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June 2007

“If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors.
There is no other.”
—Carl Schurz

Contents

Quest Archives
Quest Submission Guidelines

Did You Know?
...that Between Sundays offers curricula to answer kids’ questions about religion? See www.clfuu.org/betweensundays.

Our Annual Meeting:

Notice to all members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, Unitarian Universalist

Per Article VII, Sections 1 and 2, of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) Bylaws, the 26th Annual Meeting will be held at 4:45 pm on June 20, 2007 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR at the CLF ingathering. The purpose of the meeting is to:

  • Elect a moderator from among members present to preside at the meeting;
  • Elect members of the board of directors, the nominating committee, the clerk, and the treasurer from the slate of candidates presented on the ballot and mailed to members;
  • Recognize retiring directors for their service; and,
  • Transact such other business as may legally come before the meeting.

Tad Crawford, Clerk
May 1, 2007


MummertJuneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom

BY MELISSA MUMMERT, COMMUNITY MINISTER ASSOCIATED WITH THE UU CHURCH OF CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, SERVING AS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COUNSELOR AND EDUCATOR IN THE MECKLENBURG COUNTY JAIL.

Juneteenth—that auspicious day when American slaves in Texas were notified that they had been freed. No more Africans would be kidnapped from their homes in chains or thrust onto crammed ships to die of suffocation or disease. No more people would survive only to be sold on an auction block. No more human mothers would be sold away from their children, husbands away from their wives. No more.

On this Juneteenth, we celebrate all who risked their lives and livelihoods to end the shameful institution of slavery. People read the Emancipation Proclamation, dance, and cook up elaborate meals. There is reason to celebrate this day.

But as I was planning this sermon, someone said "If you're going to tell the story of Juneteenth, don't tell a fairy tale." So, we look closer at the story of Juneteenth....

The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, but word didn't reach slaves in Texas until June 19, 1865, over two years later. The slaves in Texas were already officially free, but no one told them. There were cotton crops to harvest, after all. So we can look to Juneteenth as a day both to celebrate emancipation and as a call to examine the silence and inaction that perpetuates oppressions.

Talking about race can be tricky business. My seminary, Starr King School for the Ministry, had a program called "Educating to Counter Oppressions." The faculty and students took the work to destroy racism and all of the "isms" that plague us quite seriously. At an all-school meeting one afternoon, a faculty member announced, "Because of the racist connotations of the phrase brown bag lunch, we will now be using the term BYOL, 'bring your own lunch'."

She moved on to the next item of business.

And the next.

Until a tentative voice interrupted. It was Anne, a first year seminarian.

"I don't mean to make trouble, but I've been sitting here trying figure out what in the world you're talking about with the brown bag thing."

I, and I'm sure many others in the room, cheered internally. I thought the new "policy" was goofy, typical Berkeley PC drabble, but I didn't want to sound racist, so I stayed silent. But because Anne was not afraid of being wrong, she opened an opportunity for education from which we all benefited. We learned that brown bags in the past were used to determine admissibility to some establishments, including some churches. People would be required to place their arm inside a brown paper bag and could attend church services only if the skin on their arm was lighter than the color of the bag.

A lengthy discussion resulted and some still didn't agree with the rationale for striking the colloquialism "brown bag" from our school's lingo. But because Anne asked a potentially uncomfortable question, we at least understood the intent behind the semantic switch, and at the same time we learned a shocking piece of forgotten history.

So many of us are well-meaning—we don't want to offend or make mistakes, when it comes to race—but the end result is that we can be so fearful of messing up that we can stifle genuine dialogue and deeper learning.

I hope that Unitarian Universalism is a place where we can talk about race, even if such conversations are uncomfortable. We all have stories. Stories from different perspectives can lead us into that conversation, hearing each story as a snapshot of a personal journey toward racial understanding.

Much of my understanding about the complexity of race in America began when I took at job as a life skills teacher at an East Hollywood homeless shelter for 18-20 year olds. When I got there, I thought our shelter was a little Utopia, at least in terms of diversity. Among the staff and the kids at the shelter there were Anglo-Americans, African-Americans, Caribbean-Americans, Central Americans, Indian Americans and Not-From-America Americans. The staff had the common goal of caring for these kids, so we worked together unaffected by our racial differences.

