 Just put a little English, put a little spin on the first note. Da, da, da. Oh, let me say it this way, non legato, right, like John asked for. Okay, let's go again. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, if you're using your gears, instead of your eyes to stay together, you might need a bride. The Resonance This is a challenging piece. I'm not in a number of ways. Staying in peace and we are doing everything except through singing expressively all the way through this. No, I'm serious because we have been totally focused on technicality. So now that we're in service, we've got to throw this after saying we're all the way through this. What a dance. That is dance. Check, check, check, one, two, check, check. Check, check, check, check, check, check, check, one, two, check, check. 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. Excuse me, my sinuses are bothering me. 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 Karen Rose Gredler and on behalf of the congregation, I'd like to extend a very special welcome to any visitors who've come to join us today and a special welcome to all the hearty souls who dug out and brushed off and made it at all. We are welcoming congregations, so whoever you are and wherever you are on your life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. As we gather in this place and this time, let us remember we are all visitors in this life. We come together to find meaning and hope with all the visitors other in this life. Let us join our hearts and minds together as we celebrate life together. Please silence your cell phones as I invite you to join me in a few moments of silence for contemplation, meditation, prayer, whatever, as we settle in and come fully into this time and place together. Good morning. Let us rise in all the ways that we do to sing hymn number 360. Here we have gathered. We have gathered, gathered side by side, circle of kinship, come and step inside. May all who seek here find a kindly word, may all who speak feel they are singing now together. This our hearts own song. Here we have two salutes, all matters small and children, men and sages sharing now together. Life has its back, part in and heal us. Remaining standing for our opening words and for our chalice lighting. Gary Kowalski reminds us, with faith to face our challenges, with love that casts out fear, with hope to trust tomorrow. We accept this day as the gift that it is, a reason for rejoicing. Please join in the words printed in your order of service as together we say, We gather today to hear the call of trust, even though promises have been broken, even though betrayals still sting, even though we're unsure about believing in ourselves. Like this flame, trust is something that needs rekindled again and again. May today lead us back to believing again. I invite you to turn toward your neighbor for friendly greetings. I know, no no no, you are, you are fine, you are fine. I'll try to remember to make it clear who's gonna lie. Sometimes we don't know actually. Good morning. Glad you're here. Good morning everyone. I'm really excited to be here with all of you this morning. And I'm excited because we have another guest who hasn't been here before, at least not in this actual place. This is Snowy the Owl, and Snowy is not quite as shy as Pinky, but really happy to be here as well. Snowy Owl, exactly, appropriately named, yes. And I think it is the case Snowy that you know Pinky. Why, why yes, I do know her, hello. You know, I'm very excited because I've been actually meaning to talk to Pinky about something. Pinky, guess what? In two weeks, I'm going to have a sleepover at my house, and I would like for you to come. I would be so excited for you to be there so that you could hang out and we can have pizza and we can watch a movie together. Wouldn't that be fun? Okay, well, what, I hear something. Oh, Snowy, I think someone is trying to call us. Hold on, let's go look. Maybe it won't be my friend, but when I think about sleeping over at Snowy's house, I get really nervous and my tummy starts to rumble in a weird way and my head starts to hurt and my trunk starts to sweat and I don't know what to do. I think I can trust Snowy to tell Snowy that I'm afraid about sleeping over. I think that we're good enough friends. What do you think I should do? Okay, so tell Snowy that I'm too scared. And nervous, yeah. You could play lantern. Yeah. We have a big lantern and we did a lantern. Okay, what's with that idea? The light will make it look scary. How about you, what do you think? Trust you. Yes. That's a real idea. You're right, because I think if I liked Snowy or I pretended that I wasn't scared, Snowy might not trust me. Yeah, I think I actually hear Snowy coming back now. Oh, here he is. What? I don't know what to I was called away for. Strange, but so pinky. I was just asking you if you would come to a sleepover and I'm very excited about it. Yes. And I hope that you won't be hurt because I really like you as a friend and I really want us to be friends for a long, long time. Okay, I would like that too, by the way. But sleepover, I've never slept away from home and the idea just kind of really scares me and I really want to be able to play with you and maybe someday I'll be feeling brave enough to sleep over and then I hope you'll invite me again. But I don't think I can come. Do you have any ideas? Well, first of all, I'm really glad you told me the last thing I would want is for you to be unhappy or not have fun at the sleepover. So, hmm, let me think. Well, if you want to, you could come to the sleepover and just stay as long as you want. If it's sleeping overnight, then we can make sure that you can get home when you're ready to go home or if that it's scary, hmm, you know, the most important thing is that we spend some time together. So if you want to make another time for us to go play, maybe go to the park together, I would be happy as long as we can be friends. I understand it's snowy. I'd like the idea of coming and staying as long as I can and then going home. That's okay. