 I'm going to change that here. Family. We are sort of going to change that. It's great. It's going to be in our community. It's going to be used for the women's education, so it's going to also go to the youth education. It's going to take us also to a total of 12 days. So that's going to be the 10th year of their life. All right. But it's basically going to be used for everyone. in this video. Attention. And then what? Let me see. Once we got. It's both of the same. It's both of the same. So, it's already a different one. Another one is probably at the end of the video. So, you'll see your door open too. Michael, are you going to do something? Okay, Michael, are you going to do something? Okay. Michael, how do you do that? That's pretty simple. Michael, how are we today? Good. How are we? We'll be good. We'll be 19 days away from the end of the year. 19? That's possible. Come on. Let's see what's tomorrow. Okay. Yeah, please. Yeah. What are you doing today? Yeah, come on. I don't know. I'm just going to sit here. Yeah, we'll be shooting off. Yeah, we'll be shooting off. Yeah, we'll be shooting off. Okay. You're all right. Okay. You're all right. Sure. I'm sure. You're all right. You're all right. Yeah. You're all right. They have to be able to do that. Oh yeah, they do a lot of work. They have to be able to do that. Yeah, they do. That's just an example of what we're doing here. Oh yeah, almost. I guess I can't do it. Let me see that. I guess we'd better be good. This is there. This is there. I guess we'd better be good. I guess we'd better be good. Let me see that. I guess we'd better be good. I guess we'd better be good. Do I see blue birds singing a song? Nothing but blue birds all day. I never saw the sun shining so bright. Never saw things going so right. Noticing the days are hurrying by. My, how they fly. Nothing but blue skies from now. I never saw the sun shining so bright. Never saw things going so right. Noticing the day. Nothing but blue skies. Good morning everybody and welcome to another Sunday here at First Unitarian Society. We're independent thinkers and brave travelers gather in a safe, nurturing environment to explore issues of social, spiritual and ethical significance as we try to make a difference in this world. And speaking of things that are different in this world, I'm Steve Goldberg, a proud member of this congregation, and I'd like to extend a special welcome to any guests, visitors or newcomers. If this is your first time at First Unitarian Society, I think you'll find that this is indeed a very, very special place. And as we find every weekend, I know that today's service will touch your heart, stir your spirits and trigger one or two new thoughts. In a moment you're going to hear the sound of the gong. That'll be your signal to gather and join in a moment of centering silence so we can be fully present with each other this morning. We're glad you're here. Try to get your train to do that. For those who come before us, may our gratitude be long and lasting. For those who come after us, may we be strong stewards of our commitments. May each of us know the immortality of the larger and may we always remember that its transformational power rests in our actions. We'll now have the lighting of the chalice, which is a responsive reading. I will read the non-bolded text, and together we will read the bolded text. Today's chalice lighting comes through the words of Elizabeth M. Strong. Our Unitarian heritage bids us light our chalice in the name of freedom and the light of reason and actions of tolerance. We gather in community to celebrate a heritage of freedom, wisdom, and tolerance. Our Universalist heritage bids us light our chalice in the name of faith and the light of hope and actions of love. We gather in community to celebrate a heritage of faith, hope, and love. Let us bring this Unitarian Universalist heritage into our world and our lives today, and let's start by greeting the fellow Unitarian Universalists and others among us. Of the Children's Religious Education Program in particular, as being a sanctuary for children and youth who they are safe, nurtured, encouraged, and loved. We have over 400 kids in our program, and I think I'm stating the obvious when I say that not I, not our RE staff, not even all of our FUS staff could provide that sanctuary on our own. The one and only way that we can make that happen is through the time, commitment, and creativity of our many volunteer teachers. And what never ceases to thrill and amaze me is how many of them sign up to teach year after year after year. Five years, 10 years, 15 years, even 29 years. So today, we're going to take a few moments to acknowledge the incredible service that these teachers give to our FUS community. Your order of service includes a full listing of the teachers who have reached their five year or more anniversary this year. At this service, though, we'll call up only those teachers who could make it here at this time and make it here in this webinar. We've had a few cancellations already. Our gratitude for all of our teachers goes deep and wide as we all work together to live and promote the UU values that we hold here. So I'm going to call teachers up and please come join me up here. Tamara Bradnano has been