 Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to 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 Leslie Ross, and on behalf of the congregation, I would like to extend a special welcome to our many visitors here today. We are a welcoming congregation, so whoever you are, and wherever you are on your life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. Today is a very special worship service because it is our coming-of-age worship service. We are privileged to hear from an impressive group of youth who have spent the past eight months in our coming-of-age program. As many of you know, coming-of-age is the final class in our children's religious education program and is our rite of passage marking the transition from child to adolescent. The coming-of-age program offers experiences that help our youth to better understand who they are, who they hope to be, and what beliefs ground and guide them on their way. Their time has been richly spent with classroom experiences, time with their elders, and self-reflection. This I believe is an international program that engages people in writing and sharing essays that describe the core values that guide their daily lives. Our coming-of-age teens have heard and discussed many of these essays during the year. Then they set themselves down to write their own essays which they will bravely share with you today. Their words as well as their musical contributions to today's service are sure to inspire hope and awe. And now, let's welcome our coming-of-age team of teens, facilitators, and elders. Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself. They come through you, but not from you. And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love, but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies, but not their souls. For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. Please rise in all ways we do and join us in saying the chalice lighting affirmation found in your order of service. We'll be starting with the second one, the more traditional chalice lighting. Take courage, friends. The way is often hard. The path is never clear. And the stakes are very high. Take courage, for deep down there is another truth. You are not alone. And now, our second chalice lighting that the younger audience may recognize. We are Unitarian Universalists. This is the church of the open mind. This is the church of the loving heart. This is the church of the helping hands. Together, we care for our Earth and work for peace and friendship in our world. Please turn to your neighbor to exchange friendly greetings. Please join us in singing our opening hymn, number 346. Back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean and the song of the swammy swamps still rang out in peace. One morning I came to this glorious place. And I saw the trees, the truffula trees, the brightly colored tuffs of the truffula trees, mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze. And under the trees, I saw brown barbalutes frisking about in their barbalute suits as they play in the shade and ate truffle fruits. From the ripulous pond came the comfortable sounds of the humming fish humming while splashing around. But those trees, those trees, those truffula trees, all my life, I'd been searching for trees such as these. I felt a great leaping of joy in my heart. I knew just what I'd do. I unloaded my cart. In no time at all, I had built a small shop. Then I chopped down a truffula tree with one chop. And with great skillful skill and with great speedy speed, I took the soft tuff and knitted a thneed. The instant I'd finished, I heard a gazump. I looked. I saw something pop out of the stump of the tree I'd chopped down. It was sort of a man. Describe him. That's hard. I don't know if I can. Mr., he said, with a sawdusty sneeze, I am a Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs. He was very upset as he shouted and puffed. What's that thing you've made out of the truffula troughs? Look, Lorax, I said, there's no cause for alarm. I chopped just one tree. I'm doing no harm. I'm being quite useful. This thing is a thneed. A thneed's a fine something that all people need. The Lorax said, sir, you are crazy with greed. There is no one on earth who would buy that full thneed. But in no time at all, in the factory I built, the whole one-seller family was working full tilt. We were all knitting thneeds just as busy as bees to the sound of the chopping of truffula trees. Then, oh, baby, oh, how my business did grow. Now chopping one tree at a time was too slow. So I quickly invented my super axe hacker, which whacked off four truffula trees with one smacker. We were making thneeds four times as fast as before. And that Lorax, he didn't show up anymore. But the next week, he knocked on my new office door. He snapped, I'm the Lorax who speaks for the trees, which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please. But I'm also in charge of the brown barbalutes who played in the shade with their barbalute suits and happily lived eating truffula fruits. Now, thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, there's not enough truffula fruit to go round. And my poor barbalutes are all getting the crummies because they have gas and no food in their tummies. They loved living here, but I can't let them stay. They'll have to find food, and I hope that they may. Good luck, boys, he cried and he sent them away. I, the