Three speakers: Kay Aler-Maida, Chris Trace, and William McKinney
Three actors: Two female, one male.
Scenery: four chairs to represent a car traveling (2X2) and a church pew (4 in row)
Props: toothbrush, comb, ballcap, blankie, "orders of service," coffee cup, pamphlets/books, CD player with ear phones. Cell phone (that must be called twice during program)
Audio: Recording/playing of Grieg's Peer Gynt, namely Morning and Hall of the Mountain King. "Eyes on the Prize." Kitchen noises, coffee hour noise, car traveling noise.
Visual: Slide 1 Words: "The Road To Enlightenment Is Long And Difficult, So Bring Snacks And A Magazine," names of Unitarian Universalist Churches that are historical in nature, Unitarian Universalist, Ideals.

Skit 1

[Dark stage. Bird songs begin with gradually growing light. Sunrise. Edvard Grieg, Sunrise, on piano or recorded. Spotlight centers downstage. Woman enters spotlight from SR, walking purposefully and brushing teeth, leaves spot SL. Out of spot the woman's voice says, "Kids, rise and shine. We're going to church!" Moans and complaints from two adults portraying children.

Woman re-enters crossing SL to SR combing or brushing hair. Out of spot the voice says, "Come on, we're going to be late!" Two children (adults with juvenile clothing and attitude, one about 7 the other about 10) shuffle sleepily across spot lit stage. One drags blanket, the other wears backward ballcap. Music fades out. Sounds of glasses and spoons. Off stage 9 year old child asks, "Can I have some coffee?" "No," replies mother. "It's not good for you." "But you drink it." "I'm grown up. When you're older you can drink coffee if you want." "I'm ten, Mom. And Marcus' mom lets him drink coffee at coffee hour." More kitchen sounds.

Stagehand brings four chairs into the spotlight, setting them up two behind two facing front. Woman's voice out of spot says, "Let's go! Everybody in the car!" Woman and two children enter spot and enter car. Door slamming noises, car starting noises. Background or screens show passing countryside, travel scenes, etc. For a few moments there is silence, sullen silence from the children. Music in background, softly, Grieg, "In the Hall of the Mountain King." Younger one, female, finally speaks up.]

Dau: I hope there's something fun to do today. Sunday School is so boring sometimes.

Son: I'll say. Last week we had to memorize the Noble Eight Fold Path and the Twelve Steps. I can't remember if Right Thinking comes before or after a Searching and Fearless Moral Inventory, whatever that means. There'd better not be a test.

Dau: Last year was fun. We made houses of out cardboard boxes. I made a split-level wrap around in the Prairie Style.

Son: You did not. That's just something you heard Mom say to a client.

Dau: Did so.

Son: Did not.

Dau: Did so.

Son: Did not!

Mom: (Cheerily) Let's sing a song on the way, OK.

Dau: (sneakily) Did so.

Mom: "I'm unique and unrepeatable, I'm unique and unrepeatable, I'm unique and unrepeatable…"

Son: How come we keep repeating unrepeatable?

Dau: Ellen says I'm going to hell.

Mom: Ellen from school?

Dau: I told her I was not, that there wasn't any hell. And she said she would pray for me.

Son: (You sure need it.)

Mom: Did she now?

Dau: And she started to pray right there.

Mom: What did she pray?

Dau: (straining to remember) Our father whose art is in heaven. Hello be thy name. (pausing to remember). Something about a kingdom… "Give us Our Daily Bread" (isn't that the health food store we go to?) and "forgive our trespassing on lawns I think"… "And lead us not into Penn Station," I remember that part.

Mom: (to herself) That part's right at least.

Dau: That's about all I can remember. Oh, there was something about delivering evil and an amen on the end. I think our minister says the "amen" part. Do we pray, Mom?

Son: No we don't, silly. We're Unitarian Universalists. We don't have to. Well, maybe you do!

Dau: Do not

Son: Do so!

Dau: Do not

Son: Do so!

Dau: Do not

Son: Do so!

Mom: (sotto voce) I don't know it if anybody's listening, but if you are, give me strength. …

Dau: See. Mom's praying!

