[Music - The Fire of Commitment] Please be seated. [Music - Shout Out Loud] [Applause] >> Welcome to the 56th Service
of the Living Tradition. [Applause]>> This is what we
know in our hearts. Revelation is not sealed. To be alive is to be, to some extent, constantly
changing. Change can often be hard , but it also can be
beautiful. It can take us to places we could never have
imagined. We are, indeed, a living, changing, growing
tradition. Our Unitarian Universalist presence principles
call us to be life long learners . We celebrate this journey
tonight as our new newly and final fellowship men elders,
credentialed religious educators, certified music
leaders, and retirees celebrate the new roles roles they have
achieved. We want to say a special welcome to the families of
those ministers who have died in the last year and whose lives we mourn and celebrate tonight. >> welcome, everyone, to this
special service that acknowledges who we have been,
who we are, and who we are called to be.
>> In a moment, we will begin our calling forth of those
recognized tonight. We will do this to recognize that it is
our lay leaders who bestow authority upon these religious
professionals as we work toward a vision of shared ministry and
Beloved community. Let us
begin our calling forth. >> I would like to call forth
those in preliminary fellowship. [reading of names] Welcome to preliminary fellowship! >> I call forth from among you
these persons who have been certified as credentialed
religious educators. [reading of names] >> I call forth from among you
these persons who have completed full time service as
credentialed religious educators. [reading of names] >> I call forth from among
you these persons who have successfully completed the
portfolio path program of study and are now credentialed music
leaders. [reading of names] [Applause]
>> I call forth from among you those who have successfully
completed the program of study and are now certified music
leaders. [reading of names] >> It's an honor to call forth
these ministers in final fellowship. [reading of names] >> Welcome to final fellowship. >> I call forth from among you these persons who have completed
their careers of full-time service. [reading of names] As we create and share sacred space
together let us reflect upon what brings us here. We have all come here for
different reasons, from different decisions, face different challenges, and
share different love and yet all of our differences have led us to this space
right here right now. Some believe we are here for a greater
purpose, others hold fast to a claim of complete coincidence, others still lie
somewhere in between. There are so many differences and barriers between each
individual. It would seem at times as though odds were stacked against us in
becoming whole as we believe different things, live and experience different
things, value and hate different things. We are the children of God
the children of the earth or fully grown adults here as a piece of the ongoing
cycles of the universe, the children of the stars. We all have different
definitions and explanations as to who or what or why we are. Perhaps we are all
right. Our revelation is not sealed. Despite all that is different there is
one thing that is certainly the same. Somehow we are all right here right now.
We are growing and changing and discovering all here all together,
sharing the same sacred space. We have shared for years throughout generations constantly evolving constantly changing.
Let us continue, let us change and fight together.
Let us adapt together, let us grow together, let us worship together now.
Please rise in body or in spirit and let us join together in singing "Rank by Rank." >> We must shine. We must
shine now. This is the goal towards which we stretch, step
by step, in our own time, at our own pace, as our beauty
unfolds and our hearts open, we become gentler and more
compassionate. Yet brighter, more empowered,
and fearless. We have been holding on, holding back, playing small, hiding our light under a bushel. Enough of that! . [Cheers and Applause]
>> It is time to let go . We are needed now. All of us
. All of us together, so all those who feel a calling to be
who we are to the fullest, to make a difference, to give it
all we got, let us light this chalice to promise that we will all shine our lights
all shine our lights boldly and brightly. The words of
Christian Dela Herta. [Music] >> Each year, we honor those
whose legacy is our living tradition. As we have for
generations, we will read the names of those religious
professionals who died during the last year. >> To live is to
create a legacy. The legacy of these leaders are acts of love and service, although we often
think of religious leadership as public and preaching and proclamation
and as witness in the world, religious leadership also takes
the form of music and teaching, of listening and loving presence
in times of joy and grief. Ministry and religious
leadership is not defined by any outward form, but made real as
the spirit moves us to answer the demands of justice and to
comfort and to nurture and inspire a fullness in life.
