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A long road has brought our church to this day: more than two and a half centuries
of the full flow of human emotions: good times and bad; years of abundance and years
of scarcity; times of joy and times of sadness.
May the souls of those departed, and those who will come after us, crowd with us
into this meeting house on this day, warming our gathering with the presence of
their memory; inspiring our gathering with the radiance of their hope.
The past offers its gifts generously, with strong hands of bold and free-spirited
souls,
who dared to offer their world (and ours) a liberating vision of hope and courage.
May we remember gratefully this day those gifts of this spirit united and universal,
ours for the borrowing in our time: the gift of a faith that will not rest until
the circle of its community is as wide as the universe itself, and human love grows
large as the very heart of God.
May this church ever, always be a place of love and caring, for ourselves and the
world around us. May it be a place for boundless searching, for thirsting after
knowledge; a place where differing truths are aired openly and freely; but even
more, a place of reconciliation and friendship and compassion and even humor as
well.
May we this day, each one of us, rededicate ourselves to our highest ideals and
most noble aspirations; to the call of a faith as big as the whole world; to the
call of a faith as expansive as the universe itself.
Amen.
jbs
4/2/2000
- 3/5/05
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