Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of
“Where is Our Holy Church?”
Sunday, November 16, 2008
by Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods
Once again, over the past month, racist flyers were found
littering several neighborhoods here in
I am deeply grateful that
we are part of a religious movement that not only refutes this garbage in
its deeply held values, but also acts upon those values. I was heartened to see
over forty Unitarian Universalists at the Courthouse yesterday, where we
protested the passage of anti-gay marriage legislation around the country,
especially Proposition 8 in
In addition, I am deeply
grateful that some of the newer folks who attended the Newcomers Orientations
to Unitarian Universalism take commitment to our religious community so
seriously that they wanted more time to get to know us and to examine their own
understandings of their religious relationship with us. I suspect they simply
want to experience us further over time. Did you realize that we are being
watched? I think it is a very good thing to know this.
So, today, I would like to
examine our holy church by asking why community, why religious community, why
Unitarian Universalist community? – and explore a few hows of community.
First, why even have a congregation, a church: why community, given our
human tendency to value autonomy? As much as we need to know that we are
individuals who can think freely and act freely, we also need to know to whom
and with whom we belong. This is a powerful paradox for human beings. We need
to know our individual strength and value, and we need to know that we have a
place where people care for us and we may care for others. We need connections
We also need a place to
learn how to be in the world.
While our families certainly provide information, interchange in communities
adds immensely to our awareness of how to engage the world in a larger context.
We saw this with our youth who went to
We need a place where our
thoughts will be challenged and our emotions supported. We need a place where we can join our
energies with those of others to accomplish what we could not accomplish alone. Social theory maintains that human beings
need three places. Some of you will have read this concept in the essay and
later book, Bowling Alone. First, we need a family from
which to spring and to which we can return throughout our life’s journey. Then,
we need a place of meaningful work, work which challenges us and which gives us
a sense of value in the world. Finally, we need a third place to express our
special qualities that may not fit into the first two. We need a gathered group
of people to fulfill more completely our lives’ meanings. We need community.
Why religious community?
If, as Lloyd Averill suggests, religion is the search for that meaning which
has power to give shape to our experience, purpose to our existence, and
motivation and moral energy to our human enterprises, we need religious
communities to lead truly meaningful lives. Religious communities engage us to
answer the basic questions of life: Who am I? Why am I here? What is important?
And How, then, shall I live? Louise
Ferrell encouraged us to place a sign on the Social Action bulletin board which
said, “How, then, shall I act?” This highlights exactly what I am talking
about. Our community is religious as it challenges us to ask such a question –
and this is how a holy church acts. And we need one another to act more
powerfully.
We need religious community
to share the search for our Source, to share what we find, to challenge wishful
thinking, and to affirm our insight. Further, religious community shares
particular values that are meaningful to the members. These values provide, not only ideals toward which we aspire, but values
from which we make our every-day decisions, including how we should respond to
hate. We engage the interchange of energy that leads to deeper, more aware
living and deeper connections to our Source.
Finally, we need religious
communities to help us honor and affirm the most important moments of our
lives, our rites of passage, our sacraments: birth, coming of age, covenanted
relationship, committing to service to our movement, honoring of elders, and
death. We need to be able to celebrate together and to grieve together, to
laugh and to cry, to know that, even if our family or our work place has not
been good to us, our religious community will be. Certainly, we saw this kind
of energy around the ordination of the Rev. Sarah Schurr just last month. This
congregation provided the foundation for her ministry for years to come. We
helped form her. We can be proud of that.
For these and many other
reasons, I feel deeply concerned when some of us withdraw when our need is greatest.
I hope we can build trust that will diffuse that tendency. I am delighted that
Jesse Ford, our membership coordinator, has begun to make connections, not only
with our newcomers, but also with those who have fallen away for one reason or
another. If you know of someone who could benefit from our attention, please
let us know.
What we don’t need
religious community for is to enable or accept people who behave badly or
destroy healthy community. Occasionally, in our effort to be accepting, we
enable abuse of power. There have been times when a person has had to be
removed from religious community because he or she was threatening and
destructive of it. I have seen a person removed from each community I have
served, including as a student minister. In each case, the offending person was
a threat to vulnerable women and/or children. This is appropriate given our UU
values. It is also appropriate to work toward rehabilitation of the offender.
Our Unitarian Universalist values remind us to strive toward ways to rebuild
trust and covenant.
Which leads me to the
question, Why Unitarian Universalist religious communities? Why this Holy
Congregation? You will note I did not use the words “church” or “fellowship.”
These words are too specific in their meaning for what I am getting at. We call
our religious homes fellowships, churches, parishes, societies, associations,
congregations, but in every case, we mean a form of community.
Why Unitarian Universalist?
The values we affirm and promote are extremely important in identifying our
brand of religious community. Our Unitarian Universalist Purposes and
Principles supply specific values, as we affirm and promote the inherent worth
and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our
congregations; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right
of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations
and in society at large; the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and
justice for all; and respect for the interdependent web of all existence of
which we are a part. While I fall short of living up to these values every day
and cavel with details, they provide the glue that
holds us together as religious communities. In addition, they provide a basis
from which to make our important moral decisions.
Part of the genius of
Unitarian Universalism lies in its ability to bring people of diverse religious
backgrounds and practices together through these values. We have folks of
Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, agnostic, atheist, pagan, and un-nameable
perspectives together here, because our liberal values allow that kind of
mixing. And our society is truly becoming mixed. If it were not, certain folks
would not find this mixing so upsetting and would not have to spread hate
literature. We can lead the affirmation of this mixing.