once-ler, felt sad as I watched them all go. But business is business and business must grow, regardless of crummies and tummies, you know? Then again, he came back. I was fixing some pipes. When that old nuisance Lorax came with more gripes, I'm the Lorax he coughed and he whiffed. He sneezed and he snuffed. He snarled, he sniffed. Once-ler, he cried with a cruffulous croak. Once-ler, you're making such smogulous smoke. My poor swami swams, why, they can't sing a note. No one can sing when they have smog in their throat. And so, said the Lorax, please pardon my cough. They cannot live here, so I'm sending them off. Where will they go? I don't hopefully know. They may have to fly for a month or a year to escape from the fog. Smog, you've smogged around here. And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack. From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall, the very last truffula tree of them all. No more trees, no more seeds, no more work to be done. So in no time, my uncles and aunts, everyone, all waved me goodbye. They jumped into my cars and drove away under the smog, smuggled snot, stars. The Lorax said nothing, just gave me a glance and gave me a very sad, sad backward glance. And he lifted himself by the seat of his pants. I'll never forget the grim look on his face when he histed himself and took leave of this place through a hole in the smog without leaving a trace. So you're in charge of the last one of the truffula seeds, the truffula trees that everyone needs. Plant a new truffula, treat it with care. Give it clean water and feed it fresh air. Grow a forest, protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back. Thank you for listening. You can now leave to go to your classes. I believe in being a global citizen, a person invested in the politics of their community and country, but also the politics of people worldwide. I think that understanding and combating international injustices, which might not affect me directly, but affect the world as a whole, should be a primary goal for every human. I believe saying you aren't a political person shows privilege and ignorance because it means you believe that the politics of today don't affect you personally. Let me be the sign to tell you that, in fact, the people of your community are affected by the politics of today, and so are you. As a human, I believe that I have an innate responsibility to care for the people who don't get to choose whether or not they are involved with politics. I believe in caring. I believe the betterment of humanity is worth the time and effort. My generation cannot be passive because too much action is needed for the adults of tomorrow to sit back and wallow in fear of the problems that we have been handed. I think that any form of diversity within a community or society should be not just respected, but valued because the diversity of ideas is crucial if we are going to provoke change within society. Successful solutions will not be created by an ignorant elite group. They will be created by the children of today. Those who are curious about problems that affect their world and are willing to combat them with creativity and a loving soul. With this mindset, I have no choice but to believe in the power of helping. I also believe in doing what makes you happy because seeing happiness in the eyes of people you care about is one of the best feelings anyone can have. It inspires you to do more good in the world. I can only hope my generation will be one that spreads happiness like wildfire and that we do what we can to let everyone experience the true joy of living. I believe this joy gives people a reason to live, a reason to learn, and a reason to improve themselves and the community around them. Smiles do not need to be translated. Smiles are global. Because of this, I believe in the spread of happiness worldwide. I warn you, because I also believe that being happy all the time isn't worth your effort. People that are happy with the world around them will never see the problems, which results in ignorance and incompetence. Being a global citizen means you need to be frustrated with the world, but carry your self-worth and well-being above the mistakes that you or other people have made. My goal is to spark joy in people that want to change the way our world works. This means being aware of problems, but being open-minded and positive when thinking about possible solutions. I believe in being inspired, but also in inspiring. I am not set in these beliefs, but I do hope that they will inspire the next part of my life. I am on a journey which I have only just begun, and staying still in that journey is not worth my time. So most importantly, I believe in change. Slowly, as people are struggling, I have tears to tear in my crisis. If someone wants to speak into you, it turns out I don't like to speak when we're all against the very things that happened in the first place. They disagree with many words on China's constitution and the very foundation of a free country. We must fight if they don't feel that the freedom is there. We must fight if we want to ensure freedom for generations to come. I believe in freedom. So, oh, it's feeding back. Okay, is it okay? Okay. I would like to start my belief statement by asking everyone to close their eyes. Now, picture an apple in your mind. Is your apple red or is it green? Is the apple pink? Is it yellow? Maybe it's multiple colors like a honeycress or a courtland. Can you turn the apple in your head? 