Let
Us Now Praise Universalist Women
Created by
the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Heritage Society
Originally
presented at General Assembly, 1993
Call to Worship:
For all who came
before,
who
founded churches and Sunday schools,
who
shared their faith through their preaching and teaching,
For all who fought
inequity and cruelty,
often
at great personal cost,
For all whose faith
fueled their work
for
a just world,
May the stories of
these few inspire us to find more stories,
and
to create our own,
Our paths illuminated
by this light of Universalism.
By Jacquelyn O’Sullivan
Processional Hymn
“Rise Up! Rise Up! 0 Woman” Text by Ada C. Bowles,
adapted
Opening Words
“Remember me!”
How swift the tide
Of
memory glideth o’er the past;
Those sunny hours so
quickly sped,
Perchance
a few with clouds o’ercast.
But memory hath more
lasting flowers,
Which
Time’s rude hand can ne’er efface,
The sweets we cull from
friendship’s bowers,
The
gems affection’s altar grace.
“Remember me!”
In youth’s bright morn
Those
simple words so lightly spoken,
Far into future years
may reach,
And
wake a spell which ne’er is broken.
A star to gleam in
Memory’s sky,
A
line on Memory’s page to glow,
A smile to offer at her
shrine,
Or
tears which from her springs shall flow.
From Our Gift, Universalist Sunday School book, 1851
Chalice Lighting
Let us hold in loving
remembrance all those who paved the way. May their lives provide us
with models for our own empowerment. May their words reach across the
years to inspire us with new hope to meet the challenges of our
lives. Together may we carry forth the flame of our liberal religious
heritage, bringing healing to all the world. Amen. Blessed be.
Introduction
In the late 1870s,
Eliza Rice Hanson was traveling on an Iowa railroad. She fell into
conversation with a woman who challenged her to name Universalist
women who had distinguished themselves by their faith and
philanthropic zeal. She recalls her reaction:
Casting
about for an answer to her question, I was astonished as the long and
brilliant procession moved across the field of my mind’s
vision, and the longer I dwelt on them the greater my astonishment
became, and at length I said, “Never did a church include a
larger proportion of noble women.” (Our Women Workers,
published 1882, p. iii)
We are grateful to the
woman on that Iowa train, because Eliza Hanson wrote Our Women
Workers in response to her challenge, a book that still stands as
one of the most important resources on Universalist women.
Today we offer stories
and words from a few of these noble women, trusting that their
examples will represent the broad range of interests and
accomplishments of our Universalist foremothers. Let us begin with a
story for the children in our community and the child in all of us.
It is a story about Annie B. Jordan Willis, African American
Universalist educator.
Children’s
Focus “Annie and Her Children”
Annie B. Jordan
Willis was born one hundred years ago, on the 30th of May in 1893
in Suffolk, Virginia. Mary, her mom, was a teacher, and her dad,
Joseph, was the third African American to become a Universalist
minister. He was interested in Universalist mission activities.
Missions were things other than churches, like schools and clinics,
which helped people. Universalist women all over the country worked
very hard to raise money to support missions, including the one in
Annie’s town.
Annie’s father
spent most of his time working at the Suffolk Universalist Normal
Training School, and he also preached at the local Universalist
church. The whole family valued education, and from a young age
Annie, along with her mother and sister, worked at the school. Annie
helped teach the younger children. As a young woman, Annie attended
college in Norfolk, Virginia, where she married Richard Willis and
had one daughter. However, after a year of college she came home to
help with the school. As her father got older, her work took on a
special importance, and when he died in 1929, she was ready to assume
his duties.
Soon after her father’s
death, Annie realized that she was a teacher, not a preacher. So, she
sadly closed the Universalist church that had for so long been
connected with the school. Although she began to attend the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, she held fast to her Universalist faith,
a faith that showed in all her life and work. Her faith was so
important to her that after the church closed, she led her students
in daily prayer at lunchtime.
There are still many
people who speak fondly of Annie, remembering the dignity and
discipline which marked the school. One thing Annie had never liked
about the school was the name, “Normal” school, so she
was happy when it was renamed the Jordan Neighborhood House in 1939.
In the morning, Annie or another teacher stood at the door to greet
the children as they entered, and in spite of the fact that over 100
children attended the schoo1, each day Annie would make her rounds
through the classes, speaking to each child by name.
