 Twice during my 25-year ministry in Appleton, I did a sermon titled What I Would Say If I Was Leaving. So it dawned on me 15 years in that I had not experienced the freedom a departing minister has to cut loose and tell it like it is. I pride myself on being transparent, but still the mindset of I'm outta here can unleash the imagination and loosen the tongue in wonderful ways. So 15 years in, I began the sermon with the news that was indisputably true, I was leaving. I was going to resign, retire, be fired, or die in office. One of those four things was gonna happen, no exceptions. We just didn't know when or what the reason for my leaving would be. So I said that, and then I shared a few things that had been on my mind for a while. 10 years later, I used the same title to share some more blunt thoughts. This time, I did have a date of departure and a reason for leaving, thankfully, resignation. Well, no wonder I was drawn to enter a ministry for this final chapter of my career. This is a ministry where I am prefired, where the date of my departure, likely anyway, is known from the beginning. So when I ventured into your lives in August, we all knew that I would be leaving this coming July. You knew from the moment I was here, and I knew, this is how it'd be. So I have been untethered. My imagination has been untethered from any anxiety about my longevity here. And I have to say, I'm loving this. So in this spirit, I wanna share several observations about First Unitarian Society. And I should note that today is actually the end, this very day, of my first six months. So halfway through, I've not been here very long. And oh yeah, there's a pandemic, so I've probably met less than 10 of you in person. So take what I'm gonna say with maybe a little bit of grain of salt, but also I hope, take it seriously. My first observation, and this is the foundation observation, is that this congregation is built on layers upon layers of legacy, rich legacy. The first strand that comes to mind for me are the strong and packed full sturdy ministries of these past 70 plus years. Kenneth Patton, Max Gabler, Carol Taylor, Michael Shuler, Ruth Gibson, Marianne Macklin, Scott Prinster, Karen Gustafson, and of course my beloved colleague, Kelly Crocker. I'm so lucky to actually have known all those, but Ken Patton, the long term senior ministries, especially of Max and Michael, jump out as a real deep legacy of riches. There's also of course, the legacy of lay leaders who have been so, so wonderful, a devoted and skillful staff, dedicated members and affiliates who have given so much of their time and their treasure to FUS. I honor the gift of these thousands of people, including you. FUS is what it is today because of you. Every minister knows this. This place would be nothing if it was just the ministers. You are what makes this place work. And there is also of course the rich legacy of the building. Clearly, the dedication of the landmark building 70 years ago this coming Thursday was a turning point, a point that changed everything. From that point on, the congregation has had the blessing of an aesthetically beautiful and breathtaking building and the curse of maintaining it and working around the impractical aspects and the idiosyncrasies of the architect. Recognizing that the congregation had outgrown the landmark building and constructing a really amazing new addition and new worship space included is also a remarkable accomplishment and a lasting legacy. The treasure of legacy runs very deep here. A second observation about FUS is that another source of vitality for congregations, a sense of mission, is the need of renewal and reimagining. The stated mission of FUS was adopted 18 years ago. A lot of you were part of the place then but you have changed. A whole bunch of new people have joined since then and the context of Madison and the world has changed. Creating a new mission statement is generally not productive work for interim ministry and it's about killed me not to dive into that and I bet the same's true with my predecessor, Doug Watkins. I hope that you will do this work early in your settled ministry. I hope you dive into this work with the kind of imagination exemplified by the artist and the message for all ages. Use the material at hand, the rich legacy of this congregation to build something new and amazing and innovative. Let me add an important parenthetical note here. Reverend Kelly and the new minister and the board may decide that something else is more pressing than mission work right out of the gate this fall. If so, know that from afar I will support that decision 100% so please don't throw the observation I made just now about doing the mission early into their faces if they decide not to. I don't believe in curses or in haunting people but if I could and you ever say, well, Roger said, I would like to haunt you. Whenever this mission work happens the re-imagining of it will give FUS focus for the coming years. When there is not a compelling timely mission then it's very difficult to figure out what the priorities are and to zero in on them. This can be especially problematic in a large congregation where things can start spinning out of orbit. So we've practiced this year with a placeholder mission updating a vision for ministry statement from a few years ago and three strategic priorities. Ministry during the pandemic, centering anti-racism, anti-oppression work and supporting the ministerial search and transition. This has given focus and coherence to the board, the staff, the ministry teams and it's a small direction in the way that I think this congregation will go in these next few years. My third observation is there is continued internals work to do at FUS. FUS will not magically become a more thoroughly anti-racist, anti-oppressive presence in Madison or more multicultural without continuing this hard work. Overwhelmingly white UU congregations generally love to dream about becoming more multicultural as if the dream itself will make it happen. What actually makes it happen is white folks like me doing the hard internal work of examining our