By Rev. Rebecca Bryan

It is indeed my honor to serve as your minister. This is a wonderful congregation with deep and rooted history, both in not only our association and denomination but also here in Newburyport and the surrounding towns. I take this call seriously, and I do it with deep gratitude. 

It is not by accident that we are where we are today. This church is what it is because of people. We are who we are today as a result of the sweat and effort many, many of you and your ancestors poured into this beloved congregation. They did so out of duty and with love, creating an honorable reality today that we are so, so blessed to carry on. It can be so easy to think we’re starting anew or we’re starting some fresh idea or we are the ones but forget all those who came before us. That is true here in this congregation, it is true in our country, and it is true in our lives. 

What I find is a human tendency that I hope we can perhaps all look to correct within ourselves, myself included, is that we are to look on the past when the past did us harm. And rightfully so. The past when, it has done harm, needs to be healed. It needs to be spoken. Secrets need to be told. But the past is not only harm. The past is also full of good, of courage, of love, of bravery, of honor, and of duty. We are so prone to remembering the past when it has brought us harm and to looking to the present and the future for good – perhaps not naming the harm that is occurring right now. That is not good. Brave are we when we can see it all. We can see the angels in human form. 

As I said, this church is what it is because of people, and so too has this church been ministered to and led by brave, faithful, and honorable ministers before me. I walk humbly in their footsteps knowing the path that has been laid by decades and centuries of service, faithful service to this congregation and to our liberal, religious values. We are blessed to have one of those great ministers and his wife with us this morning. 

The Reverend Bertrand Steeves served this congregation as minister for 38 years, 38 years from 1956 until 1994. His legacy includes engagement in the community and with the denomination working for social justice in the areas of racial equity, interfaith relations, education, civil rights, and the rights of LGBTQ. He was also an avid fundraiser, community organizer and wedding officiant. It is rumored that everyone in Newburyport and the surrounding area was either married by Reverend Steeves or related to someone who was. 

In studying three of his more recent sermons that were delivered in his role as minister emeritus during Reverend Babcock’s tenure, I saw that Reverend Steeves’s convictions are clear. They are clear, and they are compelling, and they are as important today as they were then. As I said, I am honored to walk in his footsteps. 

He believes in a religion that is relevant to our lives, that is engaged in issues of justice. His religious convictions are steeped in reason and action, tradition and faithfulness. Bert is not one to be overtaken by emotionalism or fanaticism. He maintains perspective by remembering history and maintaining accuracy in assessing reality. 
 

Reflecting on the state of the nation in his sermon “Is Nothing Sacred,” Reverend Steeves wrote this: “The truth of the matter is that our forebearers all lived in eras of crisis and transition. They, like most of us, were bewildered by changes around them. However, there were a few among our ancestors who refused to be bewildered by changes they saw going on around them. They refused to believe that the best days had been left behind. They refused to give up the ideals and the principles they believed to be eternal.” 

It is so easy to look back and think of harm and to neglect and deny the harm in the present. It is wrong to look back and not remember the good, the courage, the love, and the bravery. And dare I say, it is dishonorable to live in the present and not honor the good and the love and the bravery and not to be part of that this day. 

Bert believes in the sacredness of life and the responsibility we have as religious liberals to work for the principles of our faith, including the inherent worth and dignity of all people and upholding the use of the democratic process. He wrote, “The religious person recognizes the law of duty from which there is no escape. This power, this moral law touches us on every side. We can no more evade, much less escape from it than we can escape the atmosphere we breathe.” 

As Unitarian Universalists, we are bound in duty to uphold certain principles. And Reverend Steeves highlights three of them: freedom, truth, and reason. His words about freedom point to a morally universal freedom. A universal freedom, not individual relief. He wrote, and again I quote with great honor, “Freedom cannot be limited and still be freedom,” … “Freedom cannot be limited and still be freedom.” 

“How few,” he says, “there are who stand for this principle today. Not who say they believe it, but they stand for it even though thousands have given their lives in its behalf.” Going on, why do we seek the truth? Again, freedom, truth, and reason, principles of this faith referring to truth. Reverend Steeve said this: “We seek the truth that we and all people everywhere may be free. We seek it not for its own sake. Truth has no particular virtue or value unless something is done about it.” 

I just would like to say that one again. He wrote, “Truth, we do not seek it for its own sake. It has no particular virtue or value unless something is done about it.” 

He goes on to surmise that a church founded on freedom and truth and reason must have only one reason for being, and that is, “To help people.” And in so doing, we work for freedom, universal freedom for ourselves and for all people. 

It is my honor to walk in this minister’s footsteps. And in the words of one of his colleagues, Reverend Frederick May Elliott, “It is also my and, in so doing, our duty to do what we can to ensure that we follow the commands of religious freedom, which is forward, forward to a time and a land where all people are free.” 

Amen and blessed be.