 I first ventured beyond the confines of American Unitarian Universalism in 1999 when the congregation I served in Appleton became a partner with the Transylvanian Church. A dozen years later, we added a partnership with a UU church in a village of mostly subsistence farmers in the Philippines. My engagement with our global faith deepened from 2016 to 2020 when I served as Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council. This organization supports partnerships across the world, including FUSs with Najoyta. I have learned so much about our global faith and partnership over these 22 years. I have learned a lot about myself and about my own individual faith. Another treasured part of partnership experience for me has been the opportunity to develop friendships across the world. I'm so fortunate to have Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist friends from Colombia to Transylvania to Northeast India, the Philippines, and Indonesia. And I feel like I have good friends in Najoyta, too, after a brief but lovely visit there in 2018. The high point for me in that visit was staying up until the wee hours talking with Reverend Leventa and Yutka as they graciously opened their home to me. So here's some of what I've learned in partnership over the years. In Transylvania, I learned a lot about the most important roots of our faith. Our faith goes back there over 450 years. I'm reminded by my interactions with Transylvania that our faith is not some new fad, even something that goes back a couple hundred years in this country. Its deepest roots are in the soil of Transylvania. In the Appleton Congregations partnership with the Philippines Congregation, I learned also about the breadth and width of our faith. Experiencing such a vibrant UU faith there made me realize that we were probably selling the possibility short in Appleton for our congregation. We too often bought into the common American UU delusion that our faith really works well for highly educated middle and upper class, mostly white people and maybe not so well for other people. If our faith can fly high in a Philippines village of mostly subsistence farmers, maybe we learned there would be more interest in Appleton than we were thinking. Maybe there's more potential in Madison too. Another thing I've learned is that American Unitarian Universalism is not the pinnacle of our global faith. Too many of us here embrace what I have come to call spiritual Darwinism. Like social Darwinism, it's a misinterpretation of Darwin's theories. Spiritual Darwinism is the idea that our Unitarian Universalist global faith is an evolutionary pyramid. And guess what? We're at the top, of course, in Transylvania. This is often translated into viewing our partners as spiritually primitive. We believe that over time, you know, they'll outgrow those Christian superstitions. We don't really take their faith seriously. We don't imagine that we might actually learn something from their Unitarian faith that will impact and change our faith here. A story to illustrate. I'd say about two-thirds of the congregation I served in Appleton were former Catholics. A number of them had unresolved, powerful issues with their Catholic upbringing. As I shared at the Christmas Eve vigil here last December, the minister of the partner church visited one Christmas and I invited him to lead a Transylvanian style communion service at one of our Christmas Eve services. With four services that day, I figured the people who might somehow be offended by a Transylvanian Unitarian Christian communion service would simply go to another service. To my surprise, a lot of former Catholics with issues showed up for that communion service. Many said they came out of curiosity. I had a sense that a few came with the expectation, perhaps even the hope that they would be offended. None of them planned to participate. Several were kind of sitting like this. Well much of the Transylvanian Unitarian communion service looks and feels like a traditional Christian communion service. But as I said in the Christmas Eve vigil here, it is thoroughly Unitarian in its theology. It focuses on remembering Jesus' teachings especially about love and honoring him as a person, not as a divinity. It is completely symbolic. Well for some of the Catholics that night in Appleton, the juxtaposition of a familiar ritual with a very different theology just broke something open in them. Most of them decided to participate. Many came forward with tears streaming down their face. The Transylvanian communion ritual unexpectedly brought them a moment of healing and wholeness. You see encountering a distinctly different version of our UU faith can cause us to see truths about our faith, about ourselves that we might have missed. Our partners have gifts for us too. Our global faith is not an evolutionary pyramid with us at the top. Another thing I've learned is that partnership is not about charity. And that's true even when there's a massive disparity in wealth, even when we often send money to our partners. And so it's not about North American Unitarian Universalists saving Transylvanian Unitarians and others with our largesse. Transylvanian Unitarians saved their own faith as it came out of the difficult years of Communism. I'm not saying our money didn't help. I'm sure it's helped. I'm sure folks in Nagyota would tell you that. But that is not the point of partnership. Ask your partners why they're in the partnership and they're going to talk about relationship, not money. They'll talk about sharing our lives and our faith, our struggles and our dreams and most of all our love with each other. Partnership is about mutual relationship. My heart broke a couple years ago in my partner church council work when I talked to the leader of a long time partnership here in the United States. I talked to that leader because they had decided to quit the partnership. I asked her why, her answer because they don't need us anymore. So for this partnership the fact that their partners in Transylvania became more financially self-sufficient was bad. What a failure of partnership. Another thing I've learned is that disagreements between partners is okay. An example, in 2017 the Hungarian Unitarian Church Synod, that's the governing body of the Hungarian Unitarian Church in Hungary and Transylvania, approved a statement affirming their state definitions of marriage as being between one man and one woman. And the statement passed by more than 85%. We North American Unitarian Universalists are in a different place on this issue. So why did the Hungarian Unitarian Church Synod choose to make this statement? Some Transylvanian Unitarians have told me that this simply is where the vast majority of Unitarians in Transylvania and Hungary are in their beliefs. And I would point out not all that different from where