 Let us take a moment for some silent centering and now let us Sing our in gathering him which is number 188, but it's also printed in your order of service Good morning. Welcome to the first Unitarian society of Madison This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore Spiritual ethical and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as Together we seek to be a force for good in the world My name is Betsy Hauser and on behalf of the congregation. I would like to extend a special welcome to our visitors We are a welcoming congregation. So whoever you are Or wherever you happen to be on your life journey We celebrate your presence among us Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and To visit in the library, which is directly across from the center doors of this auditorium Bring your drinks and bring your questions Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to welcome you You may also look for persons holding teal stoneware coffee mugs These are members knowledgeable about our faith community who would love to visit with you Experienced guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service So if you would like to learn more about this Sustainably designed addition to our national landmark meeting house Please meet near the large glass windows on the left side of the auditorium We welcome children to stay for the duration of the service however, because it is difficult for some in attendance to hear in this lively acoustical environment our Child haven and the commons area are excellent places to retire if your child needs to talk or move around The service can be seen and heard from those areas Speaking of noise now would be an excellent time to turn off our Electrical devices that might cause a disturbing a disturbance during the coming hour I would like to acknowledge those individuals who help our services run smoothly Today our sound operator is marine friend Our lay minister is and smiley Our greeters are Mary Elizabeth conkel and Elizabeth Barrett our ushers our Wally Brinkman Patricia Becker Kathleen and Mark Hoover and our hot our hospitality Specifically coffee is being provided by Rick DeVita. I would also like at this moment to Introduce marine friend as a member of our personnel committee Because she has an announcement to make Good morning So this morning I have the happy job of recognizing someone who's been with FUS on the staff for five years More probably but in her role Jean Sears is being recognized today. So I have Something to read about her work so you can be familiar with her Jean is our full-time coordinator of membership of member programs and one of the warm faces You see as you walk into Sunday service on any given day. You'll find her coordinating visitors Working with new visitors. I'm sorry coordinating volunteers She's working with new visitors and organizing the new uu orientation class as we welcome up to a hundred new members each year Jean and her team handle book signings orientation recognition and receptions Jean is also in constant collaboration with other staff and minute of ministers as the year unfolds and Often so many abundant opportunity and offers so many Abundant opportunities and events Basically, she dedicates her work to providing opportunities for others and ensuring they have a spiritual experience at FUS Jean found her way to the first Unitarian Society with her family in 2003 becoming a member in 2004 Jean is passionate about our fourth principle the acceptance of one another and Encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations Her past positions include teaching and serving in nonprofit agencies So being a people person comes a second nature Her love of nature in the outdoors has been rekindled with a move to the north side of Madison by Cherokee Marsh Is Jean here? Hi, would you like to step forward so we can congratulate you? Thank you Maureen and thank you Jean Please note the announcements on the red floors insert of your order of service which describes upcoming events here at the society a Very important event is occurring today right after this service We are having a parish meeting starting at 12 30 promptly the topic is discerning diversity and The attendees are going to be the primary constituents of the discussion So we need all of we need as many of you who can possibly make it to be at the meeting and You will be well fed immediately following the 11 o'clock service The food haulers are preparing our lunch as we speak so please attend Again Welcome, we hope today's service will stimulate your mind touch your hearts and stir your spirit As we come here this morning Let us do so in the spirit of searching for fresh insights and deeper truths Let us come together in this search Respecting and valuing our differences differences. We feel we can share openly and honestly Let us come together in the spirit of brother and sisterhood with active concern for the well-being Not only of those close to us, but also for those who live far away Let us come together seeking not only comfort and support But the stimulus we all need to become the best and the wisest persons that we possibly can be I Invite you to rise in body or in spirit for the lighting of our chalice And if you will join with me in reading the words that are printed in this morning's program We kindle the single flame of this chalice as a symbol of shared unity Amid the richness of our human diversity As a beacon of hope for those whose lives are darkened this morning by doubt or sorrow or despair As an emblem of that divine spark which animates and guides us toward the highest aspirations of our common Humanity and in the spirit of that common humanity. I invite you to turn to your neighbor in exchange with Emma warm greeting Please be seated and any children who are present if they'd like to come up to the front to join Sasha for the message for all ages There's another one So later today The adults are going to be learning a little bit about diversity and I'm wondering if any of you have ever heard that word before Have you ever heard the word diversity before? No, so I'm guessing you don't know what it means then, huh? So the story I'm going to tell you today is about diversity So I want you to listen really really carefully to it and then afterward I'm going