teaching seven years. Anna Anderson has been teaching nine years. Rachel Howard has been teaching five years. As Chen has been teaching seven years. Ali Gage has been teaching five years. Melissa Tumbleson has been teaching seven years. Chris McCartle, did she make it in? I haven't seen her yet. Joyce Diglett-Spatchel has been teaching 12 years. Janice Ferguson has been teaching 18 years. Chris Peruzzi has been teaching eight years. And the last teacher that I want to call up is exceptional in the length of time that he's been teaching. I alluded to it earlier. This year is the 29th year of Jay Ramey teaching here. He started teaching when his daughter was enrolled in the CRE program. This is now 32 years old. So evidently the joy, inspiration and fulfillment that so many of our teachers experience really got a hold on Jay and they haven't let it go. And sitting in the audience too. Come on out, Scott. So back to Jay. He got the grip of teaching and he didn't let go. This is his 29th year. Jay, please come join us up here as well. Many heroes, individuals who have helped us to grow and size and scope over the years. But you all are at the top of that list of heroes. We are so incredibly grateful for your generosity and your commitment. And now it says let's give them a hand. We've done that, but let's do it again. I would like to invite any of our children's choir members who are here to help me out. And any other kids can come on up and join us. Come on up, everybody. Just like you would for a regular story time. Now, I'm going to have the congregation help me too. Now as the teachers were walking up here, my kids turned to me and go, that person's my teacher right now. And a couple of them said, I had them as a teacher three years ago and I had them teacher. Raise your hand if one of these people has been your teacher before. Raise your hand. Look at that. That's pretty awesome. Thank you, teachers. So we have a song that we wrote for you and the congregation is going to help. And I'm going to teach you all the, everyone's going to sing the chorus with me. All right, I see some smiling faces. Everybody get ready if you use a big voice. If you sing something wrong, guess what? It doesn't matter. Try your hardest. Here we go. It goes like this. La, thank you, teachers. La, la, the world a better place. I think you can handle it. La, la, la, la, la. All right, here we go. Try it with me. Ready? There we go. You'll get lots of chances to do it. Here we go. To open our minds and hear our voice. Explore our job, everybody. You make our minds soar and we stand tall. We know it's our thanks to you. It was you who said yes. When others said no. You help us make our dreams come true. You teachers, la, la, la. You listen and feel, I'm going to try that again. You listen, you're a first discover. Our voice are unique, our diverse. We find our voice within. You support for justice and truth. Thank you, teachers. La is seven principles. We should act. We should strive to act all creatures in accordance. Two, the struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions. Three, one's body is inviolable. Subject to one's own will alone. The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to believe should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs. Six, people are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and remediate any harm that may have been caused. Seven, every tenant is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word. Those are the seven principles of the Satanic Temple, the largest Satanist church in America. Our second reading comes from Shogam Trunkpa's Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Now, Shogam was born in Tibet, but was one of the foundational people in moving Buddhism to America and spent most of his time teaching in Colorado. He's talking here about an experience he had at a very young age in the monastery. I remember very clearly the experience of discovering my own connection to family heritage. I was born in a cow shed in eastern Tibet, where people have never seen a tree. The people of that region live on pasture land that has no trees or even bushes. They subsist on meat and milk products throughout the whole year. I was born a son of this genuine earth, the son of a peasant. At a very early age, I was recognized as a tulku, or incarnate llama, and I was taken to the Sermang Monasteries to receive my training and become a monk. So almost from birth, I was taken out of my family situation and placed in a monastic environment. I was always called by my religious name Trunkpa or Imposhi. Nevertheless, I never forgot my birth. When I moved to the monastery, my mother accompanied me and stayed with me for several years. Until I was old enough to begin my formal education. Once, when I was about four or five, I asked my mother, Mother, what is our name? She was very shy. She said, What do you mean by are? You know that your name is Trunkpa or Imposhi. But I insisted. I asked, What is our name, our family name? Where do we come from? And she said, Well, you should forget that. It's a very humble name and you might be ashamed of it. But I still insisted saying, What is our family name? What is it? At the time, I was playing with some pickled radishes that are fed to