Rev Cynthia Heilman
Cynthia, a native Clevelander, makes her home in Toledo, Ohio with her husband, Edwin Heilman. They have five adult children, four in college and one teaching dance. Cynthia is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, and Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Although ordained in the Presbyterian Church, she is now a candidate for ordination as a Unitarian Universalist, and as part of the transition process, spent the 2006-2007 church year interning with the Rev. Gary Blaine at the UU church in Toledo.
"I believe in the OUUF; its mission, what it is now and what it is becoming. Together we can continue to nourish its growth in spirit and size, and its impact in the greater Oberlin area."
Rev. Heilman's Service Schedule for Spring 2009
Sermons and Songs
11 January
Questing: “Where Do You Want To Go This Year?”
This sermon will invite us to savor the mundane and sometimes disconcerting questions that life presents to us each day as well as thrill in the journey to answering them.
1st song: #347 Gather the Spirit
2nd song: #295 Sing Our Praises for the Journey
25 January
Shadow: Recognizing and Tending to Our Shadow
W.H. Auden wrote, “Evil is unspectacular and always human.”
We are adept at making excuses. We place blame We inflict pain
on others in small daily doses – little acts of selfishness, indifference, and neglect. Today we will explore some steps to
accepting and curbing the leper inside each of us.
1st song: #322 Thanks Be for These
2nd song: #85 Although This Life is a Wraith
8 February
Meaning: Seeking and Making It For Ourselves
Humans survive by constructing meaning, just as spiders
construct a web. Diarist Anais Nin wrote, “There is not one big
cosmic meaning for all. There is only the meaning we all give to
our lives, an individual meaning.” This sermon will explore the
various places and peoples as well as other “sacred texts” that help
us make sense of our experiences.
1st song: #346 Come, Sing a Song With Me
2nd song: #311 Let It Be a Dance
22 February
Our Bodies: As Teachers and Vulnerable Hosts
Many aspects of our society have taught us to despise our bodies,
while other aspects of it send the high sign for us to indulge in excessive behaviors. Today we will look at the body not as a
machine or the focus of big business, but as a fiesta to which we are invited.
1st song: #128 For All That Is Our Life
2nd song: #86 Blessed Spirit of My Life
8 March
Eating: More Than Swallowing and Digesting
I am addicted to food. Maybe, or obviously, I have the “fat gene”. Nevertheless, like the other 6.7 billion people on the
face of this planet, not to mention all non-human animals, insects and plants and, I agree to be an eater. I choose life
again and again and again...
1st song: #182 O, the Beauty in a Life
2nd song: #402 From You I Receive
29 March
Imagination: When a Clothespin is Not Just a Clothespin
Professor of Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York City states that, “There is no life of the
spirit without the imagination”. Maybe one reason why so many
people are disenchanted with religion is because it has created a famine for the human heart and mind.
1st song: #286 A Core of Silence
2nd song: #301 Touch the Earth, Reach the Sky
12 April
Joy: Giving Ourselves Permission to Rejoice and Be Exceedingly Glad”
You found $10 in the pocket of jacket not worn in months. A loved ones care was totaled. Your neighbors roses are blooming. The test results don't look good. Life is to be enjoyed. And that
just may be the whole point.
1st song: #196 Singer of Life
2nd song: #326 Let All the Beauty We Have Known
26 April
Wonder: Surveying Life with Fresh Eyes
In her poem, “When Death Comes”, Mary Oliver writes,
'...When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married
to amazement. I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my
arms.' It might be that our supreme task on this earth is to pay
attention to the storehouse of surprises in the daily grinding of life.
1st song: #398 To See the World
2nd song: #352 Find a Stillness
10 May
Parenting: The Heart Is the Primary Womb
Originally intended to unite women in opposition to the “war
between the states”, Julia Howe Ward's call rings still. And it is
extended to everyone who has ever mentored or watched over the
development of a young life.
1st song: #188 Come, Come, Whoever You Are
2nd song: #409 Sleep, My Child
24 May
Becoming Lost: Discovering the Art of Wandering
Dilly-dallying. Lolly-gaging. Call it what you may. In this sermon we will explore the wisdom in not becoming too focused
and single-minded.
1st song: #16 “Tis a Gift to Be Simple
2nd song: #77 Seek Not Afar for Beauty
14 June
Play: Balls, Checkers, Knock-Knock Jokes and Appreciation of the Paradox and Mystery of Life
An Apache myth tells us that after the Creator gave humans
the ability to talk, to run, and to look, they were lastly given
the ability to laugh, upon which (he) declared, “Now are you
fit to live”. This sermon will explore how playing around is a
good and holy thing.
1st song: #65 The Sweet June Days
2nd song: #338 I Seek the Spirit of a Child