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[Music] oh beautiful four spacious skies [Music] four purple mountains majesties above thy fruited plain [Music] america amen god shed much grace [Music] oh beautiful thyme who hail from every land [Music] america america [Music] [Music] reach the shore again oh beautiful [Music] just as we sing with love and pride so [Applause] america [Applause] with truth [Applause] [Music] thy working folk built till thy soul proud africans in blood it changed the world built [Music] [Applause] americans [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] shining see good morning everyone and welcome to cedar lane unitarian universalist church on line i am the reverend katie romano griffin my pronouns are she or asia and i am one of the ministers serving this liberal religious community if you're new with us this morning please do let us know in the chat so that we may welcome you and know that whether you're joining us for the first time or you've been with us for a lifetime you are welcome here whoever you are whomever you love you are welcome here wherever you are joining us from and however you arrived at this worship time together you are welcome here whatever your beliefs gender identity and expression immigration status or political views you are welcome here thank you for taking a chance and for taking the time to worship with us today i invite you if you are new to please complete the newcomer forum that will be in the chat and if you've been attending for a while and are interested in being a member of this religious community please reach out to nicole qazi our membership coordinator know that our pastoral visitors are an extension of our ministry team they will be available in the chat to support you today and can be reached at pastoral care at cedarlain.org i have just a couple of quick announcements there is a 12 30 p.m zoom chat with the minister today details are in the enews if you would like a link and are not able to access the e-news please do email nicole qazi we also at three o'clock today are having a forum on human trafficking that link will also be provided has also been provided in the e-news and you can access by emailing nicole directly this week we witnessed the inauguration of joseph r biden as the 46th president of the united states and kamala devi harris as the first black indo-american female vice president of the united states today we join them as part of the people's inauguration in making a commitment to do our part to heal and re rebuild our nation this effort is led by sikh american activist valerie core founder of the revolutionary love project and our 2021 kiplinger lecturer on march 3rd the people's inauguration envisions a nation that is anti-racist equitable and sustainable each of us has a role in that labor will only succeed if we lead with love as we enter this worship experience of reflection and remembrance of joys and of sorrows of rededication and re-commitment let us also be mindful of the land where our beloved church is situated let us be mindful of the piscataway nakach tank who have walked these lands for a thousand years and more let us remember those who were enslaved and worked this land without voice or let us remember all who have gone before whose vision and labor helped create and sustain this religious community in this spirit we gather in this spirit we begin let us greet and welcome each other in the chat [Music] our invocation is an excerpt from the inaugural poem on the pulse of mourning by maya angelou lift up your faces you have a piercing need for this bright morning dawning for you history despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again lift up your eyes upon this day breaking for you give birth again to the dream women children men take into the palms of your hands molded into the shape of your most private need sculpt it into the image of your most public self lift up your hearts each new hour holds new chances for a new beginning do not be wedded forever to fear yoked eternally to brutishness the horizon leans forward offering you space to place new steps of change here on the poles of this fine day you may have the courage to look up and out and upon me the rock the river the tree your country here on the pulse of this new day you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister's eyes and into your brother's face your country and say simply very simply with hope good morning come let us worship together good morning i'm jessica sawyer the worship associate for today's service my pronouns are she her i'm lighting my chalice in rockville maryland if you have a chalice please let us know in the chat where you are lighting yours i invite you to join me in sharing the people's oath inspired and modeled after the presidential oath of office in article 2 clause 8 of the united states constitution slowly place your right hand over your heart then slowly bring up your left hand to join it i jessica sawyer do solemnly vow that i will faithfully execute my role in healing and rebuilding our country and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend dignity truth justice and joy for myself and for all around me and that i will do so with love good day and good health to everyone my name is allison moses i'm a caribbean american a west indian of mixed cultural and racial heritage i wasn't always a unitarian universalist i was raised in the high episcopal tradition of the anglican church but i relinquished my regular hardcore practice of that faith when i met up with unitarian universalism when i was still a grad student at harvard this is a true story one easter sunday i was literally running around harvard square looking for an easter sunday service and saw open doors i just went in that church and it was unitarian universalism right there in front of me i was first struck by the living tradition the no specific creed aspect of unitarianism of the wisdom and spirituality drawn from sources as diverse as science poetry scripture and personal experience as i started on this new journey i was increasingly drawn in because of the respect for words from buddhism's meta sutra that are set to music in our singing the journey songbook i was further comforted by the tradition with radical christian roots and many members from jewish and christian backgrounds and our liberal interpretations of the bible which bring inspiration and solace to me when people ask me about my church now i keep it