Ric Masten of Big Sur, writer of the hymn "Let It Be a Dance," was a man rich in ironic contradictions: a Unitarian Universalist minister who never graduated from college much less attended seminary, a dyslexic poet, and a singer with a hearing loss. For the last nine years, until his death in May, he was a man who lived with terminal cancer.

Throughout his life, , but especially in the recent years before his death in May, 2008, his poetry has explored issues of living with a sense of one's mortality.

In this service we will draw on a collection of his poetry, Going Out Dancing, just published by the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Join fellow Unitarian Universalists next Thursday (August 14) from 6 to 9 pm for a special phone banking for the No on 8 campaign to preserve Marriage Equality. Food will be provided!

The Equality For All coalition is partnering with our society to co-sponsor this event.

The evening includes training, a simple script to follow during your calls, and coaches to support you while you phone bank. We need volunteers to make phone calls to recruit other volunteers and to call voters educating them about defeating Prop 8 - the marriage ban.

The more people we talk to about this issue, the more votes we have on our side.

To volunteer, contact Rob Packenham by email or call him at (408) 425-1486.

The ceremony was broadcast live on the Internet, and is available online as an archive.

Rev. Gordon and Judy Gibson, who were in the Knoxville church at the time of the shooting, shared in the re-dedication service via the Internet before Rev. Gibson preached in our pulpit.

Following the San Francisco worship, the Gibsons (pictured at right) talked in the Thomas Starr King Room about their observations and feelings.