Blogger Peacebang recently reflected on the Lord’s Prayer, and I found the words coming into my own mind recently on a Sunday during the time of silence after the sermon, so I did some Googling on Unitarian Universalist approaches to this traditional prayer.

The Rev. Roger Fritts, senior minister at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland, preached this sermon on December 15, 2002, regarding his own personal interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer. I think his approach is extremely thoughtful, on both an intellectual and spiritual level.

An Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer

by Rev. Roger Fritts

Our Father who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our trespasses (or debts)
As we forgive those who trespass against us;
(or: As we have forgiven our debtors)
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
(For thine is the kingdom
And the power
And the glory,
Forever.)

-Roman Catholic version with
Protestant changes or additions in italics

According to a 1992 study published in Newsweek, about eighty-eight percent of the people in the United States pray. According to a study of Unitarian Universalists conducted in 1987, fifty-seven percent of us say that we pray occasionally or often. I fall into this group of fifty-seven percent.

During difficult moments of my life I pray. I know that my silent, private prayer will not change the unchangeable. Nevertheless, in moments of doubt and fear my short, silent prayers give me comfort. They help me cope by calming me and soothing my emotions.

Some might say that my prayer is a form or regression. They might suggest that when I pray I am discarding my rational, logical side; I am setting aside what I have learned from science, and returning to my early childhood superstitious beliefs in God as a Santa Claus who will grant my prayer, if I say the right words in the right way.

(Read on … )

The past few readings have explored the Unitarian Universalist perspective of the human place in the natural world, particularly in the context of evolutionary science. But what of our understanding of the concept of God, in the light of scientific progress? Indeed, many among our number have dismissed the idea of a deity as irrelevant.

However, evolutionary evangelist Rev. Michael Dowd has a way of bringing the language of faith into a marriage with scientific language in his new book, Thank God for Evolution! He argues that we need not abandon the language of religion as we discover more about the Universe around us, but that the use of metaphor is a valuable insight into the human experience of the Universe. His view of God is much larger than the traditional personal deity described in many faiths relying on what he terms “flat earth” theology, or theology developed when humanity knew the earth was flat and orbited by the sun. Science and religion can exist in a greater harmony, in this view, and enhance each other as we search for meaning in our lives.

The entire book is available as a free download at thankgodforevolution.com, and is very thought-provoking reading.

Experiencing God versus Thinking about God

from Thank God For Evolution!, by Rev. Michael Dowd

“Thinking about God is no substitute for tasting God, and talking about God is no substitute for giving people ways of experiencing God.” — MATTHEW FOX

Our hominid ancestors experienced Reality as divine. For them, Nature was majestic, mysterious, awesome, benevolent, occasionally severe, all-powerful, nourishing, and more. Virtually every human attribute (the bad, as well as the good) was not only mirrored but also magnified in the mysterious forces of the natural world. Our ancestors experienced Reality this way long before words would label the experience—indeed, before there were verbalized beliefs of any kind. Most beliefs, rational and irrational, spring from the womb of symbolic language.

(Read on … )

Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species was published in 1859, and is still causing furor today, particularly in the relationship between religion and science. As Unitarian Universalists, we strive for a foot in both worlds — allowing science to deepen our religious experiences and our religious experiences to deepen our understanding of science.

Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland (February 11, 1842-August 13, 1936), wrote about this very struggle in his 1902 book, The Spark in the Clod: A Study in Evolution. This excerpt describes his take on the nature of truth, and how advances in science enhanced his understanding of God rather than diminishing it, in direct conflict with traditional religious thought at the time.

Rev. Sunderland, originally a Baptist minister, converted to Unitarianism and served churches in Massachusetts, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he also served as a Unitarian missionary for the American Unitarian Association. His full biography is here.

As with all historical material, you may want to mentally substitute gender-inclusive language.

from The Spark in the Clod: A Study in Evolution

by Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland (February 11, 1842-August 13, 1936)

We have now before us, in brief, the two theories of the origin of the world, which present themselves to modern men asking for acceptance. Is there any question which one we must receive, if we are truth-loving, and care at all to have our beliefs based on realities?

And now we come to the important question of the relative religious influence and value of the two theories.

I know the fact that one is ancient and venerable, while the other is new, and especially the fact that one is contained in the Bible, while the other is not, may seem to give the greater religious claim to the theory of creation found in Genesis.

And yet is the claim necessarily valid? Has God no truth besides that which the Bible contains?Rather, if we are not atheists, must we say that all truth is of God, whether found on parchment or on stone; whether inscribed by pen held by human hand, or by wind and rain and ice and fire on mountain sides; whether written two thousand years ago in Palestine, or to-day on the face of the starry sky above our heads, or of the earth beneath our feet.

(Read on … )

This week, posts will focus on prayer and its use in Unitarian Universalist churches that do not proclaim a universal belief in a higher power.

And this is just the question raised by today’s material, from the Rev. Tom McCready, who serves Hull Unitarian Church in Great Britain. Unitarian churches in Great Britain are members of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches rather than the Unitarian Universalist Association, but proclaim a philosophy of religion that would be right at home in our American congregations:

“WE BELIEVE THAT:

• everyone has the right to seek truth and meaning for themselves.
• the fundamental tools for doing this are your own life experience, your reflection upon it, your intuitive understanding and the promptings of your own conscience.
• the best setting for this is a community that welcomes you for who you are, complete with your beliefs, doubts and questions.”

So with that in mind, here is Rev. McCready’s take on the question, “Who are you praying to?” in a format suitable for a responsive prayer.

Who do you pray to if you believe in prayer, but do not believe in God?

by Rev. Tom McCready

And who, or what do you pray to, if you believe that the sacred depth that binds us together and holds us forever cannot be separated from the reality of ourselves, in order to be prayed to?