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 360 degrees. Is your apple just floating in space or is it in a bowl with other fruit? If it is in a bowl with other fruit, what other fruit is there? Or maybe it's not in a bowl and it's in your hand or someone else's hand. Now, I'd like you to open your eyes and raise your hand if you could see your apple in your head. Okay, you can put your hands down and now rate the clearness of your apple using your hands from zero to 10. And if you didn't raise your hand and you can't rate your clearness, I'm sorry if my belief statement is about to scar you for life. I don't hold me accountable. But now as a creative person, you might think that I'd be around like seven to, that's eight, seven to 10 or at least in the upper half. I wish I could be a 10. I'd take an eight. I'd even take a one because I don't see anything. My mind is blank and I'm at zero. Earlier in the year around mid to late October while I was in Florida, I watched a video titled, I have a fantasia and you may too, without realizing it. A fantasia is the inability to form mental images of objects that are not present. The realization that my completely blank mind was not normal was or shattering. I always thought, well, no one can actually see their own personal beach in that guided meditation or daydreaming is just a figure of speech or going to your happy place just means feeling warm and happy inside. But I found out through this YouTube video that I had something wrong with my brain and that left me feeling empty and isolated like I was missing out on something huge. And suddenly I came to the realization that if I had lost a loved one that I didn't have any pictures of, I could never see them again. So I started obsessively taking pictures of everything and everyone that was important to me in my life. And then I lost my phone in a snow bank and all of the precious pictures I had taken. Yet even if I hadn't lost them, I would still have that feeling of emptiness inside of me. I believe in the power of sight because as soon as an object is out of my field of vision I can't see it anymore. And I think that some people who can take it for granted sometimes. I can't see that apple from before. I can't see settings or characters of books in my mind. I can't plan out school or art projects in my head. I cannot count sheep to fall asleep. I can't do mental math in my head and I can no longer see my great-grandmother. The absence of my mind's eye has shaped my life because even though I cannot do any of those things I have come to realize that I can still be happy and live life through myself instead of through a camera. And I need to remember that more often. Thank you. My name is Molly and this is my belief statement. I love writing so much. I mean, I was smiling when I wrote this at home and I guess you could say it's my thing. However, this belief statement was kind of brutal to write. I've written probably a book's worth of nonsense at this point but all of that nonsense made its way back to two important ideas, hope and the world. Parts of the world are not doing so good as a result of climate change and habitat destruction. We, the whole entire world, have the next decade and a year to change that. The next 11 years matter a tremendous amount and that scares me. It's a nice motivational scare, though. It keeps me productive. People live for about a day in comparison to the life of the universe. Looking back on my life thus far, sure, there are things I'd like to change but it reminds me what should I do and how should I live my universe today? This question humbles me and I don't know if it's a question I'll ever be able to answer but I do know this. When I wake up in the morning, I hear the birds and I see the sun. When I go to bed, I can see stars and hear crickets in the summer. Throughout my whole life, I'm going to work on savoring that, remembering every color and sound from those bright mornings and starry nights. I too often take that for granted. For the last couple of years, I've gone to Madeleine Island in the summer with some of my favorite people. That little island brings me so much energy and joy and motivation to help the world. It's not one of those tourist towns that only peaks in the summer. You can tell it's breathtaking year round. When me and my friends go there, we sit around the campfire and talk for hours. We swim in the freezing blue lake and we bike into town and get ice cream. Sometimes we're lucky enough to watch shooting stars dapple the dark sky. The only reason we can do that is because of the Earth. I'm so grateful for that and I know I owe the Earth a first class future. I believe having hope that we can make change is not only important but necessary. It's hard for people and definitely me to keep a positive perspective when the news is hounding us with hateful things. From my observation, hope can do a really wild thing where it empowers people and people make change. I hope my generation is up for the task to spread love and make change because the now is now and now is when change can begin. This I believe. Thank you. This is Jonathan Schluyfer and this is my faith statement or spoken word performance. I'm sorry if I yell at you. I'm not mad, don't worry, we're good here, it's all good. All right. I believe in