Good morning. My name is Mike Arents and I am honored to be the president of the board of trustees of ASCC. You, this congregation, and I -- we are a band of opportunity.

It has been a wonderful year for this friendship force we call All Souls Community Church, since the last time I spoke to you on the State of the Church.

Our programs are dynamic. Our aspirations are ambitious. Our resources are scarce. However, we are making excellent use of the resources we have.

Let’s start with the kids.

We have 86 children in our church school, nursery through high school.  3 new children have come each week this year.  Our new RE coordinator, Chrystal Burnett, motivates volunteer teachers to show our children how to practice confident curiosity. The kids have begun to explore creation stories, including Native African, Native American, Hebrew, as well as the creation stories of scientists.  They have made their own totem poles, looked in microscopes, and performed Greek dramas.

On one class’ first day, the children wrote a collective covenant for the year. During the dialogue, the usual ideas came forth–being respectful, honoring each other’s beliefs, and the like–but one child, an 11-year-old, said, “We should be free to believe what we want and be free to stand our ground. That should be in our covenant.”  11 years old. A baby UU and already positively defiant.

It’s not only the children who learn in RE: Said one volunteer teacher: “I’ve had the opportunity to learn from their passion and
innocent wisdom.” We are a band of opportunity.

At all levels, the kids are cutting their teeth on the freedom road, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of belief – our own road less traveled, learning the challenges and rewards of listening to others talk about their spiritual journeys and, from those influences, choosing their own personal faith.

The state of the church and social action. People who were leaving All Souls told some board members that it was because there wasn’t enough social action. Not so. Social action lives at All Souls and you should know about it. The high schoolers have volunteered at God’s Kitchen. Our adults have helped out at the Humane Society. RE sponsored a landscaping project at St. John’s Home. Community Life staged its annual Freedom to Read bonfire celebrating the literary highs and lows of banned books. Social Action lives at All Souls. Some of us worked with ACCESS to provide food and gift baskets to needy families. We gathered canned goods and cold weather items for Baxter Community House. Branches groups built houses for Habitat for Humanity. The ninth graders performed home repair services for the Raise the Roof program. Volunteers worked at Frederick Meijer Gardens in memory of our dear friend Michael Schpiro, whose legacy lives on in this church to this day. Social Action thrives at All Souls. There’s more to do. We are a band of opportunity.

Also worth noting is our music program, pun intended. Thanks to new leadership by Elgin Vines and the music board, All Souls hath charms that soothe the savage breast. Just as our differing spiritual paths come together in a rainbow of opinions, our choir’s many voices blend into unique harmony. Imagine a choir in which everyone sings the same note. Would it sound too – orthodox? It wouldn’t fit our church, would it? Our choir has started to mix in many different voices in a way that coaxes your positive energy up and out. A kick in the pants for your mood is the goal of one church choir director I met this year.

But we haven’t enough money yet to hire a full-time choir director. That’s a state of lacking that we should fix. Our music board needs new instruments. We are a band of opportunity. Answer the call.

The Newcomers volunteers make sure there are smiling faces to greet not just newcomers but oldcomers alike. Isn’t it wonderful to walk in and know so many names and faces? If you’re not there yet, you’ll soon see a board member holding a sign that says, “Ask me.” Don’t be shy. Go ask them. Ask them if they pray, and if they do, how. Ask them who started the rumor that there’s a slush fund in the budget. There is NOT. Ask them how you can invest your time and your treasure in this community. We are a band of opportunity.

About 75 people participate in 7 branches groups. They gather, they nibble snacks, and discuss readings, sometimes argue, and sometimes get involved in social action. Branches is the most intimate church experience I’ve ever had – social and caring and close. I would walk through fire for my Branches group – and I believe they would do it for me. We are a band of opportunity – on a spiritual walk together.

Worship is better now at All Souls than it was a year ago. Just look around you …better surroundings, better seats, better acoustics. It’s not perfect – many are pining for a potluck and we sometimes jockey for position. But then again our minister’s booming voice, which never had trouble shaking the tiles in the drop ceiling at Jarecki Center, takes on an even more thunderous timbre here. Everything he says in that worship space sounds important; even his jokes have gotten better. Have you noticed?

**

This the state of our church: Our morale is off the charts; our finances are anemic. Four of our members attended small growth training at the UU Heartland district – we were the largest congregation there if you compare us in number of members; yet we had the second smallest budget. And that’s not right. If you estimate our congregation’s combined personal income, it’s more than $3 million a year. So far for 2006 just $80,000 has been pledged, which is a little over 2 percent. C’mon people, our spiritual life is worth more than that!

When you invest in your church, where does your money go? You know we need to pay for this building. You know we need to pay our RE coordinator. You know our UU dues come due once a year, and that a called minister is the only way we are going to get over that nagging fear of losing one of the UU’s most profound religious thinkers right here in our midst.

Please, folks. We must pony up and start paying Brent Smith what he is worth...let’s be frank – we’re not financing the caliber of minister that we’re getting. He’s in a holding pattern with us right now, a contract player in the first of a two-year hitch. But someone with his standing in the UUA cannot afford to live long or well on what we’re paying him. He may not seek a different position, but let’s not kid ourselves: other UU congregations are looking right now for someone with his combination of depth and charisma. I challenge you -- let’s pledge together, $20 a week or however much your spiritual growth means to you, to invest for our future so we can call our minister permanent.

On the campaign trail, this is the state of ASCC. I am happy to report that the number of pledges of $3,000 and above are up this year, from 4 to 7. I am puzzled to report that the pledges of $500 to $1,000 are way down, by 16.

Perhaps your stewards have given you unrealistic goals. Only you can look in your heart and say whether you are supporting the growth of the church. The point is, it is not important what you give, it is important only that you give. Please leave your 2006 pledge in the box in the foyer. The board has discussed the need for a consultant to help us make it to our goals.

