For the Sunday service on November 15th, Dr. Laurence Marshall Carucci – Larry as most of us know him – will ask fellowship members and friends to think deeply about cultural differences which are always highly nuanced, multilayered, and far more than skin deep. Using examples from the Pacific Basin and Australia, he will ask us to seriously consider what it means to be open to an understanding of peoples whose ways of life and interpretations of the world differ radically from our own. To truly commit to a goal of world community with respect, equity, liberty, and justice for all, our UU principles require us to openly welcome and diligently work to comprehend the perspectives of those who have alternative views of the world – people who engage in everyday practices that, judged by our own cultural perspectives, may seem illogical or blatantly wrong. Such multi-cultural understanding is an onerous task that requires us to move far beyond the requirements of most other faiths since leaders and followers of those faith traditions have frequently pursued the colonizing goal of silencing or eradicating the voices of others, either through forced conversion and disavowal of the beliefs of those ‘others’ or through tacit support of programs of marginalization or ethnic cleansing. As UUs, we covenant to act in a manner antithetical to such historically abusive aims.