HOW DO WE DEFINE OUR FAITH?©
February 25, 2001
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland
Jane Thickstun, Celebrant

Reading:
The reading is titled "The Ideas that Have Moved Us," by Unitarian Universalist Barbara Rohde, from her meditation manual called In the Simple Morning Light.

We can catch glimpses of who we are by looking at our historical past, as a denomination and as a fellowship. To know who we are, we must know where we came from and which ideas moved us. The nature of Unitarian Universalism is constantly changing and we have no creed; yet certain ideas have existed throughout our history.

We have always believed that the source of religious authority does not reside in the Pope, or the minister, or in a book, but within the center of our own personalities, within our deepest selves. That idea has often been corrupted to suggest that all expressions of belief are equally valid.

We have always believed in freedom of thought and the expression of thought. That idea has been corrupted so that it often seems to be saying, "Leave me alone," rather than "Tell me what you see." We have always been advocates of religious tolerance, but that belief has changed from saying, "I won’t burn you at the stake," to saying, "I won’t let you know I disagree with you."

In the great religious division between those who would exclude in order to purify and those who would embrace in order to redeem, we have always been with the embracers. We have no creedal requirements for membership, which is how it should be, but that does not mean we should not be passionate about our search for truth, nor that membership has no meaning.

Sermon:

Have you ever tried to describe what Unitarian Universalism is to someone who doesn’t know about it? If you’re lucky, you have one of those little pocket cards with you that you can hand them. But what if you don’t? Or what if they still have questions? What do you do then?

Unitarian Universalism is notoriously difficult to define. The Ministerial Fellowship Committee, that dedicated body of lay and clergy volunteers that decides whether to admit ministers into fellowship with our Association, was for a while asking what became known as "the elevator question." The question is: "You get on an elevator at the 10th floor with someone who wants to know what Unitarian Universalism is, and you have until you get to the ground floor to tell them. What would you say?" Luckily, they weren’t asking that question anymore by the time I went for my interview! But it is something I have given lots of thought to, and something I have been called on to do many times. It is something we all need to think about; a question we all need to be prepared to answer to the best of our ability. We know we’ve got a good thing going here - how do we communicate what that is to others?

Ours is the faith that defies definition. Whenever we meet people of other faiths who want to know about ours, we are confronted with the challenge of defining Unitarian Universalism. By now I have come to see that it is not something we can aim to get right, and once we’re there we’ll know it and be able to stop struggling. No, it’s rather an ongoing process, one that every Unitarian Universalist has input into, one that will never end as long as there are people who call themselves Unitarians or Universalists or Unitarian Universalists. It is a process that changes with time, adapting itself to the needs of the era. It is a process that changes with the individuals that make up the body of the faith, because every voice counts, and our faith is nothing more nor less than what we - as a collection of individuals - understand it to be. This is what is meant by calling it a living faith, or living tradition, as in the title of the current hymnbook. It is not a set of stories and beliefs, codified and meant to be definitive for all time and all places. It is a creative act, an ongoing revelation, and each and every one of us participates in this creative process, even the children.

In fact, I see this creative process as the faith itself, as that which sustains us and makes us holy. We are the creators - you are the creator, and you and you and you. We create our meaning, the meaning we give our world and our part in it. Of course we can’t create something from nothing. Just as the potter needs clay, we need a material to start with; something to form. In the creative process of meaning-making, the stuff we have to work with is our tradition. The ways that people have created meaning in the past are our stepping-off point. Some of us may in fact find ourselves perfectly happy with the tradition we are given, but for anyone there is some creative appropriation, some way of integrating it in a way that it fits that individual’s unique world view, which is gained from the person’s unique set of experiences and ways of interpreting them. Then for some of us, we have to reject the tradition we are given, so that we can feel we are creating something new, something we know to be uniquely ours. But even in rejecting the tradition we are using it as the material we start with in our creative process.

In describing Unitarian Universalism, I often give a historical perspective, because I believe the tradition is so important. Perhaps I talk about our heretical ancestors in early Christianity, or the ways and places that Unitarianism especially has found expression in other places and times, like eastern Europe during the Reformation. But I will certainly talk about the rise of Unitarianism from its roots in the religion of the Pilgrims in America, the New England Congregationalism. I usually mention that we split from the Congregationalists in the early 1800s because we were becoming too liberal for them. In rejecting the belief that Jesus is God, in a way that none of the rest of us are, we were in effect rejecting the Trinity, and they called us Unitarians, and their ministers refused to exchange pulpits with our ministers. But the early Unitarians were hardly oppressed outcasts - they were the cream of Boston society.

In contrast, the Universalists tended to represent the farmers and the less affluent and influential members of society. Universalism arose in the late 1700s in America as a denomination centered on the gospel of universal salvation. The other Protestant denominations all believed that some people died and went to heaven and others were condemned to eternal damnation in hell, but the Universalists believed in a God of love who would not condemn anyone to eternal punishment.