>> As I call the roll of those religious professionals who have
died, let us rise in body or in spirit to hold the memory of
their service in our hearts. [reading of names] >> And sadly, we must add four
names to this list, those who have passed away since May 15.
They'll receive full honors at GA2018. [reading of names] >> Spirit of our ancestors in
faith, let us feel your presence. You have taught us to
strengthen our bonds and heal our hurts through faith, honor,
love, hope, and doing justice. We mourn the loss of these good religious professionals.
We have lost dear friends. We have lost individuals who
mentored us, inspired us, challenged us, consoled us,
never more will we converse with them, see their smiles, feel
their touch. May we be filled with profound
gratitude for their lives. They kept the faith. They answered
the call of love year after year. They worked for justice.
They handed on a precious tradition and legacy legacy.
Their lives continue to inspire us and to give us hope. May we
be worthy heirs to their legacy. The work of love and the work
of justice are not done. Their work is now our work. We pray
for consolation for those closest to the departed. May
they feel compassion. May they find comfort. Now, in silence,
let each of us honor those who have passed and reflect on our
place in this living faith. We pray in the name of memories
, we pray in the name of service. We pray in the name of
hope. We pray in the name of justice. We pray in the name of
love. Amen. >> It is June 1971. Jerry and I have arrived
in Boston early for the 1971 General Assembly early enough for finding a dorm
room at Boston University is airless and exceedingly
unattractive. We have been able, though it's a bit beyond the
budget, to secure an air conditioned room in the
nearby Howard Johnson's inn. Unpacked, we are wondering
around the edges of GA and we run into the Reverend Clark Dewey Wells who offers to "sneak" us into the Service of the Living Tradition soon to
commence at the Arlington Street church. It's strictly for
clergy, Clarks tells us, but I'm thinking you two will like it.
Oh, my God, did we like it. For Jerry, who basically loved
everything about General Assembly, really about
the UUA, the SLT, this service of the living
tradition, became the annual event in his religious life,
maybe the annual event in his entire life. Jerry, lover of
ministers, this one is for you. It is September September 1963
and the Unitarian church in Westport, the young Davidoff's
congregation, is welcoming its very first student intern, a
Meadville Lombard seminarian by the name of Ralph Mero. 32 years later, Ralph Mero relocated from Boston Seattle
to become the Director of the UUA A Office of church staff
finances and my education as a Unitarian Universalist
fundraiser begins. Some of you have heard me say that everything I know
about asking for money, big money, from Unitarian
Universalists I learned from Ralph Mero at the service of
the living tradition. Mero curriculum lesson one. Warn the folks that if you take
out your checkbook any time before this offertory is done,
do not fill out the amount. [Laughter]
I can remember Ralph saying this. It will only require you
writing another check. I want to speak tonight to my
colleague lay leaders. I want to speak candidly. Maybe even
harshly, because we all know the truth sometimes bites and
stings, and the truth is we mistreat our ministers financially. We call them into
our congregations for as little money as we can
get away with, get away with, and we blithely expect them to
help us raise money that will fund our collective dreams.
Please, Reverend, charm the large givers. Please, Reverend, lasso the pledge laggers.
Please Please, Reverend, not the sermon on the amount out of the
ballpark. Please, Reverend, inspire the potential capital campaign chairs. We take
particular unfair advantage of women ministers. Yes, we do.
[Applause]Still, and we exploit our ministers of
color. [Applause]
And don't get me started about our abysmal treatment of
religious educators and musicians and other staff.
[Applause] In this regard, we are cheap
skates without regard to race, gender identity, national origin. And then there are the intern ministers we love to
exploit by not paying them anything. Like working for free is okay.
