July Unitarian Universalist Thread - All Welcome - Page 2

[Love_My_Babies]

If anyone is on tonight and would like to read through the meditation I wrote, I would love some feedback!

[artgoddess]

you can pm me.

[Love_My_Babies]

Thanks!

[Love_My_Babies]

Artgoddess - thanks again for your insight. Your inbox is full, otherwise I would have pm'd you. Today went really well. The meditation received a lot of really great feedback. Thanks again!

[artgoddess]

Oh I'm so glad to hear it went well.

I had a great Sunday at church too. Our space was unavailable to us this week (we rent just on Sunday mornings) so we had a combined service with another congregation about 40 minutes away. Their minister is on vacation, so our minister gave the sermon. My DD stayed with her big brother in the RE room. I got to hear a sermon : it was wonderful.

[Adele_Mommy]

Yesterday my dd read the children's story (actually a poem this time) at the service. I think she did a great job! :

This summer several of our lay-led services have been "personal journeys to Unitarianism". Yesterday the speaker talked about his religious history. His grandparents were Amish and he was raised Mennonite. His talk was very interesting. I always think it is amazing when people come to UU from a religion that seems so radically different to me, and I learn that while some beliefs really are extremely different, there actually are areas of commonality.

After the service we had a church picnic/cook-out in a local park. My dd has a great time at these and we always end up spending most of the afternoon there. Pretty much every time you will see kids playing in the wading pool and parents standing around in the water talking.

artgoddess - I did get a chance to talk to our DRE at the picnic. This coming year the multi-age children's RE will be an adaptation of The New You the Creator (scroll down to middle of page for description) for slightly younger kids working together with adults. There will be a separate classroom for Kindergarten and First Grade, and the You the Creator multi-age class will be for second grade and up. I think my dd would love this, but I really don't know if we can make the 9:00 service on a regular basis!

[artgoddess]

Originally Posted by Adele_Mommy

Yesterday my dd read the children's story (actually a poem this time) at the service. I think she did a great job! :

This summer several of our lay-led services have been "personal journeys to Unitarianism". Yesterday the speaker talked about his religious history. His grandparents were Amish and he was raised Mennonite. His talk was very interesting. I always think it is amazing when people come to UU from a religion that seems so radically different to me, and I learn that while some beliefs really are extremely different, there actually are areas of commonality.

After the service we had a church picnic/cook-out in a local park. My dd has a great time at these and we always end up spending most of the afternoon there. Pretty much every time you will see kids playing in the wading pool and parents standing around in the water talking.

artgoddess - I did get a chance to talk to our DRE at the picnic. This coming year the multi-age children's RE will be an adaptation of The New You the Creator (scroll down to middle of page for description) for slightly younger kids working together with adults. There will be a separate classroom for Kindergarten and First Grade, and the You the Creator multi-age class will be for second grade and up. I think my dd would love this, but I really don't know if we can make the 9:00 service on a regular basis!

thanks for the link Adelle I like it.

[EarthsSpiral]

We have been going to the UU church near us for 3 weeks now. My DF was very apprehensive about going at first; he has been a solitary pagan/wiccan for about 15 years! He LOVES it!! : I too am loving it, although I have enjoyed the lay persons on Sundays, I can't wait for the normal services and holidays to come this year. We never do anything for those, it's nice to be a part of someting larger than yourself.

[VisionaryMom]

I haven't posted to the UU threads in a while, but I'm back. Struggling a bit and need some encouragement.

Our church is an emerging congregation. We have 20 members, about half of whom attend regularly. We have another 10 or so people who attend often but aren't members.

I feel our church is really anti-Christian in a lot of ways. Our readings are heavy on Buddhism. While I don't have any problems with Buddhism and am happy for their inclusion, sometimes I feel we're a Buddhist community in practice. We're asked to do meditations regularly. I meditate on my own, but it's not a group experience for me. DH has no interest in meditation at all. And many of the meditations aren't helpful to me. The absolute worst was this woman (we have no minister, so we have guest speakers every service) who said, "close your eyes. yada, yada. Imagine the first time you met a black person." Uhhh, I grew up in a multiracial community in the 1980s. I can't recall *not* knowing someone who's AA. Creepy.