The bad news is, we have only $80,000 pledged for next year – not enough to reach even our modest dreams. The good news is, there are perhaps 40 families who have yet to pledge. If you haven’t pledged yet, you’re going to get a call. Our bylaws require of members a contribution of record, even if it’s one dollar. Don’t wait for it, pledge today.

You think you love this community now. Invest with your heart and your money and you’ll see great things emerge. We are a band of opportunity.

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Now let’s shift gears. I saw a glimpse of the future of our church in, of all places, Texas, earlier this year. It was the annual meeting of our denomination, know as General Assembly. Folks, it was a blast. I got to go on a UU presidents’ scholarship, so it cost All Souls nothing. Nearly 4,000 UUs in one place, more tolerance and open-mindedness than you can fit in a hundred megachurches. It was uplifting and inspiring.

While in Fort Worth I had a medium rare ribeye steak at Cattleman’s famous restaurant, where a plaque announced: “The only way a woman can change a man, is when he’s a baby.”

I met a Roman Catholic priest who is also a practicing Buddhist. He sees no cognitive dissonance in the marrying of those spiritual pursuits. And when he was asked by someone in a room jammed with 200 people, “How do I achieve inner peace?” he said, “35,000 children die each day in this world from malnutrition, battered women have no place to go in many of our communities …How can I think about inner peace with that much violence in the world?”

Gulp.

We are here to help each other. That sometimes gets lost in our getting and spending and programming and politicking.

I wore this name badge at General Assembly. I was proud of this garish purple necklace, it means we pay our dues to the association. I was proud to be a delegate, a voting member. I met other congregation presidents and shared the joys and sorrows of the role. You should be there at GA next June in St. Louis.

There in Forth Worth, we found no sanity in fundamentalist religious claims. We turned a lot of fundamentalist religious terms on their heads. Fundamentalists think there is only one way to be a family, only one scripture, only one way to live, a sort of some souls church. Instead of their “family values,” we talked about “reality-based family values.”

We thanked the Native Americans in North America and reminded ourselves, “we are on Indian land.” There is a group with a lot more love to give than your average Joe called UUs for Polyamory Awareness. You can even find them on the UU website. I applauded them more out of a spirit of tolerance than actual support for the group.

We had this wonderful banner parade of congregations that sported local cities like Ann Arbor and Marquette. There was a community that had been in existence since 1651! We talked about the importance of being a welcoming community with “room for different beliefs – including yours.”

People on the outside of UU think we’re strange; they focus on our open-mindedness like it’s a lack of clarity. Lack of creed does not mean lack of clarity. We affirm and promote our UU principles – just look for the KEEP EM WARM sign outside in the foyer, launched by principle number three.

We talked about living a spirit of abundance and hospitality.

We talked about being openly proud to be UU. One gay man at GA admitted, it was easier to come out to his parents as a gay man than as a UU. It’s time to come out as a UU! There are lonely people in West Michigan who are not comfortable being told what to think in the churches they’ve tried – how will they find us to walk together with if they don’t hear about us by word of mouth? Your mouth. Start mentioning to your friends why you make the trip here Sundays; later it will be easier to mention it to more casual acquaintances, who are also lonely for the spiritual sustenance that comes from freedom of thought.

We wrote ads there: “If you can’t find a church that feels right, try All Souls.”

We talked about being awake to opportunity.

We said, don’t save your soul – spend it!

We resolved to make heaven here on earth.

Try to remember that you are, right now, on the forming edge of your existence. What are you going to do with it?

We took turns writing an elevator speech to explain our denomination. Mine was: “Well, UU is based on respect for each person’s ability to follow heart and mind to spiritual nourishment and social action. It is about authentic relationships.”

We were challenged: Don’t dabble in spirituality – fire up!

To those who preach of those who are saved or not, say, Our god does not play favorites.

To those who say they are born again, say, we were born right the first time.

Sharing your faith is a good thing, yes? Remember what Mae West advised: Too much of a good thing -- is wonderful.

To those whose bumper stickers say, STUFF HAPPENS, or words to that effect, be careful not to judge and don’t wallow in the negative.

We heard these words from Chanter Kyo:

Stop loving your suffering.

Stop enjoying your persecution.

Stop adoring your anxiety.

Stop cherishing your resentment.

Stop glorifying your failure.

Stop relishing your sarcasm.

You may think that people want to end their suffering and persecution. In fact, they fight like tigers to keep them. Why? Because suffering provides an excuse for egotism. The sufferer is able to remain in the center of both his own attention and the attention of others. If you want spiritual rebirth, give up your love for such foolishness. A sincere willingness to abandon the false pleasure of suffering will reveal the supremacy of peace.

The author Elaine Pagels was in Fort Worth. She said: we explore our personal identity by discovering how we are different from others, how we are unique. To understand our spirituality, we refine our awareness of how we are the same.

Volunteers make this community run. Ask yourself, what can I do? And convince yourself, I will feel great if I do this. Yes it will be difficult. But after so much leisure, isn’t it time to make a better world?

The greatest gift I got from GA was a poem by Mary Oliver that I recite at least once a day, and some days, several times. It is called, “Wild Geese.”

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles, through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

Love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile, the world goes on,

Meanwhile, the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,

Over the prairies and the deep trees,

The mountains and rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air

Are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

The world offers itself to your imagination

Calls out to you like the wild geese

Harsh and exciting,

Over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

Amen.

PRAYER

May our time together renew our hope.

May the stories we share refresh our courage.

May the songs we sing lift our spirits.

May the words we speak invigorate us.

May the touch of hands, the sound of laughter, the sight of faces new and familiar,

Restore us in faith.

Peace be with you. Amen.