"Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?" (Isaiah 40:21).

I. Well, never fear, I’m going to tell you!

According to ancient custom, begun in 1996, this sermon, on the day of our annual congregational meeting, is my annual report to the congregation. Indeed, it is my fifth annual report, in this the 302nd year of First Parish.

I want to note some of the events of the year.

• This was the year when our Junior Choir, for kids in grades 2 to 5 "took off" – responding to the energetic leadership of Kathryn Troup Denney. Instead of a dozen kids, they have nearly thirty on the roster. This was also the year when I had the great fun of presiding at the wedding of Kathryn and Bryce, who accompanied the choir this morning.
  
• This was the year when the Second Grade Church School class presented me, on Church School Sunday in June, with a wonderful plate they had made – it had all (the) ___ kids’ thumb-prints on it, it celebrated who we are. I showed it to everybody at the All-church Picnic in June, but I was terribly afraid of dropping it!

  The Church School continues to grow, now at 228 kids. Have you thought recently about what an important task the Church School seeks to fulfill? We are not just conveying information, you see. If I had to put it in one word, I would say that the goal of the Church School is to instill in our children habits of reverence. The stories we teach, the pageants, chapel services, family Sundays, children’s choirs, the whole experience of a worshipping community seeks to teach our children, not just intellectually but in the very core of their being, that there are things worthy of reverence: the lives of their classmates, the choices and commitments we make that define who we are, the communities and institutions that bring hope, reverence for life itself, reverence for the mystery behind all life which we call God. Not a false or empty reverence, but a chosen, hard-won reverence that converts the soul and guides our life.

  This year the Babbott-Wards told me that three-year-old Owen told them, upon entering the chapel, that the chapel was a place for "quiet thoughts." And when I was teaching the 8th grade class just two weeks ago, one student said she likes the 8th grade program because here "you can ask questions out loud."

  Continuing the excellence of our Church School is one of the reasons you will be asked, this year and next, to find the funding to allow us again to have a half-time Director of Religious Education.

• This was the year when First Parish began two of the most significant projects of, I’m sure, the new century. The Long-Range Planning process is an attempt to do some coordinated thinking on what we are about, what we want to do. To be sure, this is the first time we have done this in quite this way. Some may think that it is the introduction of business practices into ecclesiastical affairs. I think it is simply an effort to involve more people, more people than the clergy and Standing Committee, in deciding where we want to go and how we want to allocate our resources. Indeed, some prefer the term "strategic planning" because we’re not really talking about 20 or 30 years, but three to five years down the road. More importantly, we’re trying to establish a "process of planning" that will have us continually planning where we want to go. So far it has involved the hundred or so folks serving on committees, and it will soon ask the rest of you for your dreams and visions.

  And secondly, we have begun a capital campaign. A capital campaign, of course, is designed to raise big bucks, more than usual, to help us do some stuff we could not ordinarily afford. Well, you know my friends, this is Weston. We ought to understand this. We ought to be pretty good at this. . . . And you know, we are! Cai von Rumohr and Chris Nelson and their many committee members are doing a great job. They have already announced "advance gifts" of three-quarters of a million dollars. We WILL take care of this place, we WILL do our part, we WILL pass this place on to the next generation intact, in good shape! We should be so proud to be part of this church.

• While we’re talking about money, I have to say a word about our Stewardship Committee. They call themselves "we merrie band of sisters," and they are. With a fairly low-keyed campaign (that is, they have not camped on your door-steps), they have secured pledges for $340,000, which is the highest stewardship ever for this church. Cheers to Merry Touborg, Lisette Cooper, Helen Bradley, and Ginnie Hibbard! May their band increase!
  
  
• This was the year when the Standing Committee actually began to conduct significant business over the internet, via e-mail. The discussion was primarily about the parsonage roof. My family and I are glad that they came to a conclusion!
  
  
• This was the year when I became more involved in denominational business than usual: attending the UUA Large Church Conference in March in San Diego with Michael McSherry, preaching at the UU Christian Fellowship conference in New Orleans, conducting the chapel service at the UUA headquarters in Boston in April; and Larry Coburn has talked me into visiting our partner church in Transylvania this spring. And I will be attending the denominational General Assembly in June.
  
  
• This was the year that I took a dramatic and forthright public stand on a certain political issue, preaching against the war in Kosovo — saying that the war was wrong and predicting that an air war would never be successful. So much for the parson as a geopolitical strategist! But some very good things happened here: we were delighted that our own Jonathan Moore, a Harvard faculty member and occasional State Department official, led a terrific evening forum here about Kosovo. Another good thing was the simple bowl we placed over to the side after church asking for donations to Oxfam’s relief programs in Kosovo, which raised over $700. (What is interesting to me is that my sermon, which was such a bad predictor of events, was apparently used in an ecumenical study group about preaching on such issues!).

