 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 Karen Bringelson, and on behalf of the congregation, I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We are a welcoming congregation, so wherever you are on your journeys, we celebrate your presence among us. I have a special announcement to let you know we are missing a purple purse that is rectangular, and if you find it, please give it to Gail in the choir. As we gather in this place and in this time, let us remember we are all visitors in this life. We come together to find meaning and hope with all the other visitors. Let us join our hearts and minds together as we celebrate life. In preparation for our service, please silence your cell phones if you haven't already. I now invite you into a time of silence for contemplation, meditation, and prayer as we settle in and come fully into this time and place together. Good morning. We're going to sing together hymn number 188, which as you will see is to be sung as around. So we will sing it twice through all together in unison, and then we will break into parts. If you are near or in front of Reverend Kelly, she will be leading part one. If you are somewhere in the middle, Karen will be leading part two, and over here, part three with Reverend Doug, and we're not doing the fourth part. You are welcome to sing whatever part you would like, of course, but you will be judged. No. Let us rise in body and spirit. Together again, please. Yes, indeed. Temple by Steve Garnas Holmes. Tourists come to admire the temple to take pictures and buy mementos, but it's not on their maps. Pilgrims come seeking their separate piece in it, but they can't find it. Eventually, the army arrives, ordered to destroy the temple, but it has vanished. It isn't here or there. It isn't in a place. It isn't a thing. It is empty space. It is the love between us. It is not something that is, but something that happens, like gravity that exists only between objects in space. The dwelling place of God exists only in the love we hold between us. It is eternal when we enter the holy space among us, which God creates. We enter God and nothing can remove us in the cool of the sanctuary. We listen to the music and we breathe. I invite you to read the chalice lighting words in your order of service. As together we say, today we return to the shelter of each other, to arms that hold us in the midst of the storms, to voices that remind us of our own, to hearts that accept us for who we are. May we be for each other a source of safety and sending. May we offer each other both comfort and challenge. May this place of peace lead us to share peace with others. Please join and greet your neighbor. Good morning. Good to meet you, Cheyenne. I'm glad you're here today. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Be seated. Today we continue our service with a precious moment in any congregation's life, the right of dedication. This is a time when we who are gathered here have the privilege to welcome young children into our family and religious community. Today it is our cherished assignment to welcome and pledge our care to Lucy Ila Granky, Eleanor Lynn Mussered Varga, Reese Paul Sheeter, and Roland Kacelius Berg. I've been practicing. Today all of us gathered here are more than casual witnesses to life's gifts and nature's marvelous creations. We are all being invited to share the joy which these parents take in their child and to enter more fully into their lives. We continued with this ritual time and again because children are our present delight. By them we are reminded of life's small joys and wisdoms. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote that in a house which becomes a home, one hands down and another takes up the heritage of mind and heart, laughter and tears, musings and deeds. Love like a carefully loaded ship crosses the gulf between the generations. We come here today with our ship carefully loaded with the gifts that Lucy Eleanor Reese and Roland truly need. Ears to listen, arms to embrace, a world of experience to encourage their inquiring minds. We are blessed by their presence among us and pray that our lives will be a blessing to them. I invite the congregation to rise in the ways that we do and find the pledge of dedication in your order of service that we may join our voices together. And if our parents will come forward with their children. And together we say for the gift of childhood whose innocence, laughter and curiosity bring hope, joy and new understanding into our lives. We lift thankful hearts. We welcome Lucy and Roland into this spiritual community and extend to their parents our love and support in the joys and challenges of caregiving. As these children grow, we share with them our insights, our values and our dreams that they may enjoy the rich benefit of our religious heritage. Thank you. Will the adults be seated and our children stay standing? Today we welcome Lucy Eleanor and Roland into our first Unitarian family. Soon they'll be a part of our classes here. They'll be growing and playing with you and learning from you too. I ask you to join us in welcoming them. Will you try to be true friends to them, speaking to them with kindness, treating them fairly and helping them to feel at home here? If so, please say we will. Thank you. You can be seated. Good. And now to those who stand with their child before us, Kimberly and Michael Granke, Eleni and Franz Mussered Varga. It's Eleni and Franz. I didn't practice their names. Joe and Bresha Berg, I got it. As