words, the power to destroy the Earth and to fix it up again. I believe that sticks and stones will break my bones but words will always hurt me. They'll stab you in the back and let you bleed out in the cold, hard ground. Yet they can be so beautiful, almost like a butterfly flying around a meadow. I believe that words have so much power within them, yet can be so useless and so meaningless, almost like a plastic bread clip. Furthermore, going to what I believe in, I believe that you and I are a grain of sand. No, I'm serious. No jokes, no games. You are a grain of sand. This, so small the universe won't even notice it. Gone in a blink, a flash. A quick blink for the universe, that's all you are. A sip of its morning coffee. We are simply sand. Simply waiting for the next wave to wash us away. No, no, I won't let myself become this again. I'm not, never. I will not be taken by this measly and pathetic wave. This grain of sand will make a change. This grain of sand won't be taken by the next wave and this grain of sand will live to the fullest. And yes, maybe even last longer than a few lazy blinks. I believe in nothing. I believe in the voids between stars, in the vacuums, powerful enough to bend steel, and in the darkness, even if it isn't a true nothingness. I believe in mysteries and unanswered questions. What is in the spaces between atoms, between electrons, between particles? What is dark matter? How can electrical pulses create entire worlds in some people's minds? And why are we like this? In 2017, my eighth grade year, I tried to play volleyball, emphasis on tried. The third practice in, I took a spike to the head. Big surprise, the next day, I was sent home with a diagnosis of a concussion. For the next two weeks, I wasn't quite bedridden, but I was stuck in my room. And it was dark. I started to hate the fact that I wasn't allowed to do anything. Which is why when I slipped and hit my head in 2018, I wasn't just crying from the pain of having hit my head. I was angry. I was not about to get another concussion. But I can't really control that. And so another two weeks stuck in my room. Sure, I could go talk to my mom or go get the cat. But I wasn't allowed to do anything. But instead of being angry, I started to appreciate it. I had started a high school. And there were, during that time I had a concussion, I didn't have to do anything. We get so caught up in things that we need to do, that we want to do, that we have to do, that sometimes it's nicer to just sit back. Without space in between you and me, you can't see me. We'd be crushed up together. There wouldn't be enough room in you for your blood to get through to your organs. None of us would exist without space. Everybody tries so hard to make things, to get things, to make things go to understand, I'm definitely guilty of that myself. I want to know so much, I want to learn everything, but there has to be an unknown, which is why I believe in nothing, in undefinable voids, in the timeless vacuum of space, and in the dark. So what are the top three things that I value most in my life? One is music, if you saw earlier. Music has the biggest presence in my life, and it is one of the very few things that makes me truly happy. It's a happy where I can, where nothing else matters, if you know what I'm talking about. And I put a little note in here, I was listening to music as I wrote this belief statement. I can lose myself in music for hours. It's everywhere in my life. The second thing that I value most is friends. I'm a very social person, and I like to do things with people, and I do everything with my friends. And crazy enough, one of the biggest friend groups of mine has to do with band, and more specifically, percussion. And look at that, there's music. Also, one of my other biggest friend groups is Boy Scouts. In Boy Scouts, half of our outings consist of us either blaring music over very loud speakers in the back of our Boy Scout bus, or maybe shouting the words to one of the 10 to 15 songs we know by heart. Or we could be making a beat with our mouths, with our hands, with our heads, or with other people that doesn't matter, as long as there's music to sing along to. But there's music there too. There are also the friends that have gotten me through school. And some of those friends are here in the COA class, which are Hayden and Torin. Hayden and I always used to hang out and make crazy games in our imaginations. They were so intricate that I can't believe I was able to understand them. We would make characters, and then we'd battle, and it was a good time. Torin shares my love of music with me, and we used to both do saxophone for two years, and then I switched over to percussion. And then finally this year, he switched over to percussion with me. And I'm a big drumline boy, and he's trying out for drumlines, so I hope he gets onto that. The third thing I value most is family. Now I'm not just saying this to be cheesy or anything, but how can I not value them? I live with them. They are there in my life every day, almost every day, unless I'm a Boy Scout or a sleepover. They make me food and they give me a place to sleep. My mom is one of the more music-oriented people in my family. We can have jam sessions almost anywhere we go, and half the time I don't even mean for them to happen. They kind of just come out of nowhere. Like, we'll be driving down a road, and I'll just turn on the