At least I thought so.

Then I developed a friendship with a counselor, Jenny, who is multi-racial. At one lunch, Jenny asked me to notice how few of the people of color got promoted up to the administrative positions, and when they did, how long they lasted. She
asked me to look at the whiteness of the organization's board of directors and whether it was reflective of the diversity at the bottom of the ladder. Jenny revealed that this was a common topic for the people of color on staff there, common knowledge. Once again, despite being well-meaning, I was shocked. I just hadn't noticed.

My interactions with the kids opened my eyes even more. We weren't supposed to have favorites, but my favorite was James, a 19-year old orphan. James was as hungry for life as anyone I've ever met. He had a new plan every day. One day he would come to me with pages of a screenplay, and then the next day he'd tell me that he wanted to open a barbeque stand. In the stress management class that I taught, I counseled James and the others that there are healthy ways to cope with inevitable stress in life. One of those ways was exercising. Just get up, put on your sneakers and run your cares away.

James got inspired. He got up at 5:30 the next morning, put on his Nikes, left the shelter and ran in the quiet of pre-dawn Hollywood.

He came back in a squad car. Police saw this young Black man running in the dark, and stopped him. James said they asked him what he was running from.

"Just running."

"Show me your ID."

"I don't have my ID. I'm just running."

They brought him back to the shelter to confirm his name and his story.

I remember the shame and anger that I felt when James recounted this story for me later. I felt it again when I learned that California has a gang database that criminalizes young people based on their race, their style of dress, or who they hang around with. Forty-seven percent of the young black men in Los Angeles are in this database and forty-four percent of those have never been arrested.

Months after James's eventful run, I came into work and was told that James made a dumb mistake and had been arrested. We never saw him again. I expect that James now is just one of the million Black men in prison.

James may be one of the reasons that I feel drawn to working in jails and prisons, and why I started volunteering in Kansas City at the Metropolitan Correctional Institution. The inmate population is eighty percent African-American. No New York Times or New Yorker article can equal the visceral feeling of walking into a cage and seeing dark faces in bright orange jumpsuits.

Walking through the facility, passing human beings who have inherent worth and dignity, I feel my whiteness in a way I don't in the circles in which I normally run, the circles where paleness is the default and brown the anomaly.

I will never know, the way James did, what it's like to walk down the street and hear the distinct click of door locks as I approach. I don't know what it's like to be followed in a department store. When I'm ignored, I can safely surmise that it's poor service, not racism.

I know about looking for a house and having our white real estate agent take us only to predominantly white neighborhoods. I hate that there is de facto separation of races in this country, which I think contributes to continued fear and racism. But I don't say to my real estate agent "Why are you only showing us white neighborhoods? It is critical that we live in a diverse neighborhood."

In these ways and so many more, I say "oh well" to the pervasive, sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant, racial inequities that keep America humming along every day.

I don't want to be like the white Texans who were so content with the status quo that they kept people enslaved, but I have to admit that many of my daily choices run counter to my desire to seek greater freedom and justice for others.

So, I take stock.

We can celebrate that legal slavery ended in the United States, but notice that of the two million people incarcerated in this country, approximately two thirds are people of color. We can celebrate that legal segregation ended in this country, but recognize that de facto residential segregation increasingly keeps us from racial understanding and healing. We can celebrate that an African-American man is running for president of the United States, but also notice that nearly half of all African American and Latino children live below the poverty line.

We can each personally celebrate all that has been accomplished in our lifetimes to further the work of racial justice, and acknowledge the work that calls to us now. As Ralph Ellison says: "There's been a heap of Juneteenths before this one, and I tell you there'll be a heap more before we're truly free."

What if each of us really bought that old Hasidic saying: "You are not expected to finish the task, but neither are you permitted to lay it down," and we each made a decision to take a next step toward racial justice starting right from where we are?

Our individual views on race have been shaped by our race or ethnicity, our hometowns, our parents, and friends and educations. We are all at different points along the way and can decide for ourselves what our next steps might be and how much energy we can bring to them.

What might your next step be?

Will you use your voice to help save affirmative action?

Might you join the NAACP?

Would you tell your stories of how you fought for civil rights to a new generation?

