Garrison, why don't you like the Unitarian Universalists? Now, as one of "them," I don't take offense to your jokes, but I have heard through usually reliable sources that you harbor some hostility, so I am curious.
Olav Nieuwejaar
Milford, NH
Olav, my ill-feeling toward the UUs is due to their relentless evangelizing among the dead, as evidenced by a UU publication I saw that claimed Emily Dickinson as one of theirs and also Walt Whitman. They already have Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thomas Jefferson and Louisa May Alcott - shouldn't that be enough for them? Emily Dickinson was Lutheran, as evidenced by her poem, "Success is counted swedish by those who ne'er succeed," but the UUs are ransacking the past for people who might have been thinking along UU lines and claiming them as members in good standing. Next thing you know they'll be claiming Elvis.
from the Prairie Home Companion Website.
Unitarian Universalists: October 2005 Archives
Gary Kowalski writes: "Which is More Dangerous; science or religion?" I did a double take when a friend handed me a newspaper clipping with that headline. It was an ad from an organization called the The Great American Think off, which posed the question as the subject for its annual Philosophy Competition. Reading more, I learned the contestants were invited to submit opinions in the form of an essay of 750 words or less, with a monetary award and book contract promised to those with best answers.
Maybe my friend thought I might want to enter the contest. But while the idea of a philosophy competition has a quaint appeal, this one seemed deliberately misleading. Isn't it possible that science and religion are allies rather than antagonists? Doesn't the real peril arise when the two are seen as stark alternatives rather tan as natural partners? The timing of the contest, on the edge of the twenty-first century, was an alarming indication that the warfare between science and religion - a running skirmish for the past four hundred years - is still unresolved and spilling over now into a whole new millennium.
Gary Kowalski serves our congregation in Burlington, Vermont as its minister and his most recent book Science and The Search For God argues that the antagonism between science and religion stems from an argument between bad science and bad religion, and he writes convincingly the most recent scientific research and theory compels us "to move beyond materialism toward an understanding of the world that includes the realities of consciousness and spirit. In the twenty-first century, human beings have less reason than before to feel they hold a privileged or special position in the cosmos, but more cause than ever to feel connected and akin to all that is."
Gary Kowalski provides his readers a wise and thoughtful guide to wrestling with one of religion's perennial problems, what do (we think) we know and how do we know what (we think) we know. Don't do a book reports sermon on this book, but ponder it and it may give birth to a dozen reflections over the years.
Several weeks ago I wrote of cliché book report sermons.
Books make good jumping of points for sermons, even reports can help frame a sermon. But the sermon should be more than what one has read.
I offer an example of a preacher using written material as a jumping of point, but also using personal experience and theological reflection to bring the message home. but John Cullinan writes about Engaging Our Theological Diversity. But John uses stories from his personal experience to discuss his understanding of theological diversity, check out a audio file of his sermon How We Walk Together.
This is no book report sermon, Preacher John speaks from his own authority!
There is also a written manuscript.
The Ministerial Fellowship Committee (MFC) oversees the credentialing of Unitarian Universalist ministers, working as a committee appointed by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Board of Trustees but with its own mandate elaborated in the By-laws of the UUA, the MFC develops the standards for ministerial fellowship, and interviews candidates in the light of those standards. In recent years the professional ministry of the UUA has been awarded fellowship in three separate categories: Parish ministers, Religious Education ministers, and Community ministers.
At its September 2005 meeting the MFC began awarding fellowship in Unitarian Universalist ministry without reference to categories. From now on, ministers entering preliminary fellowship are assumed to be able to serve as parish ministers, religious education ministers and/or community ministers.
The MFC still hopes to recognize achievement in a "speciality." If a minister achieves three renewals of preliminary fellowship as a community minister, for example, they will be awarded final fellowship as a community minister. The same for parish ministry and religious education ministry, "specialization" means three annual renewals in a single form of ministry.
But even in this half realized form, this change will help ministers develop new and more flexible ways of doing ministry - we have had ministers teaching in a college and serving a small church, for example, for whom filling out renewal forms under the rules of "three" categories was a nightmare. What was the part time chaplain, who is also the assistant parish minister responsible for religious education supposed to do? Choose one part of their work, and deny the rest?
Yet some ministers wanted the UUA to recognize their speciality, the full time religious education ministers insisted that a "one track" ministry would undermine their distinctive profession. Some community ministers are concerned that a "one track" ministry will eventually mean that the only way to do ministry will be a minister in a congregation. College, hospital and military chaplains will be forgotten, and social justice ministers working in a community organization will be dismissed as "social workers, not ministers."
