—by by Dan Cryer

Good morning and welcome to All Souls. My name is Dan Cryer, and I’ve been a member of this congregation since 1994.

Jean-Paul Sartre once famously defined Hell as “other people” [“L’enfer, c’est les autres” ¹]. Now, I’m no expert in philosophy, but I think the French thinker got it exactly wrong. In my view, Hell is the condition of being utterly alone, utterly without people. There is nothing more frightening, more life-diminishing than the feeling of being totally cut off from friends and family.

Sartre, an atheist, would not have understood All Souls Church. For this is our village in the city. This is where “other people” make up a vibrant community. The beauty of the arrangement is that we’re not all alike, that we don’t have to agree about all matters religious, but that we do share a common path as spiritual seekers. That’s the Unitarian-Universalist way.

All Souls is the place where I come to surround myself with “other people.” Where else could I mingle with both straights and gays, CEOs and social workers, bankers and teachers, the young and the old, with people of every color? Here, we are not defined simply by our job, race, gender, or sexual preference. We can be our full, uncompartmentalized selves, our wonderfully unique human beings.

Here I can join with others to feed the homeless or tutor underprivileged kids. I can study Ralph Waldo Emerson or the sages of the Bible. I can campaign for peace and against nuclear weapons.

Here, I can watch a teenager blossom into a formidable college student, and potential UU minister. I can congratulate an actress on her stunning Broadway performance. I can comfort my newly widowed friend and reach out to the young couple who lost their baby before it was born. And someday, no doubt, I will be comforted in turn.

I’ve never understood the religious impulse that requires a vow of silence or the solitary pursuit of visions in the desert. For me, religion is, above all, about community. I’m grateful to be a part of All Souls. For me and for many of you, this community has been an invaluable source of sustenance, an oasis in an indifferent world. Without it, we’d be wandering in the wilderness. Now that would be Hell, indeed.

¹ from the play “Huis-clos” (“No Exit”)