 So what do you think, so I could move in on the company? I think it was attached to you. Sure. Well, that was really... Sure. Yeah. I'll decide in a second. You just talked to us. All right. Thank you so much, everybody. I love this music. We've had a really good... You've come a long way to your mind, but I like your attires, and I really appreciate it. You put me in front of you. When I taught you something new, you just sort of took a part in it. It's just a really amazing experience. I couldn't be happier. And I'm more excited about the day. I love this music, and it's built for us. This is a great, really solid piece. This is the first movement, too, and I think the whole thing of hard-presenting is precious to me. Anyway, I hope you're excited, too. Thank you so much, and I'll see you back here. I'll tell you how it went. What do you think? 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 Rose Gredler, and on behalf of the entire congregation, I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors this morning. We are a welcoming congregation, so whoever you are and wherever you are on your life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. This would be a great time to silence cell phones as we join together in a few moments of silence for contemplation, meditation, prayer, as we become fully present with ourselves and one another on this glorious morning. Good morning. We will sing hymn number 1003 in the teal hymnal, and we will sing each line twice before moving on to the next line. There are four lines total. All right, do you have that instruction because then I have another one. We're going to sing it together from top to bottom as a group. Then we're going to divide into a round. So over here will be group one and to my right group two. And Karen will be singing with group two. So if you get lost, just look at her mouth or contemplate these questions. Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Again there. Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Where do we come from? Again where? Mystery. Life is a riddle and a mystery. Mystery. Mystery. Life is a riddle and a mystery. Where do we come from? Where are we? Group one please. Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Where do we come from? What are we? Life is a riddle and a mystery. Back to the beginning let's do it all again. Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we? One more time. Life is a riddle and a mystery. Let's repeat that last line group one. Where do we come from? Where do we come from? We may be seated on this amazing and heartbreaking day when we, people who come from many places and representing an array of ages and identities, we gather together to be renewed, refreshed, re-ignited on this heartbreaking and amazing day when we, a people ever mindful of the mysteries of life, we gather together to seek companionship on our journeys, feeling that we may indeed be on the brink of all that we have ever loved. And together we join in reading aloud the chalice-lighting words printed in your orders of service as together we say, all that we have ever loved and all that we have ever been stands with us on the brink of all that we aspire to create, a deeper peace, a larger love, a more and embracing hope, a greater generosity of spirit, a deeper joy in this life we share. I invite you to turn to your neighbors for a friendly greeting. Presentation this morning our Director of Children's Religious Education, Leslie and we usually on the fourth weekends of the month do lighting of joy and sorrow candles, so we'll be doing that later in the service because today we have something special. A super important part of this story because without you all, we would have no story to tell it off. And that's because our story today is about a special group of teachers that we have here at the First Unitarian Society. We have lots of teachers every year. We have about 100 teachers every year. But this special group today are people who have taught year after year after year. Some of them are celebrating their fifth year of teaching. One of them is celebrating her fifteenth year of teaching. That's a long time. How many of you here are five years old? Anybody? We've got a few people here. So think about this. You're seven. For those of you who are five, many of our teachers have taught as many years as you've been along. That's a long time, isn't it? Yes, you're four. I'm not even going to tell you how old I am. Nobody here has taught that long. So anyway, we want to celebrate their gift to us by the many years that they have spent teaching here. And I'm wondering what you all think about this. So on Sunday mornings for you guys, we have all these adults who come here to teach your classes. They could be home sleeping. They could be home meeting the newspaper. They could be out on a walk. They could be riding their bikes. But they're here with you. Why are they supposed to do that? Do you have any energy with you guys? What do you think? Because I want to make sure you're doing well in school. Okay, good. Any other ideas? Yes, it's a different kind of school, isn't it? What do you think? Why are they here? Maybe they get exercised. They do have to run around you guys a lot. What do you think? Do you guys like it? Definitely true. That all of those things are true. We give them a year row. We give them our gratitude and our love. That's it. Anyway, they care a lot about your curiosity and your learning and your happiness here at First Unitarian Society. And that's why they come to spend their Sunday mornings with you. We have 12 teachers this year who are celebrating their 5-year, 10-year, or 15-year anniversary. And we have four of them with us this morning, because some of them were here yesterday and some will come at 11 and some just couldn't be here at all. So we're going to call them up here and, gosh, how are we going to get them up here? Do you guys think you could scoot back a little bit? Yes. Okay. Would you like to