For 45 years, Annie
continued to struggle for funding to keep the school open as a
constant light for the community she held so dear. Today, 16 years
after her death in 1977, she remains in the memories of those whose
lives she touched as a friend, teacher and living example of the
light of Universalism. By Jacquelyn O’Sullivan,
based on research by Will Frank
Candles of
Remembrance
As we share the lives
and words of our foremothers, let us pause to remember the women who
have touched our lives. You are invited to come forward to light a
candle in honor of a women who has been a beacon in your life.
Hymn “The
Harvest, God, is Great” Text by Mrs. M.A. Adams
Universalist Women’s
Lives and Words—Part I
Let
us now praise famous [women],
our ancestors in their generations.
There
were those who ruled in their kingdoms,
and made a name for themselves by their valor;
those
who gave counsel because they were intelligent;
those who spoke in prophetic oracles;
those
who led the people by their counsels
and by their knowledge of the people’s lore...
those
who composed musical tunes,
or put verses in writing...
Some
of them have left behind a name,
so that others declare their praise.
But
of others there is no memory;
they have perished as though they had never existed...
But
these were godly [women],
whose righteous deeds [need not be] forgotten;
[We,]
their descendants, stand by their covenants...
and their glory will never be blotted out.
[Through
us,] their names live on
generation after generation.
[Let]
the assembly declare their wisdom,
And the congregation proclaim their praise.
Adapted from Sirach (Eclesiasticus) 44:1-1 5
Today we remember
Universalist women, and in doing so we stand by their covenants.
Through our attention to their lives and words, we guarantee that
their names will live on, generation after generation. Let us now
praise Universalist women!
Whenever we mention
Universalist women, one woman invariably comes to mind—Clara
Barton, the Civil War’s “Angel of the Battlefield”
and founder of the American Red Cross. Clara’s Universalist
affiliation has been confirmed in a letter held by the Clara Barton
Birthplace. She writes:
Your
belief that I am a Universalist is as correct as your belief in being
one yourself: a belief in which all who are privileged to possess it
rejoice. In any case it was a great gift, for, like Saint Paul, I
“was born free,” and saved the pain of reaching it
through years of struggle and doubt.
Women’s Heritage
Society intern, Helene Knox, has written a poem in which she quotes
from one of Clara’s letters and then imagines how her
Universalist faith might have sustained her on the battlefield and
throughout her life.
“Clara
Barton at Antietam (1862)”
As
I worked so close to the battle,
a
bullet tore through my sleeve,
and
killed the soldier I was tending.
I
had to wring the blood
from
the bottom of my clothing,
as
I could not move for the weight of it.
I
do what I have to.
Nothing
but death
can
make me cease from my labor,
because
I love
mercy.
Though
I walk through the valley
of
the shadow,
and
through vast fields
of
hapless soldiers’ cries,
and
silences,
Thou
art
always with me,
Thou
who wilt restore at last
each
soul,
every soul,
all
souls
unto
Thy life. by Helene Knox
Another unique glimpse
of Clara Barton is found in her 1870 letter to Frances Dana Barker
Gage, famous Universalist social reformer best known to us
today as the author of the wonderful and ironic hymn, “A
Hundred Years Hence.” Hear the words of Clara Barton:
My
Dear Fannie:
I
can never see a poor mutilated wreck, blown to pieces with powder and
lead without wondering if visions of such an end ever flitted before
his mother’s mind when she washed and dressed her fair skinned
baby. Woman should certainly have some voice in the matter of war,
either affirmative or negative and the fact that she has not this
should not be made the ground on which to deprive her of other
privileges. She shan’t say there shall be no war—and
she shan’t take any part in it when there is one, and
because she don’t take part in war, she must not vote,
and because she can’t vote, she has no voice in her government,
and because she has no voice in her government, she isn’t a
citizen, and because she isn’t a citizen, she has no rights,
and because she has no rights, she must submit to wrongs, and because
she submits to wrongs, she isn’t anybody, and “what does
she know about war—” and because she don’t know
anything about it, she mustn’t say or do anything about it
—“Three blind mice[,] cut off their heads with a carving
knife—three blind mice.”
