The denomination? Unitarian Universalism
The church? Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation
After attending a number of services*, all of which I found to resonate deeply with my spiritual beliefs, I decided to attend a “Intro to UU” session yesterday afternoon. In addition to meeting a number of interesting people, I learned that the church is even more liberal than I had ever thought when I would say that people did not convert to UU from other religions - they just convert UU into including their religion. And yesterday I discovered it is actually even more radical than that.
This is a church that, while it holds to certain tenets - covenants more related to how we relate to one other than how we relate to any god - it does not dictate any answers to the questions traditionally answered by religions. Instead it provides a framework for each of us to individually explore these questions and to develop our own answers to them. Because it is so individualist, one cannot really generalize about all UU churches and fellowships. But the one I’m thinking of joining does not seem to hold Christianity in any more primacy than other religious teachings, or even “secular” teachings of science and philosophy. In the first service I attended, the sermon was centered on Charles Darwin. (And NO he wasn’t presented as Satan incarnate - LOL.) That sermon knocked my socks off. And those I attended after that were compelling and thought provoking also.
Right now I’m reading a “primer” to the denomination - a book called A Chosen Faith (John A Buehrens and Forrest Church). So I’ll probably be sharing some of the insight that I pull from the book in this blog, as well as my own questions and ponderings.
*They record the sermons and post them here, if you are interested.
“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.”
from Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell
*FYI - “Reading,” in quotes = “listening to as an audio book”
Same-sex marriage measure sails through Vt. Senate
By Adam Silverman, USA TODAY
Again - I must add a note that this does NOT mean that I believe marriage should be the purview of government at ALL - just that if it is so - it should not be limited to 1 man - 1 woman.
Just finished “reading” (listening to book on tape) the book:
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most
By Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, Roger Fisher
One of the best “self-help” books I’ve read in a long, long time. It really cuts to the heart of what makes some conversations difficult and gives some very helpful advice on how to manage these discussions with the highest likelihood of success. I don’t mean “success” as “getting your way” (that really goes against the point of the book), but success in resolving the issue in the way in which the participants all win.
One of the main points (which absolutely cannot be appreciated outside the full treatment it gets in the book) is that the best way to approach a conversation that has potential for conflict is to be curious about the other person’s point of view, and make the first goal of the conversation understanding this in full . How does the other person see the situation, how does s/he feel, and what kind of effect does it have on their self image? Of course this comes after working through (on your own) clarifying all these issues from your own point of view first.
Anyway - the book has a lot to offer anyone who interacts with other humans. Does that include you? Probably. 