help me pass out a little gift bags? Sure. It's easy. It's your birthday party today. Yeah, but don't bring birthday. Okay, can you scoot back a little bit? We've got to make room for our teachers. Can you scoot back? No, it's for the teachers. So the first teacher I want to call up is Laurie Brody, who has been here. We shout a big thank you to them, okay? One, two, for our teachers, but we're also steeped in looking forward to next fall and all the teachers that we need to get for next year's classes. And my partner in crime, Mariah, and I have a really brief and inspired skit for you to inspire you. We'll see if it works. Would you like to teach UUs? Tell me which you choose. Would you like fifth grade or the first? Choosing none would be the worst. I would not, could not teach UUs. That is not something I would choose. I can't imagine where I'd start. What great knowledge would I impart? Could you, would you with support? You'll have co-teachers, a grand cohort, story staff and curriculum too. Supplies and support to guide you through. Well, possibly with such support it does sound fun, I must report. And UU values past to our young. How could that go terribly wrong? Would you like it if I say that you will come to church one day and a smiling kid will wave and that you'll be the one she's waving at. You'll watch kids learn and smile and act with parents along the way. They'll thank you for the job you've done in working hard to teach their young. And if those reasons aren't ideal here's one that will likely appeal. When you teach you just might find your beliefs and spirit will feel sublime. That does sound rich as you say with kids waving and smiling and busy at play. I love the thought of nurturing their minds, their spirits and hearts grown unbound. But it's important that you know I've never taught before. Not even a toad. Would you could you if you knew that there are trainings and resources too? The time it takes is not that long. Only about six six hours. All month long. Only about six years of your life. Alright, why yes. I'll sign up now. I've heard good things from near and far. I'll jump right in and become a part of UU Learning and UU Heart. But where but how but what would but what do I do now to seal the deal to take my vow? That's great. That's grand. Welcome aboard to the commons you must go. There you'll find teachers to sign you up to chat and schmooze and gladly erupt. We're grateful, we're proud, we're glowing inside to have so many adults caring for our young crowd. It takes a village as you know if we all pitch in our movement will grow. Our kids will know they're loved and revered for all their great thinking and growing done here. And if there are others wanting to join well now they know too we're to adjourn. The commons, the commons all must go. Let's make this work. Let's rock this show. Let's sing the children out singing hymn number 1023 Building Bridges We'll sing it once through all together and then twice through us around same as before. Let us rise in all the ways that we do. Bridges between our divisions I reach out to you Will you reach out to me With all of our voices and all of our visions Friends we could Group one Build Group two Build Group two Build Group two Build Group two Back to the beginning. Let's do it again One more time. Indeed make such sweet harmony together so thank you for that. Today's worship service focuses on the ways in which this congregation provides ministry to people of all ages. Specifically we are exploring the stories and dreams of young adults. Two Unitarian Universalist students from UW Madison are instrumental in planning this service and though they could not be with us this morning in person we have a recording of one of them who graciously agreed to present the readings for today. This is Carly Wilson. Today's first reading is by Unitarian Universalist minister the Reverend Dr. Jennifer Kwong and it is entitled From Ally to Advocate. Today's second reading also done by Carly is adapted from the work of Unitarian Universalist Dr. Janice Marie Johnson and it is entitled Theology of Accompaniment. The Spanish word differs in complexity, texture and weight from the English to a company which can be used for something as mundane as when the grocery store is open. The Spanish word connotes something deeper. It's like being joined in the head set upon the head of a tree. When I have a partnership I am striving to empower the community and build bridges. I think of working collaboratively with various organizations and individuals especially those who understand the difference between providing services to the disenfranchised and breaking-riding civilians. A Theology of Accompaniment calls us to move beyond othering, beyond tolerating, beyond embracing. It calls us to honor our siblings as the unique and precious beings that we are. Here ends the readings. A couple of weeks ago we had the great joy of participating in the first chalice ceremonies here at First Unitarian Society. During these rituals second and third graders got to stand bravely in front of their peers and families as one of us ministers read aloud for everyone to hear the reflections written about them with love and admiration written by their families. These seven, eight and nine-year-olds then also received a gift of their very first chalice a way to remember this moment in their lives when we acknowledge that they are indeed growing out of being young children. And today we experience the joy of the larger religious education program. We honored the life-giving work of our teachers and facilitators those who have guided our young people through their classrooms through their developmental stages through their questions and their answers. These adults have accompanied our young people on their learning journeys for years. And that is a gift for everyone involved. In a couple more weeks from now we will likely be in awe of our coming of age ninth graders. They will be sharing with us the culmination of their