EVENT: B2016 0623 MORNING DEVOTIONAL 0800AM EST CAPTION PROVIDED BY: HEARING INK http://www.hearink.com PHONE: (314)427‑1113 **********DISCLAIMER********** THE FOLLOWING IS AN UNEDITED ROUGH DRAFT TRANSLATION FROM THE CART CAPTIONER'S OUTPUT FILE. THIS TRANSCRIPT IS NOT VERBATIM AND HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD. TO DO SO IS AN EXTRA FEE. THIS FILE MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. PLEASE CHECK WITH THE SPEAKER(S) FOR ANY CLARIFICATION. THIS TRANSCRIPT MAY NOT BE COPIED OR DISSEMINATED TO ANYONE UNLESS YOU OBTAIN WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE OFFICE OR SERVICE DEPARTMENT THAT IS PROVIDING CART CAPTIONING TO YOU; FINALLY, THIS TRANSCRIPT MAY NOT BE USED IN A COURT OF LAW. **********DISCLAIMER********** >> GOOD MORNING! I'M SUSAN PECK, HERE WITH LEON BURKE, JEFFREY STERN, AND ADAM PETERSEN TO CENTER OUR ENERGIES THIS MORNING IN SONG. OUR GATHERING MUSIC THIS MORNING IS A BELOVED TEXT BY RUMI, SET TO MUSIC BY REVERAND LYNN UNGAR. THIS BASS LINE WAS ADDED IN FOLK TRADITION, AT A UU MINISTER'S CONFERENCE SEVERAL YEARS AGO, ADDING A CRUCIAL LINE FROM THE ORIGINAL POEM, AS WELL AS HARMONIC UNDERPINNING FROM THE MELODY. PLEASE RISE IN BODY, RISE IN SPIRIT, AND LET US SING TOGETHER. [SINGING] >> THANK YOU. AND GOOD MORNING. I AM THE REVEREND MITRA JAFARZADEH AND I AM THE SETTLED MINISTER WITH SAINT JOHN'S IN CINCINNATI, OHIO. IF YOU ARE WONDERING ABOUT MY NAME, IT IS IRANIAN. MY MOTHER IS FROM THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS OF EASTERN KENTUCKY AND MY FATHER WAS FROM IRAN MAKING ME ETHNICALLY PERSIA‑LACHAIN. I APPRECIATE THAT WE WHO HAVE GATHERED HAVE COME REPRESENTING UU CONGREGATIONS. YES, WE COME AS OURSELVES, BUT WE COME AS OURSELVES IN CONTEXT. SO LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT THE CONTEXT THAT ALLOWS ME TO BE HERE THIS MORNING. I AM HERE THIS MORNING WITH ST. JOHN'S PIANIST ADAM PETERSON AND MUSIC DIRECTOR DR. JEFFREY STERN. TOGETHER WE SERVE A CHURCH THAT PARTICULAR CALLED, IN ITS 202 YEAR HISTORY, THE GERMAN PROTESTANT AND REFORM CHURCH. THE GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH, THE GERMAN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, AND FINALLY, IN 1924, ST. JOHN'S UNITARIAN CHURCH. WE ADDED THE UNIVERSALIST LATER. IF YOU NOTICED A THEME IN THOSE EARLY YEARS, IT IS THAT WE WERE MOST CLEARLY GERMAN. YOU SEE, THE CHURCH WAS FOUNDED BY THE REVEREND JOSEPH ZAESLIN TO SERVE AN ILL I PLANT COMMUNITY. EARLY ST. JOHN‑ERS WERE MEN AND WOMEN COMING TO A BEND IN THE OHIO RIVER, HOPING FOR ENOUGH GOOD WORK TO SUSTAIN THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILIES IN THIS, A NEW AND FOREIGN LAND. ZAESLIN CREATED A PLACE TO GATHER IN THE WANDERER AND THE WORSHIPER AND THE MANNER OF YOUR WORSHIP CANNOT MATTER. YOU COULD BE LUTHERAN OR EVANGELICAL OR CALVINIST OR EVEN CATHOLIC. BUT WHAT MATTERED WAS THAT YOU WERE A PERSON IN NEED OF A SPIRITUAL HOME, IN NEED OF A PEOPLE TO CALL YOUR OWN, A NEED OF A WELCOME AND WARM EMBRACE. THIS THOSE EARLY YEARS, THE CALL WAS TO COME, COME, WHOEVER YOU WERE, WHATEVER YOU BELIEVED, AS LONG AS YOU SPOKE GERMAN, YOU WERE WELCOME AT ST. JOHN'S. NOW, I HAVE AN OVERLY ROSEY IDEA OF HOW THOSE DAYS WERE. A DIVERSE PEOPLE BOUND BY A NATIONALITY THEY HAD CHOSEN TO LEAVE BEHIND, SHARING THE HARDSHIP OF IMMIGRATION THAT ULTIMATELY WAS NOBLE IN THEIR PURSUIT OF TOGETHERNESS ACROSS WHATEVER THEOLOGIES MIGHT DIVIDE THEM. I IMAGINE THEM A UNITED AND STURDY FOLK, DEDICATED TO SEEKING AND SERVING THE GOOD WHEREVER THEY FOUND IT, AND THEY COULD DO ALL OF THAT BECAUSE THEY ALL SPOKE GERMAN. TO FIND A COMMON LANGUAGE. HOW WE DO LONG TO SPEAK AND BE UNDERSTOOD. HOW WE LONG TO LISTEN AND HEAR ONLY THE OTHER ONLY IN THEIR BEST VOICE, TO HEAR THEIR BEST INTENTIONS. THE PURITY AND CLARITY OF HEART. IF WE COULD BUT FIND THAT CENTERPOINT, A CLEAR PATH THROUGH THE BABBLE AND ALL THE CONFUSION CREATED