caregivers, it is your privilege and obligation to provide an environment both of security and challenge in which this young soul who you bring before us today will grow. Do you commit yourselves to promote their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being? Will you respect as well as protect this child bestowing your love as a free and unmerited gift? Do you also reaffirm your commitment to one another as partners in life and in parenting? If so, please say we do. There are several with us who bear a special relationship to one of these children. If you'll please stand as your names are read. With Lucy are her older sister Clara, grandparents Rick and Kathy and Randy and Kim, great grandma Barb and Kenny, great grandma Marilyn, Aunt Kristin and great uncle Randy. All right. With Eleanor is her guide parent Kelly Joe Mussered, uncles Hans and Matt, grandfathers Mark and EJ, grandmother Karen, great grandmother Eleanor and family friends Katie and Louise. All right. And with Roland are older sister Grace, hi Grace, grandparents Mark and Cindy, Randy and Lori, great grandma Marcia, sponsors David Lemon and John Lemon, uncles and aunts Dave, Amy, Kristin and Rigo, cousins Evelyn, Aiden and Ethan, friends Tommy, Mike and Loretta. Think I got them all. Did I get them all? Okay. To all of you, I now ask, do you take upon yourselves the privilege and responsibility to nurture, defend and support the inherent worth and dignity of this child to whom you bear a special relationship? Will you encourage them to grow in freedom and spirit and to always seek the truth? Will you help them to grow in love for the larger human family, to love and respect the larger community of life to which we all belong? If so, please make this sacred promise by saying we will. Thank you. Please be seated. In the act of dedication, we use the symbolism of water as a sign of our common heritage. There's no suggestion here of a washing away of inherited sin. These children came into the world with the limitations natural to our species, but they arrived innocent. Water here stands for vitality. It is the essence of life, the foundation of being. Its use here reminds us of our common bond with all embracing ever sustaining nature. It's also the water of our community, the waters of the world gathered at our annual water communion service. This water was a gift of the earth brought to us in joy for the sake of memory and community. Its use here reminds us of the ever-sustaining and embracing love of this community. Name this child, Rowland Casselius Berg. We dedicate you in the name of truth, the promise of love, and the fellowship of this society. May you be granted clarity of thought, integrity of speech, and a compassionate heart. Name this child, Lucy Isla-Grenke. We dedicate you in the name of truth, the promise of love, and the fellowship of this society. May you be granted clarity of thought, integrity of speech, and a compassionate heart. And name this child, Eleanor Lynn Massarad Varga. Eleanor Lynn Massarad Varga. Okay, oh my goodness. We dedicate you in the name of truth, the promise of love, and the fellowship of this society. May you be granted clarity of thought, integrity of speech, and a compassionate heart. But we have other gifts to share as well. As a token of our dedication, we give each child a rosebud, fragrant symbol of beauty, promise, and love. This rose has no thorns, symbolizing the better world we would give our children if it were in our power. We know that the world is not altogether as lovely as these rosebud, but we hope that these children will learn to recognize the beauty and goodness which does exist, and that they will grow in wisdom and compassion, adding their own beauty to the world. Lucy Eleanor Rowland, as this flower unfolds in all its natural beauty, so may your life unfold. And also, as a remembrance of their dedication, we give each child a blanket, a gift from the members of our shawl ministry program. When you see this blanket, may you be reminded of the warmth, the support, the love of this community for your child, and for your family. And so today we dedicate these children, may we also dedicate ourselves this day. As we contemplate the miracle of new life, as we renew our hearts with a sense of wonder and joy, may we be stirred to a fresh awareness of the sacredness of life and the divine promise of childhood. May we pledge to build a community in which our children will grow surrounded by beauty, embraced by love, and cradled in the arms of peace. May we pass on the light of compassion and courage, and may that light burn brightly within us all. I invite us to rise in body and spirit and sing our hymn as our children and religious educators head off to their classes and our families return to their seats number 338. I seek the spirit of a child, the child who meets life naturally, the child who sings the world alive and greets the morning sun with glee. Children are real beyond all. Joy is a gift to our heart. I seek the free, a child who loves instinctive and shines that light on all we see. Children hopes a gift to our tea. I seek the one, a child who sees delightfully. Now clouds in cloud, now gold in sun. Imagination's true if to our... You may be seated. So for the last month or so we have been trying a pattern as we introduce a new theme of beginning that theme with a service that offers a collage of perspectives, takes on that theme. Each of the readings that we offer have been chosen because the worship team members find that reading has some resonance