horses. I was picking up these little pickled radishes off the floor outside of the monastery kitchen. Tulkus are not supposed to eat them, but I was chewing on one. And I kept saying, Mother, what is our name? What is our family name? I was about to bite into another pickled radish, which was dirty. And she was very concerned. And she was also so shy. But she was also intrigued that I had asked. We had an intense moment of relating to each other. I remember that it was a sunny day. The sun shone from a window and the roof onto her face. She looked old and young at the same time. I kept asking, What is our family name? And finally she said, Mukpo. Mukpo, of course. But don't bite that pickle. It's for the horses. I'm afraid I did bite it and I remember chewing it. It was very crunchy and tasted something like sukkamono. A kind of Japanese pickle. And I liked it very much. I looked at my mother and asked, Does that mean I'm a Mukpo too? She wasn't quite sure. She said, Well, you are a Rinpoche. And then I distinctly remember asking her whether I was her son who came out of her body. At first she said yes. But then she said, Well, maybe I'm an inhuman being, a sub-human being. I have a woman's body. I had an inferior birth. Please go back to your quarters. And she took me in her arms and carried me from the kitchen, annex to my quarters. Nonetheless, I have kept the name Mukpo as my family name, my identity and pride. My mother was a very gentle person. As far as I know, she never did anything aggressive and she was always accommodating and kind to others. I learned a great deal about the principles of human society from the wisdom of my mother. The dawn is filled with dreams. So many dreams, which one is mine? One must be right for me. Which dream, all the dreams? When there's a dream for every star? And there are oh, so many stars. So many stars. The wind is filled with song. So many songs, which one is mine? One must be right for me. Which song of all the songs? When there's a song for every star? Many stars. Of the statements that I- So many smiles. Which one to choose? Which way to go? How can I tell? How will I know? Out of all so many stars. So many countless days. The endless nights that I have searched. So many eyes. So many hearts. So many smiles. Which one to choose? Which way to go? How can I tell? How will I know? So many stars. So many stars. So you'll see in your orders of services that I- today was supposed to preach on- or at least in the red floors- I was supposed to preach on the convergence and the differences of unitary universalists and Mormon history. I got good advice once from a minister. You know, I was talking to her and I said, you know, it seems like we can preach on anything as UU ministers. How do we know that we've actually given a UU sermon? And she said, did you preach a Wikipedia article? And I said, well I don't think no, this wasn't a Wikipedia article. And then she said, well then you succeeded. That was her standard. And I realized that I was basically writing a sermon that was preaching the Wikipedia articles of unitary universalism and Mormonism. So I decided to veer off course a little bit. And much more than giving you a solid like world religions grasp of Mormonism, I wanted to hopefully invite you in a little bit to the experience of what it was like to be Mormon. And I'm sure plenty of people have come- I know that plenty of people have come from conservative religious backgrounds and have similar experiences, but you know, no experience is exactly the same. And I hope you gain something from this sermon today. What I would like you to do to start off though would be to stop for a minute and to think of that life experience that brought you here to this congregation for the first time. My experience with Mormonism is directly tied to how I ended up here in this pulpit today. And so I'd like you to call to mind the people, the places, the times that ended up bringing you here to this congregation, not just today, but for the very first time. We'll pause for a moment. One of the experiences that's been on my mind was a trip to Chicago I took. And I actually just returned from Chicago. I tripped with my family. My wife had a conference there. We took the kids to all the museums. I've learned never to call trips with kids a vacation, but it was a- Minister Kelly taught me that. But it was an adventure and we had a good time. We got in just before the kids got super sick and now they're curled up on a couch at home if you can look at some. But this was a different trip to Chicago, no kids. And I remember one particular morning of this trip. This morning was a dimly bright spring morning. The kind of morning much nicer than this one. Where Dickens says the night was much more actively dying than being born. The morning hours have always been my favorite when the world is just waking up. I've had some really great walks before sermons actually. Walking from my home in Eagle Heights here to the church as the world is just waking up. This morning's walk was not so nice. This morning though was not a walk to work. This was spring break 2004. And I was in a Toyota Corolla with four other Burley High School senior boys. We weren't going to Mexico. Like the common theme of spring break