If you are interested in an engagement for the summer, it is not too early to get in touch!
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A proposal to replace Article II of the UU Bylaws (which in turn will replace the Seven Principles and Six Sources) will be voted on by UU delegates to UU General Assembly in June. The agenda for Article II is outlined here.
...
EDIT:
The proposal of the Article II Study Commission is a significant rewrite of Article II in the UU Bylaws. It fact, it does replace both the Seven Principles and the Six Sources.
More information can be found on the Study Commission website. They are currently accepting feedback through an online form, until April 30.
The website with essays is: https://savethe7principles.wordpress.com/. (And to correct an assumption some people made, I had nothing to do with the creation of the website.)
A proposal to replace Article II of the UU Bylaws (which in turn will replace the Seven Principles and Six Sources) will be voted on by UU delegates to UU General Assembly in June. The agenda for Article II is outlined here.
...
EDIT:
The proposal of the Article II Study Commission is a significant rewrite of Article II in the UU Bylaws. It fact, it does replace both the Seven Principles and the Six Sources.
More information can be found on the Study Commission website. They are currently accepting feedback through an online form, until April 30.
The website with essays is: https://savethe7principles.wordpress.com/. (And to correct an assumption some people made, I had nothing to do with the creation of the website.)
![]() | This banner hung at Unitarian Universalist Church (or Congregation?) of Oak Park before it merged with Beacon Unitarian to form Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. What the heck is that symbol? Meat grinder? [link] [comments] |
Just curious. A family member sent me some material on the Unity Church…which I’m interested in actually.
I don't know if this applies to this sub, but LOST was a show that incorporated themes of religion/spirituality, free will, destiny, science, philosophy, synchronicities, mythology, demigods, elements of consciousness, quantum physics, magical elements, dreams/visions, it's own Source, and a whole lot more.
If anyone has any thoughts on it, feel free to post them.
I don't know if this applies to this sub, but LOST was a show that incorporated themes of religion/spirituality, free will, destiny, science, philosophy, synchronicities, mythology, demigods, elements of consciousness, quantum physics, magical elements, dreams/visions, it's own Source, and a whole lot more.
If anyone has any thoughts on it, feel free to post them.
![]() | submitted by /u/Maximum-Package-9001 [link] [comments] |
I'm going to preface this by saying that if you've visited one UU Congregation you've only experienced one UU Congregation. I get that no 2 are exactly alike, and most aren't even necessarily similar. I want to say that before I get into this.
So, my wife and (up until today) had been members of one of our local UU Congregations for a little over a year. (January was the 1 year annieversary of us becoming members, though we had started attending several months prior to becoming members.) Everything, we though, was going really well. That's why we became members, afterall.
But then, last spring, some issues started to arise for us. It started with a Master Planning Committee and the congregation wanting to rennovate the church building. There seemed to be two minds about what needed to be done. There were those of us who wanted to fix the accessibility issues that exists within the current building (For example, the church has multiple levels, there are stairs up to the sanctuary, there are stairs to the basement where a lot of the meeting spaces are, there really is like no main floor to this place, there are like 5 different levels, it's crazy. So real issues for folks with even minor mobility issues. And folks who are hard of hearing are having issues hearing the sermon, stuff like that.) and to update the building to help us better live out our faith. (Add a shower, add a washer and dryer, add an ADA compliant restroom, add gender neutral restrooms, make modificationst to allow us to shelter those experincing homelessness, stuff like that.) And then there were folks who wanted to make cosmetic changes to the building. One big one being the restoration of the sanctuary facade, this large midcentury facade that is this whole wall in the sanctuary.
This facade became a pretty big issue. The congregation was hoping to raise $1 million for the whole project to finance these renovations. The original sticker price on the restoration of the facade was $300,000. Well, as we got further along into this process, the price doubled. Restoring this facade, and making no other rennovations, was now going to run north of $600,000. And the congregation was going to have to decide what to do. Well, they decided to plow ahead with the full restoration of this facade. (To be 100% fair, the facade was a big sturctural issue. But! There were other options. Like replacing the facade with a traditional standard wall.) So now, more than 60% of the expected money to be raised was going to this one project that wasn't going to fix any of the real issues we discussed that needed to be fixed. And now no money is planned to be spent making the improvements that would allow us to better live out our professed faith and values.