to ask you again if maybe you can kind of tell then maybe what diversity is and maybe a few words or so Okay, so just listen really really carefully in art class. I painted a picture of my world My teacher mailed it across the oceans This is my world a Boy drew back with colors of the sea This is my world Same same but different PS who are you? My name is Elliot and I love to climb trees My name is Kalash and I love to climb trees too Same same but different This is me PS. Do you live in a tree? That is my tree house where I play I live in a red brick building with my mom my dad my baby sister. I live with my family too all 23 of us my mom dad sister brothers grandmother grandfather aunties uncle's cousins and our animals I Have pets too, but not nearly so many as you same same but different PS what does it look like where you live a? Great river throws flows through my village Peacock's dance under trees shaped like umbrellas The Sun is giant and especially hot here In my city the Sun hides behind buildings as tall as the sky taxis buses and cars filled the streets I Write a bus to school with my friends Me too same same but different This is our alphabet This is our alphabet same same but different My favorite class is art where I can be anything My favorite class is yoga where I can be anything same same but different This is how my friends and I say hello This is how my friends and I say hello same same but different We're best friends even though we live in two different worlds or do we? Different different, but the same So what do you think? What do you think that word diversity might possibly mean now? What do you think that that means maybe in terms of you here? Do you think you're all just alike or are you all together even though you're all a little bit different than one another? What do you think? Uh-huh you and your mom are different because you have brown eyes and your mom has blue eyes Mm-hmm, and yet you're still one family, huh? Yeah, what do you think? What did you say your family what? We're all a little bit different, too Yeah You write a school bus too yeah lots of people do huh all right you got one You what did you say? Mm-hmm. We live different, but we all live in the same world. Yeah, I think you got it So we're gonna sing you out now so that you can go to your classes. All right It was good to see you believe Please be seated in the doorway by Ellen dueling a knock the door opens part way and On the threshold framed in shadow stands the figure of the stranger neither outside nor in but in between and Although the stranger knows the name of the one who has opened the door The one inside does not know who stands in the semi darkness This moment frozen in time contains everything that has already happened and all that is yet to come But which is as yet undivided into manifestations of cause and effect Questions of Who are you? Where do you come from? Hover unspoken beyond the fringes of mind of the one whose fingers tense around the doorknob Questions sensed only in the beginning as a raised eyebrow or a flutter in the pit of the stomach The eye has not yet begun its surreptitious glance over the stranger's shoulder to see whether a Conveyance waints in the darkness offering perhaps a clue about its recent passengers identity The hand remains clenched the gaze is fixed neither friendly nor forbidding on the other's unknown face The one in the doorway is stopped with one foot on the sill the weight of forward motion arrested Drops of moisture glisten on the surface of the black cloak mud of unknown paths cake the heavy boots as The figure pauses silently one hand is half open ready to grasp what lies in the deep pocket And the eyes the eyes reveal nothing of the knowledge hidden behind them And they have already taken in the entire scene in one glance in this Moment between heartbeats the door is neither fully open nor closed And so the choice between fearful rejection or wholehearted welcome has yet to be made I invite you to join me in the spirit of meditation Coming through the doors and into this inspiring space this morning a Few of us are here more than likely for the first time For others this may be a return visit while for most our meeting house is familiar enough To feel like an old friend But why are we all here? Why on such a mild September morning did any of us opt for this space and this experience Well, not because we all worship the same God or honor the same prophets or observe the same solemnities or are inspired by the same myths and legends in Outlook and in predilection. We are indeed a mixed spiritual bag a pietistical polyglot And so among us you will find metaphysicians and materialists Mystical seekers as well as hard-nosed scientists Folks who like their sermons straight up and others who appreciate a little more liturgy And yet we are for all of that. We are a community one body of unsettled souls who oddly enough Feel a kinship with one another. What is the attraction? What draws us into this charmed circle of support and friendship? If it is not a common creed well, perhaps at least it is a common need The need periodically to meditate upon life's mysteries to learn to accept its tragedies to recognize and to praise life's glories and Come to terms with its inequities It was not to venerate the one true God or to practice the one true religion that we came here today Rather it was to find others who like us are muddling through this one true life and Who yearn to feel a little less lost a little less confused and not quite so spiritually isolated? Come come whoever you are Come and experience this communion of free soul come Yet again come I invite you to continue in a moment more of silent reflection Blessed be and amen Well as many of you know Last year we circulated a rather comprehensive survey to members and friends of First Unitarian Society And because of the length of that survey I was rather dubious at first about the size of their response And I was surprised however that ultimately more than 600 people answered the battery of more than 65 questions How many people here returned that survey? Okay, quite a few of you did Now the survey produced some interesting information about the society's internal demographics On the one hand we discovered significant homogeneity 93% of those