One more step.

Will you start a journal about your experiences of race growing up?

Will you join a discussion group or start a multi-racial book group?

Will you commit to honestly expressing your feelings about race on the Quest Forum?

Just one more step.

Will you teach a new generation of young people how to organize to make justice?

What might your next step be?

broken chain linkIn closing, the words of W.E.B. Dubois:

Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season.

It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or
future year.

It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow.

In honor of the memories of the millions who suffered and died in the slave trade, let us continue to do the bold work necessary to build a world of liberty and justice for all.

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CLF's Prison Ministry

Franzby Patty Franz, Director of Prison Ministries, Church of the Larger Fellowship

  • I really appreciate all the help you and your church are giving me. In all the time I've been "down" I have never seen a church reach out to us (inmates) like this.
     
  • The UU church reached out to me when I asked. I can find the mainstream religions all over the place to mail me books, tapes, lessons, etc., [but] my desire was fellowship, and even though we are apart a ways, I feel it. Thanks!

(unsolicited comments from CLF prisoner-members)

  • My correspondence with [my penpal] is going really well...and I have been challenged in my perceptions of what someone in prison is really like. It's a great match and a great learning experience for me.
     
  • I always perk up when I see [my penpal's letters] in my mailbox. The match is working well [and] I am pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the penpal experience is for me.
     
  • This penpal experience with the CLF has added depth to my spiritual life in ways I never imagined...

(unsolicited comments from non-incarcerated UU penpals)

As the UU congregation that serves isolated religious liberals, the CLF has a long history of offering spiritual support to prisoners by mail. The number of CLF prisoner-members has mushroomed in recent years, and incarcerated UUs now make up almost 10% of the CLF's membership.

Some of our incarcerated members were members of UU congregations at the time of their arrest, or had attended UU services in the past. But most of the CLF's prisoner-members have only heard or read about Unitarian Universalism while in prison, and they're glad to have found in the CLF's spiritual community an alternative to the more conservative religious programming offered at their facilities. Prisoner-members of the CLF are mailed our Quest every month, and the UUWorld magazine four times a year.

Offering spiritual support to prisoners is becoming more challenging, as they currently have no access to the Web, email, or other cyber-resources, so everything has to be printed on paper and sent through the mail. Nonetheless, the programming that the CLF offers our prisoner-members has been growing over the last year. We've begun offering "correspondence courses" (with no academic credit) starting with a three-session New UU class last fall, and World Religions, UU History and Building Your Own Theology later this year.

We've also expanded our penpal program, and now almost half of our prisoner-members are corresponding regularly with non-incarcerated members of the CLF or of other UU congregations. All participants (prisoner and "free-world") in the CLF's Letter Writing Ministry agree to the same Guidelines before being matched to exchange letters. (For example, prisoners are told only the first name of their UU penpal, and send their letters to the CLF to be forwarded on to their penpal.) The CLF staff is also available to all letter writers for advice and support. Both prisoners and "free-world" participants regularly report that they benefit more from their exchange of letters than they ever imagined when they applied to the program.

More prisoner-members are still waiting to be matched with a UU penpal, so if you might be interested in corresponding, please check out our website at www.clfuu.org/prisonministry or email PrisMin@clfuu.org or write to the CLF's Prison Ministry at 25 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108 for more information. Of course, financial support of our prison ministry is always very much needed and welcomed. Also, non-incarcerated CLFers who don't have access to the CLF's on-line cyber-classes are invited to contact the Prison Ministry to ask about signing up for our "correspondence" courses by mail.

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Is This Your Religion?

Daviesby A. Powell Davies, from Without Apology: Collected Meditations on Liberal Religion by A. Powell Davies, edited by Forrest Church and published by Skinner House Books in 1998. Originally written in 1944 for the 123rd anniversary of the founding of All Souls Church, Unitarian located in Washington, DC.

We are the consummation of thousands of years of religious history. We are thousands of years that have stripped off superstition and battled with tyranny; thousands of years that struggled to take fear out of religion—to take it right out of human life; thousands of years that have marched, sometimes joyfully, sometimes in agony, toward spiritual emancipation. We are indeed the consummation of something.

