General Assembly 2014 -- Day 4

It almost seems hard to believe at this point (even though it wouldn't have been at all hard to believe before GA started) but today may have been my favorite day of GA. The workshops were fine. I caught the tail end of "The Art of Missional Church" and split the other time slot between "Many Roads, One Journey to Beloved Community" and "GA Talks: Looking Forward," both of which were very cool. Plenary (er, "General Session") was pretty cool just because the General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to divest from fossil fuels.

Then it was time for the Ware Lecture. WOW. Sister Simone Campbell was AMAZING. Totally blew me away. She talked about "walking towards trouble" as an act of faith and shared some incredible stories she's heard while doing the work she does and it was simply awe-inspiring. If you weren't able to attend the viewing party at UU Miami, I highly, HIGHLY recommend going to the UUA website and finding the recording of her Ware Lecture and watching it several times. So beautiful.

After the lecture I killed some time and then bought Sister Simone Campbell's book and got it signed and took a photo with her which was awesome! Then I was off to a HUGE GA worship with The Sanctuary Boston that was far and away the highlight of my week (with the possible exception of The Sanctuary Boston's Wednesday night YA Opening Worship), particularly because they invited dozens of folks to be on stage to worship with them and I was one of them. What a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL service. I know I've already gone on and on about how amazing The Sanctuary Boston and David Ruffin are but MAN ARE THEY AMAZING. This was also in the General Session Hall so do yourself a favor and make SURE you watch the video. Indescribable.

After that was Waterfire, which was pretty awesome, but me and my friends were spent from worship so after enjoying Waterfire for about 20-30 minutes, we just hung out at a bar for a bit and then turned in for the night.

And yeah, it's kinda ironic that my so-called "favorite day of GA" was the one I wrote the least about but that's just how immensely powerful the Ware Lecture and Worship were and words fall way short of describing either of them. In about 14 hours all this will be over and, as usual, I will struggle with how I return to normal life but for this brief moment in time, everything is amazing and every drop of energy in my being is drained and I love my faith and the people that make it what it is more than I could possibly describe. I might even go as far as to say that this was the best GA I've been to yet. :)