for them and we offer our own take on the concept of sanctuary. And implied in that is an on ramp, a place of connection for all of you. That what you bring to this theme and you're thinking about it is essential. And so as we explore this time, I invite you to find your own places of resonance. And we begin our contemplation of sanctuary with a reading by Kathleen McKeague. This place is sanctuary. You who are brokenhearted, who woke today with winds of despair whistling through your mind, come in. You who are brave but wounded, limping through life and hurting with every step, come in. You who are fearful, who live with shadows hovering over your shoulders, come in. This place is sanctuary. And it is for you. You who are filled with happiness, whose abundance overflows, come in. You who walk through your world with lightness and grace, who awoke this morning with strength and hope, you who have everything to give, come in. This place is your calling, a river bank to channel the sweet waters of your life, the place where you have been called by the world's need. Here we offer in love. Here we receive in gratitude. Here we make a circle for the great gifts of breath, attention and purpose. Come in. Many of you heard a couple of weeks ago me sharing the experience of walking into a congregation many years ago as a young person and experiencing for the first time a profound sense of welcome and feeling like I was welcomed in some meaningful way as I was. Now, they didn't know the full extent of who I was any more than I did at that point, but together we continue to grow and to deepen into what that welcome means. And I had the opportunity over that long period of time with that congregation to see all of the different layers of what it means to be a welcoming community. I was shown the example by the elders in that gathering week after week. I saw how they came every Sunday with the understanding that the only way to maintain a place of welcome is to renew our dedication to offering that welcome again and again. And so I would see them come in Sunday after Sunday and some weeks some people were too tired to do it and other people stepped forward and each of them took their turn in looking for people who needed that extra attention. But over time I also realized that there was more to welcome even than that. I began to realize that many of those elders when I would see them out in the community how they offered a particular sort of openness and care wherever they were, how they gave to the world an ongoing example of what it means to be a place of welcome. Reminding me that sanctuary is not a walled off place that you hold within a single space but something that you carry out into the world again and again. I learned from their example and I found ways as I deepen my own faith to try to emulate their wisdom. I made myself as an incredibly shy kid go out of my way to say hello to people and realize that as someone who was naturally shy I was the perfect person to go up and authentically welcome someone else who felt absolutely out of place. I realized as I went into adolescence that I could take my sense of welcome into the world by working for justice and in college I found that sense of sanctuary taking on a very literal meaning as I worked with Catholic nuns in Texas in the 1980s version of the sanctuary movement. The thing is the word sanctuary asks us to explore some of the most powerful concepts of what it means to be a place of deeper faith, what it means to let ourselves be open to the power of sincere welcome again and again and the recognition of our own humanity and then from that place of deeper understanding to offer our own sense of welcome to maintain a space that has holy intent in answering the questions asked by what it means to be a people of sanctuary we come to terms and explore the very core issues of what it means to be a congregation the very word itself is derived from the latin sanctuary which like most words ending in arium means a containers something that keeps something within it and in this case the sanctus is a very open and powerful word it can be everything from a person to a place to an idea it can be a sense of something that separates but it also maybe understood as something that welcomes and opens it asks us to think about what we consider to be essential and holy and that is no easy thing for unitarian universalists to talk about the area around the altar in ancient times was called the sanctuary and the terminology transcends Christianity in King Solomon's temple for instance around 950 before the common era there was a sanctuary that was understood to be the place where the holy of holies the ark of the covenant was kept and in Greek temples there was a particular place within the temple that was understood to be the place where the gods had the most focused power and that was understood as their sanctuary and it went on even beyond concepts of what happened within the temple itself but the power of that space between the 12th and the 16th century at least in medieval England it was part of legal procedures both in canon law the law of the church and secular common law that it was a place of refuge for those accused of crimes often being chased by mobs seeking retribution before there was due diligence and just process fugitives who crossed the threshold into the churchyard had to be kept safe and fed for up to 40 days giving them a chance to plead their case in a time when they could have had their lives taken by the passion of being sure that