Our board chair says "we're the church with no hell" all the time. I've seen that on other UU stuff, but I'm not sure that's what we are. Are we saying that if you do happen to believe in hell, you're not welcome? Then we ran an ad in our paper that said "when in doubt, pray. When in prayer, doubt." Yeah, that rankled many Christian feathers in the community. I don't want to have to defend my church to others unless I choose to discuss it, and I especially don't want to defend my church for putting an ad in the paper that calls prayer into question when I don't personally believe that. And I get that we're supposed to be all-inclusive, but an ad in the local paper sort of suggests that we all believe what's in the ad. We don't live in a religiously diverse area. Shouldn't we be starting at Point A - we believe in individual spiritual paths, inherent worth and dignity, etc? It seems we're just trying to rile up the Christian community, and some comment was made at a potluck along the lines of "we *know* the Muslims wouldn't want to work with us..." that I don't even understand. Really, I don't understand the prayer ad anyway (and yes, I realize that people of non-Christians faiths pray).

Any thoughts? I'm really just venting. I'm having a very pissy, angry-at-my-fellow-liberals day.

[artgoddess]

Brandi, I think you have some really important concerns and I want to give it some thought and get back to you. I think that many congregations can get caught in this trap of comfort where they may want to grow, but they fear what that growth will do to their congregation. It may change things, and that scares some people so much that the message they give off is that of, 'Well so what if they have a problem with our advertising we don't want them anyway.' Which is not what a UU church should be about. I mean sure if someone has a bumper sticker saying, 'I hate fags' on their car they can just keep on driving past our doors, but that doesn't mean it's a great idea to isolate the congregation.

I'll try and think about this more and get back to you.

[LilMamiBella]

I have tried going to UU three times and every time I go I leave wishing that it was more ...I dunno..spiritual. The first time I went they were talking about becoming a welcoming church to lgbt. The second time was about mother's day and then the last time was about being mindful of what/where/how we eat. There is another UU about 30-40 minutes away that I might try out. I was just wondering if this is normal? When I look at the website it says they'll be discussing the landing on the moon on Sunday.

[Love_My_Babies]

Brandi - we are at a bit of a crossroads, too. Our minister just resigned. I joined the service committee, and we are meeting tonight to discuss our calendar for the year and come up with a meaningful way of filling our Sundays. So, I don't have any advice, just letting you know I feel your pain!

[Adele_Mommy]

Originally Posted by EarthsSpiral

We have been going to the UU church near us for 3 weeks now. My DF was very apprehensive about going at first; he has been a solitary pagan/wiccan for about 15 years! He LOVES it!! : I too am loving it, although I have enjoyed the lay persons on Sundays, I can't wait for the normal services and holidays to come this year. We never do anything for those, it's nice to be a part of someting larger than yourself.

That is great news! ITA with the line in your post I have bolded. That is one of the big things I get from my church as well. I'm so happy you have found a church you love! :

[Adele_Mommy]

Originally Posted by BrandiRhoades

I haven't posted to the UU threads in a while, but I'm back. Struggling a bit and need some encouragement.

Our church is an emerging congregation. We have 20 members, about half of whom attend regularly. We have another 10 or so people who attend often but aren't members.

I feel our church is really anti-Christian in a lot of ways. Our readings are heavy on Buddhism. While I don't have any problems with Buddhism and am happy for their inclusion, sometimes I feel we're a Buddhist community in practice. We're asked to do meditations regularly. I meditate on my own, but it's not a group experience for me. DH has no interest in meditation at all. And many of the meditations aren't helpful to me. The absolute worst was this woman (we have no minister, so we have guest speakers every service) who said, "close your eyes. yada, yada. Imagine the first time you met a black person." Uhhh, I grew up in a multiracial community in the 1980s. I can't recall *not* knowing someone who's AA. Creepy.

