at least once and usually twice a month for services. Now, to be sure, growing up Catholic doesn’t make me unique among this community. But remaining so is a bit unusual around here, and that has made me somewhat conflicted about my faith and what it means. I’d like to explore that with everyone today, in a personal way. And since this is an update, I’ll talk about how my relationship with both faiths has evolved over the last 3 years.

Read the full text of this sermon here.