 At some point, good. And welcome to the First Unitarian Society. My name is Kelly Crocker, and I'm one of the ministers here. Today, I'm joined by my colleague and our guest minister, the Reverend Jim Foddy. Thanks, Jim. And the worship team of Linda. What's up? Sure, Jim Foddy. Right? Yeah. And the worship team of Linda Warren, Drew Collins, Daniel Carnes, and Stephen Gregorius. At First Unitarian Society, we question boldly, listen humbly, grow spiritually, act courageously, and love unapologetically. If you're visiting us today, welcome. We're so very glad that you are with us. If you would like more information about First Unitarian Society, please stop by the welcome table located in the commons to your right next to the elevator. Karen Rose will be there and will look forward to greeting you. We also hope that you'll stay and join us for coffee hour immediately after service, also held in the commons. For those of you joining us virtually, welcome to you as well. We are glad that you are with us. We hope that you will take a moment to watch the announcement slides shown immediately after today's service to learn more about our upcoming programs and activities. And we have one special announcement this morning from Rudy Moore to share with you. I love you. I'm Rudy Moore, and this is Rosmore. And I've been teaching at FUS in the RE program since 1991. I took a 10-year hiatus, came back in 2004, and have been teaching every year since. I really enjoy it. I've been oscillating mostly between the coming of age class and exploring our origins. This coming year, I'll be teaching building bridges. What I get out of it is I love seeing the kids grow over the course of the year. I've always been amazed by the amount of material that they soak up, and this material is good. They've been working on the curriculum all the time that I've been involved, and it's not static. It changes year to year, but we are provided with a very simple to follow book that makes it easy for us to teach from it. The kids are great. The material is great. The co-teachers are excellent too, and it's fun to really discuss all of this stuff with your co-teachers and really kind of get a handle on some of the issues that we're teaching these kids. It's age-appropriate, so you're approaching like the exploring our origins from the point of view of a fourth grader. So for example, I get to be the first person that teaches them about fusion. And when they discuss the toolbox of faith part of exploring our origin, it's tools that fourth graders can use to address their current lives, not necessarily something that is esoteric. Finally, the staff. The staff are great. Leslie, Xan, they are wonderful at taking care of everything that you need in the classroom and being there when you need them. So I highly recommend it. If you're on the fence, come talk to me in person. I would love to convince you because teaching in these classes is really, really wonderful. Thank you. Oh, thank you to Rudy and Roz. And if you were motivated to find out more about teaching, both Leslie and Xan are here this morning. Most likely they will be either in the far end of the commons or out on the playground after service. And now I invite you to join me in a moment of silence as we center ourselves and bring ourselves fully into this time, joining together once again in community. Although there remains too much evidence of the world breaking apart at coastlines, congressional hearings and kitchen tables, inside the quiet places of your heart and mine, there resides still the seeds, the longing to return to this knowing that we belong to each other, this earth, this life. To remember ourselves and all of our lost pieces, beloved in ways that cannot be undone. To dwell here in this healing, this hope, this wholeness is our practice of resistance. Even in rage, we refuse to relinquish gratitude or joy. Come, let us worship together. And we invite you now to rise in all the ways we do, joining together in our words of affirmation as we light our chalice. We light our flaming chalice each week with a simple spark to make holy our time together. With this flame, may our highest intentions be refreshed. With this flame, may we remember who we are and whose we are. With this flame, may our faith be renewed and reignited to guide our journey. And now let us join in singing together hymn number 108 in the great hymnal, my life flows on an endless song. I invite anyone who would like to come forward for our story to come on up. Fancy meeting you here. It's called When Desmond Gets Free. And this is a new one for me. Reverend Jim suggested it for our service today. And on the front page, it says that this book is dedicated to all those who are working to build a new world of justice, equity, and compassion. So before we hear the story, I am wondering if any of you have an idea about how we do that. How do we build a world of justice, equity, and compassion? Any ideas? Grown-ups, please participate. Yeah, Reverend Suzelle, who is with us this morning and I'm just gonna name it because I'm excited. You know how helpful it is to have a UU minister plant in the congregation on Sunday morning? Like, it's the best, right, Jim? Like, yes, did you all hear, Suzelle? One of the ways is to make friends with people. Thanks, Thea, people who seem like us and people who do not. Any other, yeah, Michael. Pay attention for opportunities. To do the right thing, you will find them. Thank you. All right, let's see what happens with Desmond here. Desmond the mouse lived in the most beautiful meadow in all the land. Every morning, Desmond woke with the sunrise and would spend the day playing in the meadow. And every