Clara Barton stands
within a long line of Universalist feminists. Perhaps the earliest is
Judith Sargent Murray, who might well be called the First Lady
of the Universalist Church. Born in Gloucester in 1751, she was
23-years-old when John Murray first came there to preach. Her family
home had already been a gathering place for people to discuss
Universalist theology, so they were ready for John when he arrived
from England. At a time when only boys were educated, Judith had been
given instruction along with her brother and when he entered Harvard,
he shared his studies with her. She became the first writer in
America to publish essays supporting the complete equality of men and
women and was the first native-born woman dramatist to have her plays
professionally performed. As the wife of the founder of American
Universalism, she collected his letters and sermons, and later
completed his memoirs, preserving for posterity the primary source we
have today documenting the founding of this religious movement. Now
that scholars finally have access to Judith’s journals and
letters, thanks to the marvelous discovery of these treasures by
Gordon Gibson, we are beginning to realize that Judith herself was
instrumental in developing the original theology and vision of
Universalism.
Her writings are
extensive. This selection, about justice, gives us a preview of one
of the major themes in the lives of Universalist women. Hear the
words of Judith Sargent Murray:
Were
I to personify Justice, instead of presenting her blind I would
denominate her the goddess of fire; she should possess a subtle
essence, which should... pervade the inmost recesses of the soul; by
every insignia of light I would surround... her; while among the
ornaments which composed her crest, a broad and never-closing eye
should stand conspicuous; she should possess the power to unravel the
knotty entanglements of the most sophisticated web; piercing as the
forked lightning... she should disclose at a single glance the
secret... windings of the most profound labyrinth, while patient and
unerring she should listen with calmness to the various disquisitions
of the interested claimant... Of unbending integrity, Justice should
feel, hear and see, but truth alone should be the polar star by which
she should shape her movements, and equity only should constrain her
determinations. (Our Women Workers, pp. 7-8.)
In the early days of
the Universalist movement, few women were listed as members of
churches. Historian Russell Miller speculates on the reasons for
this. In some states women were not permitted to sign papers
organizing religious societies. In other cases it may not have been
considered respectable for women to attend Universalist meetings,
given the radical nature of the religious perspective being promoted.
However, there is evidence that as early as 1810 a woman, Maria Cook,
is known to have preached Universalism in public gatherings in
Pennsylvania and New York. In the decades that followed, other women
are listed as preachers, including Mary Ann Church in what was then
called Upper Canada.
More than preaching,
though, women’s early expression of Universalism is more likely
to have taken literary form. One of those early authors is Caroline
Mehitable Fisher Sawyer. Born in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1812,
Caroline grew up in an Abolitionist family who enabled her to become
one of the best-educated women in America. She became a Universalist
when she married the Rev. Thomas Sawyer and moved to New York City.
One of the most
prolific writers of Universalist literature, Caroline published poems
and stories in the New Yorker, Knickerbocker magazine and
other major secular publications of the day. For several years she
was editor of the youth department of an important denominational
paper, the Christian Messenger Eliza Hanson records that the
children who once waited “with impatient delight from week to
week” for her “beautiful surprises” benefited
greatly from the way her writing brought out “the latent good
within them, and the uplifting of their young natures into the light
of Universalism.” (Our Women Workers, p.148)
Besides writing for and
editing numerous Universalist publications, Caroline Sawyer reared
five children and helped organize the work of the Universalist
Ladies’ Dorcas Society to aid the poor. Eliza Hanson says of
her:
When
our church was in its Spring-time, she gave to it the sweetness of
her heart and the brilliancy of her mind. A grateful minister said
some years since:
“This
large-hearted, scholarly woman came to us in our weakness and
loneliness, and drew in voice after voice of a shining band, to charm
us into graceful speech and eloquent thought; to set bright visions
open before us, and lead our young and ardent church on its march up
the hills of light.” (Our Women Workers, p. 149)
In a poem called “My
Taper,” Caroline Sawyer describes her understanding of her
mission as a writer. We debated about altering what we might today
consider sexist language in this poem, but which was common usage in
the 19th century. However, we decided to leave it as is, thinking she
might have meant “men” literally. Hear the words of
Caroline Mehitable Fisher Sawyer:
If
in some low place, shunned of favored men,
I
set my candle-stick and trim the light
And
cheer the dismal nook where only night
Reigned
hitherto, am I not doing then
God’s
works as truly, faithfully, as when
The
beacon fire I kindle upon the hill,
To
light a thousand upturned brows, and fill
With
sudden radiance every glade and glen?