To boot, while all of this is going on, we have our annual church meeting about the budget. A proposal from the floor comes up to give the ministers and church staff a 5% cost of living raise. (Keep in mind, even with this raise they're actually still going to be making less because inflation is greather than 5%.) Much is made about the fact that this will cause the budget to be unblanaced and we'll have a budget deficit. (All while people are making pledges to finance the restoration of this facade. Folks are willing to give the money to restore this facade but not to give a cost of living raise to church staff? What's that about?) So, this whole thing is really causing me to second guess my decision to be a member here and whether or not this congregations' values are what they say they are.
Well, summer comes and our minister is going on a sabbatical at the end beginning of September. Before she leaves, a letter is sent out from her to the congregation. In this letter she reveals that several months ago she had challenged the board to address instances of Islamophobia that she's experienced at church from members of the congregation that she's informed them of. (She is a woman of Iranian descent and is visibly so.) The implication being that they haven't yet done so, and indeed it turns out they had not. I'm shocked by this revelation. I wait patiently for the board or one of the various other leadership committees or the sabbatical minister to address this. Nothing happens. Months pass. So, in late November I email the board about this situation. Ask why nothing has been said or done. Our minister has been subjected to bigotry and intolerance at church, they've been informed, they've been asked to act, they're not acting. Why?
Well, the sabbatical minister asks to meet with me. I meet with her. One of the things I said was "Our board lacks the courage of convicition to even issue a statement condemning Islamophobia?!" She takes this idea as a suggestion to the board. By late December they finally issue a statement condemning Islamophobia. (Which is, in all honesty, the bear freaking minimum. It took them from late August when the letter went out to late December to issue a simple statement condemning Islamophobia.)
I'm going to add that I was participating in this group's CUUPs group. Before the minister went on sabbatical she asked us to do the Samhain service on 10/30. We were happy to do this because we had just reorganized the group and this would serve as a good re-introduction to the congregation. We do an ancester communion ritual, invite members of the congregation to bring pictures of lost loved ones, we include the names of some recent members of the congregation who passed away in the ritual, goes really well I thought. Well, afterwards a board member approaches me and thanks me for keeping the ritual "reasonable" and proceedes to tell me how some previous iteration of the group had worn robes, and had staffs, and etc. I was floored. Imagine coming up to someone who performed a personalized and meaningful service for the congregation and telling them that a more full and complete expression of their faith practice would be unreasonable and unwelcomed? So, I say that to say that I too had experienced religious intolerance from this board.
Our minister's sabbatical ran through the beginning of January. She comes back, immediately announces that she is resigning and goes into detail about why. The previously alleged instances of Islamophobia are given greater explanation. Well, crap really hits the fan as a result. This overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly older congregation loses it. They get super defensive. They deny, deny, deny, deny these allegations of Islamophobia.
The congregation is basically split in two now. Those who believe the former minister was wronged and those who don't. (In fact, the board issued a statement following her resignation in which they say "How do we care for those who were hurt by Rev.(redacted) and also embrace those who feel she was wronged." Pay attention to that language used there. It is a fact that the former minister allegations of Islamophobia hurt members of the congregation, but the rest of us only "feel" that the minister was wronged. To me it was unbelievable.
So, as you can imagine, tensions have ran white hot in the aftermath of this. White older members of the congregation post in the church's Facebook group about how they've never seen, heard, experienced, or witnessed any Islamophobia or phobia or any other kind at this Church. Meanwhile, POC and other religious minorities (such as myself, a pagan) within the congregation who speak up and talk about what we have experienced in the way of intolerance, microaggresions, xenophobia, are told that it isn't intolerant, racist, bigoted, etc, or told we are blowing it out of proportion, making more of it than it is, or have it denied altogether.
The powers that be in the congregation simply will not listen to those who try to talk about where, when, and how we have been hurt, marginalized, offended, or belittled by the church as a whole or specific members within the congregation. They do not want to hear any experiences that might be negative. Which makes it impossible to learn or grow from.
As a result of all of this, today my wife and I resigned from membership at this church.