I understand the concern, but now that at least 250 ministers who are not serving a particular congregation....some are college teachers, some are UUA officials, some are institutional chaplains, some are doing arts ministries, some are doing justice ministries, and many other ways and given the fact that more than 200 ministers who are not settled solo ministers or senior ministers but rather assistant ministers, specialized associate ministers, religious education ministers, part time ministers, or interim ministers, and the fact that we have large numbers of ministers who are retired, or taking a leave for child care, the "norm" of the settled parish minister is actually a minority along with a diverse array of other minorities. No one way of being minister in the UUA in now a majority of our ministers. Thus I don't think we will go back to the old days when "minister equaled parish minister," but rather we will continue to evolve a more diverse ministry with many different ways of doing ministry.
Should the MFC be in the business of recognizing specialization? I don't think so, I think the specialists should recognize specialization. That is not the role of "denomination." Rather it should be left such organizations as the Association of Pastoral Counselors, and the Association of Professional Chaplains. But what about smaller, less established specializations? I think the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association could provide a supportive institutional framework for groups of ministers who have developed advanced skills to have those skills recognized and certified by other ministers who have developed similar skills. Let the MFC certify "ministers in fellowship with the UUA." Let specialists certify specialists.
I celebrate the MFC ceasing to award fellowship in categories, I think it allow our ministry to meet the challenges of the future in creative ways.
Ministry is changing. Change isn't new, but there is less anxiety when we take note of the changes before they are too advanced.
While there is controversy about just what is the oldest profession, it is clear that nearly all human communities set aside some individuals for religious leadership, shaman, keeper of wisdom, priest, sage and more recently the professional clergy. In the United States, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and Unitarian Universalists have similar credentialling requirements for professional clergy. Undergraduate education, a graduate level professional school that contributes to formation, a selection process supervised by the faith community, and various kinds of supervised practical experience.
Unitarian Universalist ministry three decades ago was made up mostly of men, mostly of white men, mostly of men who went to theological school soon after graduating from college, and mostof these ministers would then serve congregations of small to middling size. A few had careers as teachers, denomination officials, and chaplains, but it was not a large number.
All of that has changed, and our ministry continues to evolve. We are increasing the number of ministers of color, over half of our ministers are women, our theological students more often than not have had a previous career, and a significant number of ministers will never serve a congregation as the sole pastor.
The Unitarian Universalist Minister's Association has just completed its fall meetings, which included discussions with the U.U.A. staff most closely concerned with ministry. There are changes ahead for our ministry, we discussed some of those changes, and at future meeting we will discuss others. Our whole minstry will be involved in those discussions.
I will post my thoughts on this subject in a series of posts. I would welcome your thoughts.
There is a myth among Unitarian Universalists that our congregations are full of affluent, highly credentialed liberals. Once the myth is accepted and begins to shape our expectations; the carpenter, the store clerk, and the hospital worker sitting in our pews become abnormal, simply because we have constructed our norm on the basis of that myth. The myth also masks the economic insecurity of the middle class.
In my experience there quite a few blue collar workers in our congregations, and there many desperate middle class or "white color" workers. How will our congregations serve the real people in our pews: through the celebration of a myth of affluence, or by talking about the desperation that people face daily in their lives of failing to make it in America?
Barbara Ehrenreich who introduced many middle class readers to the plight of the working poor in her Nicked and Dimed; On (Not) Getting By In America has written a new book Bait and Switch : The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. In this book Ehrenreich attempts to get a white color job, she goes to job coaches, vocational counselors and she was told to think positively. She writes; "there is a tremendous American theme about positive thinking. We have a hard time dealing with truly bad news and discouraging information. Throughout my experience trying to get a white-collar job, I was encouraged to think positively. You are supposed to see your job loss as some great break, your chance to move on to something bigger and better. The reality is that 70 percent of people who lose their jobs and do get rehired, are rehired at a lower pay. But to criticize the system, or to be negative is considered "un-American."
She was unsuccessful in her job search, a not unusual experience among many qualified and experienced members of the congregations I have served. Both of Ehrenreich's books are a must read for Unitarian Universalists who seek to understand the increasing desperation of our people. Here is a link to a great interview with Ehrenreich.