Angels
appeared to holy men of old
In
the dark prison, and none saw their light
Beyond
the walls! The heavenly ones who told
The
Savior’s birth, shone on no mortal sight
Save
Judah’s shepherds’. Let me take heart then
And
keep my taper bright, though shining for few men!
(Our Women Workers, p. 154)
Following in Caroline’s
footsteps were many other Universalist women poets and writers.
Charlotte Ann Fillebrown Jerauld was born in 1820 in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although she showed early intellectual
promise her short life was filled with hardship, the lot of many
working-class Universalists. At age 15 she had to go to work in the
book bindery at the publishing house where the noted Universalist
periodical, Ladies Repository, was published. At age 25 she died
suddenly as the result of a difficult childbirth. Nevertheless,
Charlotte managed to write some of Universalism’s most
inspirational poems and stories. Her hymn, “Where Shall Thy
Kingdom Come?” affirms the Universalist understanding that
salvation comes not to some select religious hierarchy but to all
people who have faith in the oneness of life. Hear the words of
Charlotte Ann Fillebrown Jerauld:
Where
shall Thy kingdom come? In halls of state
Or
cathedrals old, where the mighty throng,
Where
mitred priests in robes of purple wait,
And
pealing organs chant the lofty song?
Where
shall Thy kingdom come? In cloisters dim
Where
each alone in adoration bends,
Where
echoes music of the vesper hymn,
Where
life’s bright joy into the silence blends?
Or
in the dwelling lit by love and care,
Where
all life’s hopes and dreams are not alone;
The
dove of peace shall find, at last, rest there,
Shelter
in the heart that knows all people one.
Where
shall Thy kingdom come? In hearts and lives
Made
whole; in the one who life freely gives.
(David Johnson’s Unitarian Universalist Women Hymns, p.
15)
Another writer who
struggled to survive financially is Elizabeth Emerson Turner
Sawyer. Born in Lyme, New Hampshire, in 1822, Elizabeth was
11-years-old when she went to work in the mills in Lowell,
Massachusetts. She joined the “Improvement Circle”
organized by Universalist minister Abel Thomas, where essays, stories
and poetry were read aloud by various authors and prepared for
publication in the Lowell Offering, the first magazine ever written
solely by women. Elizabeth’s poem, “Feed My Sheep,”
expresses the Universalist call to do justice. Hear the words of
Elizabeth Emerson Turner Sawyer.
Earnest,
faithful, thoughtful women,
Listen to our earnest call,
As
we plead for those less favored,
Who are still in Error’s thrall,
And
direct your close attention
To those words with meaning deep,
Spoken
by our loving Savior
To his followers—”Feed my sheep!”
Sisters,
let us do our duty!
Help to lift the heavy cloud
Which
o’erhangs so many households,
And the highest hopes enshroud!
Heed
our blessed Savior’s message,
Let it break our lengthened sleep,
Nerve
each heart and hand to labor
At his bidding—”Feed my sheep!”
Never
could that earnest pleading
Better be obeyed than now;
Never
could a better harvest
Gathered be—then let us bow
With
a joyful recognition,
And this precept ever keep,
And,
henceforward, strive with gladness
Faithfully to feed his sheep!
(Our Woman Workers, pp. 349-50)
Universalist women
stood at the forefront of the major social reform movements of the
19th century. They believed in working to bring the kingdom of heaven
to life in a practical way in this world, not just waiting for
salvation in the hereafter. In their work for abolition, women’s
rights, temperance, prison reform, public hygiene, and peace, they
embodied the Universalist injunction to make love manifest for all
people.