I tell this story here not to attack or criticize UUism as a whole. But to recount my personal experience with a UU church over the last year and some change. Hopefully other UUs can learn from this. Learn what not to do when someone says that something isn't right at church, that they've been racially abused, when they've experienced religious intolerance, when they've been hurt by church. Please listen to folks. Please don't dismiss them. Don't gaslight them. Don't tell them it didn't happen. Or that they didn't mean to hurt you so it's okay.
![]() | submitted by /u/Longjumping-Coast158 [link] [comments] |
John 1:1-2 3 and 14: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
"What Prepares us for Sunrise?"
Easter Sunday, April 9, 10:50 am
Easter morning with its tradition of Sunrise Services is about the good news of life resurrected. You can hear that as the story of Jesus as told and passed down, as a reminder of the natural cycle of seasons, or as a metaphor for so much of life that moves from loss to new beginnings and to loss and new beginnings again and again. But like cheap grace, Easter without the days and nights before it, resurrection without loss doesn't make sense. What happens in the in between of all that that we need to remind ourselves of and then celebrate?
Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Richard Davis-Lowell, Worship Associate; UUSF Handbell Choir led by Reiko Oda Lane, Organ; UUSF Choir led by Mark Sumner, Music Director; Jason Park, Trumpet; Bill Ganz, Piano
Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Jackson Munn, Camera; Thomas Brown, Sexton; Judy Payne, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher
I really need advice and please be brutally honest. I am relatively young, female, latina from a working class background in South America.
I dropped out of college once, I only completed a semester, and that was among Strikes and an abusive relationship (no one's business, I know). Even though after the Strike, I had some really nice grades, I never looked back and applied to other University, where I got my undergrad degree in Education (3.64 GPA)
My GPA isn't good, but for some reason people always believe in me. I'm a really big mess, and I have dipped my feet into several religions and ideologies. Some people say I am a good writer. In a very particular and random way, I've found American Transcendentalism, and then Early 19th Century New England Unitarianism, then Unitarian Universalism. That has been a huge part of my life, in a way. I have already translated a 1838 book -actually a transcribed lecture - by William Ellery Channing, which I consider to be my first "baby". I am -currently- somewhat familiar with the work of Earl Morse Wilbur, too.
I have made true and disinterested connections with important scholars in New England, I have presented at the Thoreau Society and I am a volunteer at a UUA program that deals with International Relations, Interfaith Relations and Diversity. I can't help but dream about HDS, but I think it is too late for me, because just when I found a way to channel my passion and start having a reason to make deliberate efforts, I realized I have this tarnished past to carry as a burden. It is sad, because I think I would be possibly an unexpected candidate, since there is NO UU tradition where I live. Oh, and I also work as a volunteer in my local community sharing what I've learned from Unitarian History books with people that don't speak English. I'm also a part of Liberal Faith Social Justice programs. My country has been through a lot regarding authoritarianism and fundamentalism, so we're trying to make a difference. I know I can apply to other schools, but right now I am mostly worried about HDS.
Even if I get another degree at home, and get stellar results, and then hypothetically almost ace the GRE, is it still impossible ?
I was raised Catholic, but I’m non-practicing. I don’t agree with most of the Catholic ideology and I always felt negative after leaving mass instead of uplifted. I’m a mom to two toddlers and I’m starting to consider how I’d like to incorporate religion into their lives. I think it’s important for kids to be raised with some kind of belief system with the freedom to eventually choose for themselves what they believe. I really like the UU philosophy, but it seems like my local branch is mostly pagan leaning. I’m completely accepting of pagan beliefs, but I still lean more toward Christianity ( I believe in some aspects of the Christian god, believe in heaven, hell, and purgatory). Is it possible to raise kids as Christian UU’s within a mostly pagan congregation?
I grew up without religion or religious education. I tried reading the Bible when I was younger, just to see what all the fuss was about, but got so turned off by Lot and his daughters that I didn’t continue. I feel self-conscious of the allegories in western literature and culture that I don’t fully grasp because I don’t know the stories of the Bible. I want to try to understand where fundamentalists are coming up with their way of thinking. I want to understand history better. I want to know what the Bible really says, not what people say it does. Now 4 years into being a UU, I want to give it another shot, read the whole Bible, and approach it critically, like in a Jefferson Bible fashion. Has anyone else made this journey to tackle the “big book”? Is there a commonly agreed upon version, or one that religious scholars typically use? Any recommendations for making a read-through meaningful or successful?
