Universalist Quote of the Day #208

“It is the only faith ever cherished by man that is complete, and entirely satisfying to the Christian heart, harmonizing with the infinite perfections of God, the ever-living and all-loving Father of mankind; embracing Christ as a perfect Saviour, in whom all fulness dwells, crowning him Lord of all; satisfying the fondest anticipations of the angels in heaven, who earnestly desire to look into the glorious work of the world’s salvation, and filling the souls of believers with unspeakable joy in rapt contemplation and blissful assurance of the ultimate fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose in man’s creation,–the final accomplishment of Messiah’s mission, the purity and immortal blessedness of all the human family.”

–Rev. S.P. Carlton

Universalist Quote of the Day #207

“The Father proposes remedy, not destruction.  His merciful plan is to heal, not destroy.  Everything in God’s moral government, and everything in human experience, sustains this grand idea.  I offend some moral law, I trifle with purity, or integrity, or justice; and the shame of a blackened reputation, and the pain of a rebuking conscience, come upon me as the result.  Bitter and overwhelming as these may be, they come not, after all, to crush me, to destroy me because I have sinned, but the rather to teach me by severe experience that honor and happiness and safety and life lie along the track of obedience to God’s moral laws.  The one supreme object of all penalty, both human and divine, is to prevent sin, and to hold us in our living to the path of conformity and obedience and wisdom.”

Rev. Lyman D. Boynton

Parents Magazine: UUism Apparently Not Religious

The April 2009 issue of Parents Magazine has an interesting photo-essay on baby-welcoming ceremonies in various faiths.  There is a Jewish one, a Korean one, etc.  On page 156 they feature a Unitarian-Universalist ritual performed in Marquette, Michigan.  The father explains that it was custom-designed by the parents as a celebration of the new life and to introduce the child to the church.  As the article mentions, there was “a candle lighting, a rituals with water and rose petals, inspirational readings, singing by young guests, and a song written and performed for the baby by his proud dad.”

There are a couple of interesting things that this article brings up.  One is the presence of baby-welcoming ceremonies in UUism.  Unitarians and Universalists both performed infant baptism/Christening, and there are still UU churches that retain this practice (older ones sometimes have baptismal fonts in the sanctuary for this purpose).  There are also a range of other baby-welcoming/naming ceremonies that we find as replacements for baptism or Christening, with this ceremony being a good example (note, though, the presence of quite traditional elements here, including candles, water, readings, and song).

The other thing to discuss is the way UUism is framed by the article.  Because while the ritual is explicitly explained to be at a church, it is given the heading “A Secular Ceremony.”  Even more interestingly, directly below it is a Roman Catholic baptism, which is headed “A Sacred Rite.”  Why were these word choices made?  What does this say about the presentation of Unitarian-Universalism?

It seems odd to label something secular when it takes place in a church, with ritualistic elements, strongly paralleling (though modifying) ancient Christian methods.  Apparently, because the UU ritual was created for the gathering rather than being handed down from the past, or perhaps because it is UU and not Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist, this was not seen as a sacred event by the writer.

The Well-Stocked UU Church DVD Library

Recently, we debated what should be on a well-stocked UU history bookshelf in your local congregation’s library.  Books are a wonderful thing, but they are also solitary by nature.  Now, you can run a UU adult education class and ask them all to read some books (or, often more productively, selections from books), but the truth is that many won’t do so.  Watching movies, on the other hand, has always been an essentially communal activity.  Some Unitarian-Universalist churches hold movie nights–it’s not only entertaining but also a good way to stimulate discussion about religious topics.

Let’s do an exercise around stocking our church DVD library.  There aren’t many movies or television documentaries that directly address Unitarians or Universalists, so this will have to be more about religious issues or topics that resonate with Unitarian-Universalists in some manner.  You could interpret it as “The Top Ten Unitarian-Universalist Films of All Time” if you wish, with the caveat that they’d be UU in spirit, not necessarily content.  Here are the rules:

1) you have $200 to stock your church DVD library shelf, and you’re going to buy them new since used DVDs often have scratches.  Assuming DVDs run about $20-$25, that’s 8-10 films you can choose.  If you go for obscure documentary features (which can often cost $60-$90 from educational film distributors), you need to reduce your total proportionately.  You can choose television programs, but in that case you need to choose either one episode, or, if you choose one season from a show, you need to assume the cost will be $50-$60 and plan accordingly.  Realistically, most people won’t turn out week after week after week to watch a season of TV at church, so try to stick to feature-length movies if you can.  FYI the John Adams HBO mini-series is available on DVD, but costs about $40 and thus should be counted as two titles (if you feel like stocking this Unitarian president).  Of course, if you can’t think of 8-10 titles, you can just list one or a few–any contribution is appreciated.

2) the movies have to be available on DVD.  We’ll assume that your church hasn’t gone to blu-ray but has made the transition from VHS.

3) the movies should have some bearing on religious/moral questions appropriate for discussion/appreciation in a Unitarian-Universalist church adult education series.  Therefore, you’ll more than likely want to annotate your list to explain briefly why you’ve chosen each title.  Of course, they need not express UU-compatible sentiments if you don’t want to take that approach: they could be overtly against UU principles or approaches to religion, yet therefore illuminative of serious issues of concern to people in liberal religion.

What would you put on your list, and why?  Here’s a chance to not only express your appreciation for some excellent, thought-provoking films, but also to make suggestions that other UUs might actually use for their own viewing pleasure or to stimulate discussion at church.

