2008 District Assembly

2008 District Assembly in St. Louis

Was great! We got lots of good comments on the Friday night opening celebration. Thanks to the UU ministers of St. Louis. And Eliot’s choirs, including Inner Voices and the Children’s Choir, were wonderful with the banner parade.

Saturday worship was led by Rev. Bill Sasso (Carbondale) and was well received.

The Sunday morning worship featured the 1st Unitarian Church of St Louis choir. And they were excellent. As was Rev. Khelber van Zandt V (Alton) as liturgist, and Rev. Krista Taves (Emerson) doing a children’s story which involved about a dozen adult actors who could barely keep straight faces to tell.

The highlight of Sunday morning at the Hilton Frontenac was the preacher– our own Tracey Howe-Koch, who overcame 8 other contestants to win the sermon prize and who delivered the sermon with such enthusiasm she received a standing ovation!

I have no doubt Tracey will be asked to deliver her sermon again at area churches.

We had all eleven delegates attend, so a good Eliot turnout. Krista and I– along with Eliot Senior Youth Victoria Mitchell– did a workshop on our innovative youth programming at Emerson and at Eliot.

Jan Chamberlin also led a workshop and her efforts were highly praised by district staff as going above and beyond expectations so much, the staff felt they had to give her a special gift certificate for all the work she had done.

We passed two district resolutions to be sent on to the UUA board. One was about affordable child programming at the UU General Assembly (GA); the other was about funding for national youth programming. This last resolution, originating from our own Ms Mitchell, has spread like wildfire and will be brought up and voted on at this year’s GA in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

We might only get District Assembly here once every 20 years or so, but the people and staff at Eliot did a fantastic job!