radio, and we'll just crank it all the way up, and we'll start listening to music, and then we'll start singing along, and it's great. She's also the more loud and rambunctious one, and let's just say she's not afraid to make a scene, which it's okay with me, I like to do that too, but it's a little embarrassing sometimes. Now, all this being said, it's not like my dad and I don't have a good time. My dad and I can listen to music and enjoy stuff. It's usually Johnny Cash or William Nelson. My dad is a more quiet and understated guy, but if you listen, he can always interject a funny comment into the conversation you guys are having, which is always great. My dad is also one of the, is the person who's more involved in Boy Scouts with me. He's been on a lot of my Boy Scout outings, and a little background. He's actually in Eagle Scout himself, and he was the first one in his troop, so he knows a little bit about it. And he's also the one who's pushing me along. He's nudging me and yelling at me to do everything, to get everything done. Now, I wanted to put yelling in there for two reasons. One, because he's a quiet man, it's kind of scary when he yells at you, because it's right out of the blue, and it's like really startling, but it's kind of funny afterwards. And two, because yelling is probably the most effective way to get me to do something. Now, friends are also, I've got a lot of friends that I also consider family, since I don't have any siblings. I know a lot of my good friends are like family to me. And with all this being said, I can say that I believe in music, friends, and family. So, thank you. And now, I now invite you to enter the giving and receiving of today's offering. Today's offering will go towards the continued support for our coming of age program. Thank you. Do you ever wonder why so many people like music? It's simple, really. Hearing a good or familiar song leases chemicals in the brain that make you feel good. I believe music is very important to every one of us. It consists of our personal interests and allows us to express ourselves. Music is special to me because there are so many different ways you can experience it, through various instruments, genres of music, and the way different cultures use the music to tell stories. When I was in fifth grade, I switched from the violin that I learned to play the year prior to the saxophone. I liked orchestra and had a fun time with that new experience, but when I saw the different band instruments, I was instantly hooked. What made my four years in band so much better was my teachers, each having their own way of teaching and conducting, which I thought was so cool. In my last year at Cromery Middle School, I saw more uniqueness and percussion. I started taking lessons this past summer and signed up for marching band. For three months, there was non-stop work, focus, and performing on a field, and it was one of the best times of my life. It was so great because you're surrounding yourselves with people who, like me, like music enough to march it in the heater cold. When school began this year, I signed up for percussion in my band class. Learning something brand new is like a reset. I just need to learn not to stomp my feet, it's a bad habit, and after seeing upperclassmen percussionists play for a marching band, I've set a goal to practice and perfect my drumming so that I'll be selected to be on the drum line next year. I believe music helps you be part of something larger than yourself. Playing a piece together connects me to other people as we play the same song with different instruments. We learn from what we're playing, we work together, we create something unique. I develop a sense of pride for myself and my fellow musicians as we practice and perform. We all want to be part of something bigger. We all want to belong. Music is a catalyst for those connections to occur. Music gives me joy. High energy music wakes me up and gets me excited. Music connects me with my deeper feelings, sometimes feelings of sadness and heartache. It helps me connect to my emotions, it supports me, it comforts me, and I believe we must connect with our emotions and let them breathe. Music helped me get there. Music can connect us with our everyday life from the sports we play, from our past, present, and future. It is all around us. An Athenian philosopher named Plato from ancient Greece once said, music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything. I interpret this to mean that music is something that everyone has within them. Music can be considered a guide for the journey ahead. Music connects us to everything we know, this I believe. My parents always had National Geographic magazines with headlines about how our world was changing, lying around. Though I never had the patience to read the articles, I would flip through the pages and look at all the pitiful looking animals and ecosystems under attack from humans. From a young age, I already knew our world had troubles. During summers, waiting at the edge of the lake by my house, I could always be found nagging my friends to stop throwing sticks into the water. My parents had told me that throwing sticks and leaves into the water makes the lake even sicker and smell even worse. Now, I'm able to understand that the phosphorus and nitrogen in those small objects feed the algae in the lake, which continues to pollute it. Recently, the problems