Drawing from scripture, global spiritual traditions, and the lived experience of Black resilience, Dr. Stephanie Krusemark invites worshippers to release the false binary that names light as good and darkness as evil. Instead, she frames both as necessary partners in spiritual formation: light as clarity, revelation, and communal hope; darkness as incubation, refinement, and truth-telling.

Through prophetic witness, ancestral memory, and pastoral tenderness, this theology affirms that darkness is not abandonment but gestation, not failure but formation.

It calls leaders and communities to resist shallow brightness and despairing shadow alike, and to trust the divine rhythm of becoming—where justice, healing, and transformation are born not in perpetual daylight, but in the faithful integration of both sun and stars.

Order of Service:

“A Theology of Light and Darkness”
Dr. Stephanie Krusemark
March 22, 2026

Chiming of the Singing Bowl (Jan Partin)
Words of Welcome and Announcements (Jan Partin)
Season of Giving Update Meg Hoke
Prelude  “Hush” by Lasse Lindh, arr. by Shin Giwon, (Melissa Meghdadi)
published by Genie Music, 2020
Season of Giving Testimonial Joff Masukawa
Lighting of the Chalice (Jan Partin- lit by FM child)
Call to Worship (Jan Partin)
Singing – Centering Hymn#123 Spirit of Life Congregation
by Carolyn McDade
Story for All Ages – Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights
by Rob Sanders (Sunday Parker)
Stones of Joys and Concerns (Jan Partin)
Stones Music-  “Postlude” by Teresa Wilhelmi, (Melissa Meghdadi)
published by Frank J. Hackinson Publishing Company, 2003
Introduction of Speaker (Jan Partin)
Meditation (Dr. S Krusemark)
Reading – Winter Blessing
By Katherine McTigue (Jan Partin)
Choral Anthem or Interlude – Hallelujah (L. Cohen)
arranged by Roger Emerson (Janey Ryan/UUFH Choir)
Sermon – “A Theology of Light and Darkness” (Dr. S. Krusemark)
Invitation to the Offering (Jan Partin)
Offertory “Poem” by Stephen Griebling, ((Melissa Meghdadi)
published by The Willis Music Company, 1997

Dedication of the Offering (in unison) The Congregation
To the work of this congregation,
which is weaving a tapestry of love and action,
we dedicate our offerings and the best of who we are.

Singing – Closing Hymn #101 Abide With Me The Congregation
By Henry Francis Lyte
Benediction* (Dr. S Krusemark)
Postlude “Be Still, My Soul” by Keith Getty and Kristyn Getty, (Melissa Meghdadi)
arr. by James Koerts, published by Alfred, 2002