Message by Rev. Michelle Scott-Huffman

Moment of Perspective – Introduction to Side With Love – AJ Fox

The opening words are A Prayer of Good Intention, author unknown.

Dear Lord, So far I’ve done all right.
I haven’t gossiped, haven’t lost my temper,
haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent.
I’m really glad about that.
But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed.
And from then on, I’m going to need a lot more help.

Morning Has Come
By Jason Shelton
Performed by Eva Riebold
Permission Granted

Great Community
Words by Michelle Scott-Huffman
Music by JS Bach
Arranged by John Prescott
Public Domain/Permission Granted

Bound to Love/What Do We Bring?
By Amanda Udis-Kessler
Performed by the First UU Choir
Used with Permission

Be Ours a Religion
Music by Thomas Benjamin
Words by Theodore Parker
Performed by Eva Riebold
Permission Granted

The closing words are The Purpose of This Community is to Help Its People Grow, by Erik Walker Wikstrom.

If you are who you were,
and if the person next to you is who he or she was,
if none of us has changed
since the day we came in here—
we have failed.
The purpose of this community—
of any church, temple, zendo, mosque—
is to help its people grow.
We do this through encounters with the unknown—in ourselves,
in one another,
in “The Other”—whoever that might be for us,
however hard that might be—
because these encounters have many gifts to offer.
So may you go forth from here this morning
not who you were,
but who you could be.
So may we all.