trips. We actually came from a small farming community called Morgan Utah right next to the Wyoming border. Much more common spring break trips were going to the sand dunes of Idaho to ride your four wheelers or dirt bikes or going to southern Utah to camp with your family in the scenic beauty down there. But no, me and my friends had decided to take a tour of Mormon historic sites in the Midwest. We called this trip Bland P. It was devised in the back room of our public library where I worked shelving books after school. It was printed on 14 marvelous laser printed pages full of maps and printed hotel reservations as we were just on the cusp of the cell phone age. This would be my first time east of the Rocky Mountains. I grew up in Idaho and California and had never been east of the of the Rockies. I wouldn't fly on an airplane until my Mormon mission a few years later. I'm not one to live in the past, but senior year was pretty awesome. I was captain of the track team. My grades were good. I'd finally figured out how to give up being the cool kid and to be the kid I wanted to be and I was having a great time. And my girlfriend had recently dumped me but I think having your girlfriend dump you is a part of what makes senior year so special. The first day of our trip had been a full day of driving. We'd taken off very early in the morning driven for 12 hours and ended up in winter quarters in Nebraska which is just outside of Omaha. Winter quarters was the last stop that Mormons would make whole up for a winter before they'd make an early spring trip to Utah as they spent the five or six years that they did and they had their last great Mormon settlement east of the Rocky Mountains. What took them several months, the journey that took them several months from winter quarters to the Salt Lake Valley took us just 12 hours and we were in awe of that fact. The next morning, the morning that I'm thinking of was the STEM morning. It took us to Carthage, Missouri. Carthage, Missouri is the site of Carthage prison where Joseph Smith the prophet and founder of the Mormon church would die on June 27th, 1844 after a mob of angry men dressed up as Native Americans stormed the prison where he was being held shot him and his brother, killing them and wounding the two other men who were in the room with them. Now, we weren't particularly interested in the historical details of that event. He was actually in prison for destroying a legal printing press ordering the destruction of a legal printing press in the town of Nauvoo here. Certainly, we would have said that he did not deserve to die for destroying a press. But we were much more interested beyond the historic details. We came to find the man who was the guide for who the type of man that we were supposed to be. Joseph Smith was always held up as this idol of manhood. He was supposed to be just super strong but much more important than that he was supposed to be a very dedicated person. We sat outside the small visitor's center after we arrived in our Toyota Corolla too early for any tours too early for even the doors to be open. So we sat on a bench outside of that prison the visitor's center marking that prison and sang off key praise to the man. Praise to the man is a very popular Mormon hymn written just after Joseph Smith's death by his friend and then enemy and then friend again W. W. Phelps. Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah. Jesus anointed that prophet and seer. Blessed to open the last dispensation King Shellich stole him and nations revere. Hail to the prophet ascended to heaven traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain. Mingling with gods he can plan for his brethren. He will conquer the hero again. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. Earth must atone for the blood of that man. Wake up the world for the conflict of justice. Millions shall know brother Joseph again. Millions shall know that's a bold claim for a church that was just a few thousand people struggling to survive in western Illinois. But today millions of people do know Joseph Smith's name and we were very interested in being part of the brethren that he was planning for in heaven. Mingling with gods. We were boys on the cusp of manhood several years away from that great Mormon coming of age ritual the Mormon mission that would scatter us to the four corners of the globe to Taiwan, to South Africa, to Hungary, to England and me to Argentina. It was our last great trip as friends. We would all leave quite quickly after our graduation and we never really got to be together again all together. One of our goals for this trip was actually to distribute Mormons have these packs of informational cards that are about the size of baseball cards. They come in packs of 400 and we wanted to distribute those cards to as many people as we could. We didn't quite reach that goal but one night stands out in my mind on our return trip our car got a flat tire. It was Easter Sunday so everything was closed. We found a gas station that was open and that had a flat repair kit. So while the three other boys, men that knew more about cars were fixing that tire, me and my friend sat inside of a Taco Bell in a gas station. It was Sunday and Mormons aren't supposed to buy anything