simple and say it's about social justice and that's precisely why the eighth principle is important to me because it calls for us to adopt our principle to further construct and sharpen social justice by building multiculturalism and promoting and living anti-racism like any other process of change adopting the eighth principle is a journey and i want to invite you on that journey with me the journey to adopt and then live by the eighth principle one is one that affirms the wonder and wonderfulness of all cultures i want to ask you to take this trip not for a day or two or a week-long vacation but to transcend your confined space and welcome an openness as you open up to multicultural you you places that you'll be in adopting the eighth principle means for me that we won't be saying i'm not a racist for me people will be saying i'm anti-racist and act on it in their deeds and words adopting the eighth principle is important to me because not only will it shore up the first seven principles of unitarian universalism it will especially highlight the first principle which speaks to the inherent worth and dignity of every person created equal to live out the second principle which is justice equity and compassion in human relations as we try to spiritually grow at cedar lane i encourage and hope you'll join me on this journey because i promise you it's the trip of a lifetime inside these [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] hallelujah hallelujah [Music] hallelujah hi my name is diana and my name is james and i thing for this one is imagination let's see what's in our wonder box that reminds us of imagination this drawing thing reminds me of an imagination because there is a unicorn being inaugurated it also ties into the main theme of this service this lego i built reminds me of imagination because legos are the most imaginative toy ever made they're designed for you to do whatever you want with them and now reverend dana is going to tell us a story about imagination good morning on wednesday january 20th 2021 americans all over the country witnessed history being made as kamala devi harris was sworn in as the vice president of the united states she is the first woman and the first person of color to hold the second highest office in the land and because representation does matter she allowed young black and brown people and especially young girls to imagine a new way of being in honor of this historical moment i'd like to share with you a bit about the life of kamala harris pamela harris rooted in justice life is a story you write day by day kamalas begins with a name that means lotus flower see how her beautiful smile opens wide like petals fanning across the water's surface but you don't see the flower's roots her roots they grow deep deep deep down let me show you kamala's family line was a strong black and brown braid coiling from india where her mother shamala was born to jamaica where her father donald was born to berkeley california where her parents fell in love and married to oakland where kamala was born it was a good beginning when kamala was two her sister maya was born sadly when kamala was seven her family squeezed into a different shape her parents divorced and her daddy moved to palo alto while mommy and the girls packed for the flatlands the black working class area in berkeley having a long distance daddy can make your heart hurt but kamala's new neighbors welcomed her family with smiles and helping hands warm as sunshine still kamala was sometimes lonely for her daddy luckily her godmother aunt mary lived close by and gave kamala extra hugs whenever she needed them on sundays when they weren't visiting their father kamala and maya rocked from side to side at the 23rd avenue church of god where they tapped tambourines and sang as part of the children's choir phil my cup lord was kamala's favorite hymn the church was where she learned the bible that god asks us to speak up for those who can't to defend the rights of the poor and needy like some lawyers do her uncle sherman was that kind of lawyer maybe someday kamala could be one too in her first year of middle school kamala would need a lot of faith she learned a new lesson about change a lesson dressed in down jackets and mittens her family was moving north where 12 feet of snow and her mother's new job waited in montreal it'll be a wonderful adventure shyamala told her girls but kamala grumbled the thought of leaving her friends in the warmth of sunny california made her shiver kamala adjusted to life in canada but memories of her home country still rang in her heart like a bell after graduating high school she ate to return to america where her parents had nursed her on the civil rights movement she couldn't wait to follow in the footsteps of her heroes constance baker motley charles hamilton houston and thurgood marshall marshall had attended howard university and kamala decided she would too kamala's time at howard was focused on the future she competed on the debate team to sharpen her speaking skills she interned at the federal trade commission she did research at the national archives to study the workings of the government and on weekends she joined fellow students on the national mall in washington dc to protest apartheid in south africa kamala was preparing to be a woman warrior after howard california called kamala home to study at hastings college of the law court cases and contracts filled kamala's mind but changing lives filled her heart kamala was finally ready to climb the mountain of her dreams first deputy district attorney next the first female district attorney of san francisco then the first black woman attorney general of california peak by peak she rose eventually becoming the second black woman voted into this u.s senate lawyer prosecutor senator the little girl named lotus flower had turned herself into a person others could call on for help kamala had traveled far but she hadn't finished climbing the mountain of her dreams on martin luther king jr's birthday on the tv show good morning america kamala told the world i'm running for president of the united states she immediately got goosebumps wondering if shirley chisholm the first black woman to run for president was smiling down from heaven that very moment months into the race kamala realized that running for president cost more money than she thought and kamala's campaign team didn't have enough she decided to give up her run for the 2020 presidential