Spring Unitarian Universalist Thread - All Welcome - Page 4

[treeoflife3]

Hey everyone, I'm a new UU convert... well, more like my husband is but I ADORE the fellowship :P He was non denom christan and wanted to go to church but felt very uncomfortable at all the ones we tried going to. I am agnostic or maybe atheist but mostly don't really care as my focus is just being a good person and have never had any interest in going to church other than to support my husband since I knew he wanted to go as a family. I'd heard about UU and thought it would be a better fit for his beliefs as well as being something I could really enjoy going to each week beyond just the satisfaction of making my husband happy.

I think I'm more excited to go than he is now The people are amazing and we feel so welcomed and loved. We always leave feeling so peaceful and happy and whole.

Some of the things I noticed in the thread... we usually do joys and concerns by lighting a candle but for earth day we did the pebbles in the water. I have a feeling we might do it that way again at some point.

For newcomers, we always ask them to stand up and introduce themselves. When we had to do it, I actually really liked it. I felt like they really wanted to know who we were. After the service, everyone is always asked to stay and drink coffee and have treats and chat and we had people coming up to us to talk. I didn't find it awkward at all. Our fellowship is really laid back and funny though.. I think it would be hard for this particular group of people to be non welcoming and awkward.

I've been to other churches though and felt like no one even noticed... not that I am an attention seeker, but it didn't feel welcoming considering no one actually welcomed us. Standing up and introducing ourselves kind of required a Welcome! Nice to have you! haha

[Sierra]

Hi Folks, I am a DRE and lifelong UU, and I posted this on the general Spirituality forum but some others suggested I should also post it here.

I am looking for other folks who were raised UU. I am doing a project on the experiences of folks raised UU. You can read more about it in the other thread. Will you PM me if you were raised UU and would be willing to take a survey?

[Adele_Mommy]

Originally Posted by treeoflife3

Hey everyone, I'm a new UU convert... well, more like my husband is but I ADORE the fellowship :P He was non denom christan and wanted to go to church but felt very uncomfortable at all the ones we tried going to. I am agnostic or maybe atheist but mostly don't really care as my focus is just being a good person and have never had any interest in going to church other than to support my husband since I knew he wanted to go as a family. I'd heard about UU and thought it would be a better fit for his beliefs as well as being something I could really enjoy going to each week beyond just the satisfaction of making my husband happy.

I think I'm more excited to go than he is now The people are amazing and we feel so welcomed and loved. We always leave feeling so peaceful and happy and whole.

Some of the things I noticed in the thread... we usually do joys and concerns by lighting a candle but for earth day we did the pebbles in the water. I have a feeling we might do it that way again at some point.

For newcomers, we always ask them to stand up and introduce themselves. When we had to do it, I actually really liked it. I felt like they really wanted to know who we were. After the service, everyone is always asked to stay and drink coffee and have treats and chat and we had people coming up to us to talk. I didn't find it awkward at all. Our fellowship is really laid back and funny though.. I think it would be hard for this particular group of people to be non welcoming and awkward.

I've been to other churches though and felt like no one even noticed... not that I am an attention seeker, but it didn't feel welcoming considering no one actually welcomed us. Standing up and introducing ourselves kind of required a Welcome! Nice to have you! haha

treeoflife3!

That's great that you have found a fellowship you love.

Thanks for giving your perspective on inviting visitors to stand. We definitely don't want visitors to feel ignored. Our standard Welcome script will still offer a special welcome to anyone visiting and it will still include this thing we do where we talk about Coffee Hour after the service and suggest that visitors and new people select a maroon cup as a signal that people can go up and introduce themselves. We have some members who patrol the Gathering Area looking for maroon cups I think!

Anyway, we are just trying skipping the invitation to stand. We'll see how it goes and we can always put it back, maybe in a modified form.

[treeoflife3]

Originally Posted by Adele_Mommy

treeoflife3!

That's great that you have found a fellowship you love.

Thanks for giving your perspective on inviting visitors to stand. We definitely don't want visitors to feel ignored. Our standard Welcome script will still offer a special welcome to anyone visiting and it will still include this thing we do where we talk about Coffee Hour after the service and suggest that visitors and new people select a maroon cup as a signal that people can go up and introduce themselves. We have some members who patrol the Gathering Area looking for maroon cups I think!

Anyway, we are just trying skipping the invitation to stand. We'll see how it goes and we can always put it back, maybe in a modified form.

that is actually a really neat idea too! maroon cups, nice! We have people that stand by the door to great all the new people as soon as they come in so usually when they stand, they already recognize a couple people who are all 'YAY NEW PEOPLE! THESE PEOPLE ROCK!' only not quite that loudly hehe. I think that helps with the comfort level for standing to introduce. Since we joined, every new person has come back again so hopefully it is working... I think I'll bring this up though with the leaders because they might find it interesting.

Funny story though... about a month ago, we had a new family come and they did the whole intro deal and whatnot... they came back the next week and the people who noticed them come in didn't remember them (or maybe weren't there the last week?) so the father of the family reintroduced themselves. He thought it was hilarious and made a joke of it.

[Adele_Mommy]

That does sound like a fun Fellowship you have found, treeoflife!

I think size of the congregation may also play a role here as well as structure of the service and the sanctuary. My church has around 400 members and a given service usually has well over 100 attendees. In structure our services are pretty traditional and the sanctuary is basically an auditorium. I myself was ambivalent to positive about asking visitors to stand, but then some people described standing in one of the back rows to introduce themselves and having everyone in the auditorium twist around in their seats and stare at them as "creepy".