with pollution in the ocean have been drawing my attention away from our small lakes. As of 2015, approximately 12.7 million tons of plastic were in the oceans, which as you can imagine is hugely dangerous for all marine life. When plastic ends up in the ocean, it breaks apart into microscopic pieces less than five millimeters long. According to the National History Museum, these tiny pieces of plastic are polluting areas of the ocean that humans haven't touched yet. The Seventh Unitarian Universalist Principle encourages respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, meaning we should be stewards to the Earth. I believe that as humans, it is our job to do more than to respect our world, but to also take care of it. With unsealable plastic floating in unsealable parts of the oceans, it might seem like there is nothing we can do, but there is. There are organizations such as the River Alliance of Wisconsin and the Alliance for the Great Lakes that are focusing on cleaning out and preserving our local lakes. There are also organizations such as the Ocean River Institute and the Oceana Organization that are working to clean out our oceans and preserve the wildlife living there. As I think about these issues, I hope for more people to become involved with the solution, so go check out those organizations in the program I have a long life ahead of me and I hope that kayaking around with friends on clean water and running across plastic-free beaches with family will always be an option. I'm Eva. I believe in friendship and experiencing life alongside other people. During my hours alone in the woods, I had had the intention of finishing and polishing a draft for a previous belief statement. While enjoying the beauty of the world around me, my old ideas didn't seem worthy of taking up any of that time. What I did end up doing, however, was write a list of all the people I love. I wanted to share my peace with them, even if only in this small way. Having experiences of your own is important, but energy seems to intensify when shared. Telling others about your experiences, allowing them to understand you deeper or be happy for you, I find that vital. If our lives are paintings, our actions are the paintbrush and the people we meet along the way are the colors. Throughout my entire life, I have always been able to surround myself with other people. I'd leech off my brother for friends before making my own. Once I did make my own, I stuck with them, making more as I traveled through elementary school. By fourth grade, we had a solid group formed. Imaginative teal, royal purple, sky blue and forest green, maroon and magenta drifting in and out for a while. We have grown up together since then. Some have grown apart, others have moved away, leaving the three of us, green and blue and purple, three coplanar personalities, loyal and supportive and dependable. Over the past two years, all of our lives have changed wildly. My household shifted from four members to three members to two. My friends have watched as their siblings have shifted into adult life. We have all become busier and older and more complex, adding new ideas and personality traits and hobbies on what seems like a daily basis. All of us have met and gotten close to new people. We have each individually become more opaque. And yet, there we are in the midst of all this change at the corner at the end of the e-wing, every day eating lunch, constant and stable and safe. We haven't needed to stay the same in order to continue being friends. We have kept our relationship fluid, listening to the changes that have been needed but fighting for what is good. The piece of artwork created by our three colors mixed is greater than what they are alone. The combination is greater than the sum of its parts. Just like how mixing red and blue makes a new, even better color. I have loved getting to know more people, adventurous pastels and trustworthy jewel tones. I look forward to seeing them. Snapchatting them gets me through bee days. I know that they understand me, know that I understand them. It's all love and memories and laughter. I text long stories back and forth with the friends I've made at summer camp. I glide easily through summer days with warm-toned, easy-going gals. Laughter bubbles in the wings backstage with a cool-toned stage crew. Big, huge love is shared with the precious rainbow of the stack we have here. It has never seemed to matter the place, the canvas, if you will, where these times have occurred. Which shades of paint are swirling together has always been much more important. I believe in friends. All of the friends I have had over the years. Those who imagined entirely new worlds with me in my backyard and elementary school. Stomachs full of bowtie pasta, minds full of ideas. And those who I've met only recently. Those who have shared their rants and listened to mine. Those tagged in my Instagram pictures and those who are only present in memories. Their marks forever made on my childhood. The reds, the blues, and the yellows. I look forward to making new friends and keeping the old, dabbling into new colors on the palette of my identity along the way. I don't want the canvas of my life to only be sky blue. It is much more valuable to me to have the colors of other people involved in almost every stroke. Thank you. What a joy it is to be celebrating another coming-of-age ceremony and the