Sitting behind me are new ministers. We are and
will be calling and hiring to serve our congregations this year and in the years to come. They are recent seminary graduates and many, possibly most of them, are mired in debt. The price they have paid to follow their
insistent call to ministry. their insistent call to minitsry
-- insistent call to serve us. So please, if you would, stand
if you are able and if you are willing, stand if you have
student loans and other educational debts. >> Oh, yeah. Thanks, guys. Friends, I have stood next to a
minister whose child is in terrible trouble. I have stood
by while this minister called Richard Nugent, who succeeded
Ralph Mero, called in desperation to request financial
help from the living tradition fund. And Richard has
responded without hesitation. Yes, I'm sending you a check
right now. Friends, I know ministers who
have faced medical emergencies emergencies for themselves or
family members that insurance did not cover. If, indeed,
there was insurance. I have known retired ministers
in their nineties whose careers did not straddle our fair
compensation guidelines and who were in danger of losing their
homes. Friends, I know a seminary student who was ill and
couldn't work her part-time job and was facing eviction from
her apartment and I have known seminarians who requested
emergency funds without which they could not continue their
ongoing coursework. And Richard Nugent, like Ralph Mero
before him, has responded with a check. A life line. A
blessing. We like to say that Unitarian
Universalism saves lives. I can attest tonight that the living
tradition saves ministers' lives. The very same ministers
who save our congregations' lives over and over and over and
over again. It is June 1988 and I am at
General Assembly in Palm Springs, California. I am, in fact
fact, chair of the GA Planning Committee, and with evidence of
tremendous need present, the delegates
agree to create the Living Tradition Fund to provide three
types of support for ministry, need based scholarships for
theological students who have completed a full year of
theological education, new minister assistance to reduce
the burden of high educational debt and repayment. This was
actually in the resolution. Grants to ministers for
emergency assistance. And in agreeing to create the Fund, we assumed
responsibility then, as we assume it tonight, we assume the
responsibility for funding it. Generously. Thankfully. Here
is my check. I was going to write it for $100, which is
a lot for me, but I kept hearing Ralph's urgent voice telling me
to do better. So okay, okay, okay Ralph. It's for $200. Do
better, my friends. Do better, please. The offering will now
be taken. [Applause] [Music] Sometimes there's a mountain I must climb, even
after I have climbed one already. But my legs are tired
now and my arms need a rest. My mind is too weary right now.
But I must climb before the storm comes, before the earth
rocks, and the avalanche of the cloud buries me and smothers my
soul. And so I prepare myself for
another climb, another mountain and I tell myself, it is nothing
. It is just some more dirt and stone, another plateau, and
enjoy the view of the trees and the flowers below. And I am
young enough to climb and strong enough to make it to any
top. You see, the wind has warned me about standing too
long. About peace without struggle. The went has warned
me and taught me how to fly, but my wings only work after I have climbed a
mountain. [Music] [Applause] >> So I was an early adopter of
Facebook. I like finding out what my friends were doing and I
didn't so much mind their pictures of food that I could
not smell nor taste. [Laughter]
And I really liked finding out who was having a birthday.
Like today I found out Sarah Lammert is having a birthday.
[Cheers and Applause] But lately, I've been thinking
that Facebook and all of social media may have been inspired by
Satan. [Laughter]
And I don't even believe in Satan.
[Laughter] We may have the technology for
social media, but from what I have observed, we have not so
much I can't logically -- sociologically, emotionally, and
psychologically evolved enough to use technology well.
[Applause] Perhaps one day we will, but
today we use social media as a weapon as often as we use it as
a tool. So I have become the queen of scrolling,
because there are just days when I am only looking for cute
little cat videos. [Laughter]
I don't really want to know about the world, the nation, or
the latest upheaval within Unitarian Universalism. Just
make me laugh, because I'm tired of crying. A while ago I came
across a post that made me laugh out loud. It was entitled
badly describe your profession. [Laughter]
And some of my esteemed colleagues who
apparently also needed a good laugh posted some fine responses.
Here are a few of them. Their names will not be used so
as to protect the guilty. [Laughter]
Once a week, I talk about stuff I'm interested in and I get mad
if everybody doesn't come to listen.