[Adele_Mommy]

OK, folks. I'm off to a strategy planning session for those of us who want to change the name of our church from First Unitarian Church of Des Moines to First Unitarian Universalist Church of Des Moines. This meeting is to think about what we are going to say at the Annual Meeting a week from tomorrow. There are two resolutions on the agenda to be voted on at the Annual Meeting. Resolution #1 is to change the name. Resolution #2 is to appoint a committee "charged with developing a structure and implementing a process to determine the congregation's wishes as to whether the church should change its name and, if so, what the leading options seem to be."

I see Resolution 2 as purely a political move by the anti-name-change contingent to sway undecideds into thinking they can vote against the name change without really killing the whole movement. Seriously, we have been talking about the name change and holding forums and people from both sides have been writing opinion articles in the newsletter since last September!

I guess I am not approaching the whole issue very spirituality. *sigh* I will be glad when this over. Another reason why there is no way I am going to vote to drag this out for another year!

[artgoddess]

Check it out UUA President Peter Morales made the national news. He's about half way through this piece on the protests in AZ against the new AZ law that encourages racial profiling.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#37417236

[artgoddess]

Good Luck Adele! And good for you getting involved in something that's really just no fun. When you go to church with a group of people you don't want to feel like your battling them.




I thought this was so funny I laughed out loud:

Originally Posted by Adele_Mommy

Resolution #2 is to appoint a committee "charged with developing a structure and implementing a process to determine the congregation's wishes as to whether the church should change its name and, if so, what the leading options seem to be."

that's as funny as the How many UU's does it take to change a lighbulb? joke.

[bookwormommy]

I'll bite - how many does it take?

[Adele_Mommy]

Originally Posted by artgoddess

I thought this was so funny I laughed out loud:

that's as funny as the How many UU's does it take to change a lighbulb? joke.

You're right! That resolution really is practically a self-written joke. I have gotten so immersed in this issue I didn't even see the humor in it! Thanks for reminding me to laugh.

[Adele_Mommy]

Originally Posted by artgoddess

Check it out UUA President Peter Morales made the national news. He's about half way through this piece on the protests in AZ against the new AZ law that encourages racial profiling.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#37417236

Thanks for the link, artgoddess! Morales rocks! I wish they had made more of a reference to the UUA. Maybe this clip was taken from a longer video?

[Adele_Mommy]

How many UUs does it take to change a light bulb?

I have heard two answers. This is my favorite:

We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that light bulbs work for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your personal relationship with your light bulb, and present it next month at our annual light bulb Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.

Sometimes this answer is applied to Methodists though. This is probably the answer artgoddess was thinking of:

300. 12 to sit on the Board which appoints the Nominating and Personnel Committee. 5 to sit on the Nominating and Personnel Committee, which appoints the House Committee. 8 to sit on the House Committee, which appoints the Light Bulb changing committee. 4 to sit on the Light Bulb Changing Committee, which chooses who will screw in the Light Bulb - those 4 then give their own opinion of "screwing in methods" while the one actually does the installation.

[artgoddess]

A few varied responses to the how many UU's does it take to screw in a lighbulb:

• We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that light bulbs work for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your light bulb. During next Sunday's service, we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted; all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence
  
  
• 300
  12 to sit on the board which appoints the nominating and personnel committee.
  5 to sit on the the nominating and personnel committee which appoints the House committtee.
  8 to sit on the house committtee which appoints the light bulb changing committee.
  4 to sit on the light bulb changing committee which chooses who will screw in the light bulb. those four then give their own opinion of "screwing in methods" while the one actually does the installation.
  
  After completion it takes 100 individuals to complain about the method of installation, another 177 to debate the ecological impact of using the light bulb at all, and at least one to insist that back in her day - the lit chalice was quite enough.
  
  
• NONE! We don't screw in light bulbs. We screw in sleeping bags.
  
  
• But the sad thing is the lightbulb would never get screwed in. You know how hard it is to motivate a UU??

[artgoddess]

whoops! I left the reply window open and went to give a kid a bath so Adele and I cross posted.

[turangaleela]

I am very glad to have found this thread. There is a UU church down the road from us and I have been very interested. I am mostly agnostic and my husband is just sort of along for the ride.

We have a child and I have really begun to think that we need to find a spiritual home of sorts before she gets to school and all the little kids start inviting her to the local baptist church.

I am in DFW, can anyone recommend a specific congregation? I really prefer larger congregations where I can just blend in to the crowd and also have some people around 30ish.

[Adele_Mommy]

to the thread, turangaleela!

I am not in the DFW area myself, but I think at least one person has posted on this thread in the past who is.

In the meantime you can check out the UUA Congregation Finder.

Congregation listings include the number of members a church has. The listing might also include a link to the church website, which might give you more information such as how many kids are in the RE program. You can also call a church and ask questions before visiting, but with UU churches your best bet is to visit in person and see if the congregation is a good fit for you!

Good luck in your search!

[Adele_Mommy]

Tomorrow's the big day: our church's annual meeting when we will vote on the name change.

I'm kind of nervous and kind of excited.

Wish us luck!

[lolar2]

Good luck today!

We haven't been to church in a few months. DH is trying to avoid getting roped into choir again. : We'll go to a new church when we move next month anyway.

[artgoddess]

Hope it went well Adele!

lorar, that's funny. But I know what you mean. Sometimes you just want to go to church and listen to the service, not have to create it.

[Adele_Mommy]

The name change resolution lost 70 to 67.

And would you believe Resolution #2, which I am henceforth going to refer to on this thread as the screwing-in-the-lightbulb resolution actually won? Well, I guess that's why it's a joke.

Adele