Went to my first UU service today, it was the first time Id been inside a church of any kind in ~10 years. It was an emotional experience, but I really enjoyed it! The sermon was lovely, and had just enough spirituality/god mixed in with the more humanist/secualar philosophical notes, for me at least. Just wanted to share my experience. The one thing that gave me pause was I seemed to be one of the youngest people there, other than children (im in my late 20's). I was a little hopeful there would be a younger crowd, but I know religion of any kind is a tough sell nowadays.
"You Are Loved"
Sunday, April 2, 10:50 am
If folks from theologians to psychologists to wise elders are correct, love comes first. For all of us to be fulfilled, healthily liberated to be our full selves, we have to know and believe we are loved, for ourselves, as we are. How does it inform how we live, to take that necessity seriously?
Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate; Allen Biggs, Percussionist; Tommy Kesecker, Percussionist; T. Mychael Rambo, Soloist; Mark Sumner, Songleader; Bill Ganz, Pianist
Eric Shackelford, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Thomas Brown, Sexton; Judy Payne, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher
Hi, all. I’m new-ish to my congregation, which is the first church I’ve joined as an adult. I’m really enjoying the community, the minister, and UU-ism in general.
My congregation has been without a settled minister for a few years. We finally found one who we like, who likes us back, and all parties want to make it official. Later this year we’re holding a settling ceremony and I’d like to get our new minister something to show my appreciation of their work and the positive impact they’ve made.
Would getting them a gift be appropriate? And if so, what kind of gifts would a minister like/use/appreciate? I get that everyone is different, but any ideas would be useful.
Thanks so much!
Title says most of it.
I'm curious about the UU church. What is it like? Do they require financial contributions? I'd be willing to give sometimes since it's likely how the church survives, but I can't do 10% of my income like I did as an Adventist.
I miss the community of the church. I can't really hang out with my old friends without hearing all about end times bull crap and Ellen White this and Ellen White that.
I do not want to be a part of another Christian church. I'm an atheist now, religion in general seems toxic to me. But the UU church does interest me. Those who have experienced it, what can you tell me about it? Would it be a good fit for an atheist or would the church of Satan be a better option?
I am a late 30s Dad with a couple of kids (6 and 4). Haven't done church since I dated a preachers daughter in high school. I am not exactly socially adept. My wife works Sunday mornings and I am the religious nutter anyway. I already felt like I made a bad impression as I went to online UU meetings for my local UU during the pandemic; even joined up. But I got cold feet and had some personal issues come up when I was all set to make my appearance and canceled about a month out. They didn't get the message apparently as they were expecting me.
I eventually went once late last summer but it was super awkward as I have never done social events with just me and the kids before. My kids didn't want to separate from me, so I went to the kids class with them. No one really talked to us. I felt a bit weird about an interaction with my 3 year old daughter and a Church lady getting on to her almost immediately for what was honestly something extremely minor. We are a "Good Inside" family and never really get on to our kids about anything. Tears were shed... awkwardness.
I really want my kids to get the OWL and RE education, but I just haven't had the will to try again. I am also not sure what I want personally out of, or what I can give to the UU if anything. I am not sure if I can really handle the heavy socializing that seems to be what Church is about.
Anyway, how should I approach this whole Church thing? Thanks for any pleasant replies.
"What Need One?"
Sunday, March 26, 10:50 am
Shakespeare’s King Lear asked the perennial question, "What need one?" I remember it from high school AP English class. Mrs. Laster, who was a force of nature — and put the class at 8 am to discourage the lazy, the dilettantes, the weak — drove it home. The question, that is, not the answer.
Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate; Jordan Ong, Canvass Testimony; Reiko Oda Lane, Organist; UUSF Choir led by Mark Sumner, Music Director; Bill Ganz, Pianist
Shulee Ong, Camera; Jackson Munn, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Joe Chapot, Live Chat Moderator; Thomas Brown, Sexton; Athena Papadakos, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher; Ralph Fenn, Les James, Tom Brookshire, Zoom Coffee Hour