Perhaps the most famous
of these reform women was Mary Livermore, known as the Queen
of the Platform for her magnificent speeches which she gave all over
the country and in Europe. It was said that the mere announcement
that she would speak was enough to fill any lecture hall. Here is an
excerpt from her speech called “The Battle of Life.” Hear
the words of Mary Ashton Rice Livermore:
We
are approaching the era when war shall be no more. The world is ready
for it. Unconsciously, and unintentionally, the powers that be have
been preparing for it. For they have increased the destructive power
of the enginery of war so marvelously that the nations employing it
against each other will both suffer almost irreparable injury. When a
handful of men can blow up a navy, and another handful can annihilate
an army, war ceases to be war and becomes assassination. If we should
wake up tomorrow to find that all civilized nations had agreed to
arbitrate their quarrels, that all armies were to be disbanded, all
fortifications to be dismantled, and the giant battle-ships
trans-formed into vessels for peaceful uses, how much the world would
gain
by the change! (Story of My Life, published 1889, p. 692)
Mary also wrote hymns.
In this hymn she expresses the Universalist conviction that love is
the true instrument of reform, and can even reform “. . . our
brother, man.” Let us now sing “Reclaiming Power of
Love.”
Hymn “Reclaiming
Power of Love” Text by Mary Livermore
Universalist Women’s
Lives and Words—Part II
No story of
Universalist women and their commitment to service would be complete
without the Women’s Centenary Association. In 1869 the
Universalist General Convention met in Buffalo, New York. While the
men sat upstairs discussing the feasibility of creating a fund in
honor of John Murray, the women gathered in the basement to decide
how they could help in this effort. Now at this time women were
accustomed to gather in groups for religious study, sewing, and
social purposes. Fund-raising, however, was not part of their usual
agenda.
Most of the women who
met that day had never spoken in public, nor had they been
responsible for forming or maintaining organizational structures.
Nevertheless, in that basement in 1869, Universalist women formed
what is said to be the first major women’s organization in any
religious tradition. They did manage to raise $35,100.53 toward a
goal of $200,000 for the John Murray Fund. And their organization
continues today in the Unitarian Universalist Women’s
Federation.
One woman who was
instrumental in the founding of the Women’s Centenary
Association was Caroline Augusta White Soule. Born into a
Universalist family in Albany, New York, in 1824, Caroline was forced
to support her family of five young children on her own, when her
minister husband died suddenly of smallpox when she was but 27 years
old. She became a popular and prolific writer of books, stories, and
poems for women and children, filled with her faith in the comforting
power of Universalism. At the time of the gathering in Buffalo in
1869, she was 45 years old and had never before spoken in public. A
few months earlier, in fact, she had run away when asked to speak.
That she finally found her voice and became one of the leading
spokespeople for Universalism is indicative of the potential for
empowerment that lies within this religious tradition we share. Hear
the words of Caroline Augusta White Soule:
I
can honestly say, I was led by God’s hand into speaking of our
faith in public. It was something I never sought... While I was never
decidedly against women preaching, I was not for it. I waited to see
how it would result, only astonished that women had the courage to
speak in pulpits! It never occurred to me that I could. I was so
diffident naturally, had such a fear of the sound of my own voice,
had such a weak voice... [I]n April, 1869, I actually ran away when I
heard the Conference was determined I should speak! ... Very silly,
it seems to me now, this fear of uttering a few words in the presence
of those brothers and sisters...
After
our WCA began its work, I was necessarily obliged to speak... but my
sufferings were intense always, and only my love for the cause
carried me through.
(Our Women Workers, p. 445)
Caroline’s love
for the cause of Universalism not only carried her through but led
her eventually to Scotland, where she was sent by the Women’s
Centenary Association as its first foreign missionary. In 1880, at
age 55, Caroline Soule became the first woman ordained to the
ministry in Scotland.
In the years that
followed, the Women’s Centenary Association became a permanent
part of the Universalist movement, one largely responsible for
spreading Universalism to new audiences across this country and
abroad. Within their first 12 years, they published and distributed
over five million pages of tracts, small booklets extolling the
importance of Universalism. A few of their many accomplishments
include: sending missionaries to Japan and building a home for girls
and a kindergarten; purchasing the birthplace of Clara Barton and
establishing camps for children with diabetes; sponsoring the work of
Annie Willis with African American children in Virginia; and
establishing and supporting churches in the South. Without the
contributions of this vital women’s organization, Universalism
would have had much less impact. At the same time, Universalist women
were empowered by their work, learning that they could indeed make a
difference in the world.
That Universalist women
were capable of leadership in all fields was affirmed early on by the
ordination of women as ministers. In 1863, Olympia Brown
became the first woman in America, and probably in the world, to be
ordained by full denominational authority. By the time the women’s
suffrage amendment was ratified in 1920, 88 Universalist women had
been ordained.