Mom: Damn right!

Dau: You said a bad word, Mom.

Son: Damn is not a bad word.

Dau: Is so!

Son: Is not!

Dau: Is so!

Son: Is not!

Dau: Is so!

Son: Mom, How much longer is it?

Mom: (teeth clenched) Too long.

Dau: Mom. I gotta go.

Mom: You should have thought of that before.

Dau: I did.

Mom: So why do you need to go if you went already.

Dau: I didn't go. You told us to make our own decisions. I thought about it and decided not to go. Now I have to. Will we be there soon?

Mom: (confidently) Pretty soon. (sotto voce) Not soon enough.

Son: Mom, Mavis is driving me crazy.

Dau: (urgently) Are we there yet?

[Blackout of center stage. Spotlight up on lectern to one side. Kay Aler-Maida standing there]

FTP Portion 1

Kay Aler-Maida: Sound familiar? I'm Kay Aler-Maida, chair of the Fulfilling The Promise Task Force. This is our third and final [Cell Phone Ring and short pause] Third and Final…[Cell Phone rings again. Embarrassed pause.]

[Kay holds up finger to signal everyone should wait. Fishes for phone in bag or pocket. Answers. We hear only her side of conversation.]

Hello… No… Listen, I am in the middle… Oh…Yes… But I… Of course…

[Kay slowly turns to one side, caught in the conversation, interested. She wanders away from lectern, voice fading. Music up: "Keep Your Eyes of the Prize." The screens slowly fade into focus to reveal the following: "The Road to Enlightenment is long and difficult; so take along snacks and some magazines." Spotlight on lectern at opposite side. Music slips into the background as Olsen approaches lectern. Music fades down but not out as he begins to speak.]

FTP: Almost ten years ago the late Henry Hampton, brought his vision to life: a documentary of the Civil Rights Movement. [photos of Hampton, the series, perhaps those of Reeb and Olsen, Greeley in Selma] That series reminded everyone of the uncompleted work of creating racial justice. Many of you also know that Henry Hampton was, during some of those years he documented, part of our Unitarian Universalist community. Perhaps that was part of what drew us back to our unfinished business.

Who knows that our commitment to that issue was not also part of what drew us to the larger spiritual question that we call Fulfilling The Promise. As many have begun to understand, we cannot contemplate the deep issues raised by racism without raising equally deep spiritual questions. So the journey towards a Jubilee World is also a journey toward a Jubilee Faith, and the contemplation of justice is also the contemplation of faith.

K: Have you ever been on a long trip in a car? Almost everyone has. And almost everyone has said or heard the same thing after hours and hours of travel. "Are we there yet?" Not yet. We Unitarian Universalists are not yet anti-racist. We are not yet fully welcoming. We are not yet as good as our principles proclaim. We have not yet fulfilled the promise. But this is good news.

Why? Because clearly the world around us is not yet fully free, fully just, fully loving. Even if we, by ourselves, were be as good as we could be, that would not be good enough. Our faith demands that we live in the world and to believe in it as much as we believe in ourselves. It is therefore impossible for us to fulfill our promise before the world fulfills its own. As Universalists who affirm that we are all in it together, and all headed toward one truth and one love, it would not be loving of us to arrive there alone.

Skit 2

[Blackout lecterns, light up center stage. Actors are now three adults. Man and woman are seated in a row of chairs, facing front, "in church." They speak to each other]

Celia: It sort of looks like a church. It's pretty and all, but I can't tell exactly.

Ken: A little informal, too. I mean here it says "Lighting the Chalice, and I wondered what that was and thought it was something important. And here it turns out some lady just got up and struck a match like she was lighting a cigarette or something.

[Third woman arrives, and sits quickly, muttering:]

Frances: I swear, when the last smoker dies there will be no one left to light the chalice. [Turning to her pew-mates]. Hi. I'm Frances. You visiting?

Celia: Yes. Our first time.

Ken: Our first visit to a Unitarian Church in fact. You do call it a church?

Frances: Well…

Celia: Ken is a little uneasy.

Frances: I was when I first came.

Celia: So you were not born a Unitarian.