evening, Desmond would go to sleep in the middle of that meadow under the beautiful starry sky. One night though, Desmond awoke when it was still dark. He tried to roll over to a more comfortable spot, but something wasn't right. Can you see what's not right? What's wrong with Desmond, hmm? Yeah, what's happening with his tail? Something big and heavy was right on top of his tail and it was beginning to throb with pain. He felt behind him and there was this huge boulder that seemed to have somehow fallen in the middle of the meadow right on his tail. So Desmond pushed on the boulder and tugged on his tail. He pushed harder on the boulder and tugged harder on his tail, pushed and tugged and pushed and tugged, but it was no use. When he was out of breath and had just about given up, he saw a giraffe nearby in the grass. Oh, good news, he thought. Oh, giraffe, he cried. Could you please push this boulder a few inches in the other direction so that I can go free? The giraffe looked at Desmond and laughed the way giraffes do. How do you think that is? I have no, how do you laugh the way giraffes do? Did you hear Mike? Oh, it needs to be lower, Mike. Can you? Ah! That's great. The giraffe laughed and said, you silly mouse, that's no boulder. That is an elephant that has fallen asleep on your tail. You could maybe wake the elephant and ask him to roll over a couple of inches? I could go free. Well, replied the giraffe, you know what they say about letting sleeping elephants lie. I find it's best to not get involved in other animals' business. I find it best to remain neutral in times like this. Desmond quietly replied, well, I do not appreciate your neutrality. The giraffe wandered off and Desmond tried calling out to the elephant to wake him up, but those giant ears were really far away on the other side of that giant elephant body. So again, Desmond pushed on the elephant and tugged on his tail, pushed and tugged and pushed and tugged, but it was no use. When he was out of breath and had just about given up again, a gazelle wandered by. Oh, gazelle! It seems that an elephant has fallen asleep on my tail in the middle of this meadow. I am stuck and it hurts. I wonder if you could gently wake him up and ask him to roll over just a few inches so I might go free? Well, said the gazelle. What do you think the gazelle said? No, it is an elephant, but that's a good guess. The gazelle said, I see your problem. You know what they say about letting sleeping elephants lie. I find it's best not to get involved in another animal's business. I think I'll remain neutral. Desmond replied, but almost to himself this time, I do not appreciate your neutrality. So Desmond tried again to call out to the elephant. He tried again to push the giant animal away. He tried it again and again to get his little tail free, but it was no use. When he was out of breath and just about given up for the last time, he saw another mouse wandering through the meadow. My name is Nelson. Hi, Nelson. This giant elephant has fallen asleep just on my tail. I wonder if you might run over to the front of the elephant and call out into his giant ear and ask him to roll over a few inches in the other direction? Desmond asked. Of course, said Nelson. So Nelson ran all the way up to the other end of that giant elephant body. He called up to those giant elephant ears at the top of that giant elephant head, but the elephant didn't budge. The elephant heard a small voice really far away, but he was really comfortable. He didn't want to move. So Nelson ran back to Desmond a little out of breath and he said, I have an idea. Don't move, stay right here. Okay, said Desmond. And a little while later, here comes Nelson through the tall grass and he wasn't alone. Nelson found three other mouse friends to help him and each one of them brought another three friends. And the whole group of them ran over to the giant head of that giant elephant. One mouse scrambled up onto the shoulders of another and another mouse scrambled up on her shoulders and then another after another. They climbed up until the whole group of them formed a mouse ladder right up the side of the elephant. And at last, Nelson climbed up the shoulders of his mouse friends one on top of the other until he was way up on top of that giant elephant head right next to the giant elephant ear. Excuse me. He called right out into the ear. It seems that you've fallen asleep on my friend's tail in the middle of this meadow. Could you just roll over a few inches in the other direction so he could go free? The giant elephant made a low groan. Can you groan like an elephant? I am comfortable right where I am. Go away. So Nelson asked more of his mouse friends to climb up and one by one they helped each other up the side of the elephant and one by one they all called out into that giant elephant ear on top of that giant elephant head. And again, the giant elephant made a low groan. Grrr, I am comfortable. Go away. Then Nelson had an idea. He whispered to the mice and all at once they yelled together, excuse us. It seems that you've fallen asleep on our friend's tail in the middle of this meadow. Roll over. And this time all those voices together right next to the elephant's ear were too loud to ignore. I was comfortable where I was, but I will move over if you just agree to stop making such a racket, the elephant cried. And then the elephant rolled over just a few inches in the other direction. Nelson and the other mice helped each other climb back down and Desmond was finally free. Desmond and Nelson and all their mouse friends spent the rest of that beautiful day playing in the middle of that beautiful meadow. So what do you think? Now