As ministers, these
women expressed the best that is represented by our Universalist
faith. One of them, Athalia Irwin, a traveling minister who
served churches in Florida, Arkansas, and California, wrote of her
conversion from traditional Christianity to Universalism. Her poem,
“From Gethsemane to Heaven,” lifis up the hope that
Universalism still offers—for such a time as this. Hear the
words of Athalia Lizzie Johnson Irwin:
I. Gethsemane
[Written in 1898
between twelve and one o’clock at night on the day of the
author’s self-ordered release from membership in the Baptist
church, because of her desire to be honest to herself and the
church.]
I
once was happy in the faith I this day yield,
But
nothing have I now my drifting life to shield.
The
God whom I once loved I scorn as cruel, cold,—
I’d
rather have no God than him I loved of old...
Misdeed,
was it, to tear myself away
From
faith no longer mine? How could I stay?
What
care you now for heaven or for hell,
so
long as conscience tells you all is well?
II. Heaven
[Nearly five years
later, on the day of her ordination to the Universalist ministry.]
Oh,
send me out to tell the nations of a love
That
bars no soul outside that heavenly home above.
Oh,
let me tell the sorrowing and the slave
That
these are they whom Jesus came to save...
Upon
thy holy altar consecrated now,
In
meekness and in love, I humbly bow...
Interpreter
of life I fain would be,
And
all things are possible to Thee.
(Bouquet of Verses, published 1905, pp. 9-14)
Today we have had time
to explore only a few of the women for whom Universalism represented
a significant source of empowerment. We have learned a few of the
ways Universalist women shared their vision of the religion of love
by transforming the world in which they lived. We have sung the
praises of Universalist women and have felt their spirit come alive
in our lives. Let us remember their wisdom and their names, that they
may not perish and their righteous deeds need not be forgotten.
One of the most popular
Universalist hymns was written by Phebe Hanaford, Universalist
minister, feminist activist, and author. As the hymn tune is played,
we would be happy to receive your offering to support the continued
celebration of the lives and words of our founding mothers, through
the work of the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Heritage
Society. Help the flame of our heritage light the way to our future.
Offeratory:
“Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters” Text by Phebe
Hanaford
Closing Words
As we remember women of
the past, we join with those who have kept alive these memories by
preserving books and memorabilia and recording stories of the lives
of those who have gone before us. Even as they recorded the past,
these women looked forward to greater accomplishments in the future.
As Cordelia Quinby put it, “Not that we shall know about
it, but remember that there are those who will.”
In response some 40
years later, Laura Hersey wrote these words, which are still
true for us today and which describe the mission of the Unitarian
Universalist Women’s Heritage Society, indeed, for all of us
who stand committed to the liberal faith:
We
are those of whom [Cordelia Quinby] spoke; some of those, rather, for
there are those who will come after us and create new things on the
foundation of the work that we, in our turn, do. As our lives span
the years, so do they intercept and interlock with one another that
the generations seem not to be separate, but one. In their deeds and
actions, their interests and motivations, the women of [the past] are
as much a part of us today as they were in the beginning...
Because
these things are true, a grave responsibility rests upon each... of
us—the responsibility of cherishing the trust which is ours, of
fashioning it to serve the purpose of our day and of transmitting it
in wholeness to those who
follow
us. (Souvenir, published c. 1960, p. 30)
Acknowledgments
Many people contributed
to the development of this worship service. Dorothy Emerson wrote the
text in dialog with Helene Knox, who edited the selections written by
historical Universalist women. Russell Tripp arranged two of the
hymns, one based on a suggestion from David Johnson in Unitarian
Universalist Women’s Hymns, another discovered by Helene
Knox in an old hymnbook. Eugene Navias and David Johnson gave
permission for the inclusion of hymns from Singing, Shouting,
Celebrating Universalism. Jacquelyn O’Sullivan wrote the
Children’s Focus using research by Will Frank. Jacquelyn
O’Sullivan and Dorothy
Emersion edited the
final version as it appears here.
Most of all we
acknowledge the Universalist women, named and unnamed, who inspired
this service and who continue, through their example, to empower our
lives today.
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