Yet in this world of blood and sorrow it is scarcely important, hardly worth mentioning, unless in addition we are the beginning of something, unless our religion is new—the religion that has always been new in every prophet who died rather than forsake it; the religion that has been buried over and over again in creeds and rituals and sacred sepulchers and yet has always come to life; the religion that today is new all over the earth, stammering itself into utterance in every language known to humankind.

The religion that says freedom!—freedom from ignorance and false belief; freedom from spurious claims and bitter prejudices; freedom to seek the truth, both old and new, and freedom to follow it; freedom from the hates and greeds that divide humankind and spill the blood of every generation; freedom for honest thought, freedom for equal justice; freedom to seek the true, the good and the beautiful with minds unimpaired by cramping dogmas and spirits uncrippled by abject dependence. The religion that says humankind is not divided—except by ignorance and prejudice and hate; the religion that sees humankind naturally one and waiting to be spiritually united; the religion that proclaims an end to all exclusions—and declares a brother and sisterhood unbounded! The religion that knows that we shall never find the fullness of the wonder and the glory of life until we are ready to share it, that we shall never have hearts big enough for the love of God until we have made them big enough for the worldwide love of one another.

As you have listened to me, have you thought perchance that this is your religion? If you have, do not congratulate yourself. Stop long enough to recollect the miseries of the world you live in: the fearful cruelties, the enmities, the hate, the bitter prejudices, the need of such a world for such a faith. And if you still can say that this of which I have spoken is your religion, then ask yourself this question: What are you doing with it?

Without Apology is available from the UUA bookstore (www.uua.org/bookstore or 800-215-9076) or through the CLF Library (www.clfuu.org/library or 617-948-6150).

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In Memoriam, Rejean Metzler

by Kelly Weisman Asprooth-Jackson, ministerial intern, Church of the Larger Fellowship

In March of 1960, Rejean Metzler and her husband, Maurice, interested in Unitarianism, requested information about congregations that they might attend. Since there were no brick-and-mortar churches near their home in West-central Connecticut, they were referred to the Church of the Larger Fellowship. So began Rejean Metzler's proud and enduring relationship with the CLF.

mailboxRejean and Maurice became members of the CLF in 1960. In the decades that followed, they witnessed the merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, the incorporation of the Church of the Larger Fellowship as a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the development of this congregation into its present incarnation. Throughout that time, Rejean Metzler expressed her support and concern for the congregation with numerous letters and postcards.

In the first of her many hand-written letters to the CLF, Rejean wrote in 1961, "I would like you to know that the sermons of the Larger Fellowship mailing are warm, vibrant crystallizations of my own far less lucid feelings, to the point that in a very active civic period of my life they take precedence over any other reading matter or activity in which I might be engaged!"

Rejean and Maurice lived their lives as committed members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, and we are honored and grateful to have been remembered in their estate, a plan which the Metzler's put in place nearly 40 years ago. As Rejean wrote to our office in 1968, "I don't plan to die for a long time, but my husband and I think that here is the most important investment for our future."

Rejean's personal commitment to and love of the ministry and mission of the Church of the Larger Fellowship calls us as a congregation on to deeper and more generous service in the world. May her memory endure in the congregation she so deeply loved.

To those with similar sentiments toward our congregation, please consider making a bequest to the CLF through the UUA's Legacy Gifts Office. This office is devoted to providing information and assistance in planned giving to any and all Unitarian Universalist institutions, including the CLF. For more information, you can reach the Legacy Gifts Office at (888) 792-5885 or giftplans@uua.org.

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The CLF Library

booksTo pique your interest, here are a few of the many new materials that have been added to the library recently. Find both new and old items from our CLF Library.

Music from All Souls
CD from All Souls Church Unitarian, Washington, DC
Hymns, spirituals from around the world, including: "Spirit of Life," "Wade in the Waddah," "Birkalaten," "Freedom is Coming," "Entre El Espanta Y La Ternura," "Mother Spirit, Father Spirit," "Oh, Po' Little Jesus," "Hush," and more.

Life Tides
Audio tape, read by CLF member Linda Harris, of this 1993 UUA Meditation Manual by Elizabeth Tarbox. Forty meditations that invite the reader to pause and listen for the voice of the spirit.