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for telling me. I know that it sometimes is hard to tell people stuff that is really personal. So thank you so much for sharing that you were scared. I'm glad I could trust you, Snowy. I'm glad too. I think we will be good friends. Me too. Great advice. Yeah, I like it. So much for your great ideas. And I know it can be really hard to tell the truth sometimes, but I think, I have found, maybe you have too, that when you tell the truth to your friends, they trust you more and your friendship actually becomes a lot better. Yes, I have been surprised how often as a minister, when I am talking to people in the congregation, how mad they will get sometimes when we're just doing the best that we can together. And it's just part of life. Sometimes you have to say things and people won't be happy about it. But it's still, it's an important part of trust. Absolutely, to be honest. So, well... Goodbye. Goodbye. Let's sing the children out to him, number 1024 in the Teal Himnel. When the Spirit says, do, please rise in all the ways that we do. You got to do when the Spirit says, do You got to do when the Spirit says, do When the Spirit says, do You got to do, oh Lord You got to do when the Spirit says, do Spirit says, do Spirit says, do Spirit says, do Spirit says, do Spirit says, do Spirit says You got to sing You got to sing when the Spirit says, sing You got to sing when the Spirit says, sing When the Spirit says, sing You got to sing, oh, Lord. You got to sing when the Spirit says sing. Spirit says sing, Spirit says sing, Spirit says sing, Spirit says sing, Spirit says sing, Spirit says. You got to shout. You got to shout when the Spirit says shout. You got to shout when the Spirit says shout When the Spirit says shout, you got to shout Oh Lord, you got to shout when the Spirit says shout Spirit says shout, Spirit says shout Spirit says shout, Spirit says shout Spirit says shout, Spirit says shout It says shah. Thank you, please be seated. Meeting this morning is taken from a column sent to members of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, where the Reverend Derek Jackson serves as the director of education. Reverend Jackson writes in the first paragraph of the column about his continued realization of the struggles between colleagues, our movement and beyond, with trust. He writes, there are different approaches to developing trust. For some, trust is something you jump in and do. It requires taking a risk and letting that trust happen. On the other end of the spectrum, some feel that trust is earned. People and institutions need to show themselves as trustworthy before they can be granted that trust. When adherents to these two approaches engage, trust can be hard to establish and lead to an impasse in the relationship. It is becoming clearer to me that we cannot talk about trust without talking about power dynamics. Trust as an act of risk is a lot easier when the power dynamics are equal. Or if you are the one with power in the relationship, and earning trust means that someone decides what the qualifications are for earning that trust and when those qualifications have been met. Power dynamics can influence the implications of meeting and not meeting those qualifications. We will not be able to move forward as institutions and as individuals if we are not able to move towards trust. Not everyone can and should jump into total trust. But we can commit to the development of trust over time, giving priority to our needs for safety and our healing from wounds and trauma. Reverend Jackson concludes his column with this prayer. Web of life, spirit that moves within and between us, open our hearts. Help us to discern when we are ready to trust. Help us to discern whom we can trust and teach us how to trust. Holy One, help us to find the right balance between safety and vulnerability so that we can engage in community that builds, so that we can live our faith in action as well as belief. Remind us that we need one another, held in an encompassing love. We pray. Blessed be. FUS and Society Choir have been blessed to be working with the composer John Harbison. And Olive Madison is celebrating on the Olive Madison. But many entities in Madison are helping with that celebration, the symphony, mosaic chamber players, pro-art string quartet, and so forth. And Mr. Harbison will join us in the 11 o'clock service to conduct these works for choir that he has composed. In this case, the anthem and the offertory will both be him like settings of Emily Dickinson poems. And I'll