Whew! I’m still recovering from the 2007 UUA General Assembly in Portland, Oregon. I came home enriched, inspired, and tired but grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with colleagues, friends, and thousands of fellow UU’s from all over the country.

The first two days in Portland, I attended Ministry Days along with over seven hundred UU ministers. The keynote speaker on Tuesday was United Church of Christ minister, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. When Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago called him to be their minister they had only 87 members, today there are over 7,000. After years of
struggling to grow, this religious community decided that they were “unapologetically Christian and unabashedly black.” Wright explained how they learned to be themselves and changed their formal worship that had the manner of a funeral to a more celebratory style and welcomed everyone to join them on the journey. This paragraph in their mission statement describes just how welcoming they truly are:

We are called out to be "a chosen people" that pays no attention to socio-economic or educational backgrounds.
We are made up of the highly educated and the uneducated. Our congregation is a combination of the haves and the have-nots; the economicallyy disadvantaged, the under-class, the unemployed and the employable.

This congregation is intergenerational, multi-racial, and multi-cultural, and they have proven that diversity is not just an idealistic dream!

On Wednesday morning the worship service honored UU ministers serving our movement for 25 years and 50 years. We heard sermons by the Reverend Carl Scovel (50 years) and the Reverend Barbara Pecan (25 years.) The wonderfully inspiring 187th Berry Street Lecture was delivered by the Reverend Kenneth W. Sawyer. The Berry Street Conference is and always has been a lecture for ministers by ministers. I don’t have to tell you how much I enjoyed these two days.

Attendance at General Assembly this year was overwhelmingly huge, second only to three years ago where over 7,000 UU’s gathered in Boston, the birthplace of Unitarianism. The workshops, worship services, and lectures were outstanding this year but the sheer numbers of people made it difficult to get into the most popular workshops and lectures. The sessions began in the morning and continued throughout the evening, usually with a 30-minute break to race from one end of the convention center to the other.

This year’s GA was special for me because I was able to share the experience with our new board president, Terry Murphy. It was fun to watch her enjoying her first GA and to spend time over dinner sharing ideas and dreams for People’s Church.

A bonus: I met my mentor and friend, Rev. Dr. Davidson Loehr for dinner in Chicago before flying to Portland. It was great to see him and to be mentored by him once again. Davidson gave me a list of four books that he considers the most important books he’s read this year. I was delighted to find that two of the authors were speakers at General Assembly! I had the privilege of hearing them both: Dr. Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade, and her most recent book (the one Davidson recommended) The Real Wealth of Nations and Columbia University professor, Rashid Khalidi, author of The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood, and Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East (another book recommended by Davidson).

The Reverend Robert Fulghum, Unitarian Universalist minister for almost fifty years presented a lecture titled, “What in God’s Name Am I Doing?” Hundreds of people were turned away, but Terry and I had staked out seats early, thank goodness. Fulghum magically uses humor combined with wisdom to reveal the sacred in everyday common experience. It was a time to remember.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Now is the Time.” There has never been a time in history when sharing and growing our faith is more crucial to our faith and to the future of our world. I’m optimistic about our congregation’s potential to have a positive impact in our own lives and the larger community. With the enthusiastic, joyful people in our midst, I believe that we are up to the challenge!