on Sunday so we weren't buying any food. But we were eating the oranges that we'd stolen from the from the hotel. We didn't steal them. Is it stealing if it's there for you anyway? The oranges we'd taken from the hotel and we'd handed this card to the person that was working behind the desk and we were she said the only people that had come in all day and we had a nice conversation and I remember my friend Landon saying I think I'm made to be something special in the church. That's something that had stern in me. If you heard my earlier sermon I survived a bad fall when I was 12 right when I was the age of getting the priesthood and Mormonism. I'd survived a bad fall and felt like I'd been saved for something special. I had never really told anyone that before but I told it to them then and it was a very special moment. I think as I was writing this sermon I was thinking what would that 18 year old man, boy, man child be thinking about me now here in a UU pulpit some 14 years on from that day. I don't know it's hard to say I think he would feel a little bit betrayed but I think he'd also be very proud of how great of hair I have. A group of boys, men seniors in high school I don't know anybody but we still felt very distinctly this call to a conflict for justice. We realized that we left the most Mormon County in America, Morgan County, Utah and entered into foreign lands where values were less sure families less strong and where our spiritual or in my case literal ancestors have been driven from as they search for a land of religious freedom in a land that promised religious freedom. When we arrived in Nauvoo in fact the last great Mormon city east of the Rocky Mountains we found my grandfather's gunshot that's still standing in what is now just a historical memorable sight. My great great grandfather Jonathan Browning started the first Browning Arms Company in Nauvoo, Illinois shortly after converting to the Mormon church after he made a dear friendship with Joseph Smith himself. He would there make guns that Mormons would use for the trips from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley and in Morgan Valley in Morgan County, Utah he would start the Browning Arms Company which is now a multinational company he would pass it on to his sons my father would visit the company looking for his ancestors looking for his history to remove our family there and then 10 years later end up working there he works there now doing computer stuff that I don't understand so he would help prepare the Mormon Saints for that return journey that we would make just in a few days the Salt Lake Valley but for them was the start of a journey would be for us a return journey so we each have our own story that brought us here I want you to bring that to mind again and the connection to that story is my second great trip to the Midwest 10 years almost to the day after my first that brought us here to Madison, Wisconsin that trip saw my faith collapse my Mormon faith collapsed finally in a Wendy's parking lot of the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains after we'd made a side stop in South Carolina to be with my wife's family our first week here in Madison, Wisconsin we'd committed to going to the Mormon Church with some Mormon friends that we knew in town so we walked past we lived in Eagle Heights still then and kind of the more this way the more east part of Eagle Heights so we walked down University Bay and walked right past the front of FUS heading toward Regent Street where the Mormon Church is we were late to the 9 o'clock Mormon service so we were passing and the 9 o'clock service was coming in it looked like such a nice welcoming place we said next week we'll go there and it was such a hot day and the walk had been so miserable that next week we kept that commitment and we started coming here off and on trading off Mormon Church visits and FUS visits until we we started coming here full time I found myself to be a much different man even those 10 years after than I would have imagined when I was 18 years old and I'm saving but I'm saving the part of what I found here at FUS for my last sermon which is the end of May but now I'd like to explore with you a bit of what is common about all of our journeys here to FUS and nobody's path is the same but what we do have in common is that we all made the more difficult choice of getting up one Sunday morning or Saturday evening and coming here rather than staying home and hopefully that started a rewarding relationship for you with this church ever since I used to think folks came here primarily for the coffee this was actually the first place I ever drank coffee it's also the first place I ever had a beer and the first place I ever had wine a little known fence but after the last week and after the last few weeks when we've been introducing new brands of coffee and a new brand of not brand but a new type of coffee is out in the atrium for your testing and approval or disapproval after people are so excited for new kinds of coffee I realized people aren't coming here for the coffee people don't like that coffee very much I'm sure some people really like it I know some people really don't but something more common is a story like mine someone was raised in a