- Beloveds, it is my joy to bring you greetings, celebration, and welcome, as we lean into a new congregational year. Welcome, welcome, welcome. What a time, what a moment for us to be together. I wanna begin by acknowledging that we are in a time of great transition, a time of great need in the world. That this can put immense pressures on us, on our leaders, on our members, on our communities, on our constituencies. And we know that the work that lies before us is a long journey work, not a short run ahead. And how we are with one another, how we support each other, will have everything to do with how we meet the moment in this coming year. I wanna reassure you that your UUA is excited to serve as your colleagues, your collaborators, as those who can help resource us all in these times. We're here to help equip Unitarian Universalism to meet this moment together. This year, your UUA organizing strategy team has launched UU the Vote 2024, to continue to build our collective power in community between and beyond the election cycles of this country. In the coming months, our goals are to get an even larger number of UUs involved and to live ever more fully into answering this question, what does love require of us in this political season and beyond? Now we know also that life in our congregations can feel like it is in a constant state of action and reaction, even as so many of us are leaning into new and creative ways to live this freely chosen life in community. All of us here at your UUA hold these struggles and these opportunities together with you. And I hope that we can all turn to one another in the coming months as we live out our mission grounded in Unitarian Universalism's insistence that no one is disposable. That all communities are worthy of safety and thriving, and that we will all get free together. My first year as your UUA President was a time of deep listening, of relationship building, of traveling to be with so many of you across the nation and beyond to help work to facilitate building structures of communal care within our association and beyond. We've laid groundwork together for new initiatives like the Climate Justice Revival that is coming in just weeks at the end of September and working to meet the moment together in these times. We've carried forward ongoing processes like UU The Vote, like responding to the Widening the Circle of Concern report from our Commission on Institutional Change, all of which can bring us to deeper levels of commitment to mutual thriving. This and so much more is in the work between and among us. There is so much good that is happening at your UUA and we look forward to continuing to share all of that with you in the coming year. I also wanna celebrate that we just held a historic General Assembly all virtual this past year in 2024, after a democratic process involving thousands of Unitarian Universalists discussing our faith's values and core theology, delegates at our 2024 GA voted decisively to approve a new statement that articulates those historically grounded promises and commitments in accessible and compelling invitational ways. We are an ever evolving tradition and we honor the various expressions of our shared values and principles that can serve to unite our congregations and communities as we celebrate the work of those who brought us this far toward a renewed expression of our lasting legacy in the world. And I know there are many of us who still need to live into these renewed, these expressed values, that are feeling some loss over language even in our bylaws. I wanna say that we're living into these changes together, that we will give them life in community, as we have done many times before. I look forward to this continued journey together. One of the most significant actions we took at GA this past year was to approve with overwhelming votes of support our business resolution embracing transgender non-binary and intersex and gender diverse people is a fundamental expression of UU religious values. This was more than a bureaucratic affirmation of our deepest commitments, because business resolutions, once we pass them, require your UUA to implement them as core to the association's work. This vote, your vote as Unitarian Universalists solidifies and strengthens our ministry to and with transgender, non-binary, and intersex members of our communities. It strengthens all of us in our commitments to our liberal and liberating faith. At this time of In-gathering and beginning, again, this time of renewal, our call is not to do more things. It is instead to be together, to make a commitment to our communities. The simple act of joining together in community is an expression of faithfulness, in such divided times. It lies at the heart of how we practice our Unitarian Universalism. Our lives together in our congregations and our communities serve to embody this faith. We all are how Unitarian Universalism shows up in the world. May we continue to come together now and in the coming months, find new ways to express our care for one another, even and especially in the presence of real differences. This is how we meet the moment, by practicing our faith, together. Welcome beloveds to the promise of a new congregational year. I look forward to holding the power and the promise of our tradition with you.