read each to you. This one is, Let Me Not Mar That Perfect Dream. Let me not mar that perfect dream by an auroral stain, but so adjust my daily night that it will come again. Not when we know the power costs the garment of surprise was all our timid mother war at home in paradise. It is true. I've been at this for a few years. And I don't think I'm ever going to learn that I will be shocked at the intensity of what happens when people get mad at the ministers in a congregation. And I guess it's one of the downsides of what happens when you deal with an organization that tries to do things that really matter to people. There is a certain price to pay for succeeding at your goal. If you do what matters, then people will love what is happening. And from their perspective, it will help them feel emotionally connected and invested in the work of this congregation, which is exactly what we want, right? But when it goes awry and oh, it will go awry. Again and again, that intensity of conviction and passion can quickly turn into something that is incredibly intense. And people give me a lot of credit in the wrong way. They really assign some pretty incredible motives to what happens when we disagree or I just happen to make a mistake. Instead of it sort of becoming a moment of deeper truth between the two of us, suddenly it is like we're in a James Bond film. And I am deeply ensconced in the halls of nefarious evil sitting in my chair, petting my grumpy cat and laughing maniacally because my emission of their words from the newsletter has furthered my plan for evil domination of the world. When in truth, I just had a thousand things going on. I got distracted and I made a mistake. And in that moment, both of our humanity rather than being something that we can step into more authentically and meet each other in truth becomes a place where trust has been tested and has failed. And it could be comical except often those people are people that I care about deeply and that I value what they do and what they believe so much. And most tragically, sometimes, and thank goodness it is rare, that place of trust never really recovers itself. It reminds me just how important it is that we continue this work of building trust with each other in this community and how deeply connected they are to our experiences of authority and power. I really believe that my colleague, Derek Jackson, is right on because of what I have experienced. He reminds us that we cannot talk about trust without talking about power dynamics. And later in the letter that Karen read, he tells us that we will not be able to move forward as institutions and individuals if we are not able to move towards trust. Now I know that Reverend Jackson is writing within the specific context of being a minister of color in our tradition and we have struggled mightily around trust and race and power. And we have struggled on so many levels in terms of how authority and power have been deeply intertwined in not so good ways with trust. And if you add to that, the ongoing realizations of the continuing power of white supremacy in our larger culture as well as in our tradition. If you take into account the deeply disturbing things that the Me Too movement have revealed to us about how sexuality and power and authority work together for such incredible harm. If you really let yourself think about what happens when the president of the United States invokes a national emergency calling into question the very core of our constitution and the checks and balances that allow us to trust the government in the first place, if you know all of that is flowing in and around us, then how can it not be touching the core of our ability to trust anything in our world? And if you aren't there yet, take a few breaths and catch up, it is at work in us all. So it is important, it is essential, it is life giving for us to think carefully about this together, but it is also so essential. To be reminded that there is another truth always at work as well. And it is doing it's life saving work and has been long before I discovered that being a minister is hard. There is always pain in this work. There is always deep questioning in what we do together. There will be divisions and sometimes horrible and destructive things will happen in any community but at the same time, there is always something else. Within my first congregation, every congregation I've served within this congregation, there is also great and abiding health. There are people every day who act from larger truths and maintain a vulnerable and yet resilient strength of compassion and connection even in the midst of doubt. There are in this place actions that save people's lives in a thousand different ways each and every week that you meet together. It's true in our congregations. It is true in our country still. It is true in that work, in our world and we need to also hold that truth as well as the deep unrest and pain. It is a fact that some indomitable truth and larger power has indeed taken a pummeling for a long time now but it refuses to go down for the count and leaders of all kinds leverage their power and their authority in service to that larger truth. So it is one of the more meaningful things that we explore together in this interim time what happens in that powerful dance between