who returned the survey characterized themselves as liberals 94% had earned at least one college degree But on the other hand in terms of religious backgrounds and spiritual perspectives we varied widely Our FUS bond of union states that we accept into membership those of whatever theological opinion and our reality here does reflect that promise and The congregation also features a healthy mix of young and old with a decent representation of adults in each age Category from the 30s through the 70s and the 80s only the under 30 crowd was a little sparse Now two questions on that survey invited people to share their personal priorities for FUS moving into the future one of the questions asked What major initiatives should FUS focus on in the next two to three years? What major initiatives and then secondly if you could change one thing about first Unitarian society What would it be? Now with respect to that first question Living our Unitarian Universalist values in the larger community by participating in social justice projects That turned out to be the congregation's highest priority Increasing opportunities for members to meet each other and develop deeper friendships That was also right near the top of the list But right just slightly lower than those two just slightly was this Work to attract more members with different racial and ethnic backgrounds to the congregation And to that second open-ended question, what would you change about FUS if you could more people said Foster greater diversity than any other single response and actually they said that by a healthy margin Now this did not come as any great surprise to me for it is a sentiment frequently expressed not just in this one But in many other congregations in the Unitarian Universalist movement now my sister belongs to a UU church in Bethesda, Maryland An upscale DC suburb their racial and ethnic composition Composition resembles our own here in Madison and many of their members my sister reports. They are bothered by this But the plain fact is nationwide 95% of Unitarian Universalists identify as white With only a single congregation All souls in Washington DC proper reporting more than a 15% minority membership Moreover, this is an issue that other faith traditions wrestle with as well According to statistics cited by the sociologist Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney Mainline Protestant denominations are even less racially and ethnically diverse than our own White membership in the Presbyterian the Lutheran the United Church of Christ the United Methodist Convention. All of them exceed 96% When I queried my next door neighbor about the church here in Madison that she attends first United Methodist just off of the square Her impression was that persons of color were in very little evidence on any given Sunday Only a couple of mainline American denominations report more than a small percentage of non-white members the American Baptist the Seventh Day Adventists the Jehovah's Witnesses But even here minorities tend to be clustered in a relatively small number of congregations where persons of color actually predominate Diverse congregations even in these faith traditions are the exception and not the norm Now 35% of Roman Catholics identify these days as Latino But they seldom belong to the same parishes as Anglos and if they do Anglos and Latinos attend separate masses English or Spanish speaking respectively So yes, Martin Luther King's observation of a half century ago is still largely valid At 11 o'clock on Sunday morning. He said when we stand and sing that Christ has neither East nor West We stand at the most segregated hour in this nation Nor is this exclusively a Christian and a Unitarian Universalist phenomenon Jewish synagogues are the most racially homogenous of all Among American Buddhists those with East Asian roots remain closely connected to congregations that reflect their own National heritage whether that be Japanese Thai or Tibetan Many African-American Buddhists attend nature in shoshu services a type of Buddhism that has very little appeal to most white practitioners As the African-American culture critic and feminist theorist Bell hooks herself a practicing Buddhist observed in 1994 Often white Buddhists see themselves as liberal and marginalized and proudly identify with the oppressed They are so attached to the image of themselves as non-racist That they refuse to see the ways in which their Buddhist communities may reflect racial hierarchies Now interestingly There is one religious tradition in America for which diversity is not an issue Can you guess which one that is Islam Islam in the United States 30% of Muslims identify as white 23% identify as African-American 21% is Asian 19% as other or mixed Among the religions of the book Judaism Christianity and Islam Islam is the one that has the most universal appeal across the racial spectrum And that's not true just here in the United States. That's true in Europe as well Now let me pause here to acknowledge that our Board of Trustees and the congregations leaders have been wondering among themselves whether Survey respondents were primarily concerned about just this the lack of racial and ethnic diversity At first Unitarian society rather than some other kind of diversity political or economic for instance After all we do identify overwhelmingly as liberal We are solidly middle-class for the most part so diversity for us could also mean the presence of more political conservatives or Retail clerks or blue collar workers But I do suspect that what people who filled out that survey are yearning for is the more visible kind of diversity That is associated with race and ethnicity So this is going to be my focus moving forward and if I'm wrong about that. Well, there's another sermon in your future So let's ask ourselves why might this be the case Why has creating space for persons of color for Latinos proven to be so difficult well The answer that we need to begin by reviewing a little US history Back in the early 1800s white and black churchgoers both north and south began to go their separate ways and In response to the exclusionary practices of white congregations African-Americans established their own Denominations and most notably the African Methodist Episcopal and the National