Frances: No, but I don't know anyone who was.

Ken: So you're like Baptists?

Frances: I wouldn't say that.

Celia: Ken. They're about to sing a hymn.

Ken: I didn't see a hymn.

Celia: Here where it says, "song."

[They pick up hymnbooks and stand. After a few moments, Ken speaks]

Ken: These are the wrong words.

Celia: But you don't like the other words.

Ken: Still, these are the wrong ones.

[After a moment, the "hymn" ends. They close books and sit down. Frances remains standing, reciting from something in the Order of Service. Ken and Celia notice, and sheepishly stand back up. Just then Frances sits down, leaving Ken and Celia standing. They look around and quickly sit down again. Just then, Frances reaches over to "officially" shake their hand.]

Frances: "Good Morning. "Welcome" I didn't get your name.

Celia: I'm Celia, and this is…

France: Ken, right? Glad to see you. And this is your first visit to a Unitarian Church?

[Frances stands and waves her hand to get someone's attention, She speaks to someone "up front."]

Frances: Marge, these people are new today. Should they stand up?

[She nods and urges Celia and Ken, who look stricken. They stand again, slowly, waving a hand slightly. They lean forward, listening to someone. Celia speaks in response]

Celia: Yes, this is our first visit to this church. I'm Celia and this is Ken. It's our first visit to any Unitarian Church. [slight pause] Oh, Unitarian Universalist Church. That is a mouthful. And what does it mean? [she pauses, Frances laughs. Celia and Ken look puzzled. Celia sits.]

Celia: [to Ken] I didn't quite understand. Did you?

Ken: I'm not sure I understand anything. But they sure are a friendly bunch, whatever they are.

Celia: Someone is lighting a candle.

Frances: Don't worry, it's not really a religious thing.

Ken: I was sort of hoping it was.

[They listen, Frances clearly comfortable and Ken and Celia clearly clueless.]

Celia: Did she say she was giving away kittens?

Ken: Shh. Someone else is lighting a candle.

[Once more they listen. A similar response]

Ken: [circumspect] I'm really not sure I needed to know that.

Celia: I wonder if his Psychiatrist knew he was going to say that.

Frances: Or his ex-wife.

Celia: At least they're not here.

Frances: Oh, yes they are. Coffee hour is going to be more interesting than usual.

[Blackout center stage. Lectern lights.]

FTP Portion 2

K: One big happy family. That's how we often think of our congregational life. Trouble is, most of us come from something less than big happy families. Perhaps we want a big happy family because so few of us have one. That may suggest why many, if not most, of our congregations are small. The intimacy of knowing everyone, of sharing so much, is quite alluring. In a world where family and neighborhood are no longer the principal ways we connect, congregational life easily becomes the milieu for personal intimacy.

But is this what a congregation is for? As appealing as such intimacy is, is it the reason for our being? Fulfilling the Promise is asking this question. Are we in touch with our core? It is said that religion is the need for intimacy and ultimacy. We've got that first part going pretty well. If our goal is to provide intimate communities for eccentrics and misfits, for everyone who does not fit or want to fit in anywhere else, then we are succeeding. But what about that second part? Are we meeting people's needs for ultimacy?

Intro and McKinney

Skit 3

[blackout lecterns, lights on center stage. Frances is holding coffee cup and talking upstage to an invisible person. Sounds of coffee hour like chatter, clatter, and so on]

Frances: …So the man in lawn chair says "Personally I don't mind living a lie. That's where the Unitarians and I part company." [Laughter. She listens to invisible person, nodding, and then chimes in] … and knocks on your door for no apparent reason! [laughter again. She turns, showing a large sociable smile, which vanishes with rolled eyes as soon as she faces down stage. Ken approaches from SR, and she resumes the social smile and reaches her hand to greet. Daughter hurries up to Frances/Mom, from SL tugs on arm.]

Dau: Mom. [Mom does not respond instantly.] Mom. [still no response} Mom!

Frances: (talking to invisible person} Excuse me? I have to humiliate my daughter. [to daughter, with exaggerated sweetness] Yes, darling?

Dau: I learned something in Sunday School.