Both denominations were greatly affected by the Enlightenment ideas, and they evolved to keep pace with scientific knowledge. The rift that developed between religion and science was never really an issue with Unitarianism or Universalism. These faiths have been continually changing, responding to the times and led by some of the best minds of the times. In the mid-1800s, the Transcendentalists stirred things up within Unitarianism - these included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and Theodore Parker, among others. They were instrumental in leading Unitarianism to hold up individual conscience as the ultimate authority in religious matters, over the church and even the scripture. In the years following there was some struggle between those who could still be called Christians and those who could be better called theists. Then in the 20th century, Unitarian ministers began preaching humanism, and there was contention between the humanists and the theists. Humanism eventually took hold, but now we are experiencing another period of flux. Oh, the times, they are a-changing, and we have always been good at adapting. New generations are looking for new truths, or new expressions. People in this day and age are looking for more spirituality. They, or we, are looking for a religion that appeals to the heart as well as the mind.

We are in a transitional period, and are experiencing some tension as a result, both denominationally and in many of our congregations. I think it is important to understand that such tension is good. It is essential to the creative process. If we avoid discussing our differences because we believe they separate us, then we are losing out on valuable opportunities to learn other viewpoints and to grow in our process of defining our own viewpoint. Theological discussions don’t need to be academic arguments for one position or another, with the view that there is one and only one truth. We can invite others to tell us what they see and listen respectfully without judging.

Our theological diversity is an inevitable consequence of our primary belief in freedom of conscience. Our foundational belief is that personal experience, conscience and reason should be the final authorities in religion. This places the authority inside each and every individual, and makes us both free and responsible for our own search for truth and meaning. Tied to this is our strong resistance to establishing a creed, or even a common statement of belief. This confuses many outside our faith who want to understand us by finding out what we, as Unitarian Universalists, believe. I sometimes try to explain that we believe different things, precisely because of our belief that we can’t tell others what to believe! This makes us in principle opposed to missionary work, although a little evangelism wouldn’t hurt. In other words, we don’t go to others and tell them that they will be better off if they will believe what we believe, but we can share the good news of our faith that honors each individual’s religious journey, and invite others to join us.

As a denomination, we have theological diversity, and we are working on encouraging other kinds of diversity as well. We want to welcome and be in dialogue with people who are not culturally homogenous. We want to be a denomination that includes in its membership the full range of economic/social class, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and physical ability. We are coming to understand that diversity is a good thing; it keeps us from falling prey to self-righteousness and parochialism, giving us opportunities for understanding experiences that are different from ours, and so expanding our hearts and minds.

With all this diversity, is there anything we have in common? What makes us UUs? Where is our center? Or are we just a motley collection of individuals who happen to like each other? Do we always even like each other?

Our attempts to find some common ground led in 1984 to the creation of our principles and purposes. These constitute a statement of principles we agree on, framed as a covenant statement. They read,

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote:

1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person

2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations

3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations

4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning

5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large

6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all

7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

These are ethical statements. They talk about how we want to act in the world, rather than how we believe ultimate reality is structured, as is the case with Christian creeds. At least one minister I know worries that they may be taking on too much significance, and are being treated as a creed. I think what he means is that we are becoming satisfied with stopping there, at the place where we all agree, and not doing the deeper, more difficult work of creating our own way of describing our view of ultimate reality.

But like it or not, these principles are taking hold. They serve as a touchstone, something we can center ourselves around. We teach them to our children in the RE program. Given all our diversity, it is essential to have something we can all give our assent to.

One other important way to define us is to talk about our congregational polity. Polity is the denominational organization. Different religions are organized differently - some have bishops and varying levels of hierarchy, one even has a pope! Ours is a flat organizational structure: denominational authority lies with each local congregation. Our polity is a hotly discussed issue these days. We have an association of congregations with its headquarters in Boston and limited staff and services at a district level. Some believe the Boston "government," so to speak, is getting too large and powerful. Others, myself included, appreciate the services that our associational staff are able to provide. There is a tension between the individualistic need for freedom and the communal need for some organization and centralization.

I see us as a purposeful community. Each congregation, and the wider UU world constitute various levels of community. We are nurtured by the community, even as we struggle through the hard work of building and maintaining community. But a purposeful community has a purpose outside its own existence. We don’t exist to serve ourselves, we come together in this community to replenish our source so that we can serve the world beyond. This service can manifest itself in obvious or in subtle ways. We have many activists in our midst, who can be seen on the front lines of the justice issues. But we also have many who work their magic by passing along a smile. The meaning and connection we find through our participation in a church community work small miracles in our lives, which allow us to work small miracles in the world. Often, we are not aware of the effect we are having, but every little act has ripples throughout the entire universe. If we are spiritually and socially nourished, we are better able to feed others; to affect others’ lives in a positive manner, and so to make the world a better place.

Ours is a challenging faith, however you look at it. Challenging to define, challenging to live out. But with the greater difficulty comes greater rewards. We are not able in good conscience to tell others what to believe. We require that everyone make the journey themselves. But we also create communities so that we have some company on the journey. Not only do we not have to go it alone, we are enriched by the different journeys of those who travel with us.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland is recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association as a Welcoming Congregation. We welcome, affirm, promote and celebrate the full participation of all persons in all of our activities without regard to age, gender, sexual orientation, race or any other such category of exclusion.

Please feel free to contact us with any feedback, corrections or questions at jaham@delta.edu