First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis

Shared Words

So, what in the bloody blue blazes DO Unitarian Universalists believe? There is no simple, satisfactory answer to this question. It is a challenge that plagues us as new UUs, as UU children, as would be UU evangelists, as leaders and planners in UU institutions, and it continues to haunt us even at the level of our national association. For our purposes today, it is important to keep in mind that Unitarian Universalism in its current institutional incarnation is a rather new proposition. It was only 47 years ago, in 1961 – within the lifetime of at least some of us in this room – that the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America formally consolidated their operations, and became the Unitarian Universalist Association. Among the many challenges which confronted the leaders of that merger process was to create a statement of purpose for the newly formed organization that would be acceptable to both groups, and incorporate the essentials of their existing identities. Individuals who were present as this work unfolded recall the excitement and rejoicing when, at a lengthy session of separate meetings that ran into the small hours of the morning, after much argument the two groups came to agreement on an articulation of their shared religious heritage. The section in question said this:

In 1982, the committee which oversaw the creation of the current purposes and principles wrote this about that earlier process:

Now, if you experienced a little twitch when you heard the locution "love to man," you are not alone. By the late seventies, contemporary sensibilities began to take serious exception to the gender exclusive language which permeated this statement, including "the dignity of man," "ideals of brotherhood," and "men of good will." In addition, feminist philosophical concerns about institutional hierarchies, and the affirmation of theological diversity, led to several proposals at General Assembly for substantial amendments to this bylaws statement. In what has always seemed to me an act of unusual collective intelligence, the delegates at the 1981 Assembly in Philadelphia declined to become mired in debating the various motions for re-wording that had been presented to them, and instead voted to appoint a committee charged to involve all congregations in a process of reconsidering the statement as a whole. The result of their two years of study, discussion, and drafting, was the presentation to the 1983 General Assembly of the current Principles, together with five of the six Sources as we know them today. Although this process was not without its tensions, the Association as a whole was so satisfied with it, and with the outcome, that it chose to mandate periodic reviews of its Principles and Purposes, in the hope that they would remain an evolving articulation of our living faith.

The reconsideration currently being conducted by the UUA’s Commission on Appraisal arises not from any widespread dissatisfaction with the existing statement – although every Unitarian Universalist individual and organization would no doubt have suggestions for improving them, many of which would be mutually contradictory – but rather from that mandate in the UUA bylaws, that the Association periodically examine the question of whether the current articulation continues to express our identity and mission as we now understand them. It seems to me important to hold in mind two realities as we engage this process. One, the Purposes and Principles as we now have them are a statement of about 25 years standing; they do not go back to the foundations of our religious heritage; they are nowhere graven in stone, and we have as much right to change them as the previous generation had to create them. At the same time, it appears to me that this statement has been deeply embraced by many of us, and remarkably fruitful as a structure for religious education, liturgical inspiration, theological conversation, and informing our call to social justice. We have found that we can teach these principles to our children, and in many cases even repeat them to our neighbors; we can hold ourselves and others and our institutions accountable to their expectations. An articulation that has proven thus useful has some claim not to be discarded lightly, and replacing it with something equally effective might not, after all, be an easy matter.

UUA President Bill Sinkford has famously repeated the reservation that it is hard to imagine anyone asking to have this statement read as a source of comfort at their deathbed, to which I respond by wondering what other denominational bylaws might be requested in such a situation. Yet I have heard other people declare that in fact these principles are just what they would want to have in mind as they came to confront that ultimate human mystery, and I can understand why. As it happens, I was called to my first parish in 1983, the same year that the current Purposes and Principles were adopted; they have informed my entire ministry, stimulated my personal creativity, and shaped my religious life. I have some sympathy with the argument that they do not in themselves contain all the material necessary for the achievement of a fully developed spiritual maturity, but then it seems to me that that is not their task. Rather, they exist to sketch some broad parameters for the variety of paths by which Unitarian Universalists seek lives of integrity and wholeness. No single statement could possibly capture all the subtleties of any of one of our journeys, let alone the fullness of all our diversities. It seems to me that any document like the Purposes and Principles must necessarily be suggestive rather than exhaustive; it is up to each of our congregations and to us as individuals to create our own identities in all their particularity and work out their full implications. No such statement, however well crafted, can relieve us of the responsibility for clarifying our own beliefs, and what it means for us to live by them.