Did I Say That Out Loud? Musings from a Questioning Soul
by Meg Barnhouse, 2006
UU minister Meg Barnhouse writes essays that turn the everyday incidents of life into meditations that are touching, insightful and hysterically funny.

Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, an American Controversy
by Annette Gordon-Reed, 1997
An analysis of the close relationship between Jefferson and one of his slaves.

Unitarian Universalism Is a Really Long Name
by Jennifer Dant, 2006
This book helps children learn about Unitarian Universalism. Explanations of the seven principles, UU religious values, the flaming chalice and more. Includes illustrations by Anne Carter.

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CLF Online Small Groups

hand on computer mouseLooking for ways to connect with other Unitarian Universalists for conversation, inspiration or exploration? The CLF offers its members:

Shared Interest Groups

Our Shared Interest Groups are designed to appeal to a wide variety of identities and interests. For example, we have email lists for people who are retirees, full-time RV-dwellers, or people with mental illness; as well as for people who identify as UU Christians, UU humanists or UU pagans. Whatever the topic, these email-based small groups are places to share experiences, ideas, questions, ponderings and more with folks who share a common life experience or belief system.

Covenant Groups

CLF online covenant groups are designed to build community among people in distant locations, providing the opportunity for deep listening and sharing, and for spiritual growth, within a covenanted community. Participants agree to participate fully, and to listen and respond with respect and compassion.

Covenant groups use a structured format to connect via email, with three-week sessions that include an opening reading, check-in, questions for reflection and sharing, time for discussion, likes/wishes (evaluation) and a closing reading.

Forums

While the above groups are limited to CLF members, anyone interested in civil conversation is welcome to participate in our Forums. Hosted on our Online Learning Center, we have community forums on a variety of topics, and plenty of room for adding whatever you might like to discuss. Our Quest Forums provide a place to discuss latest issue of Quest, including a question or two to spur discussion.

Information about all of these different venues for online conversation and community is available under the "Online Community" menu on our CLF website.

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From Your Minister

RzepkaBY JANE RZEPKA, SENIOR MINISTER, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP

We just don't say it enough. That you are a person who belongs in the Church of the Larger Fellowship. Emphasis on the belongs. Over the years as a Unitarian Universalist, I've learned that people don't always experience the welcome we intend; I've learned that it doesn't go without saying.

So for the record, and with all the authority I can muster as the senior minister of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, I would like to assure you that this congregation welcomes you. We feel honored that you've joined. You are entitled to be here if that's what you want.

No matter who you are. No matter where you live. No matter in what sense you may feel isolated and "out there"—or not. No matter how much money you make, no matter how many other ways you do or do not contribute to Unitarian Universalism, no matter how smart you are, or how long you have been a member, or in what ways you participate, or how old you are, or where you fit into the gender spectrum, or who you love. If you are a member of the CLF, you are a real member.

If you are wealthy and retired, welcome. If you are incarcerated, welcome. If you do everything online, welcome, and if you do not use a computer, welcome. We welcome you if you raise your kids with CLF materials, if you go to a nearby church on Sundays, if you live in Kentucky or Cairo or France. If you were raised Catholic or Muslim or Methodist or Jewish or Unitarian Universalist or anything else or nothing, welcome. Welcome to you who are paid to work in churches and need us as "your" church, welcome to volunteer religious leaders, to all manner of followers, and to everyone in between. If you are living with illness, welcome. If you've joined simply to be supportive of our good works, welcome. If you're just getting by, welcome. We welcome you if you're awash in friendships or spend most of your time alone. Welcome to those who have never met another Unitarian Universalist, and to those whose friends and neighbors all wear flaming chalice jewelry. You are welcome if you don't believe in God, or if Jesus provides you strength, or if you lean toward the wonders of nature and the kindness of your neighbor, or if you're drawn to an aspect of the spirit you can't quite describe, or if you don't relate to any of those things and have your own way. If in the morning you hear roosters, or the rattle of subways, or a newspaper's thud on the sidewalk, welcome.

If I somehow haven't included you, welcome to you as well.