As Unitarian Universalists
we emphasize the unity that underlies diversity, so we emphasize connections
beyond distinctions. From our very beginnings, we have asserted that our Source
– or what is most important - is one, and that we are one in that wholeness.
That’s Unitarianism. We have also asserted that our Source is Love and, as
such, calls us to find our connections with all of life – not just human life,
but all of nature as well. That is Universalism.
While the “why” is very
important, I want to spend a few moments now on the “how.” How do we co-create
religious community that is welcoming and nurturing? Consider hospitality. When
we arrive here, we need to walk into our building and not stop at the door. We
need to make sure our backs are not the first things our visitors see. We need
to make sure we do not form closed circles of people in the foyer. We need to smile
and welcome people we do not know, even when they tell us they have been coming
here for years. Folks are returning now that have not been with us for more than a few years.
They need to know this can still be their home. We need to NOT DO BUSINESS for
at least twenty minutes before and after each service, so that we can meet and
greet those who may find a religious home with us. These are all simple
gestures of hospitality.
We need to practice basic
skills of “meeting” those who are different. We need to learn to listen and to
“stay in the question,” rather than rushing to prepare our answer. We need to
speak from our own experience (use “I” statements). We need to talk with one
another, not about one another. We need not to use global statements
like, “Everyone knows. . .” Our newcomers don’t know and are excluded by such
remarks. Nancy Leman once demonstrated a wonderful alternative when she asked a
person performing a service for the first time, “What do you know about the
system around here?” Now, that’s an inviting question!
Further, We
need to accept that what the other person is saying is true for them, even if
it is not true for us. We need to be respectful while stating our truths, using
phrases like, “In my experience. . .”
While we have a good start
for such behaviors, how can we practice and improve these skills with one
another? Perhaps we need town meetings, like the one today, which address
issues of import to us: How should we deal with political initiatives? How can
we care for children in our worship and our community life? How can we affirm
our values and still reach out to those with different values? These meetings
do not require resolutions and votes. We practice our skills and air our
opinions at the same time. We can find some common ground in the process that
will enable us to see new possibilities and build stronger community.
I need this religious
community to exist, and not because I want a job. I need it to exist because I
believe we add immeasurably to the quality of life in this town. I think
Which
brings me back to the “how” of religious community. It takes time, energy, and money to
build healthy communities. That is reality. We need to take the time to pay
attention (a spiritual practice) to one another, to listen as well as to expect
to be heard. We need to offer our gifts and skills as part of the larger
program of the community. I am delighted that Janet Farrell helps facilitate
the Grief Group, that Michelle Mahoney has provided new insights into Buddhism
and Vedic religion, that John Swanson regularly deepens our understanding of
our connections with nature. All of these folks - and more - share their special gifts
with us in this way. Our RE teachers give up being well known in this part of
the community so that our children may enjoy excellent and meaningful religious
education. Our choir prepares exciting and inspiring music for worship. Our
Board and Fellowship Council members spend hours keeping our finances healthy and
our ongoing program on track. And our staff makes sure that we have intentional
religious education, uplifting music, and good business practices in the
office. We are blessed. Jacob Needleman notes that “money is an expression of
what we love and care about.” I believe that money is energy made manifest. May
we give until it feels good!
In the epistle of James, we
read “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers. Those who look into the
perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget
but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing.” James has captured a
great truth. In religious community we may hear the word, but only in true
religious community do we become doers of the word. We call Unitarian
Universalism a religion of “deeds, not creeds.” I like that. It reminds us that
the word is only as good as its results.
So where is our
So Be It! Blessed Be!
“Where is Our Holy Church ”
Order of Service
Sunday, November 16, 2008
9:30 AM and 11:00 AM
Welcome
Choral Introit: “How Could Anyone?”
by Libby Roderick
Chalice Lighting:
We kindle the flame of our
faith
To provide a lamp for our
studies of life
And
illumination for our journey through life.
We know we need one another
in spiritual community
to deepen our search for truth and meaning.
May this light guide us on
our way.
Opening Words
Opening Song: #113 “Where
Is Our
Recognition of the 30th
Anniversary of Ordination
Diana Vezmar-Bailey
Celebrating with Music:
“Come Build a Church”
Sermon: “Where Is Our
Sung Response: #298 “Wake
Now, My Senses”
Spoken Response
Candles: Milestones of Joy
and Sorrow/Offering
Meditation
Closing Song: #311 “Let It
Be a Dance” (verses 1 & 2)
Closing Words
Closing Song: #311 (verse
3)
Celebrants: the Rev. Diana
Vezmar-Bailey and the Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods
Celebration of Ordination of Diana Vezmar-Bailey
Diana, please join me here.
We have chosen to honor you on the 30th anniversary of your
ordination to the Presbyterian ministry. As you know, once ordained, once you have
accepted orders to be called apart to the service of life and all that is most
important to you, you can never have it taken away. The Presbyterian church may have taken your right to provide services to
them, but the acceptance of calling can never be rescinded.
We wish to hear your
thoughts on this day of celebration of your commitment to a life of service to
mystery:
Diana’s statement:
Your experience of the call
of the ineffable and its demands on your life has been a powerful force in all
you do. Though you, like most of us, have an earthy side and a wicked sense of
humor, you also know the difference between kairos
(time out of time) and chronos (clock time), you know
what it is to witness the most important times in people’s lives. And you know what
it is to hold the secrets of others in tender care. We are grateful that you
are part of this Holy church and welcome your use of your calling with us. You
bless us. May you also be blessed with a sense of your gifts for ministry and
your continued calling. So Be It! Blessed Be!