authority, power and trust. So let's do a couple of definitions so that you know at least what I'm talking about when I use those significant words. When I talk about power, I am going back to, among other things, a sermon in 1967 delivered by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King where he refers to power as the ability to achieve a purpose or to make things happen. So when I talk about power, I am talking about the ways that we are able to get things done that matter together and authority is when such ability to achieve purpose and to make things happen is either conferred or delegated or shared. That's simple and that complicated. How are we able to do things that matter as individuals in a congregation and how do we share, confer to each other, delegate that ongoing work. It takes us all to make the changes that are necessary. But there is more to what authority means that doesn't easily fit into that definition. It is the sort of definition that Mary Piper, a psychologist and a Unitarian Universalist wrote about in one of her books entitled, Seeking Peace, Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World. She writes, let me be straight with you, I am not writing this book as an expert on inner peace nor am I offering sage advice from one who has been to the mountaintop. My authority does not come from being a relaxed and happy person, but rather from being a person who has sought calmness and happiness all of her life. I address you as a woman who has spent a lot of time talking herself and others down from emotional ledges. Piper's words remind us that spiritual authority, sometimes is very different from being quote unquote an expert. So much of our personal authority in life is based on our authentic encounters with life itself and with the real truth of who we are, not just who we wish we were. And we may utilize that power for a greater good and for deep healing in ourselves and each other. So power and authority speaks meaningfully in our lived experiences of trust, in our own sense of authority, and it speaks powerfully here. So many of you have talked about your experiences of what happens here, both in struggle as well as deep triumph. And as I have listened, one of the things I become aware of is just how deeply the 30 years of leadership you experienced in the last ministerial experience with your lead minister, just how deeply that power still is present in this place. And in many ways, that's exactly as it should be. It will do its work for a long time. But there's also an important realization that we are beginning to think deeply, but we are not quite there yet about what is possible next in terms of what we imagine for authority and power. And the reason I say that we're not there yet is a perfectly human and natural thing. You are still close enough to that past relationship. We're almost everything you know about power, authority, and trust in this place is based on the past. You need some time. We all do. It is natural and human to take a few breaths, get some distance and perspective, and really begin to think about who are you now? And what is the world and your deeper self individually and as a group calling you to explore, to think about? What will authority and power and trust look like in the coming days? Because what I've heard from you is so obviously and necessarily steeped in 30 years of experience. And what I hear from people out there who are looking for congregations and their own understandings of authority and power are still in very different places. For one thing, over the last, since I've been in ministry over the last 30 years, there has been a significant influx of women into the ministry. And most of them over the age of 40 and they have a very different understanding of what it means to hold one's authority and power in community. And that ongoing work has been at work in our congregations for a very long time. And so they have wrestled with hierarchy. They have thought about different models of power. They have been through both the advantages of a team approach to ministry and what is possible when there is a single minister who is sort of at the top of the food chain. They've struggled with that for decades now. It will take a while before you are ready to be in full conversation with people who've been in that process. You have your own work to do. And so it is good for us to take a deep breath and begin to think about how we will look at what power, authority, and trust, how it looks here. And to begin to dream about what we want next. So how will we begin to do that work? What sort of ideas will help us rest into something that will take us a while and should it is worthy of that careful thought? Well, I would like to ask you to think about something that really comes from the larger world of thinking about the power of leadership in our midst. The Gallup Organization in 2005 to 2008 reached out to over 10,000 people in a broad spectrum of adult life that included the business world, agencies of all types, social networks, schools, congregations, and even just the sort of authority that happens within families. And they asked those recipients of leadership to tell them what about that leadership had changed their lives. They asked them to list a few words of the gifts that they received from