Baptist Convention Now the black church roof and McKinney say Emerged as a crucial center of social and religious activity It was the one institution in America over which blacks maintain control Now the price of autonomy was a separate and a segregated church one effectively cut off socially and religiously from the rest of white America And the pattern that was established now almost two centuries ago that pattern remains largely in place today The black church serves for many of its members as the center of communal life African-Americans attend religious services more faithfully than whites They look to their church for other forms of support and sustenance beyond what they find on Sunday mornings prayer circles and Bible study groups are important staples of African-American spiritual practice and As Robert Putnam reports black churches have long served to reinforce African-Americans racial identity and to spur black empowerment African-Americans painful historic experience of oppression and disenfranchisement Not to mention their ongoing struggles to achieve justice and equality that is also reflected in black Protestant preaching and in their hymnady as My African-American colleague mark Morrison read has written black theology plays endless variations on the themes of suffering oppression and powerlessness these are motifs that emerge from 400 years of African-American experience and these cannot my colleague says they cannot be easily reconciled with our own perennial refrains of optimism self-reliance and the inevitability of progress The point here is that African-American churches are deeply embedded in a community whose heritage and self-understanding Is rather foreign to that of the average middle-class white Protestant For example the biblical account of the Hebrews divine deliverance from Pharaoh's slavery under the leadership of Moses That story reflects African-Americans lived experience Whereas for us it is just a story and probably an apocryphal story at that So unless we are familiar with the historical context out of which white and black Protestantism arose We cannot appreciate why our spiritual expectations why our worship practices are so dissimilar Mark Morrison read describes our services aptly. I think as cool and Cerebral in contrast to the warm and more emotional experience offered by most black churches Call in response In large part why why the difference in large part? It's because the ostensible the ostensible purpose of worship in these two venues is different Black Protestantism Putnam notes is intensely communal the highly Participatory overtly emotional energetic manner in which worship unfolds all help to forge and reinforce connections between and among members of the congregation and those connections are of the utmost importance By contrast white worshipers and Unitarian Universalists in particular our heirs to the European Enlightenment a tradition which has always downplayed Communalism and emphasized instead individualism rationalism and objectivity as The black scholar John Powell recently noted the white Western liberal tradition asserts that we are fundamentally atomistic and Individual and that we gain identity through ourselves rather than through collective norms of our race or our ethnicity Mark Morrison read also points out That many blacks and and many working people in this country tend to be realists who demand that thought lead to action And thus they don't really see the point of intellectual or spiritual investigation for its own sake Our UU churches he continues will thus fail to satisfy all but the most intellectually curious and religiously rebellious black seeker and Generally speaking when it comes to religion African Americans have not proven to be particularly rebellious The result of Robert Putnam's religious surveys indicate that those who belong to black congregations tend to be Conservative if not fundamentalist in their views of such issues as evolution homosexuality gender equality and This is just as true of college educated middle-class black worshipers as those who do not share those particular attributes and so when taken together Putnam says the beliefs of black Protestants show them to have the most fundamentalist views of any major religious group in America Now it should be noted that having been said that those American congregations that do in fact feature significant ethnic and racial diversity They tend to be very large megachurch scale evangelical or Pentecostal in theology hierarchical in structure and highly traditional with respect to morality and so the most diverse church in America may well be the Lakewood mega church in Houston, Texas presided over by that champion of the so-called prosperity gospel Joel Osteen But what does all that? Say to us about the prospect of creating a multiracial multicultural community here at the First Unitarian Society of Madison It won't be easy because there is obviously a cultural and a theological disconnect between the religious sensibilities of blacks and Latinos and white Unitarian Universalists and Our location here on the near west side, you know, that doesn't help very much Studies have shown that the composition of the surrounding community is important that a healthy mix of races and ethnicities in the general population surrounding a congregation Increases the odds of developing a more diverse congregation and we don't have that diversity right here But still we say to ourselves There must be Latinos and African Americans and Asian and Native Americans living Nearby to us our neighbors who have raised questions who have developed serious doubts about the claims of orthodox religion They're skeptics like us What would attract them here? Would a shift in the way that we conduct worship services be helpful? gospel choir Dan a Little more prayer integrated into the service more scriptural citations a more animated style of preaching if you can stand it Less passivity in the pews Now a few Unitarian congregations have attempted just this kind of repackaging pleasing some dismaying others But overall it has not been particularly effective in producing diversity and in our own case Members report on that same survey that I referenced earlier members report that the single most attractive feature about F us is The