culmination of another coming-of-age year. This is truly a moment to stop and give gratitude for our youth, for the gift of their insights and their wisdom, and to recognize that their classroom learning here at First Unitarian Society may be over, but their journey of lifelong learning on their own has just begun. Throughout this year, they have begun in earnest to study themselves, to get to know themselves, examining their beliefs and values, ideals, and aspirations. With their statements, our youth have given us a glimpse of where this process has led them so far, and we'd pause for a moment to thank those who've walked with them on this journey. We'll begin with those in our community who served as the adult facilitators. They have given these youth direction, insight, wisdom, and guidance throughout the past year. They have brought patience, good humor, and much love and compassion. So Susan Koenig, Grant Abird, and Scott Mason. We also pause to thank our elders. Each youth is matched with an elder from the congregation, people who are carefully chosen to embody the thoughtfulness, kindness, and commitment. We hope to encourage in our youth. Throughout this year, our elders were steadfast and took their challenge cheerfully and joyfully. We owe much thanks to this group as well. Anne Fleming, John Grady, Jacob Hahn, Laurie Duzan, and Meg Parker. And if our youth will now come to the front of the auditorium. To all those who are gathered here today, we ask that you remember that your important role in the spiritual and moral development of these youth is essential. Where they journey from here is not entirely up to them. It is also up to you, all of us. We must remember that deepening their experience of unitarian universalism is not the responsibility of their parents and advisors alone. Helping them to blossom as loving and conscientious human beings is a responsibility that we all share. And now that they have completed their coming of age year, that responsibility becomes more relevant and more immediate. For these young people, you can serve as both example and inspiration of how people live out in everyday life, their spiritual values. Through you, they can observe unitarian universalist faith in action. There can be no greater or more effective teaching than your good example. In that spirit, will you continue to encourage the spiritual growth of these youth you see before you? Will you value their insight and emerging convictions and recognize the gifts and talents that they bring to our community and the enthusiasm and hope that they bring to our world? If so, please say we will. We will. Now to the youth. To all of you, we recognize today the work that you have done this past year and we are grateful for the gifts and talents you have brought to us in your time here at this society. Will you continue this journey you have begun to grow as an individual, expressing your beliefs, growing in faith, and continuing to question and explore? If so, please say we will. We will. At this time, I would like to ask the parents of our coming-of-age youth to stand and join with your children in the response of reading that you have with you. And our parents begin. To remember, shelter to sleep. Our job with you has been to stretch our relations, your boundaries, and your beliefs to accept our inevitable growth even to now. It's been a tremendous journey. Our jobs are changing. We need a technologist and we will grow to accept that. What with you will become more master of the middle class? What with you will lead to live out and be responsible growing into the kind of our own experiences? Thank you. Please be seated. At the dedication of a child we give to each a rosebud, fragrant symbol of beauty, promise, and love. The rose we give then has no thorns. Symbolizing the better world we would like to give to our children. We hope that these children whom we have dedicated will learn to recognize the beauty and the goodness which exists that they'll grow in wisdom and compassion adding their own beauty to the world. Today we give to each of these young people a rose in full bloom. Symbolizing the beauty and the gifts they already give to our world and the natural beauty found in each one of them. Yet this time the thorns are still intact. When you were a child we could do our best to shield you from the harshness and the cruelty of the world. But now as a young adult we can no longer protect you from all that you encounter both the beauty and the cruelty. But no matter where you may go and how far you may travel you will always be with us in spirit and we will always be sending blessings your way. So accept these roses knowing that there are harsh realities in this world but there is much beauty as well. May you choose to see the beauty whenever possible. And now as we do when you were young children we ask that you be granted clarity of thought integrity of speech and a compassionate heart. May the blessings of an understanding heart strength integrity of purpose love received and given be yours today and remain with you as you go forward into ever fuller life. If you will join me in congratulating our coming of age youth. And we invite you now to rise in all the ways we do for our closing hymn number 108. Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here. Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you. Please be seated for one more gift of music.