April Unitarian Universalist Thread - All Welcome - Page 3

I glad you went and liked it overall.

Did you find out what the "Path to the Collective Moon" is? I've never heard of that myself and now I'm curious!

I see. So it is a group with on-going events held at the UU church and not the name of one specific event as I had thought. Thanks for the link, whiddle!

Yesterday evening I went to this interdenominational service celebrating gay marriage at a local UCC/Congregational church. I mainly went because my minister was one of the people speaking. At first, I must admit I was slightly uncomfortable, but I enjoyed listening to most of the speakers and I reminded myself to "decode". Decoding is the word our minister uses for listening for the truth or meaning behind the words other denominations may use instead of just rejecting the words themselves automatically. I sang along with all the hymns and the only thing I did not do was join in the unison reading that included the words "I believe in God".

I think it was on this forum that someone joked about some UCC churches where UCC could stand for "Unitarians Considering Christ". I'm sure that is true for some UCC churches, and we have been talking recently on this thread about UUs who are also Christian and how some UU churches are more Christian than others. Attending this UCC church last night illustrated to me just how large the chasm actually is between UU and liberal Christian denominations, or at least between my UU church and this UCC church. Everything from the enormous banner above the pulpit reading "He is Risen" to the stained glass window images, to the almost constant use of the word God by virtually every speaker and in every hymn, song, and reading made it abundantly clear to me that I did not belong there. Not that there is anything wrong with any of this - it just does not work for me. I am so, so grateful for the existence of a religion, and especially a church, where I do belong.

That's wonderful, Tammy! I'm so happy for you. :
to the thread.

Thank you Karen and Stargirl for sharing your Canadian perspectives.

As someone who celebrates "Christian" holidays in an entirely secular way, I can certainly see how having those holidays as statutory holidays can be just cultural. I also am not surprised that far more people in the US consider religion to be very important in their lives. But that was kind of my point actually. Because religion is not considered very important (or as important) in Canada, it seems like the attitude is that it does not matter that these holidays come from Christian traditions. (And yes I know the actual celebrations come from much older pre-Christian traditions, but the holidays are considered Christian now). It sounds like it is sort of assumed that no one should have any problem with these holidays being nationalized because they aren't really religious holidays (anymore). I wonder how people who are other religions such as Muslim or Jewish feel about it. I was wondering if the secular culture can just kind of default to Christian and that is OK, because the majority of people don't feel strongly about any religion, Christian or not. Or maybe the majority of Canadians really don't associate those holidays with Christianity at all anymore, and it is just my US perspective that has trouble seeing that.

In any case, I was obviously completely wrong in speculating that Unitarian churches in Canada may lean more toward Christianity. Thank you for correcting that misconception. I notice that both of you refer to your churches as UU. I attend the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, but we think of ourselves as Unitarian Universalist rather than just Unitarian. Is that how you think of yourselves as well?

Thank you for this great information. That is a very perceptive point about how America has its "melting pot" view and that differs from the Canadian view. You have given me a lot to think about.

I love this video. Denny and Patrick are members of my church and that is our minister in the video. This almost makes me :.

Well, it has become tradition here (or maybe just boringly repetitive) to direct newbies to the Unitarian Universalist Association web page. This web page really is the single best source on the internet for an introduction to UU, IMO. Just click on the Visitors button and then skip Find a Congregation for now and start working your way down the menu on the left.

From there, you can go in many different directions. You can go back to the Find a Congregation link and see if there is a UU congregation or congregations near you. If so, you can check out their web pages and get a perspective on UU specific to that church.

If you are interested in a more in depth (and non-computer-based) introduction, my recommendation of choice is A Chosen Faith by John Buehrens and Forrest Church. The UUA web site also has an online book store, which you can browse for other good introductory books.

Here is a link to the UUA magazine's web page: UUWorld You can find tons of interesting articles there.

And finally, just for fun, here is a web page with literally hundreds of UU quotations. I got a few of my PC Banner quotes from here.

As always, feel free to ask any questions you might have on this thread. We love to talk about UU. Good luck on your spiritual journey! :

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What a great idea! I know I have heard lots of these but my mind is distressingly blank right now. : I'm looking forward to other people's UUisms.

Time for a new monthly UU thread! Please come join us on the May Thread!