what do you think about justice, equity, and compassion? Did you learn anything from what would you say? Who acted with compassion in the story? The mouse, right? Nelson and all the friends and what did they do? They helped collect it. OK, here's Mike's really big words of the day. Collective action. Did it work when one mouse was yelling alone? No. Did it work when all the mice yelled together? Yes. That's what will do it. And that's one of the beautiful things about what we do here. We all come together to do more than we could alone. All right, you all, thanks for help with this story. We are going to sing you out to go have some fun. World's so bright, and you can turn the day from and share your gifts. I invite you into this time of giving and receiving, where we give freely and generously to this offering, which supports the ongoing work of our community. You'll see on your screen that you can donate directly from our website, fussmedicine.org. You'll see the text to give information there as well. And baskets are being passed for those of us here in the room. We thank you for your generosity and for your faith in this life we create together. So before I start, here's something I just wanted to mention. I served for eight years at the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis. I just finished a short-term gig at the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee. And I want to apologize in advance if I get your last name wrong this morning. I also want to give a big thank you to Kelly A.J. and Kelly C. for inviting me to speak here today. As some of you may have seen in my bio, I got my undergrad at UW-Madison. But I had never been in this building until about an hour ago. So it's pretty exciting to finally be here in this beautiful space in this city that has had a huge role in shaping the story of my life. I'm also thankful to you because whenever I give a talk about something like death or grief or authoritarianism, I feel deeply grateful toward anyone who knows the title in advance and still shows up. Cheer any on a beautiful day. Why not, right? I'm truly glad that you are here. I've been giving presentations and Sunday reflections about rising authoritarianism since the summer of 2016. And I've been surprised how thankful people have been to me for bringing the topic up, for naming what was and still is going on, for affirming their sense that our democracy and civic institutions are at risk. Seven years on, things are still not well, but the picture is less dire and more mixed than many of us were expecting. And awareness of what's happening is much broader than it was when all this started. And talking about it has value. It can help those who have been paying attention to feel a bit less alone in their concerns. And talking about it can help us figure out together what we can do. And a congregation is a good place to have this conversation. A good congregation, an honest congregation, is a place to talk about the hard stuff, the real stuff of this world. To look at big questions together about life and power and oppression. To examine questions through the lens of our most deeply held values. And to seek and hold the answers in community where we can find support and figure out actions to take to bring about the world we wish to see. And Wisconsin is a good place to have this kind of conversation. You all have been involuntary participants in a 13 year experiment to permanently establish authoritarian rule across all three branches of government with increasing restrictions on voting and a not at all representative legislature. The people of Wisconsin are a complicated mix, as many of us know from our own families. There are those who adhere to the conspiracy theories about stolen elections and woke takeovers. And these folks might actually welcome an autocratic ruler. They would rather be ruled than led. At the same time, there are so many of us who believe in secular government and fair electoral maps, the rainbow of human diversity, women's bodily autonomy, and the common good. It's a complicated mix here in Wisconsin. And throughout this trying time with authoritarian maneuvers finding some success at the state and local levels, daily life has gone on as normal for most people. Offering a veneer of normalcy is while the foundations of democracy are being eroded is a tactic straight out of the authoritarian playbook. There are of course countless crises a minister could choose to focus on, but to my mind, very little else will matter if we become more of an authoritarian country. Every one of our UU principles has been under siege from the inherent dignity of all people, to the use of the democratic process, to the interdependent web of life that sustains us. And the values highlighted in the proposed revisions of our UU bylaws, values such as pluralism, equity, and justice, these would be difficult to live out in a less free society. Before I go on, let's go over a few definitions. I know some of these phrases are increasingly familiar in everyday language, and I suspect this congregation has a higher than average percentage of polypsi majors, who will correct me afterwards, I'm sure, but let me just do a quick review. The first word I'd like to define is authoritarianism itself. Put simply, authoritarianism is a system in which the authority, the power in a nation, lies with an individual leader, one person, rather than any constitution or laws. The rules exist within the ruler's mind and can change at the ruler's whim. There are no checks and balances in authoritarianism. The courts and the legislative branch are neutralized to be in lockstep with the leader, or they are eliminated