Good morning. The first thing I want to say is Thank you. I read through all the reports presented for this annual meeting and am just in awe of what all you do to build and sustain this community. There is so much commitment and love here.

I am humbled and honored and grateful for the trust that you all are collectively placing in me and the other Trustees of the Board to lead our congregation in partnership with Rev. Carter.

I feel great joy that we have Rev. Carter as our minister, and I want to open today with a quote from her report.

“In times like these, it becomes even clearer to me that spiritual community is not a nice add-on to our lives, like a hobby we do in our free time. Rather, it is a necessity, a place we come to in order to find others to grieve with, learn from, and with whom we can envision a better world. People need spaces like ours where we can practice moral courage, and compassion in real time, where we are invited to be fully human: tender, brave, imperfect, together.”

Breathe into that….Yes, amen, and even alleluia.

Westside is essential to my life. It is my community. My home. My family. I am accepting your election of me to be President of the Board of Trustees because I want to be a part of our living tradition, and our continued growth and progress, as a welcoming and thriving spiritual community.

So let me tell you a little bit about what motivates and guides me. Recently I have been finding inspiration in unexpected places, for example, the TV show Will Trent. In one episode, one of the detectives is having a crisis of calling. Questioning his career choice, and his partner says to him —

Hey!
We’re human
We’re always going to make mistakes.
But the goal is not to be perfect.
The goal is to be good.
We help people.
We are going to help people
We are going to keep stacking on the good deeds, because that is the only thing that is in our control.

As a basically optimistic person, who also is a realist and believes that change is constant, I also resonated with words that came across my social media feed from a speech that President Lyndon B Johnson gave to a graduating class in 1964.

“We have the power to shape the civilization that we want. But we need your will, your labor, your hearts, if we are to build that kind of society.”

So, there it is in two quotes.

My theology — It takes all of us doing good deeds to create the world we want to live in. That’s it for me — Do good together.

At first when I was approached about serving on the Board, I didn’t really think I had an agenda. I just thought, OK, I have skills which I know can facilitate continued engagement and collaboration. I can do this job.

But as I sat with the reality of being nominated, I realized I do have aspirations to share with all of you that I would like to see us lean into.

I want Westside to live into its capacity.

Now, often when we hear the word capacity, we can start thinking about limitations, like – I can only do so much. I only have the capacity to give so much.

That is not the vision I have. My vision is expansive and collaborative.

I want to spearhead a conversation at Westside around leaning into our potential, the gifts that all of us bring, and our collective desire

To dwell together in peace,

To seek knowledge in freedom,

And to serve humanity in fellowship.

I believe that as UUs we have a deep and wide capacity to care for each other, to grow spiritually, and to do good in the world.

In the most recent issue of the UU World, the President of the Unitarian Universalist Association Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt wrote that this current moment in U.S. history is a time for UUs and UU congregations to find their purpose.

She says: “I think we must remember that we are a sanctuary people—not only in collaborating around the work of justice, but also in providing nourishment and shelter for our own spirits so that we do not give up in the face of all that is. This is when communal care is most important. Times like these are where faith communities find their purpose.” 

We are an active and engaged congregation. At Westside we have a lot to offer each other and the wider community around us. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here, but we do need to make sure all the wheels are turning and aligned. So, I want to be the oil.

As I step into this leadership role with the Board and the Congregation, the question that I bring to our work is:  

How as leaders can we support each other and the congregation to live into our capacity and find our purpose?

I look forward to this work, because you know what?  I will be in it with all of you, and I think it is going to be fun.

Thank you.