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Speaker 1: It's my pleasure
this morning to welcome you

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to the presentation of the 2014
Distinguished Service Award

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to the Cause of
Unitarian Universalism.

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This award is the highest
honor that this association

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can bestow.

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It's given annually to the lay
or professional leader who,

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over a considerable
period of time,

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is deemed by the UUA
board of trustees

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to have made extraordinary
contributions

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to the strength of
this association.

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It is to go to someone who
exemplifies the highest

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values of our shared faith.

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This year my fellow
trustees, Lou Finney

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and Rob Eller-Isaacs, have
served on this committee.

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It has been my privilege
to chair this group.

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And this year we are
delighted to bestow this award

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upon the Reverend
Kenneth MacClean.

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The Reverend-

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[APPLAUSE]

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Speaker 1: The Reverend
Marlin Lavanhar

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will offer the citation.

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We will hear a few words
from Reverend MacClean,

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and then we will officially
bestow the award.

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Reverend Marlin Lavanhar:
Kenneth Torquil MacClean,

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preacher, teacher, pastor,
prophet, husband, father,

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partner, organizer, advocate,
and institution builder.

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Over the course of your
extraordinary 54-year career,

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you have ministered to your
colleagues, congregations,

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and the wider
community and have been

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outstanding in your efforts
to establish and strengthen

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the organizations
and associations that

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will sustain Unitarianism
and Universalism in America

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and around the world
for generations to come.

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A graduate of Brown University
and Harvard Divinity School,

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you were introduced
to this faith

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by your wife, Harriet, who
encouraged and supported

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you to become a minister.

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Ordained and
fellowshipped in 1960,

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you were called to the Rosalind
and West Roxbury churches.

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And during your tenure,
you reunited these two

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historic churches.

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In 1964, you were called
to the Tennessee Valley

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Church in Knoxville
where you helped

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to establish the first chapter
of the American Civil Liberties

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Union in that state.

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In 1972, you were called
to Cedar Lane Unitarian

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Church in Bethesda, Maryland,
one of our largest churches,

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and you served for 20 years
before becoming their minister

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emeritus.

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In 1999, you began what grew
to become an 11-year ministry

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to the Church of the Desert
in Rancho Mirage, California,

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and led them to build a
beautiful new church home.

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You also spent many
memorable summers

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as a visiting preacher for our
church in North Hatley, Quebec.

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While you are renowned for
your long and successful parish

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ministries, your
unfaltering devotion

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to establish and
support institutions

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that sustain and uphold
our faith nationally

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and internationally
makes you stand out

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as one who has fostered
our faith for the future.

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You were the founder
and organizer

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of the Senior Ministers of
Large Unitarian Universalist

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Congregations, which to this day
serves to support the ministers

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and ministries of our
association's largest churches.

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You have served as the president
of the Unitarian Universalist

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Ministers Association
and in that role

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were instrumental in helping
establish the office of church

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staff finances, to help churches
and ministers address questions

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of salary, health
care, pensions,

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and equitable compensation, and
also established a foundation

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grant to supplement the
income of retired ministers

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and their widows who were living
on less than $10,000 a year.

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As the Ministers
Association president,

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you also worked with the
Reverend David Weissbard

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and leaders of the Liberal
Religious Educators Association

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to support the
ordination of ministers

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of religious education.

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You served two
terms on the board

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of the Unitarian Universalist
Association, during which time

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you established the
UUA's task force on AIDS.

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You also served on the board
of the Unitarian Universalist

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Service Committee.

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And for five years, you worked
as the special assistant

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to the president of our
Association for International

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and Interfaith Affairs under
President John Buehrens.

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In this role, you
worked tirelessly

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to strengthen our
heritage worldwide

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and helped organize the founding
meeting of the International

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Council of Unitarians
and Universalists.

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The International Council has
since played an essential role

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in connecting,
supporting, and training

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UU communities in
Africa, Asia, Europe,

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and North and South America.

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On behalf of our
association, you traveled to

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and lent your support to
our churches and partners

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in the Philippines, India,
Japan, New Zealand, Hungary,

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Romania, Canada, the
United Kingdom, and beyond.

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You've helped our
co-religionists and others

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in far off and
sometimes remote places

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who were battling
discrimination,

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or deprivation, or dictatorship.

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In Prague, you worked
for many years,

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even when others were
convinced the cause was futile.

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And you ultimately prevailed
to rescue the Church of Norbert

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Capek from people who had
seized illegal control of it.

