Hi from General Assembly

Finally arrived Wednesday night after three flight delays (summer thunderstorms) and then the hotel bumped us for a night to a different hotel. So, missed the banner parade during the opening session where several of our youth carried our banner. But now I'm settled in and at the 49th Annual General Assembly (GA) UU annual meeting of congregations in Minneapolis, MN. There are about 24+ UUCA members at GA soaking in all that there is to offer. Tonight we attended the Service of the Living Tradition where we honor those minister that have died, have completed service and the those that have received fellowship or credentialed status. This includes our own Rev. Mary and Rev. JD. Our former intern minister Rev. Henry Ticknor, is retiring and was honored tonight also.

Here's one of my take always from a session I attended today on Environmental Justice, which can apply to many justice issues. Rev. Fred Muire from Annapolis said when he entered the ministry he thought he would change the world, now he realizes he won't, but what he/we do have control and influence over is what we do in our congregations. Small efforts to change our environment are changing peoples thoughts about being able to make a real difference. Annapolis UU put in a rain garden to control their water runoff and got lots of press coverage and provided a good model on how to solve an environmental problem. They made some ripples.

So, we shouldn't get too overwhelmed. Sometimes I feel paralyzed by the magnitude of the problems facing us and feel powerless. Maybe I too should right-size my expectations about changing the world, I guess that comes with maturity. I think we as a community could make a difference if we could connect our "open minds to our loving hearts to our helping hands" and together chunk down the problems into manageable bites. We may not be able to change the world, but we can change our congregation and our own personal choices, and along the way celebrate our successes, and we have many to celebrate. Lavona