Unitarian Universalism. Not as good as it gets…(but almost)
I said to my mum the other day that she raised me a Quaker and never knew it. She also unintentionally raised me to be a Unitarian Universalist. Both groups encourage freedom of thought and the personal choice to follow their respective paths, which are remarkably similar. It is said that UU’s are just loud Quakers with ministers. That has also been my experience. I should note that I will use UU to mean any brand of the Unitarian/Unitarian Universalist faith. As my first encounter with it was in the States, I am more comfortable with the thoughts of the latter. The former’s do not differ significantly, they just aren’t as neatly defined as the Universalist movement never took off fully in England.
Now, if this were a ‘choose your own adventure’ blog, this would be the moment where you could click one link to skip to the box top version of what I have to say or another to go through the drawn out version. As this trilogy of posts is meant to be an introduction before the real work begins, I’m going to continue the theme of wading through guiding principles with my own spin. But first, I will say that being a Unitarian Universalist is AWESOME!
Besides being the group with the very long name, it’s not easy being a UU. When you’re a UU (or a Quaker for that matter), you’re the responsible one: there’s no dogma or creed to fall back on. You may or may not believe that Jesus died for your sins. You may or may not even believe in God and, if you do, it probably won’t be the traditional God that the Roman Catholics or the Presbyterians believe in. That’s a lot of responsibility. No off loading—it’s all on you.
On the other hand, it’s really cool. Again, as with the Quakers, nobody is going to tell you you’re wrong. Everyone has the right to discover his or her own path, in the UU case, with the potential guidance of a minister. Following the inner yearnings of the heart and spirit, trusting them to be the voice of God, to paraphrase George Fox, applies.
As with many heady religions, the Unitarians love words and the writings of UU’s are considered very relevant in helping the individual discern the right path. Sadly, as the Unitarian movement in England is still relatively small, there is little native material, much of what we have imported from the US, where the Unitarian Universalist Association is somewhat bigger. In a wonderful little book called A Chosen Faith, Jeff Buehrens and Forrest Church describe their perspectives. Church draws a attention grabbing picture of ‘the cathedral of the world’ (cf. his book of the same title). Imagine a room, large and beautiful, a cathedral, which has been present since the dawn of time. Everyone in the world is in this room but it’s not crowded at all. I would hesitate to add into this image that, as you look around, you see glimpses of a church, a mosque, a temple, a synagogue, a forest—indeed any place where our ancestors or ourselves gather to worship, but you can see none of these clearly. They are there one moment and gone the next.
What does strike you most is two things: The first is the light. It is warm and shining, multicoloured and makes you feel alive. The second is that the light shines through thousands upon thousands of windows. Some have captured the attention of millions, others only one or two, some are dusty and ignored but all equally beautiful. The light you see shines through these windows casting multicoloured fragments along the floors. That is Unitarian Universalism: the light is God, one, whole, warm, life giving and beautiful—Unitarianism. The windows look to the one light, all equal—Universalism. God is one and we all, no matter our path, end up back at the ground of our being. Nothing is greater, nothing is smaller.
I love that image. I remember the first time I read it in A Chosen Faith, I cried and then read it again. Nothing before had ever summed up my beliefs about God and faith so totally. It was so liberating to know that I was allowed to think like that, to know that I could set out what I believe and then add to the end ‘But I could be completely wrong…’ and then return to my evolving document and rewrite or edit it based on my experience, again knowing that I could be very wrong.
But what of the undergirding? Upon what is such a free faith built? As with the Quaker testimonies, the UU faith has guiding principles (see here for the UUA and here for the UFC in England). You will see that the British version is quite sketchy and wishy washy, although it includes many of the principles laid out in the UUA’s statement, it is certainly not as direct. Because of that, I’m going to work from the UUA’s principles because I do not think that British UU’s would object to them, although, as always, there will always be one. Finally, before we get stuck in, I must admit that I’m not 100% about what a ‘free’ Christian is. From what I can tell, they don’t believe in the divinity of Christ but there must be more than that. I’d rather be a free Christian than a locked up Christian though, I can tell you.
So, the principles:
1) To affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. An excellent starting point. I can’t work out why all religions don’t start here. Ask the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ and that’s your answer. Isn’t it?
2) To affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations. Again, great. Both 1 and 2 echo Quaker testimonies and elements of the Sermon on the Mount. Why would we not want compassion?
3) To affirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth… This goes back to what I was saying before. It’s all on the individual to decide what he or she believes. As free and wonderful as this sounds, it’s kind of hard to do, so the support of a loving community is very helpful. It also recognises that we all have different experiences in life of the mundane and the divine, therefore we all have something to contribute to the life of the congregation.
4) To affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Building on what I just said, the individual search for truth has to be well informed. There is no point in just taking your minister’s, the Bible’s or my word for it. You have to journey within, which, as Dag Hammarskjöld pointed out, is the longest journey you can take.
