Part of the depth of a Unitarian Universalist faith is our reliance on covenant, rather than creed. As Rev. Melissa Ziemer-Carvill points out in this sermon delivered at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York on August 14, 2003 when she served as their summer minister, a covenant is more than a promise, but a relationship between ourselves and each other, and the holy, that not only calls us to our higher purpose but also offers forgiveness when we fall short.

Rev. Ziemer-Carvill now serves the Unitarian Universalist Church in Kent, Ohio.

On Not Throwing Anything Away

by Rev. Melissa Ziemer-Carvill

Here’s a little quiz. The words to our opening hymn, Come, Come Whoever You Are, are from a poem by the 13th century Sufi mystic Jelalludin Rumi. There are many adaptations of the poem, but most of them include a line omitted from our hymnal. See if you can pick it out.

“Come, come, whoever you are Wanderer, Worshiper, Lover of Leaving, Ours is no caravan of despair Though you have broken your vows a thousand times… Come, yet again, Come.”

Did you catch it? Though you have broken your vows a thousand times . . . We leave that one out, but I think it is such an important line. We need to know that we are not the only ones who break our vows. We need to know that imperfection is part of the human condition, that we can fail again and again and still, we are welcome.

(Read on … )

At first glance, this speech by Rod Serling (December 25, 1924–June 28, 1975), the television writer who brought The Twilight Zone into the world, is pure politics. But, if you read to the end, you’ll find a message of hope and truth that echoes, I think, far into the future.

Rod was a Unitarian Universalist, having converted from his childhood Judaism upon marrying Carol Kramer, a Protestant. The couple were active members of the Unitarian Community Church of Santa Monica, California, and Rod often spoke on behalf of the newly formed Unitarian Universalist Association. This speech, in 1968 at Moorpark College, took place in the height of the Vietnam War, a time when the echoes of Senator Joseph McCarthy still rang. At that time, it was not unusual for organizations to require speakers to sign oaths of loyalty to the United States, something Rod adamantly opposed, and refused to comply with:

Speech by Rod Serling

delivered December 3, 1968 at Moorpark College, Moorpark, California

There seem to have arisen some complications relevant to my appearance here this evening that should be clarified before I begin. Plainly and simply. I refused to sign a loyalty oath which was submitted to me as a prerequisite both for my appearance and my pay. I gather that your local newspaper and some of its readers read dire and menacing implications in this refusal of mine, and I broach the whole thing only by way of a kind of personal disclaimer.

Number one, I have no interest in overthrowing the government of the United States and number two, to the best of my knowledge I have not or am not now a member of a subversive organization whose aims are similar. I know there are many of you out there who’ve put me in a genetic classification of someplace between a misanthropic kook and an ungracious dope. Actually, I’m neither. I did not sign the loyalty oath and I waived my normal speaking fee, only because of a principle. I think a requirement that a man affix his signature to a document, reaffirming loyalty, in on one hand ludicrous—and on the other demeaning.

(Read on … )