[Laughter] The rest of the time I worry
about money. [Laughter] I patrol the parking lot, making
sure no one is parked in the spot reserved for the minister. [Laughter] I get paid to keep my head in
the clouds and make changes at an incredibly slow pace.
[Laughter] I also remove melted wax from
many surfaces. [Laughter] My salary is descent, but I also
receive compensation in the form of cookies, endless
newspaper clippings, and homemade jars of jam.
[Laughter] I talk for an hour a week, butt
into other people's personal lives, and go to meetings about
creating more meetings. [Laughter] On Sunday I tell people they can
make the world a better place. When things don't improve that
week, I repeat myself myself. [Laughter] There is some truth in each of
these responses. But we think the greatest truth
is the last one. We tell people they can make the world a
better place and we repeat ourselves and will keep
repeating ourselves over and over and over again. Because if
we didn't believe we could make the world a better place, I
suspect most clergy, religious educators, musicians,
administrators, membership coordinators, any religious
professional would give up this endeavor called Unitarian
Universalist minute ministry. We repeat ourselves week after week and we hope, we
pray that someone is actually listening, that someone will
actually be impacted by our words, that we are actually
making a difference. I think that every person who
answers their life's calling does so with the intent of
making a difference. It's not just ministers who listen to
what their lives are calling them to do. We ministers may
act like we're the only ones who receive the call.
[Laughter] But it isn't true. Many people
hear a call in their hearts and minds and souls. All of us can.
And when we answer the call, we make a vow that we sham follow it
through to the end. We may make that vow to the Lord, to God,
to the goddess, to the universe, to humanity, to whatever it was
that put that call on our hearts. We make a vow to make a
difference and follow it through to the end. Every year one of the most
moving parts of this service for me is when we call out the
names of those dear colleagues who follow their vows to the very end. I usually don't know
most of their names. The longer I am in ministry, the
more names I know, but still, most of the names are unknown to
me. I know this this. I know that one day, my name will be
called, a long time from now, an shala, and there will be people
who will not know my name, and that will be fine. It will mean
that I lived a good, long life and actually got to retire.
[Laughter] So no people entering in minute
ministry won't know me and won't know my name. This calling,
any calling isn't about making a name. It's about making a
difference. [Applause] When you begin an endeavor,
follow any course your life calls you to follow, you need to
ask yourself this: Do I want to make a name or do I want to
make a difference? Most of the people whose names we did not
know spent their lives toiling in the proverbial vineyard, just
trying to make a difference one life at a time. There may have
been times when they were the right person at the right time
in the right place and in that moment they made a big
difference. But I bet none of them started with the he know
tent of making a name for themselves. You may make a name
if you make a big enough difference, but if your
objective is to make a name for yourself and you happen to make
a difference difference, it probably won't be a positive
one. [Laughter]
Because the difference you made was all about you and your ego.
When one is out to make a name for themselves, they are not
interested in anything other than themselves. Oh, they may
say they're trying to change the world. They may say they are
just trying to speak the truth. But they are really just trying
to make a name for themselves. And how can you tell these name
-makers? How can you tell if you are trying to make a name or
a difference? We can just ask yourself one question. Do I
care if I get credit for something or do I care that
something gets done? [Applause] Name makers do not care whether
they are making an impact on the world. They only care that you
spelled their name right right. They say they are change-
makers, and they may be, but they do not care whether the
changes they make are going to have a positive impact. I once
heard the great Bill Jones, the Unitarian Universalist humanist
scholar, say that we often speak of change, but if you took your
car to the mechanic and you needed a new battery because
your car wouldn't start and the mechanic changes the rear
passenger tire, the car has been changed.
[Laughter] But there wasn't a positive
impact on the car, because it still won't start. So one has
to ask the question, do I want to make a change or do I want to
have an impact? Because I can change an institution and still
not have an impact on the lives of the people in that
institution. I could change the bylaws. I can pass resolutions
. I can restructure the institution. I can change the
leadership of the institution. I can do all of these changes
and still not have an impact on the lives of the people, the
institution is purportedly serving. Change, contrary to popular
belief, is actually easy. Having an impact, that's hard.
