My friend, Charles Howe, begins his recently published book about Universalism in America, "The Larger Faith," with these words:

"On September 4, 1793, a group of people who called themselves Universalists gathered in the village of Oxford, Massachusetts, for a day of preaching, prayer, fellowship, mutual support, and organizational business. Those present called their meeting a 'General Convention' of the 'Universal Churches and Societies in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and New York,' and although they could not have known it at the time, their meeting marked the beginning of a new denomination."

The Moderator was the Rev. John Murray. "Presumably," Charles writes, "the worship services and business sessions were held in the new Universalist meeting house which had been erected the previous year. Those delegates who had come from a very great distance very likely were given overnight home hospitality. One thing is certain. Before adjournment, the delegates made plans for another such meeting to be held the following year."

Isn't that amazing to think about? If Methuselah had been a Universalist, he could have been at his two hundred and sixth annual General Assembly here in Salt Lake City. I know some of you think that some of us have been doing this for 206 years. I know there are days - Saturday was one of them - when I surely feel like it's been that long!

In case you haven't noticed, I am a big fan of GA. I like this institution in its concept, the representative assembly of an association of congregations come annually to govern themselves in the practice of democracy and walking together. I like it in its reality: a boisterous, educational, emotional, gathering of thousands of Unitarian Universalists. An agora of ideas and wares. A week of learning, gossiping, bolstering, challenging and hugging, of singing and visiting, of worship and witness. I do love GA and I love being its presiding officer. But you know that!

What has always been curious to me, particularly in the six years I have served as your Moderator, is the constant criticism of GA as undemocratic. I look at the UUA Bylaws and see a process based on democratic practice. But, I am told, we don't adhere to the practice. Our delegates are not truly chosen democratically. In most Unitarian Universalist societies, those who have the time and the money are the ones who get to be delegates. So, many, many member congregations don't take GA seriously. They don't feel like the decisions made in these plenary sessions are their decisions. It's all just a sham.

This year, I want to report to you that I have finally emerged from my denial. I have quit fighting angry criticism with my own tart critiques. I have faced the fact that we could do this better. That we must do this better if we are to fulfill the promise of Unitarian Universalism. My goal is, as it has always been, to get the members of the Association, to take their governance, their democracy seriously. What I have come to realize is that, in order to do this, we must make changes and, very likely, gulp, change ourselves. It's a very tall order but I am determined to try. "Oh God", I hear you thinking. "Not more change. Why doesn't this woman leave us alone?"

The late Shel Silverstein wrote a lot about the need for change:

I'll share your toys, I'll share your money
I'll share your toast, I'll share your honey,
I'll share your milk and your cookies, too --
The hard part's sharing mine with you.

Last October 24th, the UUA Board of Trustees was meeting in Boston. What a wonderful group of folks this band of Trustees is! I urge you to read the written report prepared by Secretary and Assistant Secretary, Reverend Carl Thitchener, retiring this year as the Trustee from the St. Lawrence District, and Margaret Sanders, the indefatigable Trustee representing in grand style both the Mid South and Florida Districts.

Their report will actually tell you what the Board has been doing since we saw you in Rochester. Get the packet of reports. Find this one. Take it home with you! Well, you should take all the reports home with you. Anyway, a whole bunch of Trustees were sitting around the dining room table at Pickett/Eliot, our Bed & Breakfast "home" behind 25 Beacon Street. Conversation was flowing and so, as I recall, was a particularly dry and mellow California Merlot.

Some of you may not realize that, when the Board of Trustees meets in October and January and April, the work is very hard and rigorous. People meet over meals, around the formal meetings that run from 8:30 am to 5:30 PM, and, often, on into the night. This was one of the on into the night sessions.

Anyway, the discussion began around a concern John Buehrens and Carolyn Owen-Towle expressed often in the 1993 presidential campaign and which John has been unrelenting in pushing on us ever since he took office. It is this: because under our present system, custom, really, people who run for president, and moderator for that matter, are expected to engage in a two year process that entails their speaking in every District in the Association, very few people find it possible to run. Ministers are expected to be in their pulpits on Sundays, not flying around North America to District assemblages. Lay people often have day jobs and family obligations on weekends. The problem is most vexing for ministers. It is no coincidence that both John and Carolyn were serving large churches and in co-ministries when they announced in 1991. Most, if not all others cannot afford the time or money to run this gauntlet. A gauntlet brought about by our expectations, to be sure.

