Once in a while, I go to church, just to go. Most of the time, I doing something, leading a service, going to a meeting, preaching. But sometimes I go, just to go. On these occasions I have been able to observe.
I went to church Sunday, and I noticed the announcements. The lay speaker was good, the music was good, the service was well put together, and well led. It was a good service, especially for August. Unitarian Universalists are not always at their best in August. I noticed the announcements, I usually don't notice the announcements. Someone announced that the goddesses would be getting together in the evening, it was a women's study group. The next person announced that the Secular Humanists, and Agnostics Group (SHAG of course) would be meeting on Tuesday. The next talked about Appreciative Inquiry discussions which were being held during the summer, all this would lead to a vision and mission process in the Autumn. The next announced that the anti racism group would not be meeting that week, but rather would meet of last Sunday of the month. And finally there was announcement that the choir was needing new singers, and the announcer suggested that that the choirs standards were not all that high, after all he was a choralist, and if he could do it, so could you.
Usually, I stand with other Unitarian Universalist ministers in opining that announcements are abomination. The members should read the back of the bulletin where it is all printed out. Only important events should be urged on the congregation as part of the worship service. Announcements I proclaim are like doing business when we have company, they are too inner, and besides they make it hard to end the service on time.
But I was observing Sunday, I was a guest of this congregation, and had no obligation to end the service on time, and no preconceived notion about how I would like the service to flow. What I noticed about the announcements on Sunday as how well they illustrated the inclusive pluralism that Richard Grigg writes about in his To Re-Enchant the World; A Philosophy of Unitarian Universalism. Grigg asks "Why are we here.?" And he answers "we are here to champion the dignity of the human person over against the dehumanizing forces of commodification. We are here to celebrate the human being's ability to discern the sacred and to stand awestruck, before Mystery But now we can add another answer to the question of why U.U.s are here to an answer that is perhaps not as immediately obvious as the first answer. Is it not our unique contribution to present to society the possibility of inclusive pluralism."
Announcing our inclusive pluralism.
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I have not read Grigg's book. What is the difference between "inclusive pluralism" and the interfaith movement? I mean grassroots interfaith encounter, not institutional dialog. Do you think that American UUism is now an interfaith church?
Unitarian Universalism is inclusive in its pluralism, the interfaith movement is exclusive in its pluralism. We are not an interfaith church, we are a religiously plural community of faith.
A Unitarian Universalist can explore women's spirituality and the idea of goddess and the same person can attend a humanist discussion group. A UU congregational board will have a members who practice diverse spiritualities but unite in the Unitarian Univesalist faith. I have worked with such congregations, and I have worked with Interfaith coalitions (Moslems, Jews, Baha'i, Catholics, mainstream Protestants, etc.) Not the same thing at all.
I understand that I can learn wisdom from different religious traditions. But my underlying question is about identity, not wisdom. I would like to know if Grigg's "inclusive pluralism" is about identity or just about having a spiritual supermarket at the church.
If I identify with one religious tradition, I'm setting my doctrinal boundaries. For me, in UUism I am no longer a Christian, nor a Jew, nor a Humanist. All that is old stuff, water under the bridge, stuff for an interfaith meeting. I learn from those old religions, but I go on as an independent human being, with no attachments, no doctrines that define me, no loyalties to inventions made by humans. Religions are maps to travel around the territory, but maps are tools. They may be useful or become useless, and they get torn and dirty after much use. But what I really care for is territory itself, not the maps that I only use to find things easier and not get lost. And when those maps are old and I can no longer travel those roads or find those hotels on my way, I just throw them to the litter bin. Like religions.
We are a religious pluralist faith movement as the priniciples and purposes make clear. We are not an interfaith movement. We have a common identity. Some of us save old maps, some of us throw them away.
Perhaps you should read Griggs book, he doesn't commit the sins you imagine.
That's why I was just asking...