conservative or strict church fled or left that church and are looking for something to be as much church as they can handle going forward some are exploring spirituality for the first time in their lives maybe they were even raised to you and left and now are wondering if they can make it work for themselves and some for some people church for themselves isn't that important but our children's religious education program is very important I'd say that might be one of the most common stories is we didn't come here for us, we came here for our kids and got stuck listening to you in the sermons every week we all bring with us a unique spiritual and religious heritage I still have very complicated feelings about religion but I'm still constantly fascinated by what I find to be one of evolution's most enduring and complex we experienced the validity of religion long before we were able to explain it through psychology in Shogum Tronkba Shambhala the sacred path of the warrior he says that to live rightly we must realize our dependence on our community and our heritage we must become family people deeply aware of what brought us to this point today we should respect life on the mundane level he says the only way to implement our vision for society is to bring it down to the situation of a single household and that single household each single household has a very unique complex and often at times painful story of their own religious history each story again as I said is unique but I've been struck in this preparation for this sermon by how remarkably the same they can be in preparation for this sermon I asked on Facebook mainly directed towards other people, other friends of mine who had left the Mormon church I said if I had been asked one question when I was leaving the Mormon church I would have liked to been asked where does it hurt the pain of leaving the Mormon church was great in my life for some people it's very easy and they're excited as soon as they get the slightest permission they'll go much more difficult and I heard stories I got a lot of messages from people who also experienced great difficulty in leaving and some saying that it wasn't so bad but at the end of that post as kind of a by-thought I also thought to ask people who had stayed in the Mormon church I've been trying to repair some of those relationships I've asked people who'd stayed in the Mormon church where it hurt to see people leave and I was struck by how similar those experiences were how it hurt in the same way to leave and to watch people leave the faith that you believe in Mormonism and Unitarian Universalism are also quite remarkably the same and that was kind of the point of my original sermon shaped by an American religious landscape a religious marketplace that favored new ideas and the new latest thing Mormonism was Joseph Smith's response to what he saw as the faults of Calvinism primarily and our Unitarian Universalism today is also a response to the prevailing Calvinist ideas that took over in post foundational America so Ralph Walder Emerson is kind of the poster child for that when Ralph Walder Emerson was a Unitarian preacher Unitarianism was still quite quite Christian and still trying to hold on to some of its rituals and processes and like congregational polity that made them still Christian they were still fighting to be like we're Christian and we don't deserve to be treated like non-Christians like those Mormons who aren't even close to Christian so he said no we need to forge our own religious identity that's why he left his Unitarian pulpit started Transcendentalism the Transcendentalist movement which would eventually be refolded back into Unitarianism and reshape Unitarianism and I think my argument is that that was one of the key moments that moved Unitarian Universalism away from Christianity generally to the faith to the non-cretal faith that it is today the Church of Satan which started in California the Satanic Temple same thing it was responding to the prevailing religious ideas of the day starting the 60s and and it's a remarkable faith that said we need new gods and we need new ways of thinking and I have a great respect for them and Joseph Smith and Emerson grew out of the same period that produced Mary Baker-Eddie of Christian Science, Mother Anne Lee of the Shakers and have that same striving they all share that same striving to not be dependent on the laurels of past religious past religious life of course Unitarian Universalists were allowed space for their heresies Mormons were pushed from place to place sometimes with polygamy to blame sometimes not I like to argue even that Mormons are the true you use if you want to get me talking about something ask me why Mormons are the true Unitarian Universalists these two streams won the establishment church of the New England area and won the fledgling church of the Salt Lake Valley these two streams often diverged but they often very much ran parallel and they crossed for me just at the time when I needed them to making sense of our religious heritage both as a nation and as individuals can be very difficult what helped me most to realize is that all religious endeavor is striving to tell a better human story even when it's told by deeply flawed humans like Joseph