privilege, dismantling white supremacy culture and becoming more inter-culturally competent. And there are some great ways to get involved in this internal work right now at FUS. There's the racial justice learning circle that meets every other month. There's the, or every month actually, there's next week's Transforming Hearts workshop that focuses on trans inclusion. And next month an FUS group will be participating in Nehemiah's Just Anger program and there's still spots in that group. Keep this work up. Don't get sidetracked by fake fights and zero-sum games that simply are a diversion from this work that needs to be done. This work is urgent and it's also a marathon. There's another piece of internal work that we're planning to do in these next several months and that is to create a behavioral covenant. A behavioral covenant is a written articulation of how members of the congregation aspire to interact with one another. A behavioral covenant can help the congregation be intentional about articulating and embracing healthy interpersonal practices. For example, communicating directly with a person if you have an issue with them. It's important to note that FUS has a covenant called the Bond of Union that goes back to the beginning of the congregation in 1879. I don't envision a behavioral covenant replacing the Bond of Union. Instead, a behavioral covenant more zeros in on concrete behaviors and really is built on the platform of that sturdy, long-lasting Bond of Union. So stay tuned for information on this behavioral covenant process. There will be ample opportunities for members of the congregation to get involved and I hope that there'll be a final draft for the congregation to vote on in the parish meeting in June. This is one way that we can more consistently make this a house of peace from the words from the first hymn. Not a house of agreement, not a house of like-mindedness. In fact, actually this kind of work, this behavioral covenant will help us embrace all the diversity of people and ideas present at FUS. And let me say one more thing related to this internal work. It's hard to know for sure because I've been here but a short time and there is a pandemic. But I have a sense that a fair number of people here may express dismay with decisions at FUS by cutting financial support and or stepping back from involvement. Of course, everyone should give and be involved to the extent that feels right to them. But it's unhealthy in a congregation to use money or involvement as a cudgel to get your way. I like it when congregants feel unconditional love for their congregation. Even when things don't go their way, they have such an abiding love that they continue to give their money and their time as generously as they possibly can. If you've been withholding support from FUS this year and in these past several years, I hope that you'll jump in. I hope you'll jump back in and I hope you'll be all in. FUS really needs you for this next chapter that's about to dawn. My next observation is that for the 30 years plus years that I've known FUS, I've always been impressed with the remarkably dedicated and talented staff you have. And this year has been such a joy to get to work with these fine folks. And there is a shadow side to having a talented, dedicated staff. Their presence makes it a little less compelling to volunteer. It's easy to fall into the mindset of, the staff can do this, so I don't have to. More and more stuff then gets heaped on the staff and the absence of a fresh, compelling mission compounds the staff, don't have a way of saying, hey, that's off mission, great idea, but off mission. A byproduct of all this is staff burnout and the development of a consumerist mentality among congregants. The reality here is that declining revenue has significantly shrunk the staff over the past six to eight years. This creates an opportunity for members. Simply put, FUS needs more volunteers. This is difficult given that I know people feel really stretched in their lives, but I believe that even super busy people can sometimes make space for meaningful volunteer activities. The key is to match people's passions with the needs of FUS. And a second key is to develop a robust leadership development program that puts primacy, a primacy on training folks, not typically in the leadership here, young adults and people of color, for example. And a final observation, FUS continues moving forward in its gradual decades-long evolution toward being a more theologically diverse and inclusive congregation. As I said earlier this month, digging deeply into our theologies and embracing the differences among us is of paramount importance. In the words of the closing hymn, we'll sing shortly. We do that work as we drift along together our ship's companions here at FUS, joining in that work, casting our questions into the deep and sharing what we get back with one another. This is sacred holy work at the core of this congregation. My guess and my hope is that the settled minister that you call this spring will have a theology that's different from Kelly or Michael or Doug or me. I hope you allow your new minister to have a theological viewpoint and theological language different from your own without feeling like that somehow devalues your own beliefs. It does not. It's okay if your new minister is most at home in your winter solstice service or the more traditional Christmas Eve, Vespers communion service or Diwali or a humanist holiday. It's all okay. There is space for all of you here in this inclusive congregation, including your new minister. Rest easy in that knowledge. Because of its rich legacy and many other strengths, FUS has been is and will continue to be a flagship congregation in our Unitarian Universalist movement. As remarkable as your history has been and in spite of considerable headwinds going against religion these days, I really believe that FUS's best chapter lies ahead over these next six months. May we together continue to sow seeds that will help this next chapter of FUS which dawns this summer and fall bloom with an abundance of energy, imagination, beauty and promise.