Shared Belief. Shared Practice. Shared Ministry.
If Unitarian Universalism (UU) is to survive into the future, and beyond surviving, also grow and thrive, its members need to set firm boundaries and create a strong sense of Unitarian Universalist identity.
When every Unitarian Universalist has a different description of what it means to be UU, UUism is not well-defined. UUism, not being well-defined, is thus neither very accessible, nor very attractive. Unitarian Universalism continues to fall into the trap of trying to be too inclusive. In trying to include everyone, we end up including no one. In trying to be everything to everyone, we come perilously close to being nothing to no one. Boundaries in the physical realm of biology provide life – they define cell and organism structure, containing what we need to live while protecting us from harmful toxins in the environment. Just as with cells and organisms, organizations need healthy boundaries to live and thrive.
While the Seven Principles and Six Sources we currently use to define ourselves are an important part of our history and heritage, they also lack accessibility and clarity. Unitarian Universalism has been moving away from Christianity; it has not, however, been clearly moving towards a specific vision. We must stop moving away from, and start moving towards, a well-defined framework of belief and practice. That identity is comprised of three pillars: Shared Belief, Shared Practice, and Shared Ministry.
Shared Belief
A common set of memorable, accessible beliefs is crucial to forming a strong faith identity. Love, Hope, and Freedom are the three concepts that comprise Share Belief. Each is vast, encompassing many different interpretations and meanings. This is as it should be, for personal creed and individual understanding lay at the heart of Unitarian Universalism. We must stop defining ourselves in the negative, by what we are not, by saying “we are not Christian” or “you can believe whatever you want.” We must start defining ourselves by what and who we are.
Love
Love connects us, holds us, and heals us. It is the anti-dote to shame. Shame runs rampant in America and in the world, and it wounds many, many souls. If we learn to love ourselves, we will become happier and more whole human beings. If we learn to actively love others instead of mostly paying lip service to that belief, we will form deep friendships and joyous community.
Hope
Hope is something we live and breathe every minute and every hour of every day, and yet we are usually not aware of it. In good times, if we were not hopeful that the future would continue to be good, why would we continue on? In bad times, if we were not hopeful that at some point the future would be better, why would we continue on? Every one of us who chooses to live, chooses to live because of hope. It is most always not a conscious decision we make, yet it is why we continue to do what we do, day in and day out, year after year. People battle major illness, both physical and psychological, because of hope. People battle great oppressions and injustices, because of hope. Hope is the reason we get up in the morning. It is the reason we fight despite tremendous obstacles and odds. It is the reason we live.
Freedom
Freedom is the primary tenet of Unitarian Universalism. It is what makes us unique. It does, in fact, define our mission. We offer the freedom to choose your own creed. Unitarian Universalists believe we are all on a journey, seeking and searching for truth and meaning in our lives, delighting in the moments in which we find it, and striving to deeper our understanding of the moments in which we do not. We gather as a community, and share our experiences, our joy and our pain, and our wisdom, both to help each other forward, and to hold and support each other in loving community.
These Shared Beliefs have been chosen as a starting place for our theology, and are not meant to define all that is Unitarian Universalism. In choosing terms that have so much power, meaning and depth, the goal is to providing a framework for the conversation and journey that is Unitarian Universalism. Just like humans who cut their hair differently, dress differently, speak different languages, and yet are still human, Unitarian Universalists create their own vastly different, unique, and wonderful personal creeds around the defining framework of Love, Hope and Freedom.
Despite self-defining with these three words, not all Unitarian Universalists will agree, and that is the beauty of who we are; it is Freedom, bursting forth at even this core level. Discussing our disagreements, or explaining them to someone who is just beginning to learn about UUism, demonstrates the freedom of belief that is at the core of Unitarian Universalism. This debate is UUism in action. It is the journey.
Shared Practice
We all practice our faiths to a certain degree in everyday life, any time we make a decision in which our religious values, beliefs and ethics helped shape our chosen course of action. If this individual exercising of religious belief were the sole way we experienced Unitarian Universalism, however, we would not have congregations, societies, parishes, or churches, and more importantly, we would not be sharing and supporting each other in our journeys. Shared Practice is an intentional practice of being Unitarian Universalist on three levels: personal practice, intimate group practice, and large group practice.
Personal Practice
While the specific activities people choose for their personal practice will vary (freedom!), personal practice is time intentionally set aside to reflect or think, on your own, about your journey. This can take many shapes and forms, including meditation, jogging, dancing, reading, and writing, to name a few. Taking time for individual spiritual practice (defined as practicing being UU in a way that is meaningful for you) helps us remember to live our values and beliefs on a daily basis, and it usually helps to calm and sooth the soul, which everyone needs at varying times amid the chaos and stress of daily life. While our personal practices will not all be the same, we will all be doing them, and thus share the practice of having a personal spiritual practice. Personal practice is a form of self-love, of setting aside time regularly to care for our emotional and spiritual needs. Personal practice helps to ground us every day in Unitarian Universalism, and to ground us in living Unitarian Universalism.
