Let each of us be here as a gift to all others: gifts to friends, to families, to the community about. Gathered in this place of spirit and refuge, with faith and reason, with commitment and action, let us share what is best in ourselves, and offer hope to a needy world.
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The work of the liberal church is to nurture a new day, without hatred, without violence or injustice or suffering. Impossible? Perhaps. Yet in the very striving, in each halting step toward such a day of consummation, we share the highest sacrament the human experience can grant us.
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For all the talk about the skeptical nature of Unitarian Universalists, we are, at our cores, people of faith. In rising and going about the tasks of each day, in gathering to share enlightenment, we live lives of faith in the real world. We embody faith that there is meaning and significance to what we do. In caring about our fellow beings and working toward positive change, we express a living faith that the future can be better than the past.
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We join in faith and hope, to engender joy and significance and meaning in our time. We arrive here both as physical beings and as spiritual beings in a world of many pieces. A church is both a physical and a spiritual reality: as a gathering place, a center for creative energy, a place where the spiritual and the physical may present themselves as one and the same.
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Let us work toward a new dawn without hatred, without violence without suffering born of injustice. In our lives and deeds, let us nurture the people, the community, the ideals we proclaim. Is this not the best way to honor saints and leaders of the past, whose lamps still light our way?
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Once when I was visiting a Unitarian Universalist service in another town, a fellow said something interesting at Joys and Concerns. “This is the first church I ever joined,” he said. “I was on my way here this morning, when a policeman pulled me over for speeding. I told him I was in a hurry to get to church, and when he heard that, he let me off with just a warning.” Then the fellow lit a candle and said, “I’ve only been a member for a month, and already it’s paying off.” The Offering will now be received.
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