Voices of Gratitude: Laura Horn
Good morning.
It’s a privilege to speak to you from this podium. It’s a privilege to be part of a church where we can speak for ourselves, govern ourselves, and pay for it all ourselves. It’s my further privilege this morning to tell you why it is that I love this particular church.
My husband contends that I love this church because, among you, I, and my spiritual practice, don’t stand out as particularly odd. No offense intended. The truth beyond that is that this church is my spiritual home. This church both serves me, and allows me to serve.
Let’s begin with my quite ordinary service. It is important to me to do some good in the world, in return for the blessings I’ve been given. But that doesn’t make it easy. I might want to leave the legacy of a Jimmy Carter or a Gandhi, but if I am to leave a legacy, it is likely to be from small actions, close to home. The kinds of actions that Reverend Newman called Phase 1. You make it possible for me to do what I can, and you inspire me to do it.
For example, I was able do carry groceries for the Food Pantry on my lunch hour, because Edith and Pat and others organized it so well. I can cook, 3 or 4 times a year, for The Haven, because Roz and Bonnie and others have organized our teams. And in return, I’ve served on committees, facilitated training, and done a lot of things to try to help amplify the actions of others.
And my great love has turned out to be working with the teenagers of this congregation. I teach comprehensive sexuality to our teenagers, (Our Whole Lives, which we call OWL) and I mentor young people as they find their own faith in a year we call Challenge. I need to thank Leia for guiding me to OWL training.
I do this work for the hope of changing the world, one person at a time. My chance at a legacy. And I do it for the joy of being with these young people of tremendous character and accomplishment, their families, and other teachers.
As I walked into church this morning, I saw the people who were my first co-teachers: Dawn, Linda and Frank. They not only helped me to navigate a room full of adolescents without getting massacred, but—as you know if you teach—sometimes you don’t get to worship in this sanctuary, so the children, their families, and your co teachers are church. It was very good church.
And that brings me to how I am served by this church.
First, I have to say I love worship. I love a good sermon—poetry, parables, personal memoir—I love it all. It sustains me. I come here to think and to feel. Speaking of worship, I experienced my first “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” class here. The women in that class are all still important to me, and some are sisters to me now. If you haven’t heard of Cakes for the Queen of Heaven, just imagine the parlor full of women, ages 20s to 70s, gathered to study and celebrate the sacred and divine feminine. In church.
And this sanctuary! I am grateful every week to those of you who maintain its beauty for us. I love that we light a candle for peace, and honor our service people, all in the same sanctuary.
I have played ghosts and goblins, here, in the dark, late at night, with our young teenagers. I have played a particularly UU kind of hide and seek wherein seekers hide with those they find. I have slept here, all night, right here, with the voices and laughter and finally the sleeping bodies of the youth of this congregation. I have seen the morning light come in those windows.
I have brought my joys here to share with you, and taken joy in yours. When I lost my Dad, and a sister, there came a time when I could come speak a word to you about their lives, in this sacred space, and feel the comfort of that ritual. Sharing your sorrows diminish mine.
That’s what I love. I pledge to support those things, but those are my past, my memories, my history. I pledge for the future. I pledge so that Rev. Wilkstrom will be able to do his job for us. I pledge to be assured that we will pay and support our staff fairly, that we can operate efficiently, that we can have a place of beauty and function. So that we can make a powerful impact in our community and the world. So that we have a launching place here for good works and courageous stands, and legacies, big and small.