Best of UU
« “to reach out for an ultimate perfection. . .” — “I’m listening. . .” »

“It’s all connected.”

Filed under: Creative — Jess at 9:06 am on Friday, October 12, 2007

The first question most people unfamiliar with Unitarian Universalism ask is usually, “What is Unitarian Universalism, anyway?”

Due to the free nature of this faith, there are many possible answers. The Unitarian Universalist Association says, “If you’re searching for a religious home that is guided by a quest for truth and meaning, not by a set creed or dogma, we invite you to discover Unitarian Universalism. We are a caring, open-minded religious community that encourages you to seek your own spiritual path. Unitarian Universalist congregations are places where people gather to nurture their spirits and put their faith into action by helping to make our communities—and the world—a better place.”

Peter Bowden, a fellow minister’s partner, has dedicated a lot of time and energy to answering this question in ways that speak to different kinds of people. He hosts the UUFAQ website, where he states, “You’ve probably heard we don’t make anyone believe anything specific. It is true that we have no creed we force everyone to believe. Now I know you’re saying, Peter, so what unifies you as a religion? Simple, we are unified by our values and how we should care for one another. While all of our congregations are independent democratically governed communities, the majority of UU congregations in the USA have joined together in an association of congregations. This association has a set of principles that member congregations agree to ‘affirm and promote’ - think of it as our UU glue.”

He has also made a couple of videos, one in tandem with his wife, Rev. Amy Freedman, speaking to a wider audience about Unitarian Universalism. About a year ago, a mysterious message from a purple alien speaking from the Pentagon surfaced on YouTube, and had these “Cosmic Principles” to share:

1. Respect sentient life: respect the inherent worth and dignity of all sentient life forms, even if it isn’t profitable.
2. Get along and be fair: be just, equitable, and fair in the way you relate with others in all aspects of your life
3. Wise up: accept one another and help each other grow in mind, body and other species-appropriate ways.
4. Seek greater understanding: engage in a lifelong search for truth, meaning and understanding, and let others do this their own way, too.
5. Sentient beings get a voice and a vote: give all sentient beings a voice and a vote in matters that concern them.
6. Build a happy planet: strive to build a peaceful planetary community with freedom and justice for all sentient beings.
7. It’s all connected: since everything is connected, we must work together to care for all beings, the planet and beyond!

Source: “How to Save the Planet,” a message from the great beyond, courtesy of Peter Bowden of UUFAQ.com

Tags: , , , , ,

Related posts

permalink

response by JP Manzi

October 15, 2007 @ 2:54 pm

Jess,

Maybe you can help me, what role do atheists, secularists, free-thinkers, and pantheists play in the life of the UUA? As one who labels himself as a free-thinker, I do miss the gatherings up my church days….which was not that long ago.

permalink

response by Jess

October 15, 2007 @ 3:32 pm

I’ll do my best, JP.

First a clarification: the UUA is the association of congregations, who covenant to join together for common goals, but the UUA does not dictate the worship life of each individual congregation.

So, each congregation can be pretty different — rather simplistically, some are more theistic, some are more humanist, some run the whole gamut. If there is more than one near you, try them all to see which is a better fit for you.

Unitarian Universalism as a religion, while descended from Protestant Christianity, draws from all of the great religions as sources of wisdom. Atheists, secularists, free-thinkers, and pantheists are certainly included in that, and are more than welcome in our congregations along with Christians, Jews, pagans, humanists, you name it.

Our emphasis is not on the specifics of what each person believes or does not believe theologically, but rather on how your personal beliefs and journey cause you to act in the world that we all share. We covenant to how we will be in community together, not on the specifics of theology — we’re all looking for Truth, and we each have our own pieces which, when we bring them together, make up the large Whole that we can all draw from.

But if you ask another UU the same question, they’re likely to give you a different answer! It has been said that wherever UUs gather, no one will agree and coffee will be served. ;-)

permalink

response by JP Manzi

October 16, 2007 @ 7:34 am

“Our emphasis is not on the specifics of what each person believes or does not believe theologically, but rather on how your personal beliefs and journey cause you to act in the world that we all share.”

I like that, there is one near me in Hagerstown, MD and that is pretty much it within an hour or 2.
Appreciate it.

RSS feed for responses to this post.

Due to rampant comment spam, the response period is set to five days only. If you would like to add your thoughts to the conversation, please use the Contact form in the sidebar to email them directly.