BY THE BLESSED AND BEAUTIFUL VARIETY OF ALL OUR HERITAGE OF FAITH AND ETHNICITY AND THEOLOGY OR LACK THEREOF. BUT THEN AGAIN, PERHAPS THE MAGIC OF GOOD CHURCH IS NOT IN WHAT IS SPOKEN, BUT IN HOW WE SPEAK TO EACH OTHER AND HOW WE CHOOSE TO LISTEN. AND HOW WE SPEAK AND HOW WE LISTEN HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH OUR DEEPEST THEOLOGY. IN 1869, REVEREND AUGUST KROELL TOOK A PAIR OF SCISSORS TO ST. JOHN'S HYMNAL. WHEN HE WAS DONE EDITING, HE HAD A SLIMMER AND MORE THEOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE BOOK. IN THE PREFACE HE WROTE, IN GERMAN, OF COURSE, ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THIS CHURCH IS GOD IS YOUR FATHER, HIS NATURE AND BEING IS LOVE AND YOU ARE HIS CHILDREN. THEREFORE, YOUR LIFE OUGHT TO BE ONE OF LOVE. TO LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL THINGS, AND TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, THIS IS RELIGION. THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE. NO HYMN HAS BEEN INCLUDED WHICH CONTRADICTS THAT SPIRIT. NOW, AUGUST KROELL WAS SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE. THE LANGUAGE THAT IT HOLDS US TOGETHER FROM ORIGIN ALEXANDRIA AND SERVETUS AND PARKER AND EVEN KROELL IS PERHAPS THE SAME LANGUAGE THAT TRANSCENDS ETHNIC ORIGIN OR THEOLOGICAL HAIR SPLITTING OR ALL HUMAN DIFFERENCES. THE LANGUAGE THAT BRINGS US AND MINDS US BELONGS FIRST TO THE SOUL THAT LOVES, THE HEART THAT SEEKS GOODNESS, AND THE FIND THAT ASSESSES AND ADAPTS AND ADOPTS WHAT WE KNOW TO BE HOLY. FOR THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF ST. JOHN'S, WE COMMISSIONED A NEW HYMN FROM JASON SHELTON AND KENDYL GIBBONS. JONATHAN WAS ASKED TO WRITE AN ANTHEM BASED ON THE STRUCTURE OF LUTHER'S CORRAL, A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD, ALONG WITH A HARMONY INSPIRED BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. OUR MUSICIANS WILL SING THE SYMPATHY ONCE THROUGH AND I KNOW RIGHT YOU TO RISE IN BODY OR SPIRIT AND JOIN IN SINGING THIS CONTEMPLATIVE CHORALE ALL TOGETHER. [SINGING] >> WOULD YOU PLEASE RISE IN BODY AND IN SPIRIT AND JOIN US. [SINGING] >> THANK YOU. LOVE IN FULLER FREEDOM. IT DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THAT. TOGETHER WITH YOUR CONGREGATION AND MINE, WE HAVE MADE A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN COME IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A SPIRITUAL HOME OR A PEOPLE TO CALL YOUR OWN OR A WELCOME AND WARM EMBRACE. IN THIS UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION OF CONGREGATIONS, YOU WILL FIND NO COMMON TONGUE, BUT THE BEAUTY OF MANY LANGUAGES SPOKEN EVEN AS EARS LISTEN THROUGH THE SONG FOR WHAT WE CALL RELIGION. AND WHAT MIGHT THAT BE? WHAT ELSE CAN IT BE BUT THE SIMPLE INVITATION TO ALL WHO HAVE KNOWN LOVE TO EXTEND THE SAME TOWARDS SELF AND OTHER. THROUGHOUT OUR ASSEMBLY, MAY WE SEEK TO SPEAK KINDLY, TO LISTEN GRACEFULLY, AND TO ALWAYS KEEP OUR HEARTS IN A HOLY PLACE. PLEASE RISE IN BODY AND SPIRIT ONE MORE TIME TO SING OUR CLOSING SONG BY CANADIAN UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST COMPOSER JOYCE POLEY. >> MAY LOVE AND KIND'S COMPANY US AS WE GO THROUGH THIS WORK OF OUR ASSEMBLY AND THE JOY OF BEING TOGETHER. SO MAY IT BE. [WORSHIP CONCLUDES] **********DISCLAIMER********** THE FOLLOWING IS AN UNEDITED ROUGH DRAFT TRANSLATION FROMN THE CART CAPTIONER'S OUTPUT FILE. THIS TRANSCRIPT IS NOT VERBATIM AND HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD. TO DO SO IS AN EXXTRA FEE. THIS FILE MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. PLEASE CHECK WITH THE SPEAKER(S) FOR ANY CLARIFICATION. THIS TRANSCRIPT MAY NOT BE COPIED OR DISSEMINATED TO ANYONE UNLESS YOU OBTAIN WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE OFFICE OR SERVICE DEPARTMENT THAT IS PROVIDING CART CAPTIONING TO YOU; FINALLY, THIS TRANSCRIPT MAY NOT BE USED IN A COURT OF LAW. **********DISCLAIMER**********