So, that night, that's how the conversation began. We talked long enough to realize that the problem, our problem, lay not with the potential candidates but with the system. Two years of travel is brutal. But go find a District that would be willing to say, "No need to come to us. We'll be happy to sacrifice." So, we talked about technology, about video conferencing, about using the website. And, along the way, we began to talk about holding biennial General Assemblies in the odd years, when our elections always take place, and, in the even years, holding regional meetings, maybe six, maybe more, where candidates could come and talk to folks, debate issues, mix and mingle and all that good stuff.

If we did this, we reasoned, many more people than are here in Salt Lake City could experience the thrill of large worship, splendid workshops, the talents of the UUA staff. Many more people could think about and stand for denominational leadership service. Many more people could get connected to the wonder that is the wider UUA. The next morning, I walked into the Board meeting at "25" and said to Kay Montgomery and John Buehrens, "I may become a convert to Biennials." Kay told me I had lost it. But, in truth, I've been thinking about this idea ever since. And the more I think about it, the more I like it. I speak, in this regard, only for myself and not for the Trustees, individually or collectively.

Shel Silverstein speaks again:

You've been up on that diving board.
Making sure that it's nice and straight.
You've made sure that it's not to slick.
You've made sure it can stand the weight.
You've made sure that the spring is tight.
You've made sure that the cloth won't slip.
You've made sure that it bounces right.
And that your toes can get a grip --
And you've been up there since half past five
Doin' everything...but DIVE.

Now, I don't think you're going to dive into biennials before there's a lot more talk. So do me a favor. Start talking while you're here. Let me suggest people with whom you might talk. Board of Trustees, please stand up. Incoming Trustees please stand up. District presidents, please stand up. Talk to these people. If you don't know your District Trustee or District President, shame on you. You're not helping to make our democracy work. You'll have trouble talking to me while we're here but I invite you to contact me by email. You can write to the entire Board of Trustees on e-mail. The address is board@uua.org. When the Board meets in the third week of October, and the District Presidents meet the first week in November, we need feedback.

Two Districts, Ohio Valley and Michigan have already voted at their meetings this Spring to request that the UUA Board of Trustees place the matter of biennials on an upcoming agenda. Talk to them as well.

I mentioned fulfilling the promise of Unitarian Universalism earlier in this report. I mean it. Our association is in a period of deep reflection and rich complexity. There are conversations going on in this movement that most of us wouldn't have thought possible five years ago. Even as the world about me seems to grow crazier and its people more dangerously self absorbed, I am constantly dazzled , moved and humbled by what goes on in our congregations:

• The tenacious refusal to abandon the goodness inherent in our Journey Toward Wholeness even when we're discouraged and disheartened.
• The willingness to try some of the covenanting suggested in Fulfilling the Promise materials.
• The studious attention to stewardship issues and the growing awareness of our ability to afford just about anything we want if only we will shake off the shackles of scarcity thinking.
• The step by step embrace of fair compensation for our ministers and church staffs.

My report in the packet details my many visits with congregations during the year past. I find you amazing, inspiring, touching, funny and standing tall in your communities as witnesses to this great faith of ours. Mine is without a doubt the best volunteer job of all. And I thank you for the many ways in which you honor it, and me.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the hymn "Name Unnamed," #31 in "Singing the Living Tradition," with music by the Reverend Fred Wooden, words by Brian Wren. I know of few verses that evoke the Spirit of Life more poignantly for me:

Spinner of chaos, pulling and twisting,
freeing the fibers of pattern and form,
Weaver of Stories, famed or unspoken, tangled or broken,
shaping a tapestry vivid and warm.

Nudging Discomfort, prodding and shaking,
waking our lives to creative unease,
Straight talking Lover, checking and humbling jargon and grumbling,
speaking the truth that refreshes and frees.

Midwife of Changes, skillfully guiding,
drawing us out through the shock of the new...

Within that image of a Divine-inspired ethos of chaos, brokeness, discomfort, creative uneasy, truth speaking, change -- the shock of the new, we find ourselves as we live our lives of faithful volunteerism, striving to build and to nurture, maintain and improve liberal religious Unitarian Universalist communities where we and our children may love mercy and do justice and come to understand and embrace what it means to walk humbly with God.

I praise all of you who do the work of the church volunteer; teachers, board members, finance advisors, canvassers, committee heads, ushers, greeters, singers in the choir, carers of building and grounds, communicators, workers for the common good, and all the unnamed rest and, yes, those who come to honestly represent your member congregation at General Assembly. Thank you for this effort. Thank you for this dedication. Thank you for who you are and what you do. For, in the words of the Reverend Olympia Brown, 'standing by this Faith.'

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