Indeed, it is not unreasonable to ask why we go to the effort of wrestling with such institutional avowals in the first place. Why does it matter what they say? Truth is not a democratic proposition; the gender of a kitten, to use a classic example, is not determined by popular opinion. And each of us is going to go on believing what our experience and the available evidence convinces us to believe, whether the UUA Principles and Purposes support our convictions or not – which is just as it should be. This reality is recognized by the historical tradition of what has come to be known as the ‘conscience clause’ of long standing in both Unitarian and Universalist professions of faith and bonds of union almost from the beginning. In 1803 the Universalist statement read in part, "Neither this nor any other statement shall be imposed as a creedal test, provided that the faith thus indicated be professed." By 1960 the American Unitarian Association bylaws affirmed that "The Association recognizes that its constituency is congregational in polity and that individual freedom of belief is inherent in the Unitarian tradition. Nothing in these purposes shall be construed as an authoritative test." Section 2.4 of the current UUA bylaws, less familiar than the better-known Section 2.1, provides that "Nothing herein shall be deemed to infringe upon the individual freedom of belief which is inherent in the Universalist and Unitarian heritages, or to conflict with any statement of purpose, covenant, or bond of union by any congregation, unless such is used as a creedal test." Some of the most regrettable chapters in both Unitarian and Universalist treatments of dissent, especially among clergy, have occurred during eras when the conscience clause was either temporarily omitted, or was flagrantly disregarded. I would urge us never to consider any statement that did not incorporate an explicit provision of both individual and congregational freedom.

Nevertheless, as the Declaration of Independence once taught us, a decent respect for the opinions of the rest of the world ought to be observed, and we have a responsibility to ourselves and others to say something coherent about who we are, and what our institution is about. It is also important, in my view, to keep the Purposes and Principles, however much we may appreciate them in their current format, from freezing into an unalterable tradition that becomes the next thing to a creed. Although it was a source of frustration to those who had just completed publication of the new hymnbook, with the original version of the statement prominently displayed on the opening page, I rejoiced when the 1995 General Assembly approved the amendment of the Section 2.1 to include what became known as the Sixth Source. This added to the statement that ‘the living tradition we share draws from many sources,’ recognition of ‘spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.’ If you compare the version of the Purposes and Principles in the gray hard cover hymnbook to the one in the turquoise supplement, you will observe this difference. The bottom line is that we are never going to come up with a statement of faith that will meet the needs of all future generations. We must do our best within the limits of our own historical context to say clearly what seems to us true about ourselves, recognizing that James Russell Lowell was correct;

New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good uncouth.

They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.

The Unitarian Universalists of the 22^nd century will have sensitivities and concerns that we do not yet begin to imagine, and they must have the same freedom we have claimed for ourselves to fit the public statement of their faith to the demands of their day. This is a necessary, ongoing process in which we have our own generation’s part to play. Only by our defining as clearly as we can the landmarks of our community’s spiritual grounding today do we make visible the collective journey of our living tradition over time.

It is for this reason that my own greatest concern in this revision process is for the integrity of the sources that form the second segment of the existing statement. I see it as having been a stroke of genius that thought to separate the moral aspirations and imperatives of our community in the first segment, such as inherent worth and dignity, justice and compassion, freedom and responsibility, peace and justice, acceptance, conscience and democracy, and interdependence, from the historical roots of our tradition, such as Judeo-Christianity, humanism, prophetic activism, multi-cultural appreciation, personal spiritual experience, and reverence for nature. We may agree on the disciplines of community and the imperatives for action even though we reach these convictions from differing theological foundations. However, it seems to me that precisely because of that diversity, no one of those strands of our heritage should take it upon itself to describe or speak for the others. Thus I think that the meaning of Christianity for Unitarian Universalists ought to be articulated by UU Christians, and social justice by those for whom that calling is at the center of their faith. By the same token, it ought to be humanists who say what humanism means, which I am not altogether persuaded was the case back in 1983. However it came about, I don’t especially like the designation of ‘humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.’ I would hope that we might look at that statement anew, offering something perhaps both more positive and more accurate, such as ‘humanist teachings of confidence in reason, science, and human aspiration, which call us to dispense with supernatural beliefs, and to live with courage and compassion in the present world.’

As a child of this Association’s religious education program myself, I also think that we could do better with the world religions statement, maybe along the lines of ‘wisdom from the worlds religions which challenges our preconceptions, illuminates our common humanity, and gives added dimension to our ethical and spiritual understanding.’