Frances: You're supposed to learn something, aren't you?

Dau: Uh-huh and I want to ask you a question. Do you have syphilis?

Frances: What?

Dau: Syphilis

Frances: Do you know what syphilis is, Kira?

Dau: I don't know but I think it's bad.

Frances: And that's what they taught in Sunday School?

Dau: No, I forget what my teacher was talking about. I think it was some buddha thing, whatever that is. There was a picture of a guy sitting cross-legged and smiling. Is that Buddha?

Frances: I think so, but if that's what the teacher was teaching, why are you asking about syphilis?

Dau: I was going past Jeff's room when he came out with some other kids and they were saying, "You have syphilis." "No you have syphilis." And when I asked Jeff he said, "It's what we learned about in Sunday but you're too young." And I said, "I am not. Anyone can ask any question and learn anything they want in our church. That's what Julia said in chapel time." So Jeff says, "Go ask Mom. She'll tell you about it." And so I did.

[Frances smiles at Ken, who is at the very least non-plussed.]

Frances: [to Ken] Children are a blessing, I hear. As you might infer, we have a fairly comprehensive Sex Education curriculum here.

Ken: No doubt. But your son is older, isn't he?

Frances: Yes, he's ten. [Frances realizes this may not be what Ken wants to hear right now.] But I'm not sure they're supposed to be talking about syphilis. Maybe they picked that up on the street [sotto voce] At least I hope so.

Dau: Mom! Can I go?

Frances: [grateful for the distraction] Excuse me again. [to Kira] Where are you going?

Dau: Over there.

Frances: Where is "over there?"

Dau: By Milton's other daddy.

Ken: [confused] Other daddy?

Dau: [to Ken] Yeah, the black one with the earring.

Frances: Fine honey. [to Ken] So where is Celia?

[Mavis runs out of spot. Returns quickly as Celia with a bunch of printed matter.]

Ken: I left her looking at some books. No doubt she'll find some.

Frances: We have a very extensive assortment in our bookstore

Celia: [arriving with goodly heap of pamphlets and such] Look at all this stuff. Why, I'll be busy for a week. So have you been taking care of Ken for me? [to Ken] Learned anything?

Ken: I think so, but I'm not exactly sure what.

Celia: [eagerly] Well, these should help.

Ken: Would you two excuse me for a moment? [The women nod and Ken leaves, to return as son Jeff]

Celia: So, what will the books and things tell me? I mean, what exactly is Unitarian Universalism?

Frances: That's hard to say.

Celia: I know you have no creed, but isn't there some overall definition?

Frances: I suppose the Purposes and Principles.

Celia: That list of things on the Sunday bulletin, right?

Frances: That's right.

Celia: But there's nothing there that says what Unitarian or Universalist mean. I read the words, I know what they mean. I even like them, but they don't tell me what you are.

[enter Jeff/son]

Son: [approaching, nonchalant] Hey Mom! Have you seen Omar?

Frances: No. Are you thinking of doing something?

Son: Yeah. Marvin wants us to go to the anti death penalty vigil next week as part of our Sunday School Class. He asked me to call everybody, but I thought Omar could help. So I'm looking for him.

Frances: His mom was over there with Milagros a while ago. Maybe they know.

Son: Thanks Mom. [Jeff leaves, to return as Ken]

Celia: They go to a protest for Sunday School? It's a good cause and all, but..

Frances: It doesn't look much like Sunday School?

Celia: I guess that's it. Do they learn about Unitarian Universalism itself.

Frances: Yes, in fact that's their curriculum this year.

Celia: Goodness.

[Ken returns]

Ken: Sorry to take so long, but it took a while to find the men's room. Now, I hate to be short, but we do have to leave. Just where is the way out, anyway?

Frances: Oh, that's easy. Go through the door by the mandala, turn left and go past the kitchen; right by the rainbow tapestry and that leads you out to the parking lot.

Celia: Got that Ken?

Ken: I think so. I'll leave some bread crumbs as we go in case we get lost and need to find our way back.

Celia: [to Frances] Thanks so much for everything. We had a very… interesting… time.

