Unitarian Universalists make much of our intellectual tendencies, our “deep thoughts.” But our tenets strive to honor the whole person, mind and physical body alike.

In this sermon from October of 2007, the Rev. Jan Nielsen, serving the Universalist Church of West Hartford, Connecticut, reflects on the value of honoring our bodies in our spiritual lives. Honoring the body, she argues, can become a spiritual practice that leads to a deeper commitment to living one’s religious values.

Honoring the Body

by Rev. Jan Nielsen

The first time I ever danced in public was at school, in the fifth grade. I don’t remember exactly why we were dancing at school; it must have been an indoor recess on a rainy day. But I do remember very clearly what happened that autumn day. When I danced, a bunch of the other kids laughed, loudly. As the new kid in school, eleven years old and desperate to fit in, I was mortified. I loved to dance at home, in the privacy of my bedroom, but after that day, I swore I’d never dance in public again.

By the time I got to junior high, I did dance in public, at football games, while I twirled a baton. Title IX may have been the law of the land, but in the Arkansas schools, all the money still went to boy’s sports, big time. A girl could be a cheerleader, a majorette (my choice), or sit on the sidelines. For girls, there was no soccer, no softball, no basketball, no running, no nothing. (I used to shoot baskets in our hayloft wishing I could play on a team, all 5’4” of me.) What physical education classes we had were a joke, and they weren’t required. Big time injustice, if you ask me, but no one ever asked us girls.

(Read on … )

On Monday, we looked at a Statement of Conscience from the 2001 Unitarian Universalist General Assembly about “responsible consumption” as an introduction to the holiday shopping season.

Today’s selection, a sermon from my good friend the Rev. Chip Roush (PDF), serving the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Traverse in Traverse City, Michigan, examines consumerism in direct relationship to the holidays, and brings to to think about what these winter holidays, and our lives, are really for. This service was celebrated November 26, 2006.

For consideration: What is a meaningful gift, to you? How do you cope with the chaos that can be December?

Big Is More

by the Rev. Chip Roush

How many of you have ever made, with your own hands, a gift for someone you love? How many of you have made a gift within the last year? How many make more gifts than you purchase?

The year I finished college, I was in dire financial straits. I graduated with a degree in philosophy, which explains part of the problem. I did not have a job, so I moved home while I looked for work. As gifts that year, instead of buying things, I wrote out some of my favorite memories with the person to whom the gift was intended. For example, I wrote to my grandmother about the taste of her hot chocolate, still the best I’ve ever tasted, and about the night I spent at her house, laughing with her about something on the television. As I remember, the program itself wasn’t particularly amusing, but we were in the right mood to be silly, and gales of laughter swept through us.

Writing up that memory, as a gift to her years later, we were able to relive that moment, and strengthen our familial bond together— and it didn’t cost a penny.

(Read on … )

Welcome to the holiday shopping season!

Unitarian Universalists do celebrate Christmas, generally, and in this culture that usually involves giving gifts. However, it is interesting and worthwhile to examine how we can meld our faith lives and our “outside of church” lives when it comes to issues of consumption.

In 2001, the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly adopted a Statement of Conscience entitled “Responsible Consumption Is Our Moral Imperative.” The process for generating these statements has changed recently (PDF), but at the time this one was written, a study-action issue on some kind of social witness was selected each year by congregational delegates at the General Assembly, sending it out to the individual congregations for study and discussion over a two-year period under the guidance of the Commision on Social Witness. Each year at General Assembly, a drafted statement resulting from those two years of study would be presented to the delegates to be revised and approved. So, this study-action issue was chosen at the 1999 General Assembly in Salt Lake City, and the statement was drafted and approved in 2001.

The ideas presented in the statement are not unfamiliar in Unitarian Universalist circles, but are very thought-provoking in the context of the holiday shopping rush.

For consideration: What, if anything, has changed in this consumer-based culture since this statement was adopted? With what do you agree or disagree in this statement? How do these ideas inform individual choices in how we spend our money and other resources, particularly around the holidays? What is the nature of gift-giving in a religious context?

From “Responsible Consumption Is Our Moral Imperative”

the 2001 General Assembly Statement of Conscience

Our Unitarian Universalist faith calls upon us to approach the ethic of responsible consumption with a passion for seeking truth, a thirst for making justice, a vision of interdependence, and a willingness to re-examine our individual actions and beliefs. Becoming responsible consumers means putting into action our religious Principles of the inherent worth and dignity of all people and the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part.

We each begin a personal journey toward responsible consumption from a different place. Wherever we start, we must be mindful of our behavior, attentive to the voices and needs of others, and conscious of the natural rhythms of the world. Our journey continues through education. Through secular and religious education programs, we must challenge ourselves to rethink the underlying assumptions that guide our choices. Through dialogue in small groups, we nurture each other’s environmental consciousness and examine competing claims of what individual responsibility actually means. Our journey is fulfilled through activism. We will work together for legislative changes that will reduce over-consumption, environmental degradation, and the unjust distribution of resources.

(Read on … )