One of the things I have noticed in the local UU congregation is the fact that the minister frequently gives thinly veiled sermons about church development, especially in the area of church fundraising or volunteering your time (but especially about money). The sermons often have an attention getting title like "Exploring Your Relationship With the UU Church" or some such thing. I actually want to explore my spirituality, not be guilted that I have to give more money or time to the church. I do understand that the light bill and staff need to be paid (or the coffee made for after the service). But the constant sermons about development can be a turnoff to members or attendees that don't have the means or are of a lower socioeconomic class.

hey I've got a question. As a trans muslimah would U be accepted into the UU community?

Hi UU folks with disabilities & our allies! How can our homes be more accessible? We all want to welcome diverse guests into our homes, and 100% of us are aging. Click below for the new issue of the UUCE Accessibility Task Force (ATF). Find out about a free, national webinar this Sunday, 4/30, noon pt. Please share:

https://conta.cc/3L0FNb7

Hi UU folks with disabilities & our allies! How can our homes be more accessible? We all want to welcome diverse guests into our homes, and 100% of us are aging. Click below for the new issue of the UUCE Accessibility Task Force (ATF). Find out about a free, national webinar this Sunday, 4/30, noon pt. Please share:

https://conta.cc/3L0FNb7

I am thinking of attending this year's GA, despite the high cost ... $500 per person. I am my congregation's delegate. However, if I'm reading the website right, it looks like all in person attendees will be required to mask indoors at all times. This is so atypical I find it almost hard to believe. No church in my area requires masks for all, doctors do not require masks, and I live in New England which was a pretty committed mask wearing area during the pandemic height.

Can anyone offer some insight?

Additional questions-- does the UUA board mask fully when they meet? Do all UUA staff always mask indoors?

I am an agnostic-atheist, black female in my mid-forties. I am poor, since I am an immigrant and a live-in maid. I basically have no social life. So I decided to attend a UU church since I was feeling down and needed to be uplifted. I attended a UU service this Sunday, it made me even more depressed! It was the most boring thing I have ever experienced! Not to mention, that other than some kid who got some scholarship, and one other person who looked to be in their late 20's or early 30's, I, a woman in my mid 40's, was the youngest person there.

Don't get me wrong, the operatic music was well performed, and the orchestra was very impressive. But it's 2023! I feel like this was the same music they were playing 50 years ago. The sermon was empty platitudes like you would hear from a politician looking for votes in an upscale white, suburb. Nothing of any substance. The sort of lib-speak that is void of humanity. I almost fell asleep and had to resort to doing my Duolingo French lessons on my phone.

As I looked around at these 70 and 80 yr olds, I just wondered where the UU church will be in a decade or 2. Or maybe it's just a social club for well to do aged boomers, and they don't care what happens when they're dead....Sad thing is, I'll probably go back next Sunday. But they certainly are not going to be attracting younger people with what they are doing now.

Like most congregations, ours is recovering from the effects of the pandemic, but realistically, needs to turn the tide of years of declining membership.

I’m looking for innovative fundraising ideas, particularly those that help the church reach out to the community and hopefully, attract more newcomers.

TIA

I noticed that there’s some similarities.

Are they appropriate in today's UU church, or exclusionary relics from last century?

I'm a cubscout leader in the US. My best religious experiences were not from the United Methodist church I was brought up in, but from participating in nondenominational vespers at the scout summer camp where I worked as a youth. The BSA had (maybe has?) a program called "A Scouts Own Religion" that says any religion a scout follows is valid. My experiences in scouts shaped my view of religion, and eventually I joined a UU fellowship as a result. Many members declare they are buddist, christian, humanist, athiest, agnostic, etc. I don't think I'm any of these.

First of all, my concept of god is an idea of a supernatural connection between humans that compells us to be good. I feel there is some supernatural element. I feel that the religions that give god a name do it to simplify the concept. Making god an entity instead of a feeling gives god a voice. It's not human conscience compelling you but gods voice. I think it's an artistic way to present the concept.

Second, I think that demigods and saints serve a useful purpose. They give a person something to focus hope upon when they need a mental lift. I'm praying to St. Anthony to help me find my keys, or Freija to help my crops grow better, or Ai'wa when pandora is invaded by blackwater operators etc. I sort of believe that these fictional characters become real enough when we need them to be.

I also think we can't even comprehend the complexity of god, but that god must be accepting of our attempts. God is good, so I think god is goodness and kindness, not that god just likes goodness and kindness. I think it's right that people follow their minds and express faith as they see fit.

So what am I? How do I describe this concept? Religion is a significant part of Scouts. I don't want to lie to others and tell them I'm Christian or whatever. I don't feel the need to identify as Christian. I do think Jesus was real and taught people what is right, but I also think that an indescribable force exists which is bigger and more pure than the Christian concept of god. So what am I? What theology should I study to educate myself? I feel like my god IS goodness, kindness, and hope. So what do you call it?

I suppose I should not be surprised, but leaving a group we found to be unsympathetic to anyone unlike themselves, determinedly anti-intellectual to the point of harming themselves and devoted to mindlessly repeating cable TV slogans would be unsympathetic to our need to find a group closer to our more thoughtful point of view. Our, now former, friends have treated our decision to begin attending our warmly friendly and accepting, somewhat offbeat and kooky, highly intellectually charged local UU church with a mixture of disdain, aspersions that we lack agency and are somehow being led or tempted by dark forces and bland and unthoughtful sloganeering.

We had a friend over for lunch and walk around our neighborhood and he told us we were being lazy and didn’t want to ”do the hard work” of being a Christian as narrowly defined by the group. When gently cajoled with the story that some idiots had decided that the Bible did not mention water treatment and therefore the government and dark insidious forces were preventing us from the benefits of “raw water”. Some nitwits sickened themselves and their children by drinking water from a culvert (don’t do this) and I asked our friend gently to find some common ground and see if he agreed that some anti intellectual trends were causing Christians to harm themselves. The only example he could think of, gears clearly grinding hard, was that some communities and countries were trying to deemphasize use of petroleum which was OBVIOUSLY outrageous. I began to explain that we used to drive by massive smoke belching refineries in Louisiana surrounded by poor neighborhoods and although it might be familiar and convenient to fuel our vehicles with petroleum products it would be beneficial to all to be less…. Our friend‘s blank stare and complete confusion cut off a long treatise on the environmental and health impact, historically temporary nature and geopolitically unfortunate addiction to cheap oil as fuel. They are really just not interested in any kind of critical thinking and it saddens me.

suddenly, we have no friends and I am worried about my spouse who needs social contact much more than I.

anyone want to commiserate?

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!