James Cone begins his essay in Soul Work; Anti Racist Theologies in Dialogue with two quotes. The first is by Dietrich Bonhoeffer who wrote:
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
and the second quote is from Martin Luther King, Jr. who wrote:
We have to repent . . . not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.
We are familiar with the pejorative "Good German" which refers to those remained silent in the face of the holocaust. What evils are we called to prophesy against? What does it mean to be a "Good American?"
Since the publication of the Commission of Appraisal's Engaging Our Theological Diversity we have experienced a renewed conversation about what is the core of Unitarian Universalism. The conversation has been energized by the Commissions provocative question; with so much theological diversity are we danger of imploding, exploding, splitting, or otherwise suffering adversely from our decades long celebration of theological diversity?
Jeff Wilson over at The Transient and The Permanent has answered no, he "predict[s] that UUism will not implode, that it will not fracture into a bunch of Balkanized groups, that it will keep marching on toward a future of squabbling and coffee hours and social justice work and revelation of beauty. Because what holds us together isn't really coffee or politics or any specific religious language, it's a belief in love and freedom." Matthew Gatheringwater began an extended discussion at Coffee House with the provocative question whether a changing Unitarian Universalism will drive some people to leave. He asked what is your Tipping Point? Many of the participants argued that for them, they prize Unitarian Universalist "diversity" and if it was threatened they would leave. Since the Unitarian Universalist community consists of multiple spirituality's, and multiple theological orientations, it seems unlikely that we will become less "diverse" in the near future.
Richard Grigg has made the distinction between exclusive pluralism, and inclusive pluralism. The United States is religiousily plural, but Grigg would point out that that is exclusive pluralism. Each religious community is in competition with all the others, and members of a particular religious community identify with their own religious community exclusively. While liberals Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Unitarian Universalists may function in alliances relative to the Religious Right, we recognize boundaries between say ourselves and the United Church of Christ. But at our best Unitarian Universalists practice inclusive pluralism; we are not like an interfaith coalition, we support each others spiritual development and members see such support as good for their congregations as a whole. I know of many non-Christian UUs who helped to develop fellowship groups for UU Christians, and non Pagan UUs that have helped develop activities for pagans. It is essential to our way of doing ministry that theists ministers find ways to minister to non-theists, and vice versa.
It is my contention that Unitarian Universalism is a religious movement that arose out of interaction of the humanist tradition as it [re]emerged during the Renaissance and by (heterodox) Protestants during the Reformation. Those North Americans whom we associate with the early emergence of Unitarianism and Universalism in this country were simultaneously humanists and dissenters from orthodox Protestantism.
Peacebang put it thus way: "I think Unitarian Universalism is a Humanist religious tradition that uses readings and teachings from various world religions, and which respects and remains enthusiastic about the diversity of wisdom sources available to us. We're not inter-faith, IMHO, unless we actually are congregations of Muslims, Jews, Christians, pagans, etc." I agree, and applaud her placing the question so starkly. We share a religious humanist orientation, and that we manifest in a plurality of spiritual preferences. And, while many will find this controversial, I observe that we are continue to function as a Protestant denomination. Most of us can identify with Unitarians, Universalists and other religious liberals going back to Renaissance and Reformation, because we share in a common tradition.
We share a common framework and that framework is both humanist and Protestant. We have allowed the word humanist to defined in a way that excludes many, if not most Unitarian Universalists. We have allowed the conflict to be defined as "Humanist" versus UU Christian, versus UUs who use the word God, and versus those who just love the universe and want to use poetry to describe their exuburance. We have accepted a definition of humanism that is militantly secular and which scorns all religious language. The result has been that in the reaction to this arrogant secularism, humanism has acquired a bad name within our movement. Thus we have become divided over words, rather than over differences of substance.
I believe we must renew our understanding of the humanist tradition, so that god loving humanists, humanists who don't do god, Christian Humanists, Cosmic Story humanists, and "naturalistic" humanists can learn to talk to one another once again. Because we share a core religious humanism and because most U.U.s continue to draw inspiration from our formative Protestant tradition we have been enabled to explore the wisdom of the world's religions.
We have not become an interfaith organization in the process. While there is a small number of individual members of in many of our congregations who do not share in this core orientation, that orientation has both a history and a momentum that has prevented us from flying apart, or any of the other dire predictions that some perceive to be the consequences of our diversity.
There are social, religious, and political forces in this world that oppose the values and world view of humanism, liberalism, and Progressive Christianity, and while we are fighting with each other we may lose this world.