  While I promised not to keep preaching about Kosovo, I must note that the displacement of Serbs in Kosovo – a quarter of a million as of last November -- appears to be just as bad as the ethnic cleansing against the ethnic Albanians which we intervened to stop.

• This was the year that sermons I’ve delivered have been reprinted in periodicals as diverse as the Beacon Hill Chronicle, the Town Crier and the Lancaster Times. No royalty checks yet.
  
  
• This was the fourth year that we have held three Christmas Eve services at 5:00, 6:15 and 11:15. Previously, the third service was held at 7:45, right after the carol sing at the Jones Tavern. The midnight service (ending at midnight) was an experiment. My sense is that the later service has not really taken off, with low attendance and low energy. Senior Church Committee is discussing this and I’d like to take a quick straw poll: how many think the third service should be at 7:45? how many think 11:15? [perhaps 3/4 voted for the earlier service].
  
  
• It needs to be said that this was also the year when we said goodbye to two associate ministers. This was not especially comfortable. Suffice it to say that it became clear to all that Ed and Jean did not like working in this job, in this town or in this denomination. We wish them well in their new place.

  I want to especially thank Michael McSherry for a truly magnificent job he did in shepherding and guiding this whole process – he saw clearly what was happening (before I did), and handled it all with finesse and confidentiality and the best interests of the church in mind. I was proud of his work.
  
  

• A related set of cheers belong to last year’s Associate Minister Search Committee. It was wonderful to find Sue Spencer! She has landed so well here that it is easy to forget that it was only five months ago that a terrific Search Committee recommended her. Indeed, things have worked out so well that we neglected to ask the Search Committee to write for the annual reports booklet. Let me now thank once again: Don Pierson, committee chair extraordinaire who kept all on track and on course, Barbara Coburn, Katie Fagan, Tod Foote, and Joyce White. They put in a lot of time, with a wonderful result.
  
  
• This was a year with an extraordinary number of deaths, including two very close to me personally. I tried something new for the sermon on All Saints Sunday this past November: talking about the 20 or so people we had buried from here in the previous twelve months. I was glad I did it. In a church this size few parishioners knew all of them well, yet they were part of this community, part of the community which the Bible calls "the communion of saints." I can tell you that there are few times when I feel as strongly the sense of the Church as a spiritual community as when we are caring for those who have lost loved ones. And, strangely, funerals are a time when I feel simultaneously that "this is real ministry, this is what I am called to do" and yet also feel the inadequacy of words. There is a ministry of silence.
  
  
• Somebody once told me that one role of the Senior Minister is to thank people, on behalf of the whole congregation. There is, of course, the danger of leaving somebody out who should be thanked, on the one hand, and the danger of including somebody who would rather do things anonymously, on the other hand. As I was writing this sermon, it occurred to me that during the past month, my wife Suzanne has hosted three church-related suppers at the parsonage – all in addition to a more-than-full-time job as a teacher. On behalf of the whole congregation: Suzanne, thank you!
  

II. This is a busy place, a "fast-moving train" Sue Spencer called it. There are many good things going on, many being planned. I continue to be concerned about two things in particular, about communication and connections.

We hope to develop a website this summer and to get the office, not just the ministers, on-line for email.

We also need to develop more ways for people to "connect," to get to know one another better. Barbara Coburn organized that delightful First Parish Authors’ reception during coffee hour this year; we have a lot of published people here. During the reception I was talking to Joyce White about her book when she noticed a book on the table by Augustus White (no relation), and she said that she knew the book and had used it in her doctoral research, but she didn’t know he was a parishioner here. I said "well, Gus is standing right over here, come meet him." Connecting.

I saw it again at a capital campaign cocktail party at the parsonage: Janet Pine heard somebody mention Cynthia Berg’s name, and wanted to meet her some day because Janet had spent two years teaching the Sunday School curriculum that Cynthia had written; and just then Cynthia came in from the next room. Connecting.

Networking. Finding soul-mates, spiritual fellow-travelers. Isn’t that one of the blessings of the beloved community, the church, the Kingdom of God? Church is a place where people can connect. Church is a people who, in the name of Christ, welcome one another.

III. So there we are, my friends, here in the 302nd year of First Parish. So many blessings. So much yet to do.

It is a privilege and a blessing to be your parson.

Thanks be to God.