nomination sad to leave the race kamala looked forward to all the good work she could still do as senator harris will donald and shyamala's daughter ever get to call the white house home only god knows kamala is still writing her american story and we know that the next chapter in her story involves being the vice president of the united states [Music] i am [Music] no one's ever gonna put me down [Music] again [Music] i am invincible i am a woman [Music] i'm [Music] oh yes [Music] i can't do anything i am strong i am as i spread my loves across the land [Music] um [Music] i can't do anything we are strong we are invincible we are thank you dana for that important story and thank you rachel jenny lynn chris and dr jasmine lee for that powerful song i hope you're all out there whirring in the chat every sunday during worship we take up an offering it's good to remind ourselves from time to time that this offering is a symbolic one as well as a practical one we know that it's through financial pledges that we build our budget and fund our mission and our ministries as well as religious education pastoral care and social justice we pay our staff and protect more religious leaders and finance the comforts and beauty of our buildings we played during the worship service make a community expression of thanks for the blessing of abundance to visibly bring in the harvest and the most cherished hour of our week our offering says that the act of giving is as essential to our spiritual well-being as anything else that we do on sunday mornings it's how we roar this week we are giving support to side with love the side with love team states that they are an interfaith public advocacy campaign promoting respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person side with love confronts issues of exclusion oppression and violence based on identity the goal of creating beloved community the campaign pursues social change through advocacy public witness and speaking out in solidarity with those whose lives are publicly demeaned the core issues they focus on are including this is an inclusive list but not limited to lgbtq equity immigrant justice racial justice and intersectional movement building now beginning february 7th we are encouraging the entire congregation to engage with a wonderful curriculum from side with love called 30 days of love which seeks to lift up the work of the uua commission on institutional change and is intended to help us move towards embodying beloved community i hope you'll join in this campaign campaign and i hope that you will give generously today and know that there are many ways that you can give you can do so by the electronic means of our modern times text online giving paypal qr code or you can mail a check to the church today's offering will now be gratefully received and i thank you for your generosity [Music] imagine this it's easy if you [Music] try [Music] below [Music] imagine wins no country it isn't hard to do don't breathe [Music] imagine all the people [Music] a peace but i'm not the only one [Music] i hope someday [Music] us imagine positions i wonder if you can [Music] a brotherhood sharing all the words [Music] [Music] but i'm not the only [Music] [Music] hello who will live as one [Music] thank you so much jenny lynn for offering that beautiful rendition and i just learned in the chat thank you eileen that yoko ono was given co-authorship of that song so thank you for letting us know that eileen it's important to lift up that truth each time we gather for worship we set aside time to expand the caring ministry of this community together we recognize the cycle of life and death the circle of love compassion and witness that is the heart of this religious community our hearts are with those whose primary spiritual practice is parenting we hold in this circle of caring those who are living with grief or chronic pain with illness as seen and unseen with mental illness or addiction those who are caring for family members in ill health who are wondering about what the diagnosis means and struggling through the doctor's appointments and the treatments and navigating it all in the midst of it behold in our hearts all who are experiencing job loss and financial insecurities within the cedar lane community we hold in our hearts dana edwards and her family especially emmeline edwards dana's mother-in-law as they remember dana's father-in-law ross edwards on the second anniversary of his passing our caring extends beyond cedar lane to others whose lives are lost and whose lives are impacted by violence calamities sickness in our nation and in the world let us speak their names and honor their lives by remembering them in the stillness that silence brings as we enter the silence those who are mourning a loss or marking the anniversary of a loss are invited to rise or to share a loved one's name in the chat in mourning and in memory may all hearts your snore [Music] me [Music] dreams [Music] was [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] uh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] i don't cry easily or am i big on waving flags and patriotic ceremonies but i found myself tearing up during the inauguration when lady gaga sang the star-spangled banner and when firefighter andrea hall recited the pledge of allegiance in words and then in asl and the tears started flowing freely when vice president kamala devi harris was sworn in as the first female black indo-american vice president and president joseph r biden as the 46th president of our united states of america these were not tears of grief or anger though there is much to grieve for and much to be angry about these were tears of relief after all that we've had to hold and carry and resist and be hyper vigilant against for the past four years you know for those of us of the liberal progressive justice-centered persuasion the last four years have been a relentless assault on our sensibilities our bodies our safety and our beliefs the inauguration felt like a moment to exhale a moment to set the burden down the inauguration felt like a hopeful reset in his inaugural address president biden spoke plainly of the crises before us political extremism white supremacy domestic terrorism and a cry for survival from the planet itself dangers that he said that we must confront and we will defeat he was probably the first ever u.s president to directly name white supremacy in an inaugural address and the first since lyndon johnson to push