Universalist Quote of the Day #206

“Our God is love, and he will save
All souls from sin,
And they shall win
The victory over the dark grave;
His punishments are just and right,
Leading the soul through pain to light.
The winter’s snow
Takes long to go;
But underneath the flowers wait
All patiently, though spring be late.
Wait thou his time, wait thou his way;
To-morrow will explain to-day.”

–Rev. Edwin J. Chaffee

Universalist Quote of the Day #205

“Show me sunlight that causes darkness; show me heat that freezes plants; show me love that delights in torture; and then I will listen while you talk of our heavenly Father cursing forever a portion of his children.”

–Rev. V.E. Tomlinson

Universalist Quote of the Day #204

“Oh, yes, there is joy in sincerely believing,
No heart that is faithless can dream of or know;
There is strength in the thought that our souls are receiving
Such wealth as a Father alone can bestow.
Then away with the dogma that sin is eternal,
It dims the bright glow of Immanuel’s name;
It was not to build up a kingdom infernal
That Jesus, the friend of the sorrowful, came.

–Sarah C. Edgarton Mayo

Sponsorship: Weathering Tough Economic Times at UU Churches

Just about everyone is hurting in these very difficult economic times, churches included.  What is to be done about budget shortfalls at church?  This is especially a problem because many churchmembers suffer from pledge fatigue, having given much money already in the past and/or been “hassled” routinely by budget-conscious church folks asking for more giving (often such constant pledge driving is necessary, but that doesn’t mean it fails to take a toll on the pledgees over time).  Many budget committees are reluctant to ask for yet greater donations when they know that their parishioners are suffering economically, even though the church may be in serious financial straits.

There are many possible solutions.  One that can be attractive in certain situations is the idea of sponsorship.  A problem that many potential donors have is that they don’t know where their money is actually going to go, what sort of concrete results it will produce.  Running specific sponsorship drives parallel to the general pledge drive is a way to get around that.  For example, the Universalist Church of West Hartford is facing a budget shortfall due to the overall economic situation and other factors.  One program that is danger is the Universalist Bell Choir, an inter-generational music program that has been present at the church for decades and contributes much to the life of the congregation.  Their solution: a sponsor a bell drive.  For $50 donors can sponsor one of the church’s bells for the year.  With the money tied to such a visible and widely appreciated program, pledgees are more likely to give money they might have held back, and every time the bell choir performs, the donors can take satisfaction in the contribution they’ve made to the community.

Another case is the First Unitarian Congregation of Waterloo, which is facing budgetary issues due to success–with the recent purchase of a full church building and installment of a new, popular, permanent minister, the congregation is experiencing growing pains as it expands rapidly.  One issue that has come up is the lack of service books: many Sundays there is only about one copy of <i>Singing the Living Tradition</i> for every three or four people in the pews.  Their solution: a sponsor a hymnal drive.  Donors can give money to the church that will be used to buy new copies of the hymnal, providing a direct service to the congregation (and ensuring that they won’t have to hoard hymnals jealously in the future).

Don Parker in the comments on the previous Well-Stocked UU History Bookshelf post mentions getting churchmembers to donate books off the list.  An obvious similar practice would be to have a sponsor UU history drive, with donors giving money that would be used to buy specific volumes for the church library.

For the first century and a half of liberal religion in North America, it was common practice for donors to buy or rent pews for their family to use.  In fact, this was one of the major ways in which many Unitarian and Universalist churches were initially built and funded year-to-year.  Sponsoring specific bells, books, and other items or programs at church is a latter-day application of this sort of fund-raising, applied to a new social and financial environment.  Perhaps your church is using sponsorship or should consider it, or maybe there are other inventive measures being taken to shore up the budget.  If you have useful/interesting/cautionary examples, please share.

Universalist Quote of the Day #203

“The human soul will not be satisfied with one world, any more than the body will with one dress.  We can enjoy the present, only as we look to the future.  It is the boast of materialism to enjoy this life in sweet contentment and pleasure; yet memory will look backward, and hope forward, and immortality, like a star, rises between the fading lines of memory on the one side, and the gathering joys of hope on the other, and crowns the soul with an everlasting triumph.  God weaves the promise of a future life like a rainbow, over our horizon; in its prismatic hues we see the deathless flowers that bloom in the world’s Eden, while under its shining archway we stand at the gate of heaven, and behold its reflected rays as they fall upon the sweet babe in the cradle, and creep tenderly as evening’s shadow over age as it trembles by a coffin.”

–Rev. Moses Henry Houghton

The Future of Unitarian Universalist Scholarship

Good news for all the aspiring scholars out there working on historical issues in Unitarian-Universalism.  Boston will be the site later this year for a conference on October 17-18 (Saturday and Sunday) entitled “The Future of Unitarian Universalist Scholarship.”  Students in doctoral programs for theology, religious studies, or similar fields are invited to present their research to a gathering of graduate students, UU history scholars, and seminarians (the conference is open to the public).

Saturday will be a day of student presentations at Harvard Divinity School, with a reflective discussion by a panel of UU leaders at the end of the day.  Sunday’s activities will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Association’s headquarters, where participants will be part of small group discussions based on their disciplines and a broader about teaching and scholarship in higher education.

Additional details may be obtained by contacting Dan McKanan (dmckanan [at] hds.harvard.edu), the Ralph Waldo Emereson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School.  This conference is jointly sponsored by Harvard Divinity School, the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Students, and the Panel on Theological Education of the UUA.