Welcome to the This I Believe web page and archive!
Thanks to a diligent team of volunteer members and staff, you now have access to dozens of talks delivered from the mid-1960′s to the present. There are more to be located and new talks will be added continuously to the archive.
This beautiful preservation of our living history offers the latest opportunity to share what we value about our faith and our spiritual community. Take some time to read, reflect, and discover how our unique and common experiences have led us to this particular spiritual community over the decades.
We’re sure you’ll be moved by the wealth of insight and wisdom housed in this archive.
It is a longstanding practice here to invite members of the congregation to share with us their journeys of faith. It is a rare opportunity for us, to be given this glimpse not of opinions and ideas and knowledge – but of wisdom, and doubt mingled in with the faith, and questions circling the answers, and convictions hard-won and wonder still emerging. This I Believe is a hard assignment; we ask of these speakers that they speak the truth as bravely as they can, that they tell us a story, that they model for us this essential spiritual work: making a narrative out of all your experience, making meaning out of the days we are given.
The presenters are charged with speaking to us as openly as they can, and we in turn are charged to listen as openly as we can. This circuit of speaking and hearing is important because religious life unfolds in community. There is the solitary journey of the soul on its own, and there is the return to the circle of companions who will hold our story as sacred (and ordinary), companions who both embrace us and challenge us to deeper growth. (That’s your job at coffee hour – to challenge and embrace our two speakers, in love and gratitude).
— Victoria Safford
This I Believe: Sharon Gooch (2023)
Good Morning. My name is Sharon Gooch. My Pronouns are she/her. I first found my way to this church in the spring of 2015. I had been seeing a therapist for depression and anxiety for a couple of months. I talked to her about how, as I worked to understand and sort out my feelings, my behavior and actions were hurting people that I loved. I talked to her about how alone I felt. She suggested that I “find a community” and recommended that I check out this church. So I dutifully attended every Sunday for several months that spring. I sat...
read moreThis I Believe: Jeff Ranta (2023)
I like to start with my own spiritual journey. My father is agnostic and my mother was Lutheran. I didn’t attend church beyond 6th grade. My mother posted spiritual, uplifting statements around the house. My father is a recovering alcoholic of 45 years whose main spiritual practice is the Serenity Prayer that he still lives today at age 94. In college I was a YMCA camp counselor, and guided canoe trips in the BWCA and Canada, often carrying a bible, seeking a spiritual life. I grew spiritually in nature leading teens through the wilderness....
read moreThis I Believe: Ginny Johansen (2023)
Hello, my name is Ginny Johansen. My pronouns are she/her. Here’s my situation: I have Glioblastoma with a few months left. This is not a death sentence. It’s a gift! This gives me enough time to: Tell people how much they mean to me, Get my affairs in order, Do a few bucket list things (Native American Museum in Washington DC, Say goodbye. There are only 2 things I believe, everything else is just theories and questions: God is love Love never dies I consider myself a happy agnostic. I don’t believe God can be fully known or...
read moreThis I Believe: Teal Bassett (2023)
Good morning! What an honor it is to be in front of my congregation – I have so much respect for this space and all of you, so thank you for this opportunity to tell you a little about who I am and my spirituality. My childhood was very normal. My mom’s main role was caretaker of the household while my fathers was working outside the home. I have two siblings – I’m in the middle – we grew up in Stillwater, where I still reside today. My parents didn’t take us to church and were not interested in raising their children in a...
read moreThis I Believe: Dick Grant (2022)
Good morning. My name is Dick Grant and I was a member here for 23 years until we moved to Oregon. In 1995 I presented my “This I Believe,” and was asked if I would be willing to do it again. I grew in many ways while here, and feel it was a most enlightening time in my life. Since then we’ve loved being out here in Oregon near lots of grandkids, and until Covid, things were going great. But during the Covid years I was diagnosed with ALS in December 2020 and I wanted to share my story with you. As you might know, ALS is a fatal disease...
read moreThis I Believe: Claire Gilbert (2021)
When I was four years old, I became a criminal. When my mom wouldn’t buy me a bag of skittles at the grocery store, I stole them. My mom knew something was up when she saw me grab a pair of scissors and dart into my bedroom. I thought I had locked the door, but she came around the other way through a bathroom. I had cut open the bag and spread them on the floor. “Claire!” she said, “Don’t you know the Bible says stealing is wrong.” “But Mom,” I told her, “I can’t read!” My mom and I laugh about this story today, but it...
read moreThis I Believe: Troy Stein (2021)
Good morning. I am Troy Stein. I’m 53 years old, married for 29 years and I have three kids. I work in IT for the State of Minnesota. I was raised in rural North Dakota, and I moved here in 1990 and my life changed for the better when I met my wife in 1991. One of my proudest accomplishments is my work as a professional ghost writer. I worked with a local author and together we wrote eight mysteries. I love telling stories. So this is my UU story. About 40 years ago my friend, Scott, asked me to join him as a duo to play “Taps” for...
read moreThis I Believe: Kristen Daniels (2021)
I remember the very first time I felt truly alone. I’m sure there were times before but this one sticks out in my mind and was different. It wasn’t anything extraordinary. I was driving at the time, probably 17 or 18 years old, and was driving home from dropping off a friend. This was a new friend who lived clear across the St. Paul/Minneapolis metro area from where I lived. I’m talking Woodbury to Champlin Park. I was returning home and got turned around. I don’t really understand how it happened but I found myself in a...
read moreThis I Believe: Paige Heitpas (2021)
Every year I take a trip on my birthday in order to nourish my thoughts and freshen my brain to start a new year of being me. When I turned twenty-five this past February, I went on a week-long COVID solo road trip down to Missouri to nourish the thoughts in my head. As I stroked South on I-35, I got an e-mail from Jack and Victoria graciously inviting me to join a membership class for the church and then to sign my name into the membership book. This is a book I sometimes associate as like a community scripture, which is a literally a list of...
read moreThis I Believe: Joan McIntosh (2021)
Thank you for the opportunity to explore more deeply my closely held spiritual beliefs and the experiences that shaped them. These remarks come from a long overdue examination of days long past, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share them with you today. The story I am about to tell is one familiar to us all: who am I, really? Why are we here? What does it all mean and where is that darn owner’s manual explaining how to be a good person? My husband John and I joined WBUUC in 2016 with the hope that even at this time of life, we...
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