[Applause] Our Unitarian Universalist
movement has had impacts on many issues . Same sex marriage, women's
rights. On many, many issues we are 30 years ahead of other
faith communities. But on some issues, like race and class, we
are 30 years behind. [Applause]
We keep making changes. But we
have had little or no impact impact. We change the name of
programs. We change the language that we're going to use
. We change leadership and our impact has still been limited.
And we keep thinking of ways to change and spend little time
thinking about ways to have a lasting impact. Because to have
a lasting impact is to first understand that transformation
takes time. We can quickly make changes, but lasting impacts
have to take time to take hold. In our rush to change things,
we sometimes need to stop and hold back and ask, are we trying
to make a change? Or are we going to try to make an impact?
It's not always clear which one we want. But at least we
should stop and ask the question, because that, alone,
could help us focus our efforts. To take an impact, we have to
meet people where they are now. We cannot expect people to
already be who we want them to be if they were those people
already, we would have no work to do. So we must meet them
where they are in order to bring them where they need to be.
And to do that, we must speak in ways that can be heard. It
does no good to speak if you cannot be heard. And how one
speaks often determines if one will be heard. Are you speaking
at people for the sake of speaking what you believe is the
truth? Or are you speaking with people to share the truth
you believe? Do you want to speak or do you want to be
heard? Now, there will be times when you with will say your
truth, and it's only your truth, knowing that the people you are
speaking to cannot actually hear what you are saying. If
that's the case, then no, you are not trying to really have an
impact or make a difference difference. You are speaking,
because you felt you had to. And certainly there is a place
for speaking when no one is listening. I hope this isn't
one of them. [Laughter] But they are few and far between
. When we were speaking to ourselves, when we are standing
on our soap boxes, proclaim proclaiming truth like prophets
of old, we should go back to our very first question and ask
again, am I trying to make a name or am I trying to make a
difference? The Times we live in right now are ripe * * with
potential for great transformational seeds to be
planted. We may not see all of them blossom into the radically
inclusive compassionately welcoming justice demanding faith and world we dream of.
We may not live long enough to reap the benefits of the work we
do together and there will be times when the work of creating
the world we call the loving community will seem
too hard and we will just want to give up in despair, times
when we tire of preaching that same sermon week after week.
Make the world a better place. When we wonder if anyone notices
the work we are doing as flawed and as imperfect as it is, days
when, if we see one more tweet, one more post,
one more headline, we'll just scream! When we come to that
place, we need to remember the colleagues whose names we heard
tonight, who just kept climbing one mountain after another,
speaking not just to speak, but to be heard. Not concerned with
change, but with having an impact. Not caring to make a
name, but to make a difference. Remember them. And then go out
and climb your own mountain. Speak your own truth. Make your
own impact. Make your difference difference, because
this is what we are all called to do. Not just those on this
stage, but each of us who calls ourselves Unitarian Universalists. [Applause] We are bound together byi'
abiding faith in the power of humanity to transform the world.
We are bound together by the belief that with these
proverbial hands, we can build a future for ourselves and those
not born yet that is better than the world we inherited. We are
bound together by the knowledge that together each of
us, unique and valued to our differences, can make the dream
of a world of peace and justice a reality. And when that day
comes and someone calls out our names in remembrance, let it be
said of us, you may not know our names, but know this of us: We
made a difference. Amen, blessed be, ashe, I love you.
[Applause] >> Please rise and join me in
singing this old song. [Applause] >> Our covenantal faith
requires all of us to make vows. Vows to this faith, to each
other, to humanity, to the God of our understanding. As we go
forth from this place, may we always remember the vows we have
made, vows to uses our hearts with compassion. To use our
minds to be bold in our vision. To use our bodies to create the
world we dream of. Let us strive to make a difference in this
world one person at a time, one moment at a time. Go in peace.
Make the world better. Then do it again.