being the recipient of good and strong and dynamic leadership. And so tens of thousands of people gave their answers to those questions and they found that there were four ideas that bubbled to the surface again and again as the most frequent gifts that leadership gives to us. For a moment, I will explore those four with you and I invite you to think about their applicability to the big picture as you start to envision the principles that will shape your new clergy team and your relationship with them. But I am also aware that in many ways these four gifts are what life offers each of us all the time if we would but receive them. So the first one is really quite convenient given this month's theme. The number one thing that people said over and over again that they received as a gift that changed their lives from strong and good leadership was trust itself. They used words like honesty, integrity, and respect. But trust was essential for them and a gift to them. Alia Titerinco wrote, I imagine trust as these invisible hands that stretch out into the world looking for someone to hold on to as we walk into an unknown future. We know from this month that trust is often built by the small gifts that we offer each other of authenticity when we risk being our real self, when we risk saying something that is honest and true and allow that interplay of humanity to intertwine itself in very authentic and powerful ways. And while it is true that the big gifts that we offer each other of investing in trust will build greater trust, it is that ongoing day to day work of being together as we are that really makes the largest lion's share of change. So thinking about your experience here in the past or in other places where you have experienced leadership when have you been inspired to trust in this place or in other places that matter to you? Think about what helped you do that. And as you move forward, how do you want to be someone who helps hold that experience as something that does not go away from this place and other places that matter? How will trust be a part of your future vision of what it means to share power and authority? The second area is compassion and words like caring and friendship and love all entered into the experiences that people felt were life-giving when leadership was healthy. Carol Christ wrote, the problem comes when we do not recognize power within ourselves as well as within others. And when we do not recognize our connections to all beings within the circles of life. Compassion is the place where we connect authentically with that circle of life and the deep interdependence that we have with each other. And instead of those moments where trust is tried or where difficulty comes up, instead of letting that be a place of separation, we soften ourselves enough to see our common humanity and let that common humanity, knowing how much alike we actually are underneath it all call us into something more meaningful and powerful and real. How have you experienced compassion from the leadership of this congregation? Whether it's lay leadership or staff or clergy, how will you be an agent of compassion as you seek to share power in this place in the future? Number three, that they refer to most often in these thousands of people as a gift, is the gift of stability. And they use words like security, strength, support, and peace. As Gary Zukoff defines authentic power as quote, the alignment of our thoughts, emotions, and actions with the highest part of ourselves. And in that time, we are filled with enthusiasm, purpose, meaning, and a sense of stability. How can you take your longstanding, ongoing experience of a stable ministry and let it be a place of learning into the future? To do it well, it will take a little time and distance. But what from the past do you want to carry forward? What have you learned from having one minister in this place for such a long time that you want to be a lesson for the future? And finally, the fourth thing that most often was a gift that changed people's lives from healthy leadership was its ability to instill and continue the presence of hope. And they used words like offering direction, having faith in what was possible, giving guidance that moved people forward. Rebecca Solnit reminds us, everything changes. There lies most of our hope and some of our fear. But if you take the long view, you'll see how startling, how unexpected, how often things change. Not by magic, but by incremental effect of countless acts of courage, love, and commitment, the small drops that wear away stones and carve new landscapes. And sometimes by torrents of popular will, change will come into the world to say that it is not to say that it will all come out fine in the end regardless. I'm just telling you that everything is in motion and sometimes we ourselves are that movement. How is trust and authority empower calling you into your future? How will you be the foundations that empower the entire congregation? How will you be a compassionate presence that infuses a sense of what is shared in our humanity? How can we foster a space that allows for continued creative stability? And finally, how will you best allow that shared ministry to move us into the future with hope? We have important work to do in the coming days. May we do it with a sense of