The Rev. Kathryn A. Bert was ordained by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing in 2002 after being called to serve the church as minister. She is a graduate of Meadville Lombard Theological School affiliated with the University of Chicago. Prior to theological school, she was a bilingual teacher, working with children first grade through twelfth in the state of Washington. Kathryn is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in Honduras from 1987-89, where she met her husband, a volunteer from Texas. They have one child who is in high school, and a dog who fetches the morning newspaper. Kathryn is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist and has been a member (not minister) of at least nine Unitarian Universalist churches or fellowships over the years.

   In May 2006, Kathryn attended the Network for Spiritual Progressives' Founding Conference at the All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington DC.
   Her series of 8 sermons below are based on A Spiritual Covenant with America from the Network of Spiritual Progresssives and laid out in the book, The Left Hand of God by Rabbi Michael Lerner. She also recommends reading the Spiritual Covenant with America and visiting their website www.spiritualprogressives.org

	Introduction: A New Religion, A New Bottom Line
	Loving and Caring Relationships and Families
	A Spiritually Grounded Life
	Covenant of Social Responsibility
	Covenant for a Value-Based Education
	Covenant for Health Care
	Covenant for Environmental Stewardship-Saving Us
	Covenant for Building a Safer World through Non-Violence and Generosity
	The Separation of Church, State, and Science
	Kathryn A. Bert, copyright 2007, all rights reserved

Message from the Minister
March 2008      

          It’s registration time for General Assembly, the annual meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. If you are intending to attend this year, June 25-29 in Fort Lauderdale , Florida , it is time to start planning. Housing options particularly go fast. For the first time ever, you will need a government-issued ID to get into the sessions. As you can imagine, there has been a great deal of controversy and discussion about this. (The convention center is located within the perimeter of the port.) Some people will be boycotting this year’s General Assembly on these grounds. I am not attending General Assembly, but my reasons are not related to the boycott. I simply can’t absorb the information from General Assembly well when I attend every year. I have to skip it now and again to make it work for me. I believe that the meeting of congregations should really happen every other year, because of the expense. Our congregation, like many around the country, has not able to support adequately our elected delegates. It is very expensive to attend General Assembly. However, you should know that there are ways to make it work for you. I have worked as a volunteer before to cut down on costs, and there is financial aid available from the UUA. All this information is available on the UUA website, www.uua.org. I always find lots of information at General Assembly that enriches my ministry and gives me hope in our religious movement. I commend it to you.

  -Kathryn
351-4081 ext. 5