altogether. The executive role does not adhere to boundaries and its power is constantly expanded until the leader becomes a dictator or an autocrat. Nationalism is another word we're hearing a lot lately, and I have found this definition from Ronald Tiersky of Amherst College to be helpful. Nationalism is patriotism transformed into a sentiment of superiority and aggression toward other countries. Nationalism is the poisonous idea that one's country is superior to someone else's. Nationalism is intrinsically a cause of war and imperialism. Then there's white Christian nationalism, which adds another couple of layers to all this. White Christian nationalism is the idea that this country, our country, was created by and exists to benefit a certain class of white Christians who not only believe themselves superior, but also believe that God finds them superior. They're the supreme group in a supreme country with all the disregard and danger that comes with such attitudes. Another term that's in the news is fascism. And fascism is authoritarian nationalism. Under fascism you have an autocrat who believes in the cultural superiority and the political supremacy of the country he leads. You'll notice I'm using he because it's a he usually, right? And he believes in the use of his concentrated power and in unlimited violence, unlimited violence to uphold the country's supremacy and to uphold its purity against perceived internal and external threats. In 1930s Germany, the made up internal threat was the Jewish community. Right now in our own country, trans folk are the made up threat of choice. It is no accident that the percentage of Jews in Germany in 1933 and the percentage of trans identified adults in the US right now is identical, nearly identical. The strategy of demonizing a tiny, often misunderstood minority and using religion to do so is another tactic right out of the authoritarian playbook. Tyrants always punch down for political gain. One more term to add to the pile of long words and phrases, authoritarian capitalism. I mentioned this because for a long time there seemed to be an American belief that the arrival of capitalism in a nation would lead to more democratic societies. As it turns out, many Western based corporations love authoritarian countries like China with its huge, extremely unfree workforce who work at low cost. From slavery to sweatshops, captive labor is a tradition that some kinds of capitalism just can't quit. So history has generally not been kind to congregations and ministers and everyday people who have faced authoritarianism and fascism. First there tends to be complacency, then looking away, then desensitization and then voluntary or forced collaboration. All these things have tended to happen in reliable succession in countries that have gone authoritarian. But the present day United States has some advantages that may have made authoritarianism less of a slam dunk here. We have a diverse population. We don't have one dominant church. We have still independent struggling but still independent journalism. And we have strong civil institutions. So with autocratic and theocratic leaders taking brutal aim at these strengths every day, it's still important for each of us to remain vigilant. The rapid flow of news events can make us forget that a lot of what we are actually seeing isn't new. In the words of Adrian Marie Brown, the African American author and activist, things are not getting worse. They are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil. The underlying American values that are allowing current events to go on as they are going are the same values that have existed for a very long time. The storyline of domination, of the powerful taking what and who they want is a main storyline of how our country was founded, built and expanded. And that storyline continues to this day. So it's both painful and beneficial that things are getting uncovered. Americans with authoritarian tendencies have always been with us and are likely to always be with us. Globally and nationally, authoritarian citizens can be found across the political spectrum. Autocracy might seem to lean right as it has in recent years in Hungary and India and Brazil, but there are also left-leaning people who would welcome and have welcomed a dictator who thinks like they do. Maybe some of you've heard of this, but there's actually a simple test that can predict whether an individual is likely to favor authoritarianism. This test was developed in the early 1990s by a professor named Stanley Feldman. It's four short either or questions about parenting. Parenting, not politics, because researchers discovered that authoritarianism is actually more related to personality than to political preferences. I will read these and you can take the quiz yourself if you like, and then in coffee hour we can find out who's an authoritarian. Please tell me which one of the two choices you think is more important for a child. To have independence or to have respect for elders. To have obedience or self-reliance. To be considerate or to be well-behaved. To have curiosity or good manners. These simple questions have turned out to be remarkably good at predicting authoritarian tendencies, and they've been used in research ever since. The respondents who choose the more hierarchical rule-oriented answers, obedience over self-reliance, good manners over curiosity, these people are more likely to be authoritarian. And because parenting perspectives are passed down in families for generations starting at birth, you can see why this kind of thinking might be challenging to dislodge. And it might be immune to political arguments entirely. It's a primal