Where do you aim your prayers if you truly believe that the beauty and grace and glorious frailty of the human spirit is all the God we need?

If there is a God who listens, then he or she is listening in the people gathered here. And if the great creator spirit who was before the world began is present here among us, it is in the hearts and in the hopes of the people gathered here that that spirit is within reach. Most real, most near, and most fully with us.

(Read on … )

Sometimes the best prayers come out of just sitting still, and you don’t have to be a minister, either. Blogger UUMomma wrote this in September:

Today, a prayer, I think

by blogger UUMomma

Okay, God. I’m listening. I sat in the sun and ate dumplings yesterday and the wind blew over and through me, much as it did that day I stood on a ridge near an old, old battlefield.

They are all old battlefieds, aren’t they God? All the spaces we inhabit hold the old and new battles, the seen and the unseen. Those battles between classes, between races, between lovers, between parents and children, bosses and workers, even between friends. Those interior battles, too, I see, within the shifting, temporary walls that hold me in and in place.

The wind is the same and it holds that which binds us one to another, when we look, when we listen, when we feel. The sun warm on my face, the wind lifting my hair, the taste of plum sauce sweet on my tongue–you have my attention. And I thank you for offering me this moment of sight and sense and grace.

Amen

Source: “Today, a prayer, I think” by blogger UUMomma, posted September 12, 2007, used with permission from the author.

Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810-May 10, 1860), a contemporary of Emerson and Channing, among others, served the West Roxbury Unitarian Church in Massachusetts beginning in 1837. Now known as Theodore Parker Church Unitarian Universalist, the congregation still celebrates and wrestles with his legacy.

Parker is credited with being a pivotal figure in bringing Unitarian theology beyond a purely Biblical basis, and was in fact denounced as not practicing Christianity, after delivering A Discourse on the Transient and Permanent in Christianity (The Works of Theodore Parker, volume 4, pg. 1) at an ordination in 1841.

For a brilliant account of Parker’s life and writings, see Dean Grodzin’s Book, American Heretic: Theodore Parker and Transcendentalism, excerpts of which are available on Google Books.

This prayer, published in 1864 in The Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker (p. 39), illustrates Parker’s holistic view of god and his sense of the constant reaching, stretching, deepening that human beings attempt in order to be closer to what he called the “Absolute Religion” in his famous sermon in 1841.

Prayer

by Rev. Theodore Parker

O Thou eternal One, may I commune
With Thee, and for a moment bathe my soul
In Thy infinity, Mother and Sire
Of all that are? In all that is art Thou;
Being is but by Thee, of Thee, in Thee;
Yet, far Thou reachest forth beyond the scope
Of space and time, or verge of human thought
Transcendant God! Yet, ever immanent
In all that is, I flee to Thee, and seek
Repose and soothing in my Mother’s breast.
0 God, I cannot fear, for Thou art love,
And wheresoe’er I grope I feel Thy breath!
Yea, in the storm which wrecks an argosy,
Or in the surges of the sea of men
When empires perish, I behold Thy face,
I hear Thy voice, which gives the law to all
The furies of the storm, and Law proclaims,
“Peace, troubled waves, serve ye the right—be still!”
From all this dusty world Thou wilt not lose
A molecule of earth, nor spark of light.
I cannot fear a single flash of soul
Shall ever fail, outcast from Thee, forgot.
Father and Mother of all things that are,
I flee to Thee, and in Thy arms find rest.
My God! how shall I thank Thee for Thy love!
Tears must defile my sacramental words,
And daily prayer be daily penitence
For actions, feelings, thoughts which are amiss:
Yet will I not say, “God, forgive!” for Thou
Hast made the effect to follow cause, and bless
The erring, sinning man. Then, let my sin
Continual find me out, and make me clean
From all transgression, purified and bless’d!

Source: Prayer by the Rev. Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810-May 10, 1860), published in 1864 in The Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker (p. 39)

The Rev. Jen Crow delivered this sermon to the First Unitarian Church of Rochester in July of 2005. I find her reclaiming of the word and very concept of “God” to be powerful and provocative.

Rev. Crow has also created a marvelous “Soul Deepening” program at her church called Wellspring. The website states, “Wellspring is based on the concept of a five spoke wheel that keeps spiritual seekers in balance and spinning with grounded principles. The five spokes are: spiritual practice, spiritual direction, covenant groups, UU history and theology and faith in action.” In addition to the full curriculum, there is also a blog at the site focused on spiritual practice. Good reading.

Her presentation at General Assembly in Portland with two lay-leader facilitators was extremely well attended, and I felt privileged to just sit on the floor at the front of the room. I’m already bugging that minister I know to get the program going in his church ASAP.

Enjoy:

Wholly, Holy, Holey

Rev. Jen Crow, Associate Minister, First Unitarian Church of Rochester, NY, July 17, 2005

Several years ago, during my ministerial internship at Unity Church — Unitarian in St. Paul, Minnesota, I sat with one of my mentors in his study. For weeks, we had discussed my spiritual practice of prayer — how often did I pray, he asked, what did I pray for, how did the act of praying feel, why did I return to it day after day and night after night. Each week the questions got a little bit harder, and I began to both welcome and fear my time in that office.

On this particular morning, my mentor asked me to offer a sermon to the congregation on my spiritual practice and how it impacted my life. A seemingly reasonable request, you might think, but the butterflies began working in my stomach immediately. In that moment, I wanted to push my friend away, push the question away, push even my own life-saving experiences away — anything to save myself from the admission there before someone I respected that I did not know why prayer had worked in my life, that I did not know exactly whom I was praying to or if that entity - if it was indeed an entity — heard my prayers or had any power to impact my life.

(Read on … )