[Blackout center stage. Lights on lecterns.]

FTP Portion 3:

K: Our commitment to racial justice, to sexual justice, to gender justice, to human justice are part of our common call They are not the whole, but they are vital parts that point toward our destiny. Now, the idea of destiny may trouble you with its connotations of conquest and control, but all it means is destination. Our Universalist ancestors believed we are all destined to be saved, that there was but one destination of history. Martin Luther King, perhaps echoing our own Theodore Parker, said that moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. If we believe justice will prevail, somehow, then that is destiny.

Fulfilling The Promise, Journey Toward Wholeness, Welcoming Congregation, Safe Congregations, Covenants and Missions are all means to help us toward our destiny. They are not ends in themselves, and their completion is not fulfillment, any more than the exercises of an athlete or the scales of pianist are ends in themselves. Even should every congregation, and every member of every congregation, and every child do them all completely, that would not be fulfillment.

Ironically, even paradoxically, to be free requires discipline. To be present fully requires training the mind, soul, and body. Only in this way can we achieve the freedom we seek. Athletes, artists, monks, and others take up a discipline so that they can respond fully to whatever comes.

The same is true for congregations. We need spiritual discipline to train us toward reaching our true freedom. But what are our scales, our hurdles, our forms? And who shall teach us, be our guide and mentor? And again, there is an ironic answer.

"Rank by rank again we stand, from the four winds gathered hither. Loud the hallowed halls demand whence we come and how, and whither?" These words are the zenith of our Assembly. In a very real way the past, history that serves as our teacher and guide. Through the stories of our spiritual ancestors we learn the lessons of our faith. We invoke them by when we name our churches and congregations:

Places names on screen Michael Servetus Church in Vancouver Washington, Starr King Church in Hayward California, Channing Memorial in Newport Rhode Island, , Emerson Church in Houston Texas,. . The same force is in play when we call ourselves All Souls, People's Church, Community Church, or even St. Paul's and St. John's. In some way we are aspiring to live up to a great name. It says, hold us accountable to that name.

That same hymn concludes with the very essence of Fulfilling the Promise. You know these words, and many have sung them with wet eyes. "One in name, in honor one, guard we well the crown they won; what they dreamed be ours to do, hope their hopes and seal them true." The promise to be fulfilled is the one they made when they dared to make the faith itself. Every church building, every meeting house, every classroom and fellowship hall is a promise. There is not a brick, a board, a stone, a pew, a chair, a coffee pot or a coffee cup that did not mean to endure.

"What they dreamed be ours to do." How many of us live in buildings erected 50, 100, 150, even over 200 years old? How many of us enjoy the benefits have money left from 50, 100, 150 or even 200 years before? They had a dream, a vision, larger than their own lives.

"What they dreamed be ours to do." That dream was our inheritance as surely as their buildings and endowments. Their magnitude of their faith, their expectation that those pews would someday be filled, that the building would endure and serve as a beacon to town and city, that dream was what we inherited.

"What they dreamed be ours to do." The spiritual discipline we need is in the dreams of our ancestors. First, the courage to dream at all. Second the boldness, dreaming beyond our own limits and lives. How many of us enter Unitarian Universalism with a dream for more than our own personal needs? It is the question of ultimacy, which along with intimacy is what makes a living faith.

James Luther Adams, in his Five Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion, tells us that we ultimately depend on and have faith in powers beyond our own. Without defining them or even naming them, we Unitarian Universalists affirm that the ultimate is not ours alone and we cannot form it alone.

We are only part of the larger creation that exceeds our sight but not our vision. Forming those partnerships is what Fulfilling the Promise is about. Giving ourselves over to each other: to learn, to teach, to share, to explore, magnifies us.

[During the above a series of pictures, If possible. First a chalice. Then a church building. Then a neigborhood or city. Then the land from above. Then the earth from space.]

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, "Circles," says, "The eye forms the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary picture is repeated without end…. our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning…"

[Picture of Earth and sun, in eclipse. Then this dissolves to overlapped disks, and then interlocked circles. This then dissolves into the Unitarian Universalist logo.]