way of knowing the world. An estimated 30 to 40% of Americans have authoritarian tendencies. And as is obvious from current events from small town school board meetings to the United States Supreme Court, the presence of those tendencies is going to be with us for a while. It's been a little daunting for me to realize that I expect to be keeping my eye on authoritarianism for the rest of my ministry and frankly the rest of my life. But I know that realization, that change for me is a sign of the privilege I have enjoyed prior to the events of the past several years. I will never forget the sentiment, the words of welcome if you will, that a black social media commentator who now goes by the handle absurdist words offered to white people late in 2016. I didn't find these words absurd at all. That feeling you have right now, amazement that the country could be so short-sighted that it could embrace hate so tightly, welcome. This despair, this dread you feel, the indignation, the bewilderment, the hurt, the powerlessness, the fear for family and livelihood, welcome. That knot in your stomach, the feeling of heartache, that uncertainty about your safety, the deep sense of fundamental injustice, welcome. He goes on to say, I do not say this to diminish what you feel today. What you feel is real and valid. I'm giving you the opportunity to truly empathize, for it is the lack of empathy that allowed America to shrug as the marginalized shouted warnings. I've read similar thoughts from other African Americans and from Native Americans. Welcome white folks to this messed up country that we've already been living in, this country that has felt to us like a dictatorship for quite some time. So there are plenty of people in America who have felt powerlessness, who have had to learn resilience and resistance, who have planted a garden in the backyard when it wasn't safe to sit on the front porch, who have had to acessously work for their freedom. What has been happening to America as a whole has always been happening to some of its people. American authoritarianism wasn't invented a few years ago. It was revealed anew. So what do we do with this chronic illness our country has? How do we deal with the flare ups and the uncertain outlook? How do we live lives of resistance? There may not be a cure for America's authoritarian streak, but there are tactics and strategies and resources and plenty of evidence of what works. One piece of advice I've already demonstrated is to listen to people of color. This is something that is happening across Unitarian Universalism by forming social justice partnerships in our local communities, by centering stories of the marginalized, and by following the leadership of our BIPOC members. Outside our UU movement, we can see around our country how people of color, often younger people of color, are making bold statements resisting the forces of authoritarianism. I think of the two Justins in Tennessee who became instantly famous this past spring, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. Both under 30, they helped to lead protests against the needless carnage of gun violence, and then they were expelled from their seats in the Tennessee legislature. As you probably know, they were propelled right back in office to keep fighting the tyranny of their gerrymandered one-party state. And shortly after on a Sunday morning, Mr. Pearson, the son of a pastor, was the featured speaker at the Church of the River, Memphis's main UU congregation, in a profoundly moving and raucous two-hour service that I recommend listening to on the internet. This was a great example of a more privileged church making space for and amplifying voices that are frequently marginalized. Good things happen when people unite across religions to resist tyranny. And an important message that's been underscored the past few months is that it's not too late. It is not too late to resist tyranny. It's not too late for the people of Tennessee to fight for laws that reflect their values. It's not too late to protect your local school board or library board from a white Christian nationalist agenda. This is when my mom's full-time job lately, by the way, saving my hometown from wackos. It's not too late to make Wisconsin a functioning democracy and a place where women have determination over their bodies. It is not too late. And there's a role for everyone. Some people may not think of themselves as activists, but being a citizen, being a human, comes with obligations to fellow humans and to the whole world. Your neutrality will not be appreciated. There are macro things you can do like participate in electoral campaigns that speak to your values or work as a poll worker or an election judge to keep the machinery of democracy moving. As frustrating and constraining as they can be, elections still have huge consequences as this state knows. You can also take part in protests, particularly well-organized tactical ones that are led by marginalized groups and have specific goals around turnout and visibility. Another option for resistance is what Adrienne Marie Brown describes as a small resistance. She writes this, when those with power are doing inhumane or anti-planet things, our choice is to be disruptive. Our choice is to be impolite and it's one of the ways we rage small resistance that can become mass resistance and large-scale cultural and political transformation. She says, we have learned this from ancestors in our lineages who helped expose and break massive systems like chattel slavery or Holocaust genocide. She says this, small resistance these days looks like turning people who are supporting and promoting racist, transphobic, and