UUA General Assembly 98
Worship Service: "Crowns and Dreams"
Rev. Dr. Kendyl Gibbons, First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, Minn.
GA logo The Rev. Kendyl Gibbons, minister-elect, First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, Minn., opened the Friday morning session of the Unitarian Universalist Association with a sermon that recalled the experiences of Queen Isabella of Transylvania, mother of King John Sigismund, the Unitarian King of Transylvania. Gibbons focused on the roots of Unitarianism, which rose from unrest in Hungary and Transylvania. Rev. Kendyl Gibbons

"What would be the best way to rule a kingdom such as ours?" Gibbons' Queen asked. "Will it work, and is it good?", John Sigismund replied. "One of the questions the ruler must face is what to do about religion," Gibbons said. Speaking for Queen Isabella, she continued, "We talked for hours about the possibilities available. The Reformation had begun, and few families now remained Catholic. The doctrine of the trinity was an error, invented by the church. The reality was that most of the nobles of the land were Lutheran or followers of John Calvin. Why should not each human soul respond to God in a way that seemed best to them? And then, we had a vision of a new way: suppose a nation had many churches, different from one another, and the people could chose freely among them? It was so daring, so different from anything that we knew... but gradually the dream took hold of us, and we understsood that this would be a part of our plan...".

She observed, "Our return to our people and our country in October of 1556 was a triumph of joy. At the first parliament the following June, I issued the decree that everyone might enjoy the faith of their choice, without penality... that a national leader gave back to ordinary people, the matter of their own consciences in God and faith."

People speak of John Sigismund with praise. You are the keepers of this dream, Gibbons reminded the assembled delegates. "In four hundred years, everywhere liberty has bloomed, so have intolerance and oppression. But the spirit... springs up anew, flowering wherever it is planted. The dream lives on... of liberty for the human conscience, and of "God is one," which sounds on the lips of the people of Rumania even today. This, we have given down the centuries, and now it is yours. To spread this light around you, and pass it on to others."

(Reported by Debbie Weiner, formatted for the Web by Margy Levine Young)
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