Intimate Group Practice
In a world of every increasing communication and ever decreasing depth of connection and sharing, intimate group practice is one of the most important Unitarian Universalist practices. Intimate group practice is a time where we gather together in small groups with the intention of sharing our joys and sorrows, our stories, our laughter, and our wisdom. The format will vary, ranging from less formal lunch gatherings, book groups or fishing trips, to very intentional gatherings, such as adult religious education classes, or small group ministries where people covenant to spend time learning and sharing.
Unitarian Universalism is about sharing our journeys, and sharing them in an intimate setting, in a deep and meaningful way, is crucial to feeling like and being a whole human being. We want to be seen, we want to be loved, we want to be connected, and we want to share. Intimate group practice gives us the intimate community we all seek. Intimate group practice is a setting for us to share hopeful and inspiring stories, to share stories of pain and sorrow, to support each other, to practice and share our freedom of choice in creed, to care for each other, to grow, to love each other. Intimate group practice creates community – real community, community of people and souls, not just community of surfaces and shells.
Large Group Practice
Large group practice is large gatherings of community, most commonly occurring on Sunday mornings in the form of services or worship, and also in other ways, such as potluck dinners, community service projects, and social justice actions, among many other possibilities. Large group practice should hold up, either implicitly, explicitly or both, our core beliefs in Love, Hope and Freedom.
Weekly services/worship, as such a central part of our common experience, are vibrant and inspiring. Worship inspires us to think deeper, to explore previously hidden areas of our soul. It deepens our understanding of and commitment to our values. It helps us feel connected to ourselves and to each other. It brings us joy and happiness, it brings us sorrow and grief. It holds up all facets of life, the highs and the lows, the ebbs and the flows, the good and the bad, for us to share, to learn from, to grow from, to be supported in. It speaks to our entire community in some way, shape, or form.
Shared Practice helps us connect, both to ourselves, and to each other. American culture, and many cultures world-wide, encourage us to seek only the happy, only the good, only that which is like us. Personal practice encourages us to spend time with ourselves, connecting with who we are, taking time to revel in the good, as well as taking time to connect with and heal the pain we feel at times. Intimate group practice encourages us to share, to be vulnerable, to trust, to connect, to love, and to learn about others who are different from us. Large group practice helps us appreciate and celebrate the larger community Unitarian Universalist community of which we are a part. All of these Shared Practices encourage connections and caring to blossom while also encouraging questioning, growth and learning on our journey at the same time. We thus practice and share Love and Hope with one another at the same time and in the same manner that we practice and express our Freedom in journey.
Shared Ministry
Shared Ministry is our faith, our beliefs, our values, in action. Shared Ministry is the ministry done by every person associated with Unitarian Universalism, our ministers, staff and members alike. Shared Ministry is the personal ministry we all do every day in our daily lives, it is the community ministry we do for each other, and it is the community service and social justice work in which we regularly participate. In each of these forms, we face a challenge: we must put our money where our mouth is, and walk the walk instead of mostly just talking the talk.
We are equal to and will surpass the challenge.
Shared ministry is the daily act of living and acting according to your creed, including living and acting out of Love, including living and acting with Hope, and including living and acting Freedom of journey. We must minister to ourselves, and we must minister to those we come across in our daily lives. We must treat ourselves with Love, and we must treat those people whose paths we cross with Love. We must offer Hope to ourselves, and we must offer Hope to others. We must take care and use responsibility in the Freedom of our journeys, and we must work to ensure that all others who are lacking Freedom have the opportunity to make their own choices.
Living our values means Loving those with whom we interact, even if they are not treating us in a loving manner. It means attempting to offer Hope to those who have little of it, offering gifts of community service to those in need of food, shelter, and so many other things. It means attempting to create Freedom for those are oppressed, by initiating and participating in social justice projects that help transform our world into a more just and peaceful place. Every action or inaction we choose with our Freedom sends a message. Let that message be one of Love, Hope and Freedom.
We treat ourselves harshly, diminishing ourselves, judging ourselves, demeaning our choices and our mistakes. Let us instead practice our values, individually, intimately, and in large groups, to heal ourselves, to transform the smallness of judgment and fear into an expansive Love and Hope.
We all hit low points, especially when life is tough, unfair or unjust. Let us lean upon each other at these points, seeking and receiving ministry from our fellow Unitarian Universalist with whom we share this journey of pains and sorrows, of happiness and joys.
We come across incredible loss, we celebrate joyous events, and we get lost in the monotony and occasional emptiness of daily life. Let us help each other make meaning in all of these times, the lows, the highs and the in-betweens, for that is why we gather together.
This, this, is ministry.
Moving Forward
Shared Beliefs, Shared Practice and Shared Ministry will go far towards creating a vibrant and growing Unitarian Universalism for centuries to come. They provide a foundation upon which each individual Unitarian Universalist can create his or her own home, a home comprised of a creed of individual making, and a set of spiritual practices of individual choosing, a home that all together comprises an individual’s ministry in this world. As we each build our unique homes while in relation with one another, we build our community. One neighbor helps us put in our windows, another helps with the roof, a third helps with a leaky faucet. Together, we build and explore our lives, individuals in loving community. In doing so we also create a larger Home for all Unitarian Universalists, and for all who wish to seek shelter with us from the storm.
Amen. May it be so. Blessed be.