year of introspection and participation in a rigorous spiritual course. They will articulate their belief systems as they currently understand them to exist and we will join them in proudly recognizing their accomplishments. On that same weekend which happens to be Mother's Day weekend in case you're interested in attending there will also be a bridging ceremony. This ritual will acknowledge some of our high school seniors who are moving on from their secondary education and into the next chapter of their lives. Like other bridging ceremonies and unitarian universalist congregations across the country this ceremony will mark a significant moment in the lives of these teenagers. A similar though much larger ceremony will occur in the middle of June at the General Assembly of Unitarian Universalist of the congregations of the UUA the Unitarian Universalist Association. This year General Assembly is happening in Spokane, Washington. During many bridging ceremonies the teenagers move literally and or figuratively across a bridge a bridge that represents the transition from one known experience to a life that is largely unknown largely filled with question marks. Now if you're like me you may be wondering what are these young unitarian universalist bridging into? This bridge must go somewhere where exactly will this bridge land them? Well truth be told those are the questions I intend to spend the rest of my internship with you exploring. You see as part of my seminary education I have been asked to lead this congregation in a single focused area of ministry. The first question posed to me when we were considering what area I should focus on was what is a currently underserved population at FUS? What is a population that could benefit from my leadership attention and intention? In conversation with my teaching pastor the Reverend Kelly Crocker and with other key players on the staff team and in the congregation we decided that I should focus on campus ministry. Now some of you know that campus ministry has a precedent in this congregation. Numerous interns, staff and ministers before me have lovingly and with dedication shared their unique ministries with many young adults both on campus and here in this building. And I am here to assure you that those efforts have made a difference in the lives of young people and in the life of our wider denomination. I, in fact, have two examples from my life alone that share this truth. First of all, right now I'm in seminary with one of the people who attended weekly gatherings on campus with the Reverend Mary Ann Macklin. A couple of decades ago she's about to graduate in May. And second, one of my good friends is another person who similarly engaged in campus ministry and he is about to celebrate his 10th anniversary as a Unitarian Universalist minister. My point is that First Unitarian Society has a history, an important history of supporting and ministering to Unitarian Universalists who are in their late teens and early twenties. And that tradition has saved lives that are now saving lives. Your FUS tradition has made a difference. And I'm hoping that through this focused initiative I can help renew our commitment our collective commitment to that campus ministry tradition. To support this renewal I have started to imagine our campus ministry project as having two main goals. The first goal may not surprise you is to build a UU community on the UW Madison campus. Through experiences that are developed in conjunction with UU and UU curious students young adults will be empowered to collectively enrich and bolden and embody their spiritual lives. The second goal that is to engage committed congregants who will act as an enthusiastic group of campus ministry flame tenders. Now these are the folks who will support the campus ministry in any number of ways yet to be determined but including shepherding the campus ministry between student leaders and between intern ministers. Now obviously I am humbly aware that these two goals represent a working draft of a vision for the campus ministry much of what will actually get implemented depends on the young adults themselves and it depends on the congregants who feel called to get engaged in this life transforming initiative. Clearly this initiative requires collaboration. So in an effort to lay the foundation for this ministry my first priority was to listen to the young adults themselves as I mentioned earlier when introducing today's readings there were two young adults in particular who were instrumental in planning this worship service. Both Carly Wilson and Riley Oktemeier are UW undergraduates, students who are active, studious, delightful and giving. Both are white women who were raised as unitarian universalists. They have brothers and roommates weekly quizzes for games classes and jobs social lives and summer plans. Last week Carly and Riley took time out of their busy schedules to sit down with me and together we chose hymns to sing readings to explore and messages to underscore during this worship service. While neither of them could be here with us physically today I assure you that their fingerprints were over this service. Take for example that first reading that Carly read and share entitled From Ally to Advocate. This is a poem that came to our attention when we were flipping through the books I had brought with me to our brunch meeting. We were trying to find pieces that spoke to us when out of the blue Riley pulled out her phone and started taking a picture of a page with this poem on it. That's how much she was moved by this poem she wanted to take it with her. Now if you'll recall it's a poem that calls us out of our places of privilege and into perspectives that might not be all that flattering. Thought I was so liberal till my good intentions produced the opposite results. This poem takes courage to engage with and both Riley and Carly seem eager to do exactly that. This From Ally to Advocate poem seems relevant when they mention being shocked