Francis Ellen Watkins Harper 1825-1911
"Harper died on 22 February 1911, nine years before women gained the right to vote. Her funeral service was held at the Unitarian Church on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia" where she was a member. She had ties to the Unitarians going back to her young adult years when she worked as an abolitionist. The quotes are from UU Dictionary of Biography article on Harper by Janeen Grohsmeyer
http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/francesharper.html
"A pioneering journalist, author of fiction and poetry, and a professional lecturer, Frances Harper had a remarkable life. Active in abolitionism, suffrage, and the temperance movement, she lived long enough to see her efforts rewarded. She gets credit for introducing the tradition of African American protest poetry. Famous during her lifetime, Harper used her prestige and writings to fight racism and also make strong feminist statements."
Paul P. Rueben; PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide: Chapter 5: Late Nineteenth Century - Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper (1825-1911)
She wrote: "We want more soul, a higher cultivation of all spiritual faculties. We need more unselfishness, earnestness, and integrity. We need men and women whose hearts are the homes of high and lofty enthusiasm and a noble devotion to the cause of emancipation, who are ready and willing to lay time, talent, and money on the altar of universal freedom."
Bury Me In A Free Land
Make me a grave where'er you will,
In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill;
Make it among earth's humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.
I could not rest if around my grave
I heard the steps of a trembling slave;
His shadow above my silent tomb
Would make it a place of fearful gloom.
I could not rest if I heard the tread
Of a coffle gang to the shambles led,
And the mother's shriek of wild despair
Rise like a curse on the trembling air.
I could not sleep if I saw the lash
Drinking her blood at each fearful gash,
And I saw her babes torn from her breast,
Like trembling doves from their parent nest.
I'd shudder and start if I heard the bay
Of bloodhounds seizing their human prey,
And I heard the captive plead in vain
As they bound afresh his galling chain.
If I saw young girls from their mother's arms
Bartered and sold for their youthful charms,
My eye would flash with a mournful flame,
My death-paled cheek grow red with shame.
I would sleep, dear friends, where bloated might
Can rob no man of his dearest right;
My rest shall be calm in any grave
Where none can call his brother a slave.
I ask no monument, proud and high,
To arrest the gaze of the passers-by;
All that my yearning spirit craves,
Is bury me not in a land of slaves.
T.S. Eliot wrote:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Last night I officiated in a service of remembrance for a ninety year old woman. She had grown up in Iowa and gone to college at Iowa State and become a teacher. Her teaching career took her to a series of schools and colleges during the 1930s and when World War Two came to the United States she joined the Red Cross and was assigned to service at Fort Hood, in Texas. She married an army physician and settled in New York where they raised two children. and she returned to teaching art in a high school.
When her husband died and her retirement came she moved to Florida. It was in Florida that she met an old college classmate, who had introduced her the Unitarianism way back in college and she found her way to the church that I serve.
She thought of herself as a Unitarian all those years, but going to Unitarian church had been associated with the relationship with her friend. After graduation, pursuing a career and a marriage, raising a family took her away from that relationship and from church going for fifty years. Ten years ago she resumed her friendship with her Unitarian friend, and returned to where she had started, as if it were the first time.
Churches also serve, when they just stand and wait.
My partner and spouse and I live near Tampa, Florida where she serves a Unitarian Universalist church, I serve the Treasure Coast Unitarian Universalist Church on the Atlantic Coast of Florida about 160 miles away. We travel back and forth taking on days off. My residence near Stuart is a community called Indiantown. Photos from the collection of the Canadian Museum of History. I was inspired to post this morning by a new blog (see below.)
Indiantown had a large Seminole Population at one time, but at present most of the people who live in Indiantown are Mayans who work in Florida as farmworkers and grounds keepers for institutions, country clubs, and more affluent residents.
I have been to celebrations of the Maya, different from the Cherokee. But of the same indigenous spirit.
A new blog by Hafidha Sofia posts a reflection on the Maya. Congratulations and good luck to Hafidha on her new blog
I once won a T-shirt with the ICUU slogan printed on it because I was able to name the member organizations of the International Conference of Unitarian Universalists, that was 1997 and they keep adding new countries with a Unitarian and/or Universalist movement. In case you are confronted with a quiz at some UU meeting here is some information.
PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF UNITARIANS AND UNIVERSALISTS
We, the member groups of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists, affirming our belief in religious community based on:
€¢ liberty of conscience and individual thought in matters of faith,
€¢ the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
€¢ justice and compassion in human relations,
€¢ Responsible stewardship of earth's living system,
€¢ and our commitment to democratic principles,
We declare our purposes to be:
€¢ to serve the Infinite Spirit of Life and the human community, by strengthening the worldwide Unitarian and Universalist faith,
€¢ to affirm the variety and richness of our living traditions,
€¢ to facilitate mutual support among member organizations,
€¢ to promote our ideals and principles around the world,
€¢ to provide models of liberal religious response,
€¢ to the human condition which upholds our common values.
Full Member List
Organizations that fulfill the conditions laid down in the ICUU constitution and by laws. An organizations applying for full membership must satisfy the EC and the Council that it has established a record of stability, unity, and effective administration.
€¢ Australia & New Zealand
€¢ Britain
€¢ Canada
€¢ Czech Republic
€¢ Denmark
€¢ Europe
€¢ Finland
€¢ Germany
€¢ Hungary
€¢ India
€¢ Nigeria
€¢ Pakistan
€¢ Phillipines
€¢ Poland
€¢ Romania
€¢ Russia
€¢ South Africa
€¢ Spain
€¢ Sri Lanka
€¢ United States
Provisional Member List
Argentina
Although Argentina is known as a traditional Christian country, many people are looking for an alternative answer for their spiritual needs.
A group is meeting in Ushuaia where people from different traditions exchange ideas and worship together in a new Meditation Center at Lilian Burlando's home.
Dr. Lilian Burlando۬del Tolkeyen 976۬(9410) Ushuaia۬Tierra del Fuego۬Argentina۬Phone: 54-2901 445294۬Email: lburlando@uolsinectis.com.ar or ushargentina@yahoo.com.ar
Brazil
A new leader replacing Paulo Ereno will be announced shortly.
Rev. Greta Browne۬801 Vernon Street۬Bethleham, PA 18015 USA۬Email: sauus@hotmail.com
Bolivia
A group has been organized in La Paz as part of the Federation Latinoamericana.
Teresa Flores Bedegal۬Casilla 499۬La Paz, Bolivia۬Email: tflores@mail.megalink.com
Latvia
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Latvia.
In 1993 a new congregation was started in Riga. The group now meets regularly and has been granted recognition and registration by the Latvian Government. Group (15 to 20 people) meet every week in an Art School.
Haralds Purins۬Email: haraldspurins@inbox.lv۬or maijaozolina@hotmail.co
Puerto Rico
Unitarian Universalists of Puerto Rico,۬Barrio Mariana, 305۬Naquabo, PR 00718۬Website: UUPuertoRico.org۬Donner Lohnes: donnerlohness@hotmail.com
The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists announced the 26th in its monthly series of global chalice lighting readings. Congregations worldwide are invited to participate in this community-building project. All ICUU-affiliated groups have been asked to submit brief chalice lightings for the project. Every month, a chalice lighting reading will be distributed to Unitarian and Universalist congregations around the world. We ask each congregation to use the reading for at least one worship service in the designated month, identifying it as the "Global Chalice Lighting" for that month and naming the group which submitted it. Readings will be circulated in English and, where different, in their original language.
It is hoped that the ICUU Global Chalice Lighting Project will enhance the worship experience in our congregations and raise awareness of the international dimensions of our religious movement.
This Chalice Lighting, in English and French, is to be used during October 2005. It was submitted by the Canadian Unitarian Council and was written by Janet Vickers.
Breath of the divine, light a flame of reflection in all that we do.
Breath of creation, light a flame of connection in our circle of care.
Breath of wonder, light a flame of inspiration to cultivate participation.
Breath of fear, light a flame of courage to be who we are: sentient, vulnerable, and diverse.
Breath of this moment, light a flame of celebration for our future unfolds the covenant of this day.
Souffle du divin, donnez vie à la flamme de la réflexion pour découvrir le sens profond de nos actes.
Souffle de la création, donnez vie à la flamme de la compassion pour créer des liens qui nous unissent.
Souffle de l'émerveillement, donnez vie à la flamme de l'inspiration pour nous inciter à la participation active de tout notre être.
Souffle de la peur, donnez vie à la flamme du courage pour être qui nous sommes : consciencieux, vulnérables et diversifiés.
Souffle du moment, donnez vie à la flamme de la celebration pour que notre avenir puisse se déployer grâce à notre engagement d'aujourd'hui