most American Unitarian Universalists were in the 1970s and even 80s. Other Transylvanian Unitarians told me that the vote was about alignment with the Hungarian government which strongly opposes marriage equality and LGBTQ inclusion. Since Transylvania was given to Romania in the treaty that ended World War I, ethnic Hungarians have treasured their identity and often been persecuted for it. The current government in Hungary has taken remarkable steps to connect with and support ethnic Hungarians in Romania, including by offering citizenship. Others have told me there that as an oft oppressed minority, they avoid anything that separates them from other ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania, most of whom are Reformed or Catholic. And the Reformed and the Catholic Churches both have strong stands against marriage equality. Still others have told me that the Synod vote was all about money. The Hungarian government is giving millions and millions of dollars every year to the Transylvanian Unitarian Church and other ethnic Hungarian institutions in Transylvania. And honestly this is far more than American partners have ever given. With good reason, folks there believed that this money spigot might be turned off if the Synod did not take this step. While I was a part of a group of global Unitarian Universalist leaders who wrote a public statement of concern about this decision of the Hungarian Unitarian Church. President Susan Frederick Gray of our UU Association in the United States and leaders of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists signed the statement. So why did we voice our concern? Well not because we had the authority to tell the Hungarian Church what to do. We don't have that authority. We don't want that authority. Rather, we were motivated by concern for LGBTQ people in the Hungarian Unitarian Church and because some LGBTQ allies there asked us to speak up. We were also motivated by a vision of partnership that includes sharing deeply with one another including when we have a disagreement. Too often we've avoided talking with our partners about anything where there's even a whiff of disagreement and so we end up talking about the weather and our families and our partnerships never get deeper. So I encourage American Unitarian Universalist partners neither to ignore the marriage equality issue or other differences nor to try to change our partners overseas. Instead, let's share openly our point of view and let's listen to theirs and let's offer support and solace to those who are fighting for change. And finally, I have learned a lot in partnership about commitment and fidelity. Partnership spanning generations that survives and thrives can only happen if both partners are deeply committed and faithful. Kelly's message for all ages makes a great point of how in some ways partnership is like a marriage. We Americans are not always very good at the spiritual practices of commitment and fidelity. It's really important for us to know that there was an earlier movement of partnership between U.S. and Transylvanian churches in the 1920s and 1930s. There were actually over 120 partnerships in those days, including I believe First Unitarian Society. What happened to those partnerships? Well with very few exceptions, the American partners lost interest and moved on. Being on opposite sides in World War II did not help. We moved on, and then we forgot about those partnerships. So I haven't found anyone here who knows the location of FUS's partnership in that first movement. We need to understand that whoever that partner was in Transylvania, they do remember, even though it's 100 years later, that they were partnered with FUS. If our partners in Najoyta had a partner in that period, I bet they remember who it is. And surely they remember the story about how American Unitarian Universalists moved on from partnership in the 1930s and 40s. I have a sense that many Transylvanian partners have been wondering for 30 years when we'll lose interest and move on. So here's another couple of times where my heart broke in my UU partnership, partner church council work. One was when a new minister called me up and new minister of a long time partner here in the U.S. and said, you know, partnership's not my thing, I'm going to try to kill it. A second one was when a U.S. partner said, we're ready to move on from our partner in Transylvania. Could we get one in Cuba? Yeah, they got bored and they were looking at the newest shiny object out there. But failures of commitment and fidelity. So I'm going to close with several suggestions for FUS in its partnership with Najoyta. Always remember that your partnership is about mutual relationship, not charity. When you give money, give it and let go. Let your partners decide how to use that money rather than having you tell them how you think they should use it. Commit yourself to making travel financially accessible. Every trip you take should include scholarship money so that FUS people who can't afford to go can be part of the trip. And help your partners come here. Most Transylvanians don't earn enough money to come to the United States even once in their lifetimes. So this is an excellent use of partnership money. Take ways to get youth and young adults involved in your partnership. You should not take a trip without bringing along youth and young adults and this should be a focal point of your scholarship efforts. More people need to get involved in the partnership here. I am so grateful to Margie and Pete Marion, Ethel Bureau, George and Alexis Gill, Polly Kelbs, Eva Wright, Rita Horvath and Reverend Kelly for their decades of incredible loyalty and commitment to this partnership. But it cannot rest only on them. If it does, the partnership will die. These dedicated folks have been carrying the water for FUS and its partnership for a long time and they're going to welcome more people to get involved with open arms and hearts. My dream of partnership teams and congregations is that there's a mix of youth and young adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and a steady influx of new people. If we were having this service in person here in the atrium, at this point I would do an altar call. Yes, I would call those forward in this congregation who want to get involved in the partnership in any way. Alas, we're virtual, can't do an altar call so here's the next best thing. Let Reverend Kelly or let me know and we will connect you with the partnership team. And then finally, be faithful in your partnership. It won't last another decade, let alone 30 years, if there is not deep, widespread commitment. First Unitarian Society in Nagyoyte have a strong partnership. May you renew and deepen your commitment to your life-giving, faith-giving partnership with your spiritual kinfolk in Nagyoyte. May it be so.