Our board chair says "we're the church with no hell" all the time. I've seen that on other UU stuff, but I'm not sure that's what we are. Are we saying that if you do happen to believe in hell, you're not welcome? Then we ran an ad in our paper that said "when in doubt, pray. When in prayer, doubt." Yeah, that rankled many Christian feathers in the community. I don't want to have to defend my church to others unless I choose to discuss it, and I especially don't want to defend my church for putting an ad in the paper that calls prayer into question when I don't personally believe that. And I get that we're supposed to be all-inclusive, but an ad in the local paper sort of suggests that we all believe what's in the ad. We don't live in a religiously diverse area. Shouldn't we be starting at Point A - we believe in individual spiritual paths, inherent worth and dignity, etc? It seems we're just trying to rile up the Christian community, and some comment was made at a potluck along the lines of "we *know* the Muslims wouldn't want to work with us..." that I don't even understand. Really, I don't understand the prayer ad anyway (and yes, I realize that people of non-Christians faiths pray).

Any thoughts? I'm really just venting. I'm having a very pissy, angry-at-my-fellow-liberals day.

Hi Brandi,

I'm sorry you are having difficulties with your church.

I am not a big fan of that prayer ad either, but actually, I think it is better than some of the other ads put out by the UUA. It is from a series of ads the UUA used in 2007-08. The linked page says they are designed to "provoke curiosity and interest", but frankly, I think they come across as superior and antagonistic, particularly "My God Is Better Than Your God". Yes this ad says in much smaller print "Is this any way to talk about religion?" but I don't like the "grab people's attention with shock value" approach. I much prefer the new series of ads put out by the UUA called "Imagine a Religion . . ." Maybe you could suggest that your church use this newer series of ads in the future?

With such a small group I can see where the majority viewpoint could dominate the church, and if that viewpoint leans toward Buddhist the whole congregation will probably lean that way. Leaning toward Buddhist is OK, but IMO, leaning toward anti-Christian is not. I think this is a problem that a lot of UU churches have to deal with. Our minister has spoken about it on a couple occasions. I have never been a part of an emerging or small UU congregation, so I can't really give any advice or even commiserate very well. I know there are posters on this thread who are part of small congregations, and also posters who have dealt with the anti-Christianity problem, so I hope someone else can provide better support.

In the meantime, feel free to vent here anytime you need. Even my wonderful church that I love unreservedly disappoints me sometimes.

Adele

[Adele_Mommy]

Originally Posted by LilMamiBella

I have tried going to UU three times and every time I go I leave wishing that it was more ...I dunno..spiritual. The first time I went they were talking about becoming a welcoming church to lgbt. The second time was about mother's day and then the last time was about being mindful of what/where/how we eat. There is another UU about 30-40 minutes away that I might try out. I was just wondering if this is normal? When I look at the website it says they'll be discussing the landing on the moon on Sunday.

It is hard to say what is "normal" since UU churches vary so much. There is also the fact that during the summer a lot of churches have more (or all) lay-led services and these may tend to come across as less "spiritual".

I do think you should try the other UU church, but you might get a better idea of what a typical service there is like in the Fall.

There is also the matter of perspective. I think the services at my church are highly spiritual, but there are other members of my church who disagree with me. I had a discussion about this topic with a few others and unfortunately, did not come away with a good understanding of what exactly they felt was missing in the sermons, but they definitely wanted something more or different.

Here are links to a few sermons that my minister gave last Spring. Are these more what you are looking for, or are these not spiritual or not spiritual enough? I ask, not because I think you could go to my church (you are probably not in my area), but to get a better sense of how my idea of spirituality compares to yours.

What Would You Have Been - A Service for Mother's Day
Free at Last (Easter sermon)
Sears Is Having a Sale

[Adele_Mommy]

It's a new month and time for a new thread! Come join us on the August UU Thread.