Those interlocked circles show us the way. Because the truth and the sacred are ever expanding, ever deepening, we are bound by this faith to seek ever-wider circles.

Each of us have personal lives, family lives, working lives, neighborhood lives, congregational lives, political lives, artistic lives, and many more. Each is a circle. Each circle contains and is contained by others. But at heart, it all comes down to those two interlocked circles crafted to honor our conjoined Unitarian and Universalist faiths.

Our living circles, like the circles of our symbol, interlock but do not coincide. Those who knit know that each stitch is really a loop that hooks on to another loop. These circles, interlocked, create the broad pliant fabric that is our Unitarian Universalist community. And like knitting, its strength is not only in the yarn that makes the many interlocked circles, but in the spaces they enclose and entwine.

When we gather as people of faith, it is to form the sacred circle. We make a place in our midst for the holy, and when it appears to us, as it does from time to time, great things happen. Fulfilling the promise is how we learn to form circles. And if we do it well, great things will happen. They already have.

Skit 4:

[blackout lecterns and screens. Spotlight center stage. Frances and children are in car going home. Jeff is playing with his Nintendo or listening to his CD player. Kira is bouncing distractedly.]

Frances: So Jeff, have you done your homework? [Jeff does not hear.] I said, have you done your homework?

Son: Most of it. [he continues to play though the conversation]

Frances: What haven't you done?

Son: I need to write a report on the Civil War. I think I'll write about Robert Gould Shaw.

Frances: Who?

Son: Robert Gould Shaw. He was the guy who commanded the Massachusetts 54th regiment. It was the first black regiment, although he was white. They all died in battle.

Frances: How do you know about this?

Son: Marvin taught us about him. He was a Unitarian, I think. There's a monument to him and the regiment in Boston.

Frances: There is?

Son: Right near the statehouse. Marvin showed us a picture. It was cool. Some famous Saint guy was the sculptor.

Frances: Saint guy? You mean St. Gaudens?

Son: Yeah. That's the guy. He was Unitarian too. Sure are a lot of Unitarians and Universalists back then.

Dau: I talked with Ms. Hanney after church today.

Son: What's that got to do with anything?

Dau: Well, she's old and so she's been a Unitarian Universalist for a long time. I wonder if she knew the guys you were talking about.

Son: Nobody's that old, silly.

Frances: But Ms Hanney is our oldest member. She was one of the founders of our church back in 1947.

Son: Whoa!

Dau: Did she build the church?

Frances: Well, she didn't actually help build the building. But she and her friends were the ones who had the idea for a church. So they got together and decided to start one. There were about 15 at first.

Son: And how many people are there now?

Frances: Gee, I guess about 500.

Dau: She said I should call her Millie.

Frances: That's very sweet, but I think you should still call her Ms Hanney.

Dau: So do I. It's like she's my grandmother. And I don't call grandma by her first name.

Frances: I remember when she told the story of when Rev. Martinson got arrested.

[music in background, "Eyes on the Prize" playing through and beyond end.]

Dau: And everyone in the church gave money to get him out of jail. Why was he in jail, Mom?

Frances: How do you know this story?

Dau: Ms Hanney told me.

Frances: He was in jail for protesting.

Son: Will I get to go to jail at the vigil?

Frances: No. Anyway. He was in jail with others for protesting segregation.

Dau: That's what Ms Hanney said. You know, when she tells me stories about long ago things it's kind of like being there. It's almost like it's my story.

Frances: It is your story, sweetie.

[Blackout, music down. Lights up on lectern, Aler-Maida standing there]

It is our story, one started before we were born and still unfinished, we add a chapter, maybe two, in our lives. If we have learned the story so far what we add will advance it. And when we are gone others will learn the story and go a little further yet. Today and tomorrow FTP is holding workshops in "story writing." Please come to one. Learn how you and others are forming the newest chapters in the story of Unitarian Universalism. [cell phone rings again.] Look in your agendas for the time and place [ring]. Excuse me. [answers phone]. Yes, Oh. [turns to audience, holding phone out to audience]. It's for you.

Fulfilling the Promise - Our Common Call Report

Formatted by Kasey Melski.