5) To affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. This works too. The first part about conscience is particularly relevant to someone riding two horses. The Quaker faith places huge emphasis on following one’s conscience and living out one’s faith. That’s where the UU’s get busy too. Being a UU isn’t just a Sunday activity—although neither is being anything else. But, when you start to live your faith, that’s when life gets exciting. The latter part is also important: too often in the established church, the priest makes the decisions and everyone else follows. Not so for UU’s. There is a clear democratic process at work and in the Quakers, meetings for business work on consensus.
6) To affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. As much as this sounds like the end of the Pledge of Allegiance, isn’t this what all people want? Nobody wants war or to be oppressed. We can all take responsibility to make sure that we turn the world in this direction because for most of us, there is no peace, liberty or justice. Simple steps work: how do you earn your living? Do you work for a company that trades in arms or causes people to fall into unrepayable debt? What about your shopping cart? Do you buy things that are made by little fingers?
7) To affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we all are a part. Thich Nhat Hanh, who I’ll come back to when I get into the Buddhist bits later, calls this ‘interbeing’ replacing the traditional Buddhist term ‘non-self’. To interbe requires conscious effort: recognise that the universe exists on your dinner plate and that if it exists in what you ingest, maybe it also exists within you. That thought alone can keep us busy for a few days.
There’s nothing shocking here. Nothing we can’t all strive for as we live out lives of peace, equality, truth and simplicity. Where does all this come from? The UUA goes a nice step further by setting out the framework around which these guiding principles are built.
Ø Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life. Wow! Just wow! Your life can be the basis for what you believe. You don’t have to sign up to some creed which tells you how things happened but hasn’t changed since 325ce. Creation is happening in you right NOW!
Ø Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love. Jesus is cool but so are lots of other people and as a UU (or a Quaker!), you get to explore it all! Not only that, but holy books aren’t hard and fast: anything which inspires you to be closer to the inner you, the REAL you counts. We still believe in prophets and they’re everywhere if we just open our ears. Maybe you are the prophetic voice we need to hear.
Ø Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life. See what I just said.
Ø Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbours as ourselves. Let’s face it, it’s not just Judeo-Christianity which tells us this. Although UU did emerge from the Christian church, it’s moved to a position, and probably always was in it to one degree or another, that I would call post-Christian. We might also be called religious humanists. I will return to this shortly because the next point is…
Ø 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’m going to come back…
Ø 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. This is the one which I think is probably the sticking point for most UU’s in the UK. Not that there’s a problem with earth-centred traditions, I just wonder if we haven’t seen the same kind of re-energising of that movement here as much as in the USA.
Ok. Y’all still with me?
Let’s get back to the post-Christian/liberal religious humanist philosophy stuff. Christianity, as we know it, is struggling. We have moved beyond belief, beyond creed. ‘People of faith’, that is to say those of traditional religion as it is, at least seem to be taking their creeds and sacred texts ever more literally. Those of us who do not subscribe to text/creed based faiths are still considered heretics, even if we’re no longer burned at the stake. The choices we make are beginning to carry a heck of a lot of weight: how do liberally religious, religious liberals live their lives? Do we walk the walk? We might not have creeds but where are our deeds?
I am convinced that part of being a Unitarian is to engage actively in transforming our communities, using our hands, our collective experience and the compassion of our hearts, powered by trust in whatever or whoever we call to beyond. ‘We are all brothers and sisters of the earth, children of one great mystery. Kinship can be recovered only by modern prophets who respect ordinary people, who will nurture, rather than exploit, their hopes and faith; by humble prophets who will dare to proclaim “the prophethood of all believers.”’ Living this faith is not easy. Do we ask for an easy ride? Buehrens* helps to answer that question by not offering ‘the cynic’s advice, “Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall never be disappointed,” but I will tell all those who approach our churches and fellowships that the dawn may not appear just where you expect: your new religious community will not always fill your every desire; on the other hand, you may perhaps find, almost certainly in unexpected ways, something of what you truly need.’
I am convinced in my belief that, to use a Quaker term, ‘that of God’, the Divine, a Seed, the Light—whatever you want to call it—is in everyone. That unknowable within the depth of our beings allows us to be in community, to feel compassion, to be companions. ‘If God is inside us, our neighbour is inside us as well, not only inside us, but also among us, between us, intertwined with us, never apart. With this new knowledge, our religious challenge is greater than ever. We must employ our reason and the insights of science, mindful of the dangers of idolatry, to increase our understanding and cultivate the garden of the spirit in ways undreamed of before.’*
This is our chosen faith where we, quite simply, ‘join in celebrating one world, one people, one love, which is Truth.’* Welcome home.
*Quotations from: Buehrens, J. and F. Church (1989) A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism. Boston: Beacon Press.