Smith or even Joachim Trunkba who faced his own difficulties some self-caused in his life understanding the stories of the past is not important for its own sake to live in the now we must strive to make peace with the then it's one of Joachim Trunkba's primary teachings venerating the past in itself he says will not solve the world's problems we need to find a link between our traditions and our present experience nowness or the magic of the present moment is what joins the wisdom of the past with the present whenever I make those kind of magical connections between my Mormon pasts and my Unitarian Universalist present I can sense that I have to be both in that past and in this present to be truly who I am now there's no changing what brought us here there's no changing what made Unitarian Universalism what it is today we didn't come here necessarily because we like the way things have always been done we didn't come here because of the way people have made this church we came here for the excitement of the possibility of what this church could be for us Emerson, Smith, Lee, Eddie, Trunkba we're all excited for what an American religious landscape could become they shaped our past and for better or worse we have to leave that to them but the present they left for us they left us space they left us stories to make our own magic and I'm very excited for the magic that this congregation will continue to make in the years going forward thank you our offering today goes to open doors for refugees a volunteer run nonprofit in Madison helping refugees make a home in Madison through providing food and clothing vouchers transportation and employment services please be generous and she'll take care of you Betty Emerson made sure that our foliage was properly watered Blaze Thompson and Sandra Plisch I'm sorry, Sandra Plisch will be hosting the hospitality and coffee after the service our ushers Brian Channis Ann Ostrom, Tom Dalmage and Marty Hollis our greeters were Patty Witte and Claire Box who welcomed you in from the snowy weather our lay minister today John McEvna and making sure that we can hear the service the sound system is managed by David Bryles and speaking of being able to hear the service we'd like to announce a new technology that is available for those who need additional help in hearing the service it's kind of a worship Wi-Fi it's called hearing loop and it enables people who have hearing aids to receive a direct transmission of the service so we want to thank John and Nancy Webster for their generosity in financing this new technology you know their generosity and the generosity reflected in our auditory are the kinds of things that I think reflect the essence of First Unitarian Society generosity and connecting we're connecting people who are using hearing aids with the service transmission so they can hear it we're connecting our congregation with local organizations that will put our generosity to good use and there's one more event that reflects the essence of First Unitarian Society it'll occur in 19 days on Friday, May 4th right here it's called Cabaret and this year we invite you to join us as we cruise the Caribbean Caribbean theme complete with food music a conga line what more could be Caribbean than that and for those of you who have not attended a cabaret in the past let me tell you that it is a huge amount of fun and it gives people a chance to connect not only around food and music but the auction includes items that are donated by and provided by members of the congregation where they give something of themselves to share with the rest of you such as a group dinner sailing lessons we even had a woman a few years ago who donated belly dance lessons and it's the kind of gift that keeps on giving because it connects people with each other long after the event itself is over and you have a chance to register online the loss of the information table in the commons after the service if you register and pay online you'll save a little bit of money versus what it will cost you at the door childcare is available we need you to register for that and we continue to welcome any gifts that you would like to provide as a reflection of yourself in connecting with other people through this magical event 19 days from now on the 4th of May when we'll have a chance to cruise the Caribbean so please come to Cabaret because when you cruise the Caribbean you're gonna love what you'll be seeing so we'll see you on May 4th 19 days from now so end with the announcements to this space we bring our whole and broken selves this book or one like it lives outside the front door where people can record cares of the congregation they would like to be read over the pulpit it was empty today so we will take a moment to hold all the unexpressed joys sorrows and concerns of our congregation before being as our service here ends our service to the world begins please join me in extinguishing the chalice and enjoying the posthood clear days and look around you'll see on a cloud it will astound that the glow of your being outshines every star and sure you can hear from far and before and on that clear and sea rise and look around that the glow of your being outshines every star and see and sure you can hear from far and see forever