The theme at last year’s UUA General Assembly
was “Meet the Moment.”
The theme started with three questions.
What is the moment we are in?
Second, What are the most urgent needs and important opportunities of this moment?
Lastly, How are our values calling us to respond to this moment?
This morning, I want to walk us through
those three questions not abstractly,
but as Unitarian Universalists living here, now, together.
What is the moment we are in?
Or perhaps more realistically,
what are the moments we are in?
There is so much going on.
I know I feel it in my bones.
Both here at the Congregation and in the world at large. When I sit with this question — really sit with it —
I keep coming back to one thing:
At its heart, the moment we are in
is a moment when the idea of shared responsibility
to one another, to democracy, to the world is being tested.
We live with a government
that is not aligned with my values,
with constant challenging of civil norms.
I want to be clear: challenging norms in and of itself is not wrong.
The moral question is always:
who benefits and who is harmed?
Is it giving more rights to more people
or trying to eliminate rights for certain groups?
Is it creating violence and coercion
or creating opportunities for flourishing?
Unitarian Universalists have always challenged norms.
It was once a norm for people of African descent to be enslaved — and we supported abolition of slavery.
It was once the norm for women not to vote.
And we challenged that norm and supported the woman’s suffrage movement
It was once a norm that same sex couples could not marry.
And we challenged that norm and supported marriage equality.
We pushed outside those norms as a religion
and impacted our country for the better
giving more rights to more people.
Unitarian Universalism has always been about
the flourishing of humanity.
Not just for us, but for everyone.
The work of our religion is not done.
The need is just as great today as its ever been.
The moment we are in carries real risks to our democracy.
I'm not speaking abstractly. I mean:
• The normalization of targeting political enemies
• Intentional gerrymandering
• Laws being passed to allow states to nullify voters' rights"
There was a time in our country,
up until 1913 where state parties/legislatures
picked Senators, but Americans thought more people should have a say in their government.
Until the 1965 Voting Rights Act,
Jim Crow laws limited African Americans right to vote. Unitarian Universalists were on the front line
and died helping to secure voting rights for all people.
I just heard this week at a Boxser Diversity Institute program that in America, people of Chinese descent
were not allowed to become citizens until 1943
and it was not until the 1965 Immigration reform
that allowed more Chinese to emigrate to America legally.
Unitarians among other progressive religious groups again were lobbying and rallying for inclusion.
Unitarian Universalism has been at the forefront of democracy for all people.
That is explicitly stated in our principles and values.
There is more work to be done
We are in a moment where we have abandoned our political allies.
Unitarian Universalism is a covenanted religion and people.
We believe people, organizations and countries
should live up to their word.
Our country has been leaders in the world
putting forth and working towards
a better world for all people.
Our actions have Sometimes ended for the better, sometimes for worse.
The point is not perfection, but responsibility,
keeping our word, honoring our commitments.
Yet now we seemed to have abandoned
our ideals of partnerships
to leave everyone else to fend for themselves..
History is not just something we inherit —
it is something we choose, again and again,
by how we show up.
If we are a microcosm of the world,
we must realize we cannot abandon our commitments.
In fact to live out our values
we have to expand our commitments to each other.
We as individuals need to come together to find meaning, to create community to flourish as human beings.
We as a congregation come together
with other congregations both UU and others
who share our values if not our theology,
and we make meaning, we create a larger community,
we flourish as a religion, as a city, as a country.
It is why it is so important that we continue to create
and grow a vibrant community with our values.
There are many people out there who believe as we do. We need to let them know they are not alone.
Will we turn inward in fear
or will we turn outward in flourishing.
Our country is moving towards —
and honestly on the verge of creating —
a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-gender society
based on our value of equity.
We too, as a congregation, are on such a path.
Some in our country want to turn back the clock.
They cannot. They will not.
There is no turning back
There. Is. No. Turning. Back.
What are the most urgent needs
and important opportunities of this moment?
Right now our congregation has many needs
as well as our community.
We have continued building the infrastructure
of our community.
I do not have time to list all the people and programs
but I will say
Our programs and small groups nurture meaning.
Our justice ministries widen compassion and create change for good in the community.
Our social groups create bonds amongst ourselves
Our care teams, sustain one another this campus and this organization.
Nothing happens in a vacuum.
There are people, volunteers and staff
who make it happen, to create the environment
in which we come together to create community.
Our growth is real — and at our current staffing levels,
The growth is not sustainable.
Our growing as a congregation
provides more opportunities
for us to grow individually.
Our presence here is Sarasota is a beacon
to show that another better way is possible. /
The Board has determined that
our most urgent need is to hire a second minister.
You as a congregation will determine whether you agree with that based on what you pledge.
Hiring a second minister is not about prestige or numbers, but rather it is about care, sustainability, and faithfulness to our mission and vision.
How are our values calling us to respond to this moment?
Here's what I know:
Our values mean nothing
if we don't build the structures to live them out.
And that brings me to us —
to this congregation, right here, right now.
Of the 1,000 or so Unitarian Universalists Congregations we are the 35th largest in membership
in the United States and We are the largest in Florida. That is a testament to those who came before us
and all who are here today.
We are 1 of only 2 congregations our size
that I am aware of that only has one minister.
There is a reason for that.
As a Congregation although 35th in membership,
we are 77th in pledging income.
We are also the 108th in the size of our endowment.
So I am asking you very specifically.
To consider increasing your pledge significantly.
Every single board member who has pledged has increased their pledge ranging from 0% to 110%,
For a combined increase of 33%.
That is how much they believe in
and are committed to our vision our mission and vision
as Unitarian Universalists.
Of course everyone is in different stages of their lives
and have different abilities to give.
I want to assure you that I respect that.
But if you can. I ask you to give as much as you can.
Give in a way that feels meaningful even a stretch.
I stand before you here today and I hold my pledge card and I have increased my pledge by 20% to get myself over the average that John mentioned earlier.
I'm doing this because I believe in us.
I believe in what we're building here.
We heard the names of those great historical
Unitarians and Universalists. (in an earlier reading)
They did not do what they did alone.
They did with the support of this
vibrant, transforming, supportive religion.
We are not perfect. We do not claim to be.
Still we create a vision of a better world,
A religion that highlights inclusion, freedom, and compassion.
We are called to transform ourselves, and the world.
Now is the time. Not some later time.
Now is the time.
There is no hiding from what is happening in this country. But there is a way forward, stronger, together.
Our values call us to act.
Our values call us to courage.
Our values call us to freedom
Our values call us to hope
May you feel called.
This is our moment. Let us meet it together.
May it be so.