for racial equity in the first few days in office and he made a commitment to bringing the country together to unity i ask every american to join me in this cause he said uniting to fight the foes we face anger resentment and hatred extremism lawlessness violence disease joblessness and hopelessness with unity we can do great things for without unity there is no peace only bitterness and fury no progress only exhausting outrage no nation only a state of chaos invoking lincoln's words in 1863 after he signed the emancipation proclamation the president said on this january day my whole soul is in this bringing america together uniting our people uniting our nation and on his first day in office the president signed 17 executive actions including orders to expand coronavirus relief rejoin the paris climate agreement rescind the muslim travel ban halt most deportations for a hundred days and the construction of the border wall strengthened dhaka among others taking the president's invitation for unity to heart sikh civil rights activist and author valerie core is asking people across the country to make the same commitment through the people's inauguration a 10-day online event that invites us to challenge ourselves to find ways to heal our communities speaking during this kickoff event on january 21st she said and i quote on wednesday we saw glimpses of the nation waiting to be born a vision of the multi-racial country that we could be this labor of birthing a new nation that's going to take all of us we the people need to be inaugurated into that long labor of healing reimagining and rebuilding this country and that's what the people's inauguration is all about in a way she said it's building on history we the people have always pushed the meaning of justice truth dignity and equality in this country but we've never had a moment to reflect on our role in that labor our role in the american story so the inaugural moment is an invitation to us to all of us to reflect on our particular role in repairing healing reimagining and transitioning this country it is an opportunity to recommit to the core values of dignity equity liberty and justice it is an opportunity to renew the call to say yes to our interdependence to say yes to love it is an opportunity to recommit to build the beloved community so how do we show up as a religious people in this moment i resonate with the words of the rev adam russell taylor president of sojourners who wrote and i quote i believe fervently in the words of reverend dr martin luther king jr who said that the church is not called to be the master or servant of the state but to be the conscience of the state in that vein we will be neither chaplain or sycophant to our new political leaders instead we seek to be a faithful conscience serving as a bridge builder and offering prophetic critique and pressure when necessary so this inauguration is an opportunity for us as religious people to be a faithful conscience serving as bridge builders and offering protect prophetic critique and pressure when necessary what are we ready then to commit to recommit to as we journey into this new era together in her inaugural poem the brilliant young poet amanda gorman reminded us that being american is more than a pride we inherit it's the past we step into and how we repair it and at the inaugural interfaith prayer on thursday the reverend dr william barber drawing from the prophet isaiah chapter 58 said this moment in our nation is not about left right or centrist it should not be about republicans and democrats if we want to come out of this jam and move forward together we cannot accept the racial disparities violence and breaches that impact black brown native and asian americans while offering collateral damage to our poor white brothers and sisters and ultimately our entire democracy we can't accept the poverty and low wealth of 140 million americans before covet and many more millions since and so he said we are called to be repairers of the breach repairers of the breach what does that mean to be repairers repairing the breach means resisting calls for a superficial unity it means recognizing that there is no unity there can be no unity without delivering real action on the crises that impact all americans and that there is no healing without remembering and repenting truth-telling and accountability for the harms that have been done not just in the last four years but over the last 400. it means recognizing that white supremacy systemic inequality and structural racism are a threat to our democracy it means going from protest and the polls to poor policy that brings lasting change this includes restoring the voting rights act ensuring a comprehensive census count extending statehood to washington dc and puerto rico and reforming the police and the criminal justice system based on the demands of communities most impacted by police violence and mass incarceration repairing the breach means reimagining an economy that works for all people an economy in which every person has what they need to support themselves their families and their communities this includes increasing the minimum wage immediately to a fifteen dollars an hour and then annually until it reaches a true living wage it means expanding public and affordable housing enacting a federal jobs program that prioritize rural and urban areas hit by de-industrialization climate disasters and the economic crisis repairing the breach means taking bold and lasting action to reverse climate change to start making the green new deal a reality repairing the breach means calling for a humane and effective immigration system that keeps families and communities together provides a pathway for citizenship for over 11 million undocumented immigrants demilitarizes immigration and border enforcement and restores refugee and asylum programs repairing the breach calls for redirecting resources from the war economy to be used to fight covet 19 and poverty investing in health care education infrastructure and more it means rededicating ourselves to championing human rights and fighting against political oppression apartheid and corruption wherever it is found again to quote reverend barber if we the people with god's help repair the breach revival and renewal will come weeping and mourning may endure in this night of our discontent but joy will come in the morning love and light will burst through god will hear our prayers if we do the work of repairing society's breach