they were guilty it gave the community a chance to breathe and think and listen and it was not an easy deal for the person in sanctuary either at the end of 40 days if they were not acquitted if you will then they had to confess their crimes give up everything they owned and travel barefoot to the nearest port to go away and live in exile for the rest of their lives thank goodness we have a little more graceful understanding of those ideas now such sanctuary even in those days practiced however saving life and it provided time for negotiation and allowed people to go into exile rather than to stand trial for something that they did not do but more than that in the part that endures most powerfully now was of symbolic value in providing that bare bone safety medieval sanctuary marked people's vulnerability and made protecting that vulnerability and them a sacred duty sanctuary then asks us not to think about polarities but about an ongoing continuum between the needs of an individual for inner peace for deep clarity for radical acceptance and love and the cyclical necessity in a community of deeper clarity and that any real compassion or justice or love must be carefully considered and renewed again and again in this week alone when in our nation we have seen how we still are telling people that their truths do not matter and will not be believed we must stand as a voice that says that is not our new normal as a nation we are asked to provide a sense of greater truth sanctuary asks us to think about the deeper truths of hospital hospitality to understand what it means to find a place for people to be inspired to act and to create partnerships so they do not feel alone this month as we explore how we create and recreate sacred space may we each think about what it means to be a people of sanctuary i asked karen if she wouldn't mind if we switched because what i'm going to be speaking about is in direct relationship with the anthem that we will sing directly after this this poem it's oh black and unknown bards by james welden johnson one of the most impressive african-american historical figures and i encourage you to look him up and learn more about his life and accomplishments oh black and unknown bards of long ago how came your lips to touch the sacred fire how in your darkness did you come to know the power and beauty of the minstrel's lyre who first from midst his bonds lifted his eyes who first from out the still watch lone and long feeling the ancient faith of prophet's rise within his dark kept soul burst into song heart of what slave poured out such melody as steal away to jesus on its strains his spirit must have nightly floated free though still about his hands he felt his chains who heard great jerd and roll whose starward eye saw chariot swing low and who was he that breathed that comforting melodic sigh nobody knows the trouble i see what merely living clod what captive captive thing could up toward god through all its darkness grope and find within its deadened heart to sing these songs of sorrow love and faith and hope how did it catch that subtle undertone that note in music heard not with the ears how sound the elusive reed so seldom blown which stirs the soul or melts the heart to tears the slave spiritual is one of america's greatest folk art forms but we must be honest about how it came to be they were not called spirituals by those who first sang them rather sorrow songs and they served a different function for them than they could ever serve for anyone who sang them after that although certainly some did take on a new meaning during the civil rights movement the original meaning was far beneath the words that were being sung there were hidden messages and spirituals communications and sometimes just downright belligerence to be able to stare your owner in the face and sing go down moses way down to egypt land tell ol ferro let my people go must have felt like the most liberating thing a person in that situation could do music song became a sort of sanctuary they had little else to protect them them almost nothing in fact they needed a sanctuary of some kind they chose song and they chose wisely it was a survival mechanism and we must continue to sing them but we must sing them for the right reason it cannot be an entertainment piece it cannot be for the text because it wasn't for them and if we do it for the wrong reasons we are appropriating and colonizing that musical genre but is there a way that we can sing those spirituals in a respectful way and in a way that allows us to understand there and our own history by exploring the role of song as protest the role of song as subversive communication and the role of song as sanctuary god's gonna set this world on fire one of these days and the crucible of justice where burned away are the impurities of society we must keep our focus on the long arc of justice we must remember the long view most of us are only thinking as far as november imagine being in a concentration camp or under the rule of apartheid or being an enslaved people the long view is all they had they clung to it and they cling to it still and so do we song is sanctuary when song is all you have you a reading from star hawk we are all longing to go home to some place we have never been a place half remembered and half envisioned we can only catch glimpses of it from time to time community somewhere there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us eyes will light up as we enter voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done