Janamanchi Dennis Rosnau Family
Rev. Abhi Janamanchi, FL Meggie Dennis, MA Shannon Rosnau & Family; Alberta, Canada

Turks Parthemore Davidoff
Barbara & Louis Turk, OR Joel Parthemore; Brighton, UK Jana Fedoriska, PA

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REsources For Living

BY LYNN UNGAR, MINISTER FOR LIFESPAN LEARNING, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP

UngarHappy Father's Day! Unitarian Universalists tend to make a big deal out of Mother's Day, perhaps because Unitarian Julia Ward Howe started it. But it seems like Father's Day doesn't get the same kind of attention. It's true that Father's Day doesn't have any particular Unitarian or Universalist connections, but I thought it might be a good excuse to introduce you to a man some people call "The Father of Unitarianism."

William Ellery Channing didn't start off as someone you would expect to have radical ideas about religion. He was born in 1780 into a wealthy New England family, and went to a Congregational church where the minister expressed a harsh view of human nature. That view was typical of the time, and William's family had no argument with the notion that people were "sinners in the hands of an angry God," as a popular minister of a few decades earlier put it.

One Sunday William's father took him to hear a visiting preacher, who gave a particularly vigorous version of that message. Overwhelmed by the sermon, in which the minister yelled at the congregation about how most people were sinners who would be met with the horrible tortures of hell after they died, William felt "a curse seemed to rest on the earth and darkness and horror to veil the face of nature." His father seemed to agree with everything the preacher said, so William assumed that when they got home they would fall on their knees and pray to be saved from impending doom. Instead, the family ate their usual meal, and then his father sat by the fire, puffed his pipe and read the newspaper.

ChanningWilliam didn't know what to think: Did his family not really believe what the preacher said? Did they believe, but not take it seriously?

Well, William grew up to become someone who took thinking about religion very seriously. Eventually he went to Harvard to study to become a minister. While he was a student, Channing wrote down some thoughts which guided him in his studies throughout his life, and came to guide Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists down the road. He wrote: "It is always best to think first for ourselves on any subject…. The quantity of knowledge thus gained may be less, but the quality will be superior. Truth received on authority, or acquired without labor, makes but a feeble impression." Or, in the simpler language that we might use today: "Think for yourself, rather than just accepting what other people tell you. You might learn less, but it will mean more."

By the early 1800s there was a battle of beliefs happening inside the New England Congregational churches. Some people held to the traditional Calvinist beliefs that people are basically born bad and that only a few people are destined for salvation in heaven. These people also believed that Jesus was essentially the same as God. Other people had a more optimistic view of human nature, and thought that people could become better and better through education and good works. They also tended to believe that Jesus was a very special and important teacher, but that his importance was because of his message, rather than because his death paid for the sins of humanity. Over time it became more and more clear that the first group (the conservatives) didn't want to have anything to do with the
second (the liberals).

Finally, in 1819, William Ellery Channing gave a sermon, called Unitarian Christianity, which set out the beliefs of these liberal Christians, claimed the name "Unitarian" (which previously people had used as an insult), and paved the way for the creation of a new religious association. Channing said that people had the ability to think and reason, and that they should use this ability just as much when reading the Bible as in reading any other book. He said that the idea of the Trinity—that there are three parts to God: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Ghost—doesn't really make any sense, and gets in the way of the real purpose of religion, which is to help people be better human beings. In fact, he said that the job of human beings is to become as much like God as possible: loving, kind, generous and fair. He said that people aren't basically bad, and that with effort we can keep getting better and better.

Channing's Unitarian Christianity sermon was printed and read by tens of thousands of people, and he continued to work for many years as a minister and an author, stating in beautiful language beliefs that are still held by many Unitarian Universalists today. Although Unitarianism, and eventually Unitarian Universalism, has changed a great deal over the last 200 years, Channing really helped to launch us as a distinct religion of thinking, questioning, caring people.

So happy Father's Day, William Ellery Channing, and thanks for being father to a religion that values the human mind and heart.

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This is our hope:

man lifting child in front of the water on a beach

This is our hope:
That the children born today may still have, twenty years hence, a bit of green grass under their bare feet, a breath of clean air to breathe, a patch of blue water to sail upon, and a whale on the horizon to set them
dreaming.

by Jacques Cousteau

 

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Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF), 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108-2823
Phone: (617) 948-6166 · Fax: (617) 523-4133 · E-mail: clf@clfuu.org