It is not only found in the senior population but also in the younger generations. We will explore why this occurs, its history, the social implications for global society, what it means to us as individual humanists and strategies to avoid loneliness.
Moderated by Bob Koches

Presenter: Rev. Matt Alspaugh, Service Associate: Robbie Bergman
Artificial Intelligence is perhaps the biggest technological change we’ve experienced in our lifetimes, along with all the other biggest technological changes: computers, the internet, streaming, smartphones, social media, and cat videos. We’ve each dealt with these other changes, but what about AI? I explore how I live with AI as a working minister, and how we might approach these tools in our lives.

D’Vorah Kelley: Presenter, Lynn Cleek: Service Associate
What does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist in a changing world? While we claim no shared dogma, we are bound together by a powerful set of shared values. Join us this Sunday as we explore the “Value Flower” – a vibrant framework of Justice, Interdependence, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, and Generosity, all rooted in a central core of love.

Through story, song, and reflection, we will move beyond abstract ideas to look at the concrete actions we can take to live our faith out loud. Whether you are a lifelong UU or a seeker looking for a spiritual home grounded in deed rather than creed, you are welcome here.

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Rev. Matt Alspaugh, presenter, Dee Dee Camhi, Service Associate.
This recent statement by political strategist Hiba Qasas gave me pause: “We are living in one of the least peaceful moments in modern history. We have the largest number of conflicts since World War II” We live in a time when war has become the default choice for solving disagreements among nations, a reflex rather than a last resort. How might we find better, well, more peaceable, solutions to our disagreements? How might we achieve lasting peace?

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The question this month is: In this modern world will objective and unbiased Journalism survive? We will look at how journalism is changing in this era of autocratic tendencies, AI replacement of reporters, AI slop, mortality of journalists , the role of substacks, and corporate consolidation of media outlets.
Moderated by Bob Koches

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Since January, more than half of LCUUF congregants have responded to survey questions and contributed in face-to-face small groups, talking about what makes us “us.” A small task force has navigated through the data collected, analyzing, writing, disagreeing—respectfully—and re-arranging into written form a mission statement and a vision statement. You will see the results of our discussions during this service, and we will choose a route that can help us go forward together.

The talk will be given and the service conducted by members of the task force: Jim Reeves, Priscilla Taylor, Susanne Bjorner, Marsha Buly, and D’vorah Kelley. Wiley Beveridge will provide the music.

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Presenter: Ted Fahy, Service Associate: D’Vorah Kelley

All ancient civilizations – Mayan, Navajo, Akkadian, Hindu, Hebrew – have had origin stories, including Gods, to explain the beginnings of the world and of humanity. Today, the sense of awe in the presence of the vast unknown that characterizes those stories has largely disappeared – and so has belief in the Divine.

Is there room for the Sacred in the 21st Century? What do we need to be open to and experience the Transcendent?

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Presenter: Rev. Matt Alspaugh, Service Associate: Lamar Allen

What makes an organization — a team, a company, a town, a nation or for that matter, this fellowship — function well? How can the people that are part of such an organization grow and develop most fully? Clearly many traditional organizational models just aren’t working anymore, so what needs to change to create flourishing communities?

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Presenter: Bob Craft, Service Associate: Michael Swords
Using his own memories as examples, presenter Bob Craft will suggest that using AI to seek context around historical events we lived through may help to bring back fading details and memories of our personal stories attached to them. He will also present evidence that AI can reframe memories of difficult times in history by integrating them into a larger context, suggesting that even in dark times there is hope and reason to believe that not only have we have survived but can and will flourish individually and as human society

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We will explore whether AI is truly conscious or merely mimicking human traits. The discussion will be based on an article in Noema Magazine entitled “The Mythology of Conscious AI.” The session focuses on the distinction between data processing and actual experience. Thank you to Trudy Crippen for finding the article. This month is an experiment in concentrating on one article, albeit highly detailed.

Read the full article at https://www.noemamag.com/the-mythology-of-conscious-ai/.

Moderated by Bob Koches

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Presenter: Rev. A. Shirley, Service Associate: Hyacinthe Miller, Musician: Wiley Beveridge

The Rev. Sarah A. Shirley, Rector of St. Andrew Anglican Church will be the guest speaker at the Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Sunday, May 24. Her presentation will address such questions as, What is unity? Is it achievable on the earthly plane? Is it something which human beings actually desire? Her message is informed by the controversial nature of ‘unity’ as a spiritual principle, which made worldwide news in January 2025 when The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar-Budde preached on it at the (U.S.) National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The response? A mix of kudos and death threats. Shirley’s talk explores the concept and value of unity in light of these responses, as well as other local aspects of how unity is at work among both the Anglican and UU congregations here at Lakeside, along with the mutual values each group cherishes.