arms to hold us when we falter a circle of healing a circle of friends some place where we can be free almost every august as our kid was growing up my wife bev and our daughter briana would pile into the car with every single piece of camping gear some years i would pile into we would drive for hours usually taking a ferry across lake michigan but other times driving around chicago to arrive in rural michigan for a music festival this is where we would experience the kind of community of which star hawk writes there was an intention at this festival one of collaboration cooperation and co-creation in addition to enjoying the musical concerts the dance performances and the comedy routines each festi goer was asked to work two four hour shifts during my orientation to the open-air kitchen i was instructed on the secret to cooking good tasting food the most important ingredient that you will put into the food today the staff person explained is love never cook with a bitter heart i know that such a community of love is possible in unitarian universalist spaces too i'm still new around here but i imagine community happens in our religious education classes where eyes light up when beloved friends enter the room i imagine community happens in ministry team gatherings where we speak with passion without having words catch in our throats i imagine community happens in spiritual practice groups where comfort is offered during those times when we falter i even imagine that community will happen in the upcoming journey circles where there will be circles of friends circles of healing come let us provide sanctuary with and for one another come knowing that this will require an intention of love and work that will be done will need to be done together but with our strength our strength joined together voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power and each of us will be free to be our whole and holy selves and our final reading from Naomi Shahib Nye when a stranger appears at your door feed him for three days before asking who he is where he's come from where he's headed that way he'll have strength enough to answer or by then you'll be such good friends you don't care let's go back to that rice pine nuts here take the red brocade pillow my child will serve water to your horse no i was not busy when you came i was not preparing to be busy that's the armor everyone put on to pretend they had a purpose in the world i refuse to be claimed your plate is waiting we will snip fresh mint into your tea Naomi she have nye gives voice through her poems to her experience as an arab american woman what she reminds us of in this poem is that in the Middle East hospitality is sacred offering welcome to a stranger is a sacred act this is no wonder given that the three great faith traditions that arose from the Middle East all teach the moral obligation to care for strangers who have come to your homeland Judaism proclaims you must treat the outsider as one of your native born people as a full citizen and you are to love them in the same way you love yourself in Christianity Jesus of Nazareth taught you shall be rewarded for when i was alone as a stranger homeless and excluded you did not turn away but welcomed me into your home and into your life and Islam urges its followers give to refugees give them asylum and give them aid how different these messages are from what we hear and see in the treatment of immigrants and refugees today how different these messages of worth and love and welcome here we proclaim ourselves to be a sanctuary congregation we have committed ourselves to being safe space to someone facing deportation i'd like to call on us this month to add to our definition of sanctuary so that we can become a sanctuary for the soul a sanctuary of healing and transformation a home for liberation for that radical force of hospitality and welcome it feels particularly powerful to me on a weekend when we dedicate our children and promise to them a better world a world of justice and peace in which to grow what i worry about for all our children is that this current world is one with winners and losers with those who belong and those who don't we do the opposite of what Naomi Shihab Nye suggests in the poem we ask questions first to find out if you're with us or against us and then we decide whether or not to offer you tea to listen to your story to try and understand now i don't know about you but as the mother of two young boys as i think and read and reflect on the damaging and dangerous messages of what it means to be a man i want to do this this life this all of it differently so when i awake at three a.m because the fear the worry the despair is too much in me i look at them and i think of you for many years now i have lived here among you and i see in your energy and commitment a powerful force for good in the world i see us working to change the rules i see us creating community guided by faith our unitarianism teaching us that we are all one that we win or lose together and our universalism teaching that love is infinite and unconditional there is enough for everyone the sanctuary we create here the sanctuary of the soul honors the worth of everyone teaches us to trust our conscience to pursue compassion to honor and care for this world we share in this sanctuary we teach our children and remind ourselves that it is okay to be different it is okay to cry to be vulnerable to ask for help to make mistakes to apologize to start again to stay in community when it is easy and beautiful and