Our Principles and Purposes©
September 16, 2001
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland
Jane Thickstun, Celebrant

Reading:
The reading is the statement of Principles and Purposes formulated by the Unitarian Universalist Association in the early 1980s

We 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.

The living tradition we share draws from many sources:

1. Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.

2. Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.

3. Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.

4. Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.

5. Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.

6. Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual support and trust.

Our Principles and Purposes

The planned topic for today is our Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes. It is the first in a series on the principles that I’ll be giving this year. I didn’t want to just start with the first principle, because there is so much to talk about concerning the principles in general, that I figured it deserved a day all to itself. There’s the background – how they came about, and the controversy over whether they are being used like a creed or not. Then there is the fact that we always say "the principles and purposes," but who has ever heard the purposes?

I considered ditching the topic and addressing our national tragedy directly. But I decided that it would still be useful to look at the UU principles and purposes, but in light of what has happened this week to ask the question – what do they offer us in our time of need? Is this an expression of the grounding of a UU faith that can help us deal with the tragedy we are experiencing? And if not this, then what? What does Unitarian Universalism offer us at times like these?

UU minister Edward A. Frost wrote a great little book called With Purpose and Principle that I’ll be quoting from a lot. In it he says, "our Unitarian and Universalist forebears knew well enough that a religion needs to be able to say to the world what it is that its adherents believe. The difficulty, for these free churches, lay in formulating what could be said without usurping the freedom of belief cherished and firmly defended by their members. . . . The principles and purposes statement, incorporated into the bylaws of the Unitarian Universalist Association, is but the latest in a long history of attempts to state, if not a common faith, at least a workable consensus about what brings us together." (p. 2)

To give a brief look at the background: In 1803, Universalism was becoming a denomination by uniting different groups of people who all believed in some form of universal salvation, though there was difference as to whether the salvation would be immediate or only after burning in hell for a finite time. They adopted the Winchester Confession, which stated that God "will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness." A "liberty clause" was included that said local congregations could adopt their own statements of faith and belief "provided they do not disagree with our general profession." The Universalists adopted new professions of faith in 1899 and in 1935 that updated the language but also affirmed that "no precise form of words" would be required of ministers or members. (p. 3)

Unitarianism grew as a movement within the congregations of the established churches of New England. By 1825, the American Unitarian Association had been formed, and issued a statement that reads: "We value our doctrines only so far as they evidently are the revelation of the will and character of God and so far as they tend to improve the religious, moral, and intellectual condition of mankind . . . . The great end of this association is the promotion of pure morals and practical piety." (p. 5) In 1894, and again during World War II, new statements were formulated that updated the language. The one from World War II consists of five principles with which it was believed most Unitarians would agree. This is the basis for our current formulation, which was worked on in the 1980's. This last time, the main reason to update the language was to make it inclusive of women.

As it stands now, the statement consists of seven principles and six sources that we draw from. At the end is the statement of purpose, which reads simply, "Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual support and trust." You heard the principles and the sources when Ann read it earlier, and the whole thing is in your hymnal right after the preface. So tell me, does it sound like a creed to you?

Many Unitarian Universalists have been preaching on the principles, teaching them to the children, and are happy to affirm them as a statement of what we have in common. To some, this seems like they are being taken as a creed, or used as one. It has been said that Unitarian Universalism has "a fear of creedalism that is irrational to the point of being dogmatic." But the principles have never been used as a test for membership, and were never intended to formulate a common theology. It is precisely because of our lack of a creed that many feel for a statement of what we do have in common; a formulation of certain values we agree on.

The more important question for us today is: What do they offer us in our time of need?

I believe they are a rock, but not a foundation. They give us something to hold onto, something visible to all that we can rally round.

I believe the crux of who we are as a religious body is contained in the 1^st, 4^th, and 7^th principles.

The fourth, "a free and responsible search for truth and meaning," describes our creedlessness. It defines the free church, and is what sets us apart from most other religions, which are defined by what they believe. It tells us we are free to search for truth and meaning according to our own conscience, but also that we are responsible for how we conduct that search - namely, that we must affirm the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large (the 5^th principle). But we also have a responsibility to conduct that search. We cannot cling to the rock alone; we must also build our own foundation. Because this is a free church, the foundation is not given. We are not given a theology, a way of structuring, or describing reality. We must each develop our own theology. We must each determine for ourselves what, if any, order there is to the universe. We must find truth through our own path, through our own experience and reflection on that experience; we must create our own meaning. Each one of us individually, though in community with other seekers. Because Unitarian Universalists are the ultimate individualists.

That said, I do believe the 1^st principle has a theological content. If we are covenanting to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person, that means we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. In theistic terms, that is saying that we are each and all children of God, equal in God’s sight; each of us has a divine spark. It is a belief about the way reality is structured. Furthermore, it commits us to acknowledge in our behavior the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This is not always easy, but it is something to strive for. It says that every person, no matter what they look like, no matter what they believe, no matter what they do, has inherent worth and dignity and deserves to be treated accordingly. Even the perpetrators of hideous crimes. It is not something we can forfeit by our actions - it is inherent. We may not be able to forgive what they do, we may need to stop them from doing what they are doing, but embracing this principle means believing that even our enemies have inherent worth and dignity, and should be treated accordingly.

I believe the 7^th principle has theological content as well. To covenant to affirm and promote "respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part" is to believe that we are indeed a part of an interdependent web of all existence. To believe this gives us a sense of who we are in the greater scheme of things. I am great because I partake in the whole of all that exists. Yet I must be humble because I am just a small part of all that exists.

The other principles address our relations to one another - that we seek to relate with justice, equity, and compassion, that we seek a world community with peace, liberty and justice for all, that we seek to accept one another and encourage each other’s spiritual growth. As individualistic as we are as a denomination, and indeed, as a nation, we recognize that we exist only in relation to others, and that our strength, and our purpose comes only in our relation to others. In a sermon this past Wednesday in New York City, UU minister Forrest Church declared that "Hope will answer helplessness if, and only if, from the sacrament of this shared sacrifice of innocence and the innocent, we become for one another channels through which our faith may flow, and wells of love from which to draw much needed comfort and new strength." There is a story in a meditation manual by Rev. Richard Gilbert of a little girl whose mother sent her on an errand. She was gone a long time and when she finally returned home her mother asked what had taken her so long. She had stopped to help a friend fix his bicycle because it had broken. "But you don't know anything about fixing bicycles," exclaimed her mother. "I know," replied the girl, "I stopped to help him cry."

I believe Unitarian Universalism offers us much in our time of need. But it does not do all the work for us. I hope that we are each of us building solid foundations of belief, belief that can be questioned and changed, but belief that can also hold us up and sustain us in times like these. And we have company on our journey, people around us who can help us find truth and meaning, and people who can simply help us cry.

One way to alleviate feelings of helplessness is to do something to help. Giving blood is something that we can do. Our UUA and UUSC have together established a fund called the "New York City Humanitarian Relief Fund." Contributions placed in the plate in the back of the sanctuary today will be sent to that fund. And the Midland InterfaithCouncil for Peace and Justice is sponsoring a number of activities in the weeks to come, including a kick-off event at the Tridge on Sunday, Oct 7 at 2pm.

I want to close with a couple of statements that I feel offer some comfort in this time. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do." And in the words of the poet Adrienne Rich:

"My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
So much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those who, age after age,
perversely, with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world."

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