what is possible. Brian Schwimmer finally reminds us, we sometimes fall into the delusion that power is elsewhere. It belongs to a different group that we are unable to access it, but nothing could be further from the truth. The universe oozes with power, waiting for anyone who wishes to to embrace it. But because these dynamics are invisible to us, we need to remind ourselves of their presence. And what reminds us? The rivers, the planes, the galaxies, hurricanes, lightning branches, and all of our living companions. May we be about finding that power and sharing it and using it in the service of love. Amen and blessed be. There are so many ways that we share the power of who we are. As we move into the time of the offering, it really is an invitation to think about where your places of power are. What are the resources that you already have at your disposal? And to use them well and wisely for greater good. I remind us that 50% of our offering will be shared with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to continue their essential work in a time when it is so deeply needed. I hope you will find that powerful place of generosity as the offering is now given and received. I never saw a more, I never saw the sea, yet know I how the heather looks and what the billow be. I never spoke with God nor visited in heaven, yet certain am I of the spot as if the checks were given. Thank you for all the ways you give to this community. We appreciate it, we all appreciate each other and our individual gifts. We want to express a special thanks to those who helped make our service possible this morning. Our lay ministers were Dennis Collins and Anne Smiley. Our greeter was Abigail Musselman. Our ushers were Brian Channis and Jane Nelson Warrell. Coffee, hospitality folks, our Nancy Kossiff and Blaise Thompson. Our palms are cared for by Joan Heitman and our welcome table will be manned in this case by John McEvna. Unfortunately, we have no tour guide today unless there's someone here who wants to step up who has some experience doing that. John Powell is unable to be here today. No volunteers, I don't see any big hands waving at me saying yeah, I'll do it. Okay, all right. Are you ready? Now Karn will have some other announcements. We have an opportunity to help raise money for the educations of youth in Romania and the Philippines through our partner church program. One of our religious education classes, our free believe class, is having a raffle and you too can support this cause by buying a raffle ticket or more, one or two or three, however many you want, from the students after service today in the comments. The tickets are $2 and the winner will receive an adult night out for two designed by the students. So it's pizza and a movie. Dinner at Cafe Port of Alba and the Tickets to Sundance Movie Theater. We also wanna spend some time this morning attending to the cares that we bring with us and the joys and sorrows. We come together with those written on our hearts and in this place we are loved and we love. We give and we receive and return. We come together to find strengths and common purpose, turning our minds and hearts toward one another, seeking to bring into our circle of concern all who need our love and support. In particular today, we are thinking of those young people, teens and adolescents who are facing mental health challenges and Rob and Lowry also, Langton has a joy that today is National Acts of Kindness Day and invites us to consider doing something kind for yourself or others. And of course there are all those others, joys and sorrows that we hold in the silence of our hearts. May we remember that we are a part of a web of life that makes us one with all humanity, all the universe. May we be grateful for the miracle of life that we share and the hope that gives us the power to care, to remember and to love. I invite you now into our closing hymn, number 1028, The Fire of Commitment. And you are invited to rise in body and or spirit. The light of days remembered burns a beacon, grating hands and hearts and spirits into faith set free from fear. When the font sets our mind and soul ablaze, when our hunger and our passion meet to call us on our way, then our promise finds fulfillment and our future can begin. The stories of our living brings us song both brave and free and still to witness to the lower mind and soul ablaze. When our hunger and our passion meet to call us of the flame that burns, this finds fulfillment and our future can begin. So youthful vision comes a new prophetic which demands a deeper justice built by a courageous choice. When the font sets our mind and soul ablaze, when our hunger and our passion meet to call him that burns within, then our promise finds fulfillment and our future can begin. And now as we prepare to leave this place, may we find within ourselves that power, that deep fire for what we dream of for our future. Though we may extinguish this chalice, we do not extinguish that fire. We do not extinguish the warmth of human connection and of deep trust and vulnerability. We do not extinguish the warmth that we share with each other. These remain in how we live together until we gather in this place again. May we take another moment before we leave this space and receive another gift of music as we take our seats again.