As you can plainly see, these are minor tweaks to a structure that I would not personally wish to change in a significant way. This is not to say that I would not be open to more radical suggestions, only that I have no grating dissatisfaction with the present document, and I have seen its usefulness in a number of different contexts. Yet it is worth observing that if there are changes that any of us have wanted to see in these affirmations, we have right now an opportunity for input into what they are going to look like for a decade or more to come. The UUA board of trustees has directed its Commission on Appraisal to undertake a review of this section of the bylaws, and that commission is now engaged in public hearings and receiving congregational suggestions about what members wish for regarding this statement. You can reach the commissioners on line through the UUA, or send messages to 25 Beacon Street in Boston. Even if no immediate changes come out of this process, it should serve to make us all more aware of how these Purposes and Principles reflect our identity as a religious movement, and inform the many ways in which we teach and preach, formulate our beliefs, and invite others into our shared covenant.

The suspicion of creedal formulations cited by Edward Frost in the introduction to his anthology of essays about the current Purposes and Principles does characterize our movement; it always has, for an important reason. We recognize that words matter, especially the words by which we seek to define ourselves and what is best in our aspirations, by which we describe and celebrate that which is the source of meaning for our life together. Sometimes it comes across as a defensiveness about our individuality, but I think it is something deeper and more honorable than that, really. If we were the kind of people who could be content with approximations and conventional wisdom, we would not have made the perilous journey beyond orthodoxy into the demands and uncertainties of this liberal faith. And if we could fit it into a formula to be preserved down the ages, it would not be a faith large enough to contain our hopes and curiosity, our love and struggles, the ever-growing light to which alone our loyalty is given. Those who shall come after us will find our words inadequate, even as we have moved beyond the words once bequeathed to us. This is not a failure on the part of our forbears, nor our own failure; it is the nature of a living tradition. May we find, for our own day, adequate words to share -- words of truth and power, that bespeak human wholeness, the redeeming of time, the service of wisdom, the healing of the world.

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Opening Words:

Good morning, and welcome once again to this gathering

In the covenant community of memory and promise.

Rev. William Sinkford, president of the UUA, has published a special message this week. In it, he says this:

Dear Friends,

Today there are two crises that are unusually traumatic and vividly present to us

since both have touched our global Unitarian/Universalist family.

I am sure that your hearts and souls have been troubled

by the reports of post-election violence in Kenya,

as well as the harrowing events occurring in Pakistan—

preceding and following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Many of you are also aware that Unitarian/Universalists in Kenya and Pakistan

are among those who have suffered directly.

We have received reports that the home of a Unitarian pastor in Kenya

was among those that have been burned to the ground,

and that many Unitarian families are among the nearly 500,000

newly displaced people in Kenya.

And on Thursday, January 10,

we received a report that two members of the Unitarian Universalist Christians of Pakistan were among the twenty-three people killed during a suicide bombing in Lahore.

As we come together today, the deaths of our brothers and sisters—by virtue of both faith and humanity—have shaken us.

The chaos of homes burned to ashes, of explosions that have killed innocents—have shaken us.

Stories of these events have reached our ears and our hearts, though we are more than an ocean away.

And we are left staggering.

Yet shaken down with despair, we find inspiration

not only in our own communities of faith,

but from the very places where these atrocities are occurring.

Because we hear from the very same places that Freedom and Justice

are still on the lips of our brothers and sisters there:

That Hope remains alive,

That Compassion is still at work,

That the Dawn of a New Day is yet within sight.

So, let us join our brothers and sisters in crying:

"LEAD US ALL TO THE ROCK THAT IS HIGHER."

Spirit of Life, help us to be healers in this hurting world.

Inspire us still to confront injustice with the power of love.

And once more show us how to make the power of love real and tangible;

for we know this is the work that we are called to do.

A joint Unitarian Universalist Service Committee/Unitarian Universalist Association (UUSC/UUA) Kenya Crisis Fund has recently been established. The UUSC is working in Kenya with long-time, grassroots partners and relief organizations. In addition, a UUSC delegation is presently in Kenya to meet with regional partner groups, community members and leaders, and humanitarian specialists.

These vulnerable communities need our support during this urgent time.

We may not always be able to stop the tide of violence,

but we can assist those in harm's way as we bear witness for a more just world community.

We light our chalice this morning for all the children of the world,

Those here with us, who share their love and hope,

Giving us confidence in the future,

And those on the other side of the globe;

Too many of them homeless, hungry, pursued by tragedy, injustice, and early deaths.

In this light, may we recognize them all as children of our common humanity,

And renew our commitment to provide for them in safety, compassion, and peace.