the hope is for enough of us to come together enough of us who believe that the dream of america is a possible dream who believe that the vision of a multicultural multi-racial pluralistic democratic republic is real with that new vision of who we can yet be like the voters and organizers in georgia we can enact a new america shorn of the haunting hatred and fear of those who refuse to let the old one die we will need the help of our poets to imagine a new language for a new america so as amanda gorman put it so powerfully at the close of her poem our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful when day comes we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid the new dawn blooms as we free it for there is always light if only we are brave enough to see it if only we are brave enough to be it if only we are brave enough to be it please join me in the spirit of prayer that includes words from uua president susan frederick gray nameless one of many spirit of life and love o holy one we come before you in this moment full of pain and promise in the midst of pandemic both new and ancient in the shadow of insurrection we lift up our faces toward a new dawn a new day we pray for president joe biden and vice president kamala harris and the administration they will build there is so much repair and recovery needed from slowing the spread of covet to combating racist oppression to supporting working people and combating poverty to protecting immigrants and asylum seekers to achieving lgbtq equity and creating climate justice let us pray that their leadership be rooted in integrity courage boldness and a deep love for the people today and in the days to come our prayers are with the president and the vice president and all of our elected leaders as we cross this threshold into a new administration may each of us oh spirit answer the call to be repairers of the breach may each of us be brave enough to see the light and be the light and in the answering may we the people and our country usher in the dawn of a new nation built on love rooted in justice and propelled by a moral imagination amen blessed be let us join our hearts and our voices together to sing building a new way [Music] we [Music] feeling stronger every day we all [Music] jealousy [Music] need [Music] stop with love [Music] is [Music] is [Music] we are building a new way feeling stronger every day [Applause] mr president dr biden madam vice president mr imhof americans and the world when day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade the loss we carry a sea we must wade we've braved the belly of the beast we've learned that quiet isn't always peace in the norms and notions of what just is isn't always just this and yet the dawn is hours before we knew it somehow we do it somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken but simply unfinished we the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one and yes we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect we are striving to forge our union with purpose to compose a country committed to all cultures colors characters and conditions of man and so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us we close the divide because we know to put our future first we must first put our differences aside we lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another we seek harm to none and harmony for all let the globe if nothing else say this is true that even as we grieved we grew that even as we hurt we hoped that even as we tired we tried that we'll forever be tied together victorious not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid if we're to live up to our own time then victory won't lie in the blade but in all the bridges we've made that is the promise to glade the hill we climb if only we dare it because being american is more than a pride we inherit it's the past we step into and how we repair it we've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy and this effort very nearly succeeded but while democracy can be periodically delayed it can never be permanently defeated in this truth in this faith we trust for while we have our eyes on the future history has its eyes on us this is the era of just redemption we feared it at its inception we did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter to offer hope and laughter to ourselves so while once we asked how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us we will not march back to what was but move to what shall be a country that is bruised but whole benevolent but bold fierce and free we will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation our blunders become their burdens but one thing is certain if we merge mercy with mites into might with rights then love becomes our legacy and change our children's birthright so let us leave behind a country better than one we were left with every breath from my bronze pounded chest we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one we will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west we will rise from the wind swept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution we will rise from the lake rim cities of the midwestern states will arise from the sun baked south we will rebuild reconcile and recover and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful when day comes we step out of the shade a flame and unafraid the new dawn blooms as we free it for there is always light if only we're brave enough to see it if only we're brave enough to be it hello my name is dr jasmine lee and i'm one of the music coordinators serving cedar lane i'd like to invite you all to our annual benefit concert which will be on saturday january 30th at 7 30 pm on our youtube channel this year we are collaborating with mount vernon unitarian church and our beneficiary is planned parenthood all of the music will be provided by in-house musicians from both churches and we have a joint virtual choir piece as well today's postlude is a duet of me and mount vernon's pianist dr yvonne eng i hope many of you will be able to join us and give generously for planned parenthood thank you [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] it's easy if you try [Music] sky [Music] today [Music] no religions [Music] but i'm not the only one i hope someday [Music] imagine positions i wonder if you can [Music] nothing to kill or die for a brotherhood [Music] i'm a dreamer but i'm not the only one i hope someday he'll join us [Music] you