inhumane policies away from our door. It looks like stopping next to police cars that have pulled people over and watching or filming them until the person's stopped is allowed to leave. It looks like naming isms and phobias in real time and learning together. It looks like local and local direct actions at the homes of Congress people who make decisions that harm humans or the planet. In addition to Adrienne Marie Brown's advice, there are even smaller forms of resistance that involve only yourself, like being well-informed about current events and about the history of oppressions and authoritarianism. If you haven't already watched it, I highly recommend the Reverend Cecilia Kingman's Barry Street essay about fascism which was delivered last month at the beginning of this year's UU General Assembly. Just Google Cecilia and Fascism, you'll probably find it. Another important form of resistance is to make sure that you do not accept the normalization of anything that diminishes human flourishing such as mass shootings or laws against trans people or laws against women. Followers of the authoritarian playbook love this kind of normalization. They want you to feel confused, bombarded, and hopeless that things just have to be this way. It's actually a strategy they employ, wearing people out. Your internal resistance is important so they don't succeed. And your resistance relies on your resilience and your resilience relies on rest. So be sure to take breaks from the news and from the work of justice. This can be hard for some people to do given the scope of the challenges. And it can be especially hard to do if you like to help with campaigns here in Wisconsin where you all seem to have a new election cycle every 10 minutes. So take the advice of Trisha Hersey, the self-appointed nap bishop who literally wrote a book on this topic called Rest is Resistance, a manifesto. Saying no and holding boundaries is important, she says, adding to me, that's justice, that's liberation, that is freedom. So budget your time and energy for the long haul. Before I close, I wanna talk a bit about hope because when we're talking about the long haul work of resisting tyranny, it can be helpful to remember the work of Joanna Macy who wrote a book that some of you may have read called Active Hope. She defines hope not as something you feel but as something you do. Active Hope is a practice, she writes, like Tai Chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. She advises us to de-center our feelings and center our intent. Since Active Hope doesn't require our optimism, she says, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless. The guiding impetus is intention. We choose what we aim to bring about, act for or express. Rather than weighing our chances and proceeding only when we feel hopeful, we focus on our intention and let it be our guide. So as we continue our work to resist authoritarianism for the good of our country and everyone in it, may our intentions be our guide. May love be our guide. May we stay at each other's sides, take care of the vulnerable and listen to the wisdom that is all around us. Together, forward is the way. May it be so and amen. We gather each week carrying with us the joys, the losses, the celebrations and the sorrows of our days. We bring them here knowing they are held in love and in support. We light a candle of joy and celebration for Janet Swanson and Rob Gerke on the birth of their granddaughter, Madeline Elizabeth Nordenberg, born June 23rd to parents Peter and Lindsay. Welcome to the world, Maddie. We're so glad you are here. And we light a candle of continued healing and gratitude for Pat Egan, who is home from rehab. We're thrilled to hear that news, thrilled to have Pat here with us this morning and we continue to send our love and support to Pat and Lloyd. We light a candle of ongoing care and prayers for healing for Andy Combs, brother-in-law of Mary Kessler. We send our love and strength to Mary, her sister Cindy and to Andy as he continues to recover from multiple brain surgeries. And we light a candle to mourn the violence in our world, here in our own nation and around the globe. We know there are never enough candles to symbolize the pain, hold the anger and cradle the tears. May this light fuel our passion for change and our hunger for justice. And I invite you now to join me in a moment of prayer and meditation with these words from Edward Atkinson. In this time of quiet, may we find a stillness. May we seek to know more deeply what it means to love one another. We know so well our own needs. We know that we ourselves need understanding, affection, recognition. Why is it then that so often we hesitate to extend these precious gifts to another? The cost of a kind word is small. The moment that it takes to listen could hardly be better used. A gesture of forgiveness can mark a new beginning. An embrace or a word of appreciation can convey crucial encouragement and comfort. And yet so often we fail to live by the sacred command that we should love one another. Oh, spirit of life and of love. Strengthen our faith. Increase our resolve to give more generously of ourselves. We pray for the courage to take the risk of love. We pray for the insight to see ourselves and others in perspective. We pray for humility and understanding that we may always stand ready to forgive and begin anew. Blessed be and amen. Spirit to sing together our closing hymn and the great hymn number 151, excuse me, 159. This is my song. Water's dry souls, men's broken hearts, refuses to be terrorized, seeks this world's beauty and carries us through its storms. Blessed be, go in peace and please be seated for the postlude.