It has been a busy month, and now it is ending with a full weekend, full of activities, preparations and the full range of life's passages.

I've just returned from a lovely dedication ceremony for a six-month old child.  Time was when I wouldn't do dedications for families that are not activitely engaged in the congregation.  It is central to my theology of Unitarian Universalist child dedication that it is really a community of adults that is being dedicated -- dedicated to the nurture of a young life.  And in the early years of my ministry, that community of adults was the parents, relatives, and the congregation.  But a few years ago I suddenly realized that the community of adults could be the the friends gathered around the couple and the baby, and so now I do dedications outside the congregation, much in the way that I do outside weddings.  As a UU minister, I bring people religious but not sectarian rites of passage.  It feels like a positive part of my ministry.

I talked with this couple in September and they tried to arrange things so that we could hold the dedication in October when there might be a chance of doing it outdoors.  Climate change being what it is, we held the ceremony outdoors today, November 28.  The wind in the trees and a neighborhood leaf blower made me push my voice, but all assured me that they had been able to hear.  I'm happy to report that the dog did not steal and eat the rose, although there was a moment when I thought that might happen.  And the baby remained calm and pensive all through the serivce.

Now in a few minutes, I will leave to attend a memorial service at our church in Westport.  Jerry Davidoff has been a moving force for Unitarian Universalism for much longer than I've been a UU, and one of the joys of coming to this area has been the opportunity to get to know him a bit.  He and his wife Denny have been a good team in recent years, traveling to services and meetings and fundraisers together.  He and Denny were set to visit CUC for our Anniversary celebration last spring, but a hospitalization at that time kept them from getting here for that event.  Another time you can come, I told them.  But alas, that will not be.  Jerry will be missed.