Easter Sunday is a good day to talk about the "good news."

In addition to the study of theology, I had of course also been regularly attending services at All Souls. Steadily, the sights and sounds of worship, which I had associated with alienation from a theology that I could not accept, were increasingly associated with the joy I felt from being in a community whose values I shared.

In the Fall of 2004 I took an ASD class with Rev. Rob Hardies and Bill Rice called Unitarian Universalist Theology. I had signed up for the course with a mixture of hope and skepticism. As I said during our introductions in the first session, I was skeptical that there really was any such thing as UU theology, skeptical that there was anything that we could say that all UUs believed. Yet I was there because I hoped that there was.

As I was coming to terms with my own discomfort of "going to church," I soon became aware of other sources of discomfort within my church. Jewish UUs who chafed at the word "church" for deeper reasons than mine. Atheist UUs who chafed at "church" and even more so at "God." Christian UUs who felt that their "church" was hostile to any meaningful expression of Christianity. And Pagan UUs who still experienced disdain for their beliefs/practices from other supposedly open-minded UUs.

I had made a commitment to Unitarian Universalism. When people asked me what religion I was, instead of saying "nothing" or "a little bit of everything" (depending upon how much I felt like explaining myself), I would say I'm a Unitarian. It was tentative at first. I said it a little abashedly and waited to see what the reaction would be - from others and from myself. Like trying on a new coat to check the fit.

I didn't go shopping for a new church/religion just then. For one thing, I knew of nowhere else to go. The same reasons that had brought me to UU in the first place still applied.

The following Sunday I showed up for the first of two Adult Spiritual Development classes that I had signed up for in order to get more involved. The topic of the first class was the then recent call by UUA President Rev. Sinkford for UUs to develop a "language of reverence," to learn to become more comfortable with speaking in Christian terms like "sin" and "salvation." One of the discussion leaders supported Sinkford's call and expressed his desire that UUs be better able to communicate our beliefs to other people of faith, that UU be taken more seriously as a religion.

There were several things that struck me about my first service at All Souls Church, Unitarian. First, there was the diversity of the congregation, reflecting the true urban community that I had been craving. Second, there was the music... the choir sang beautiful negro spirituals, not the stuffy hymns from my days in Lutheran school. And finally, there was the genuine warmth that members of the congregation showed towards each other and visitors.

I now know that 10:30 am on a Sunday morning is one of the busiest times at the Harvard street entrance of All Souls - people arriving for services, exchanging greetings, rushing to finish last minute church duties. But I swear, on that particular Sunday morning at that moment, there was no one else at that entrance. No others to hide behind, to fade into anonymity. Just me at the bottom of the small steps and the good Rev. Hardies at the top.

In September of 2003 I moved to Washington, DC in order to start a masters program in liberal studies at Georgetown. After much thought and hesitation, I had decided to leave a career in science. As much as I loved science (and still do), I needed to do something where I could more easily see how my work made the world a better place. Tho I wasn't sure what that something was. Having briefly considered law school, I finally decided to pursue public policy with an emphasis in bioethics.