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Presenter: Richard Clarke, Service Associate: Carol Johnson.
Richard Clarke will explore the Tibetan Book of the Dead as a guide not just for dying, but for living with clarity in the later years of life. Drawing on Tibetan Buddhist wisdom and the open, questioning spirit of Unitarian Universalism, he shows how the “Bardo”—the space between what was and what comes next—perfectly describes the transitions of aging. The talk offers practical insights on meeting fear, letting go, facing the mind honestly, and supporting each other through life’s biggest changes. It’s direct, relatable, and grounded in real experience—an invitation to approach the final chapters of life with steadiness, curiosity, and an open heart.

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Presenter: Rev. Matt Alspaugh, Service Associate: Jane Castleman
What are the questions you live with? How do you cope with the lack of answers, with uncertainty, and doubt? Many people ‘find religion’ because they are uncomfortable with those unanswered questions, they want certainty, some form of truth. Many others ‘lose religion’ because they realize that the answers they were given don’t really work for them, so they’d rather just live the questions. Many of us in this congregation are like that. So, how do you live the questions? How do you dwell with not knowing? How do you inhabit this very contingent, uncertain world? We may not be able to answer these for you, but we hope to leave you more comfortable with the questions.

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Presenters: Elly Contreras, Joan Fletcher and Ann Godshall

This introduces a new nonprofit initiative at Lakeside called “Lakeside Memory Neighborhood” which seeks to bring compassionate culturally responsive dementia care for all those facing this affliction in our neighborhoods. The three-part presentation spearheaded by LCUUF member, Elly Contreras, along with her collaborators, Joan Fletcher and Ann Godshall will feature the Montessori approach for offering effective care for those living with dementia and their families.

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Presenters: Elly Contreras, Joan Fletcher and Ann Godshall
Service Associate: Tim Boeve

This service will introduce a new nonprofit initiative at Lakeside called “Lakeside Memory Neighborhood” which seeks to bring compassionate culturally responsive dementia care for all those facing this affliction in our neighborhoods. The three-part presentation spearheaded by LCUUF member, Elly Contreras, along with her collaborators, Joan Fletcher and Ann Godshall will feature the Montessori approach for offering effective care for those living with dementia and their families

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Peter Jeschofnig : Presenter, Lamar Allen: Service Associate

In 1964, at the age of twenty-one, Ajijic resident Peter Jeschofnig spent six months as a volunteer at Albert Schweitzer’s legendary hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon — one of the last people to know the great humanitarian personally before his death in 1965.

In this talk, Peter reflects on Schweitzer’s remarkable life: his parallel careers as theologian, philosopher, Bach scholar, and physician; his founding of the Lambaréné hospital; and the philosophy of “Reverence for Life” that guided everything he did. Drawing on personal memories of daily life at the hospital — caring for injured chimpanzees, attending Schweitzer’s evening table readings, and sharing private walks with the man himself — Peter offers an intimate portrait of a towering figure seen up close. The talk concludes with a reflection on why Schweitzer’s ideas feel more urgent today than ever, in an age of ecological crisis and the need for genuinely engaged lives.

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Hosted by Bob Koches.
Are we transitioning from being a product of evolution to being its architect? Are we no longer waiting to see what nature does to us; are we deciding what we want to become. What will a future Human look like?

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Presenter: Rev. Tim Boeve, Service Associate: Ted Fahy,
Musician: Wiley Beveridge

Two ways of being are available to us and we see both on display in today’s world of politics, daily living, and in nature. The Rev. Tim Boeve will speak to these two ways in his message, Pro Bono, Quid Pro Quo and Us. One of these ways is transactional, the other springs from grace. Both have their place, albeit one requires a return on an investment and the other predominantly feeds the human spirit in ways that benefit both the giver and our world’s needs, without expecting anything in return.

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Presenters: Frank Watson, D’Vorah Kelley, Bob Koches
Service Associate: Bob Craft

Each of us is on a spiritual journey. Each of us is following our own path through life. Join us Sunday, April 12 as three of our members of the Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Riberas share their personal spiritual journey and how they ended up becoming UUs. Mary Doane will be the musician.

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Talk by Matt Alspaugh.
When the world seems more disordered than ever, when life seems more challenging, more difficult, when hope is hard to find, maybe we can tap into hope’s near neighbor, possibility. “Why not?” is the question we might explore as we open to what might be possible in our lives and in this current world.
We’ll also touch on the messages of possibility in the two great seasonal stories: the Jewish Passover week, and the Christian Easter week (and yes, they are interlinked). However we might approach these stories, as metaphor, theology, narrative or fiction, we’ll look for the thread of possibility that runs through them.

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