Their business done, the closing ceremony’s benediction said, and with the band’s rousing postlude propelling them, a throng of Unitarian Universalists strutted exuberantly out of the huge plenary hall to head home.

After the General Assembly choir had processed down four of the wide hall’s nine aisles, Kellie Walker, the General Assembly music director, led the throng through hymns old and new as well as justice songs. Despite tired feet after five long days and nights of GA activity, the music kept spirits up, and twice the people were not just singing but holding hands and swaying with the rhythm in the aisles.

In the ceremony’s centerpiece six ministers and lay people active in justice efforts led a review of the long UU history of efforts for peace, racial justice, women’s rights, economic justice, immigration rights, marriage equality and GBLTQ rights, the environment, and accessibility for people with impairments.

As the ceremony came to an end, Dan Furmansky, the UUA’s Standing on the Side of Love campaign manager, issued a rousing call-and-response invitation to the special 2012 Justice General Assembly in Phoenix, which will focus on action against Arizona’s draconian anti-illegal immigration laws and mistreatment of immigrants.

“The future of our religious movement is in our hands,” UUA President Peter Morales said in his benediction. “This is our time.”

And the historic 50th General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association came to an end.

Watch the Closing Celebration and read the text of the service at UUA.org.