intellectual stimulation it provides So one wonders then how the adoption of a more evangelical style of worship would be greeted Now that being said I do believe that there are ways in which we can promote and and perhaps even actualize a more diverse congregation Most obviously the visible presence The visible presence of a minister a music director or a religious educator who is a person of color Would signal a commitment to anti-racism and multiculturalism Now there are not a whole lot of minority ministers in our movement. Although the number is actually increasing But an opportunity for us to recruit such a minister might arise If members increase their giving But money aside We could also focus on the following first the congregation at large can become more involved in projects that matter to members of Madison's minority community Second as individuals we can look for opportunities to make connections with persons of color among our co-workers our neighbors or our classmates and Third we need to work harder to foster a genuinely caring community here at First Unitarian Society Now returning to that third point first responding to the amen It is my experience that Unitarian Universalists find it very difficult to ask someone within their congregation for help that they do not normally expect their faith Community to be with them in times of distress or of need Nor are we particularly good at celebrating among ourselves Not so in African-American and Latino congregations where community spirit is much more palpable much more in evidence and where Interdependence is a recognized fact of life So we need to be more cognizant of the strong individualistic flavor of Unitarian Universalism and how that limits our ability to create the kind of social Solidarity that people in the minority community are seeking in the second place Most people try out a new faith community because they have received you all know this very well a personal invitation from a trustworthy friend When several dozen of us gathered at Christ the Solid Rock Church last year for a conversation with their Pastor Everett Mitchell and the African-American members of that congregation Everett Mitchell stressed to us the importance of social connection the importance of building bridges in our personal lives with members of the minority community Now you got to be absolutely clear about your intentions But having done so we open our door to the stranger and instead of eyeing him or her standing on the sill with Suspicion we extend to that person our hand and a wholehearted welcome But you know what that also involves learning to talk religion with our friends and acquaintances And that's a stretch for us because as that same survey revealed Members of FUS show little interest in quote sharing our UU values with others in Dane County You cannot hide your liberal religious light under a bushel and then hope that others whether white brown yellow or black are going to see it and then finally as Congregation we do need to put more effort into social and economic justice initiatives that Madison's minority community really cares about You know in the early 1960s my predecessor Max Gabler He was one of a handful of local clergy who vigorously promoted open housing here in Madison Now these clergy people did a little survey of landlords in Madison and the survey revealed that 49 out of 50 landlords that they surveyed would not rent an apartment or a home to an African American 49 out of 50 and so Max and his colleagues drafted a pledge which they circulated Throughout the community which they invited people to sign and that pledge said we welcome into our neighborhood Any residents of good character regardless of race creed or color? It said we believe in brotherhood and we welcome the opportunity to practice it The Madison housing industry they demurred they resisted But efforts like those produced modest results in terms of our own congregational diversity back in the 1960s Mark Morrison Reed says that blacks report that they come to UU churches primarily because the minister and or the Congregation are actively engaged in social justice causes that are relevant to African Americans and Because they are looking for a church where their own commitment to diversity Will be accepted Now a few s has been making some strides in this area We are now active in the interfaith interracial organization known as Moses We have a ministry team that is working actively on equity issues We have partnered with the capital times and the Wisconsin conference on families and children in addressing and confronting Madison's racial divide But only a few of our members are actively involved at this point in any of these enterprises So it's one thing to wish for greater diversity It's another thing to work for it And the question for me is not so much. What can the institution do? But rather what can each one of us do to create a progressive faith community? That as Max Gabler envisioned it 50 years ago a Community that will reflect the full range of our diversity in which the people of no race or creed shall be strangers And the ancient bonds of prejudice and fear will at last be broken May it be so I Invite you now to participate in gratitude and due generosity in the morning's offering We gather each week as a community of memory and of hope and to this time and this place We bring our whole and our broken selves We carry with us the joys and sorrows of the recent past and we seek here a place where they might be received and celebrated and shared we would take now a moment to recognize Amy Kell and her husband Steve Amy is one of our lay ministers and Steve was recently admitted to hospice so we wish them We give them our best wishes as Steve approaches the end of his life journey And then for any joys or sorrows that remain unexpressed on articulated We hold those with tenderness in our hearts as well And let us join together in a moment of silence in the spirit of empathy and hope And so may our coming together today for this brief time may it lighten our burdens and expand our joys Our closing hymn is number 354. We will sing verses 1 and 4 As far as our love flows and as far as our hope grows as far as our yearning goes We are no farther than this from one another. Please be seated for the postlude