to hear disparaging comments from a white dorm mate about an African American resident assistant simply because their peer leader was black. This From Ally to Advocate poem seems relevant when they mention being surprised to hear a classmate ask incredulously, you mean being gay isn't a choice? This From Ally to Advocate poem seems relevant when they mention wanting time with fellow Unitarian Universalists so that they could together unpack these social situations and figure out in community how to spend, how to respond to such comments in the future given our UU principles and shared values. How do we as Unitarian Universalists move from being allies to advocates? When they boiled it down Carly and Riley expressed the importance of campus ministry in this way. While college offers them an academic education what they are lacking on campus is a spiritual education a place to wrestle with the big questions of life. How might FUS be a support to young adults asking the big questions of life? As we begin to explore the options of how best to support college age people through a campus ministry initiative I invite you to get in touch with your inner young adult. Now there may be someone in this room who is under 18 and if you're here feel free to just imagine yourself in the present. For those of you who are older than 25 think back now to that time in your life when you were 18 or 20 or 22 what were you doing? How are you feeling? What were you thinking about? Who were you trying to be? Whenever that time in life happened for you there were likely big questions you were facing. Some of the big questions that Riley and Carly mentioned about relationships certainly resonated for me how do we make new friendships? How do we negotiate romantic interests? And how do we interact with roommates and classmates with our integrity intact? I remember the first night in my dorm room thinking to myself oh my god I'm trying to sleep in a room with a complete stranger in it. Carly and Riley also raised questions about choosing majors and envisioning careers. What is required of us as we move into adulthood? What kinds of lives do we want to live? What happens next? And who can accompany us on this journey? Now lucky for us these two young women offered up some ideas of how a Unitarian Universalist congregation like FUS might be able to support college age folks. The first idea includes one-on-one relationships. So what if there was a program something along the lines of adopt an adult? In this idea young adults and congregants would be matched so that the congregants could offer extra emotional and spiritual support to young people who were undergoing huge transitions in their lives. I can't imagine for example inviting a student over for a home-cooked meal. Sending them a text or their final exam went. Or offering a ride to FUS worship service on the weekend. Because young adults may be away from their families of origin for the first time having trusted and established adults who can provide a listening ear could be a helpful, could be helpful as they ask the big questions and make big decisions. A second idea is to have a regular campus ministry presence that allows Unitarian Universalist students to gather in a safe and brave space to have discussions on current events. Those events that are very personal or local or national or global. Carly and Riley are interested in bringing an explicitly UU perspective to issues that are present and relevant in their lives. In the past given the fact that they were being exposed to new, usually more conservative perspectives, the campus ministry gatherings were a place for Carly and Riley to sort through their thoughts and feelings with UU peers. A third and final idea offered up by Riley and Carly speaks to the deep desire to have time for contemplation and spiritual development. Through group meditation practice or time to reflect on readings, young adults could have the opportunity to slow down and reflect. Time set aside from their usually busy lives. Because they spend so much time considering where they came from and where they are going next, spiritual sustenance can help young adults practice making intentional time to live in the present moment. So just to recap, young adults are suggesting that congregants of FUS can provide support, can provide help to them with support, exploration and renewal. As I reflect on these three suggestions, I realize that all of them are examples of the theology of accompaniment that was underscored in the Janice Marie Johnson reading. We are embodying a theology of accompaniment when people are supported by one another over something so simple as a home cooked meal. We are embodying a theology of accompaniment when young adults explore current events together with a UU lens. We are embodying a theology of accompaniment when a campus ministry program offers mindfulness walks that help young adults feel spiritually renewed while being in community. Of course, there are many other ways we can engage with a theology of accompaniment. As Johnson writes, when I think of partnership, I think of striving to empower the community and building bridges. I have to agree we should partner together to build a vibrant campus ministry. Let's empower the young adult community that is clearly ready for more. Let's build bridges to where young adults are at and let's build bridges that lead to somewhere. All young people need time to transition into the next stage of their development. Whether they are getting their first chalices, articulating their this I believe statements or bridging beyond high school. Wherever we human beings are on our journeys knowing that our fellow Unitarian universalists will be there to accompany us on the way makes all the difference. What a gift to know from these young people the several ways that we can renew this congregation's commitment to our tradition and to the campus ministry. If you are curious and interested in joining me on this journey, feel free to