Rites of Spring

Written for and delivered to
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County
May 06, 2012.


Life is cyclical.

Those “close to the land” don’t need to be reminded of this. They see it every year. The sprouting of new plants and crops, a new set of lambs, calves, pups and kittens. It’s hard to miss.

Those of who have a more casual relationship with the land, due to allergies or apartment dwelling, we need a little more reminding about the nature part, but still, we too know that life is cyclical.

And as it as a micro chasm of so many things, this Fellowship reflects Life in this way, too.

We return again to Spring, and Annual Meetings.

For those who are new to this part of the cycle, the Annual Meeting is one important place that Unitarian Universalists practice the 5th principle, “the use of the Democratic Process in our churches and in society at large.”

At every annual meeting, held in every Unitarian Universalist congregation, we both reach back deep into our history and reach forward into the future.

A future we can’t predict, guarantee or as in the case of the far-off future, even see.


In Cambridge, MA in the year 1648, the leaders of several churches got together and created what’s known as the Cambridge Platform. This is a very important document to us, even if you’ve never heard of it.

In fact, you’re more likely to have heard of Robert’s Rules of Order. Mr. Robert was a member of the 1st Baptist church in New Bedford MA.

In Cambridge, these leaders of Puritanism got together to discuss how churches should be in relationship to each other. It’s quite a long document, and if you’re curious, I have a re-print copy of it that I can show you. It’s actually very interesting.

The part that I want to lift up today, though, is the cornerstone of our church polity. Polity is defined as: “a form of political organization.”

All church systems have a polity. We share ours with our cousins, the United Church of Christ. There are others who share a similar system of polity, but the predecessors to the UCC and the processors of the UUA, loosely, were the Puritans, and at one time we were all one church, supported by the government.  In every town in New England people paid taxes and some of those taxes went to support the town church. Whether you went to church or not, some of your money supported the institution.

This is part of why we have the separation of church and state. It was our own Unitarian ancestors, especially John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who pushed for this separation.

Anyway, back to the Cambridge Platform. Because of the polity spelled out by our, yes our, Puritan ancestors, each of our churches is a legal entity onto it’s own. With the power to build, raise funds and call a minister.

This Platform and our polity proclaims that is it only the congregation that has the power to ordain a minister, and no other power structure may do so. In September 1971 the First Universalist Society in Franklin MA, ordained Bill Greer. The First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco ordained Leroy Egenberger on October 22, 1972 and Denis Paul on March 29, 2009. My home church, the First Unitarian Society of Chicago ordained me last May 14th.


Frequently, you’ve heard me say that we are a free church, independent and essentially, for good or ill, on our own.

This truth also comes directly from the Cambridge Platform.

Yes, it’s true, this congregation is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, but the UUAC has no legal or fiscal responsibility for us.

What does this have to do with Spring, Renewal and Annual Meetings?

Because we are a free church, out here in the Central Valley, it takes a lot of volunteer hours to keep this place running smoothly. It takes people who are willing to do all the things that people are willing to volunteer to do around here.

And some of it is less pleasant than others.

Lately, the Board, the Finance Committee and the Stewardship folks have been having a bit of a hard time of it.

I want you to know that they have been working very hard.

All of their work, their service, is inspired by their love for this Fellowship.

By now you either already know, or you’re going to know very soon, that this year’s pledge campaign has not gone as well as hoped.

The congregation is growing, and we are doing a lot of good things in the world, and between us. Just last week, when Vance Whitaker’s Mom died, 11 people from the Fellowship showed up to do volunteer duties to help Jewel and Vance at the memorial service.

That’s about 10% of the entire Fellowship. They just showed up, split up the duties, and made sure that Vance and Jewel could do the grieving they had to do.

To me, that is really amazing.

And it is only one example of the sort of things I see around here a lot.


And so what I want to do at this moment is ask you to remember all of the hard work these volunteers on the Board, and the Finance and Stewardship Committees have done, and are continuing to do, when you have a really good look at the budget the Board was forced to pass on May 1st.

Because of the by-laws of the church, the Board of Trustees is mandated to offer the congregation a balanced budget, in writing, two weeks before the annual meeting. This is so that the congregation can either approve or make adjustments until approval is granted.

In part because of the Cambridge Platform of 1648, this is part of the duty of our free and independent church. The congregation decides, not some other entity.

In order to balance the budget, the board had to make some hard choices about how the Fellowship functions.

In the end, the Board had to cut lawn service, cleaning services, landscaping many other things and staff hours. What this means is not only will the congregation have to find volunteer hours to do weekly cleaning of the campus and lawn mowing services, there will be no new flowers and plants, there would be, in short, a lot of changes. There will be tasks to be done that had been done previously by staff members.



There is so much good going on here. This is what we need to focus our energy on: How can we continue to nurture that good, that growth.

It’s hard for me to talk about money and fundraising in general, and from the pulpit, it’s down-right uncomfortable. I worry that somebody is visiting us for the first time, and potentially the only message they’ll hear about Unitarian Universalism is that the minister talked about money from the pulpit.

And I can’t help but feel like I’m listening to Cap Radio.

So instead, I want to talk with you about what religious community means.

At least what I think it means. (insert list here.)


We are a life-affirming church. Anyone is free to walk through our door and sit with us. We will never tell a visitor or a member what to think on a topic.

But this doesn’t mean that we, as a congregation, don’t serve a vital role in people’s lives.

Since that was a double negative, I’m going to re-phrase that:

We, as a congregation, serve a vital role in people’s lives.

Institutions in our lives that play such an important part in our lives deserve our support.

As I have come to know this congregation, I have met more than a few amazing people. I guess this shouldn’t surprise me too much, but either way, it has been a great joy for me. For the vital role this congregation plays in the lives of its members and friends, it deserves to thrive.

For the people out there in the rest of Stanislaus County, who haven’t yet been exposed to our Gospel, yes Our Gospel of good news, of a Loving community, of transformation encouraged in a supporting community, of grief held in the hearts of an entire gathering of people, this church needs to thrive.

Because, just like there was a time when you first walked into a UU congregation somewhere, maybe here, maybe not, and thought “Finally, I’m home!” there are others out there, looking for us. And we need to be here for them.

May we, as a free people of faith, find a way to lovingly support each other in this difficult time, may we find a way to see each other through the next few weeks as we figure out our budget concerns. May we thank the people who are doing the hard work of the Board and the Finance and Stewardship committees.

With our precious religious freedom comes a responsibility. May we rise, joyfully, to the task.

Blessed be and Amen.

Rites of Spring
© Rev. Joseph M Cherry