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Even as you have worked on a
world stage for the betterment

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of the human
condition, you are also

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well known among your colleagues
as a pastor to pastors.

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Colleague after
colleague, as well as

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congregant after congregant,
tell stories of times

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you ministered to them as
they were bearing burdens

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too hard and too
heavy to bear alone.

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For decades, you have also
mentored young ministers

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who've gone on to
serve our faith well

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here and in other countries.

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Indeed, the reach of your more
than half a century of ministry

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has touched and
strengthened our faith

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to the far corners of the earth.

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You've given your
vision and leadership

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to fortify the individuals
and institutions of Unitarian

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Universalism.

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It is therefore with deep
gratitude, admiration,

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and pride, in your 87th
year and in your home state

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of Rhode Island,
that we confer on you

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our highest honor, the Award
for Distinguished Service

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to the Cause of
Unitarian Universalism.

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It is our intention
that your name

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be inscribed among
those who from ages past

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have stood out as the
exemplars of this tradition.

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Your ministry has
provided a standard

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for succeeding generations to
aspire to as they and we seek

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to sacrifice for
and give our lives

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to the faith of our
forebears, the betterment

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of the human condition, and the
pursuit of freedom and justice

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for all.

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Congratulations.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Reverend Kenneth
Macclean:Thank you.

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My friend, Marlin, my new
friend, moderator Jim Key.

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All my fellow Unitarian
Universalists,

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and the close people
I love over here,

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this is an overwhelming moment.

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It takes me back to growing
up in the Washington Park

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Methodist Church about
three miles from here.

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I left after Brown,
hitchhiked to California,

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and as you've heard, I married
Harriet Johnston, Director

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of Religious Education
at the Providence Church.

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Harriet said there are two
things, I don't do shirts,

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and I do go to the
General Assembly.

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The general what?

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I agreed to her conditions.

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And I was halfway
through divinity school

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when she told me she had always
planned to marry a minister.

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I have to think of early
mentors, friends, colleagues,

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people like Brad
Gale, and Joe Barth,

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and Ralph Norman Helverson,
who was a great inspiration

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and mentor to me.

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I think of the
colleagues and friends

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all along the way,
the luck I had

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in serving terrific churches.

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I was asked by a search
committee for Cedar Lane, Mr.

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MacClean, we've talked
to some ministers who

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say it's a mistake
for the minister

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to have close friends
in the congregation.

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It causes problems.

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What do you think?

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And I said, I think
they're probably right,

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but the trouble
is I need friends

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so bad I can't be picky
about where I find them.

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And that has worked out well.

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Ministry is an
incredible profession,

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especially in this movement.

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We talk a great deal
about freedom of thought.

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We don't talk so much
about freedom in ministry,

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but it is real and
it is important.

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And each of us has
great leeway in choosing

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the ways we will
shape our ministry,

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how we will spend our
time, what organizations

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we will try to be part
of, what social injustices

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we will try to respond to.

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That is a tremendous freedom.

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For me, I felt the
criminal justice system

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was one of the most glaring
programs that cut people off

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from the rest of society as
though they did not exist.

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There are human beings
in those prisons.

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And in Knoxville, we
were fortunate in being

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able, after a year of work,
to bring five young men out

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of the penitentiary
after they had

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served part of a 25-year
sentence for a scuffle

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in a car in which nobody
suffered lasting injury.

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Early in my ministry, to be
involved in racial questions

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meant the first Fair
Housing Committee

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within the city of Boston.

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For the five years in which
I worked for John Buehrens

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at the UUA, I had tremendous
opportunities making friends

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around the world,
friends for the UUA.

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And I had the great
experience of going to India

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with Kathy Sreedhar five
times to meet the people who

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were benefiting from the
Holdeen India program, some

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of the poorest of the poor,
people called untouchable,

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bonded laborers, women.

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That program is one of the very
best things this organization

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has ever done, and it may be
one of the best kept secrets.

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But it won't be a secret if you
go to its celebration today.

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I have to say, that becoming
a Unitarian before merger

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and then Unitarian Universalist
minister gave me a life,

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a life of challenge, a life
that always seemed worthwhile.

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You became my people.

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I could not be more
honored by your validation

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of the choices I made along the
way, the things I tried to do,

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the benefit, and friendship,
and collegiality I received.

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I have nothing but gratitude.

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And after all, isn't that
the basis of our religion?

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Thank you.

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