reach out to me after service or via email. And until then may we all continue to consider the ways we can move from being allies to being advocates. And may we all know the deep satisfaction of embodying a theology of accompaniment. Blessed be and amen. Each week we partner with a local organization to share our offering with them. And this week our organization is called the Sierra Club for Lakes Group. I encourage you to read more about them in your Red Floor's insert. We sincerely appreciate all your contributions in today's offering. We also appreciate the generous gifts of time from those who help our services run smoothly. Today our greeter was Claire Box. Our ushers were Jane Nelson Warrell, Mary Bergen, Karen Jagger, and Brent West. At our information table the main double duty was also Mary Bergen. Hospitality, coffee preparation and all is being provided by Franz Annelini, Mussaret Varga. Our lay minister is Lois Evensson. John Powell will be our tour guide and if you would like a tour after this service today please meet him up in front by the windows near where the ramp starts after the service. Thank you. I do have three opportunities to let you know about today. The first one is that today after service a member of our Board of Trustees Marsch Schweitzer will be available to answer your questions regarding the current transition between called ministers. This will take place here in the auditorium for about 20 minutes between the services. Also the annual Warthman lecture is happening today at 2 p.m. over in the landmark. Our featured lecturer is Dr. Kate Ott. At 5 p.m. then Dr. Ott will be facilitating a youth workshop also in the landmark. You can find out more about this lecture in the news from the red floors insert. Now here's something that we need to remember so we're not confused and don't end up someplace expecting something to happen that will not be happening. Starting Memorial Day weekend that's May 26 and through Labor Day weekend as we've sometimes done in the past we will hold just one single worship service weekend at 10 a.m. here in the atrium. Also during this time we will not be holding children's religious education classes and children ages 5 to 12 are invited to participate in summer fun activities. This is also noted in your red floors so check that if you're even the slightest bit confused. We've done this in the past but I don't believe we did it last year the one service business. Thank you very much. I want to take a moment to just thank another group of people who have contributed so much to FUS this year. It's coming early our last Sunday to sing with you in service but Society Choir and I'll say the same when Meeting House course has their final Sunday of the year Society Choir has done a great job this year and it being my first year here on staff I'm so appreciative of how welcoming they have been and how generous they have been with their time but not only that one of the very first things that they said to me was about coming up to my first service with them here was make sure you set out a basket because the ushers won't give us a chance to contribute money because we're singing so if you could have a basket out so we could also contribute money and I thought you understand you're contributing your time and talent and are actually taking part in the service but that wasn't enough of a contribution for them they're so generous hearted and I just wanted to give you an opportunity to thank them as well. Society Choir, thank you. On this fourth weekend of the month we bring together our joys and sorrows to light candles and hear them spoken aloud so if you brought a joy here so heavy that you need help to hold it or if you have a joy so large you can't help but share it we invite you now into this time where you can come forward to light a candle and share briefly your joy or sorrow I now open the floor and the application has been accepted and we are now starting the home process study to adopt from foster care Mary Ann, I discovered that I'm in the right age demographic to fall into the Grand Canyon and I'm going I'm traveling with my brother and his wife for the first time to travel with them road trip to the Grand Canyon Hi, I just want to share I don't know if any of you knew a gentleman here a man named Larry Elliott who passed away last Sunday he was a great friend of our family and have a miserable heart Hi, this isn't precisely my sorrow but you know that very recently there were terrorist acts in Sri Lanka in churches and yesterday there was a shooting in a synagogue and I'm just feeling really sad about all of the terror that's been happening and health as a portion recently So this is a deep bow of gratitude to all the staff at First Unitarian Society who along with the board are guiding us through this period of transition when we all know that we need to bring our best hearts and hopes for these next years and also a deep bow of gratitude for all the services over the Easter weekend what an incredible gift thank you Well like one more candle for those joys and sorrows that are too tender to share right now and are just held in the safety of our hearts many blessings on these joys and sorrows and for this day ahead we will sing together once again hymn number 348 Guide My Feet I invite you to rise in all the ways that we do Undisraised God is raised God is raised in vain Undisraised Undisraised Stand is raised in vain Undisraised Fond is raised in vain As we move through our lives finding ourselves always newly wise and newly foolish we ask that our mistakes be small and not hurtful we ask that we gain experience that as we gain experience we do not forget our innocence for they are both part of the whole and in this spirit we extinguish the chalice of this community remembering that we hold in our hearts unminds the fire of commitment the warmth of love and the flame of renewal to our greater whole together again may we go in peace and may we also be seated for a final gift of music