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Sermon by Rev. Terry Kime (UUCM), given at UUs of Petaluma How glorious to find ourselves here on the morning of October 27th, 2002, at this very special moment in the life of this religious community. Some of us today will become the first official members of this congregation, the rest of us will be their witnesses. Some of us witnessing will later become members, after acquainting ourselves more with Unitarian Universalism and this religious community. Others of us will visit occasionally, adding our enthusiasm and support. Those signing the Membership Book this day, and those who will sign later, are embarking on a great journey-- a journey which will require the fullness of their hearts and minds and hands. In the closing stanza of his poem "Song for the Salmon," David Whyte says:
We gather today as part of a long line of Universalist and Unitarian churches, fellowships, societies and congregations that have made such a great journey. Over 220 years ago, in 1779, 61 women and men, under the direction of their minister, John Murray, gathered together in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to form a new religious community-- The Independent Christian Church. They covenanted, or pledged, certain things to one another on that day. It was the start of a great journey, for this founding set the stage for the formation of a new American denomination, the Universalists. We who gather here today are the inheritors of the ocean of longing that called to them. 40 years after that event, in 1819, the Rev. William Ellery Channing, minister of the Federal Street Church in Boston, delivered a sermon at the ordination of Jared Sparks. Little is recorded about the career Sparks went on to have, but Channing's sermon on that day changed history, providing a rallying point for those who were liberal Christians within the Congregational Church. Eventually this led to a split in Massachusetts Congregationalism between liberal and orthodox believers. Within 20 years, one-quarter of the 544 Congregational Churches in Massachusetts had formally become Unitarian. We who gather here today are the inheritors of the blessed inner star of navigation that guided them. Those who gathered in 1779 in Gloucester and those who declared themselves Unitarians in the early 1800s were questioners and seekers. They were people who thought for themselves, searching their hearts and minds for what they could honestly name truth. They asked important questions: What is God? What happens when we die? How should we live? How should we live TOGETHER, as a religious community and in the larger world in which we find ourselves? We, their spiritual descendants, have many similar characteristics. We question, searching our hearts and minds for truth. And we are still examining those hard questions with each other: What is God? What happens when we die? How should we live? How should we live TOGETHER? What are our joys and our responsibilities to one another and our world? Searching for, and finding our answers to these questions are the blessing of a great journey. They are the hunger that feeds it-- the pull to exploration, understanding, growth, connection, deepening and action. This is the journey those coming before us today to become members of the Unitarian Universalists of Petaluma, are embarking on. And it is the journey we discover in all our Unitarian Universalists liberal religious communities. We are blessed with hunger for a great journey-- the journey of growing a soul-- the journey of cultivating compassion, honesty, generosity, and warm-heartedness-- in our families, our religious communities, our neighborhoods, our world. The hunger of wanting to know, and of offering the blessing that we are, to make the world a blessed place for all-- humans, animals, plants, the earth itself. What greater journey is there? What greater journey? Presently our Unitarian Universalist Principles and our Living Tradition point to some of our answers as to how we grow our souls. And yet individuals must engage themselves with these, and ultimately decide for themselves-- in the context of respect and compassion-- what answers they can honestly affirm and live by. We expect that within our liberal religious communities we will have the chance to find our answers-- through worship, classes and study groups, social interactions, connecting with youngsters and adults of all ages, and working together for change in our larger community and world. We will listen to our inner guidance, study, and interact with the ideas and beliefs of others, still using the foundation established so long ago by our forebears. The foundation of respect, love, joy and responsibility. Our religious communities are so important because it is in them that we can gather the courage to discover and then to speak our truth to ourselves, to one another and to our world. Our religious communities are places where we find the courage to share our sorrows and failures as much as our successes and happiness. We strengthen one another and our work together in the world, for none of us is strong all the time. We all have pain and we all have joy in our lives. We remind one another of that, to keep perspective. It is the sharing of both joy and sorrow in community that binds us together and renews our ability to go on, laughing, singing and crying so that we might bless each other and our world through the values of our liberal religious faith. In our religious communities we covenant, make promises, to our companions along the way. Promises that will guide us as we continue our search for life-giving answers, together. And so, I offer again the final stanza of David Whyte's poem to those who now covenant with one another in the founding of this new Unitarian Universalist religious community, and to all who will join you in the years ahead:
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