to stay in community when it is so very hard so may we commit ourselves to sustaining and growing our definition of sanctuary to becoming a haven for all to doing the work to make that vision a reality may we remember that when a stranger appears at our door to feed him for three days before asking who he is or where he's come from or where he's headed that way he'll have strength enough to answer or by then we'll be such good friends we won't care let's go back to that and i now invite you into the giving and receiving of today's offering our outreach recipient is the Illuminasi project you can find out more about them in your order of service or at the beautiful brightly lit table right across from the auditorium and we thank you for your generosity the interim time seeks a particular and intentional shared and transformative ministry this time and ministry are characterized by candor compassion and collaborative work to foster a healthy and dynamic future it is important that we covenant together our intentions for this interim time so i invite Dorit from our board of trustees to begin our covenanting words will all who are members and friends of this congregation rise in body or spirit to enter into mutual covenants with reverend doc douglas wadkins our interim minister in our free religious tradition these covenants symbolize an affirmation of shared trust Doug we would have you dwell among us speaking truth as you discern it in freedom and love we offer you a free pulpit and our goodwill as you take up your work among us i welcome you as a partner in ministry in this interim time at the threshold of our journey together to walk with us in the mutual search for greater understanding of our lives i welcome you as our partner in lifespan religious education as we affirm together the importance of our heritage our values and the full range of religious educational experiences and i invite the congregation to speak the congregation's response printed in your order of service insert we will use our hands and hearts our vision and voices to help and not to harm this beloved community through this time of transition i too will use my hands and heart my vision and voice to help and not to harm your beloved community through this time of transition we will share our portions of truth with you and we'll listen deeply to what you say that we may grow in understanding i too will share my portions of truth with you and we'll listen deeply to what you say that i may grow in understanding we will dare to disagree agreeably with you to dream what we may become and to venture down some untried paths as we make ready for calling a new minister to partner with us i will dare to speak hard truths to you as best as i can discern them to hold up a mirror so that you can see your past and present clearly and to make some empty space here for the new to enter in we know that the work of this congregation belongs to us all during our time together may we be a blessing to each other and together may we be a blessing to the world blessed be you may be seated before karen leads us karen leads us in the cares of the congregation i would like to remind you that we have a reception after the service today in honor and in joy of the fact that these three folks are with us so please join us in welcoming dug and drew and karen to our community by sticking around for the reception today we join together each week a community who gathers with joys and sorrows written on our hearts in this place we love and are loved we give and we receive in return we come together to find strength 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 this week our thoughts and prayers are with the family of norma denner who passed away last sunday a memorial service was held yesterday morning for her there is a joy in the family of lory newman her son was michael sinclair was married in a beautiful location in manatewish waters thanks to reverend kelly and there is also a joy to welcome back terry and susan malar who have been away in seattle for a long time for health reasons we also remember the joys and sorrows that are too tender to share that live in the fullness of our hearts some of those may include the anger and or deep hurt around the recent supreme court hearings may we seek each in our own way to respond as protectors of truth and voices of compassion and justice in this divisive and difficult time and you will see a statement in your red floors about that as well may we remember that we are part of a web of life that makes us one with all humanity one with all the universe may we be grateful for the miracle of life that we share and hope that gives us the power to care to remember and to love please join in song for our closing hymn number 131 love will guide us please rise in all the ways that we do peace has tried us hope inside us will lead the way love will guide through the heart now if you're carrying like angels if you can you can give you can change the world love will love heart and now may you find shelter and being seen for who you are may you find hope in this place may you dwell always in your goodness and may goodness and hope be your eternal home we extinguish this chalice but not the light of wisdom not the warmth of love and compassion not the fire of our commitment to our principles into justice those will remain in your life until you gather in this place again before we move forward into our reception may we hold this space of worship a little bit longer as together we receive the gift of the post