Marsha:
Originally, we thought it would be much easier to light the chalice together. Laurel could use the lighter...I would bring the matches as backup. That is what a good co-chair does – provide a backup strategy.

Laurel:
But then I told Marsha that we would have to speak about something meaningful – from the heart.
With a panicked look Marsha asked if she could do a Powerpoint presentation?

Marsha:
Laurel answered “I don’t think they have a projector.” Now I think that was an indirect but kind way – another benefit of having a co-chair - of telling me that was a really BAD idea.

Laurel:
There were actually more bad ideas. When Marsha has a hard time of figuring out how to do something that doesn’t come easily, she goes outside for a long run. Some times she comes back with really creative ideas. But only a few of them are reality based.

Marsha:
She said, laughing hysterically, lighting the chalice while all of you sang “this little light of mine” as a participatory chalice lighting in honor of our enlightened community was a bit scary.

Laurel:
Not to dash someone’s sense of creativity, a good co-chair, will fake ignorance. I told Marsha that I simply didn’t remember the words.

Marsha:
When my back is really against the wall, I tend to gather a lot of non-fiction books around me for “nigh time reading” hoping for inspiration.

Laurel:
While reading my dental hygiene magazines to induce sleep, Marsha finally hit upon something that I could relate to, as I’m sure many of you can as well. She read a page from Nevada Barr’s “Seeking Enlightenment, A Skeptic’s Path to Religion”.

Marsha:
I read from a chapter called “Church”.

Laurel:
While relevant and timely I silently thought to myself, leave it to Marsha to fan the flames of a heated debate about using the word Church.

Marsha:
Barr writes about her father who questions whether we are all closer to God out of church than in it. And she writes...

Laurel:

" I didn’t come to the Episcopal church because I believed in the unbroken lineage of bishops or because I believed in the god to whom they were said to have dedicated themselves...

Marsha:
" I chose the Episcopal church over a temple, mosque, or churches inhabited by Presbyterians, Catholics, or Baptists because it was close to my apartment and, the evening the whim came upon me to turn to God, the front doors were unlocked.

Laurel:
" I didn’t come to worship, I came because I was lonely, frightened, and desperately unhappy. The church seemed as good a place as any not to be alone until my life took a turn for the better.

Marsha:
"Had the Elks been meeting on the block that night and accidentally left their door ajar, I expect my life would have taken a very different direction.

Laurel:
"So I went to church. I hid among the people. I donated to the crafts fair, gave to the rummage sale, met with the women’s group. I then I asked the minister if it would be okay for me to be confirmed...considering I didn’t accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior, didn’t believe the Bible was divinely inspired,and wasn’t entirely sure about the whole god thing.

Marsha:
"Church, she further writes, is for finding and adoring God in community: with others, through others, because of others and in spite of others...

Laurel:
"Without community how would I learn to share? Who would I help? How would I learn to accept help? Would I learn to serve others without others to serve? To what would I, a human being, belong to if not to a group of human beings?"

Marsha:
So today, we light the chalice in honor of the little Unitarian church on the corner of 18th and Arizona whose doors are always open, and will forever mean, as they always have, we welcome you to this community.