I went to a Unitarian Universalist church today

[Droopy]

I was impressed. I am agnostic and I hadn't been to church since I was 16 aside from weddings. The church that I did go to during my childhood was a baptist church. The UU church welcomes the GLBT community; they are dedicated to the cause of attaining equality for minorities; they have a "peace labyrinth" on church grounds in protest of the Iraq war; they are involved with helping homeless people and runaway children; and anyone is welcome to attend their services and social functions regardless of faith. It's the only church that I know of where it is okay to lack a faith in God.

The sermon today was different than usual I was told. The pastor told us about the abolitionist and escaped slave Harriet Tubman. They had little kids up there acting out various aspects of the sermon and a choir that sang old, slave hymns. They were having their annual Thanksgiving dinner afterward and I was welcome to eat even though it was my first time there and I was not a member. All of the food was made and donated by the congregation members. I spoke briefly to the pastor who is a woman.

I sat at a table with 6 people who were members and talked to them for a while. They were genuinely curious about who I was and at no time did I feel pressured and no one tried to save my wretched soul.

The church literature says that UU has roots in the Christian and Jewish traditions, but it recognizes that all of the world's religions have wisdom and that each of us is on our own spiritual path and they honor that. I think I will be going back next Sunday.

As I was walking out to my truck, I saw several of those "COEXIST" bumper stickers on cars as well as one that said, "I was born ok the first time." :)

[Gold Metal Flake]

1. Please remember to turn down your reverb when posting.

:-)

[Droopy]

2. Haha

The spirit of the universe must have taken control of my mouse when I hit the 'post' button.

[otherlander]

3. Yeah, so I've heard.

:P Seriously, though, that sounds great. Aren't the Quakers pretty cool about accepting people too?

[Droopy]

4. I don't know much about the Quakers

Aside from them working to free slaves and their involvement in the peace movement.

[TreasonousBastard]

47. Yes. I'm a Quaker, and my brand of Quakerism has no...

dogma or ministry.

[mzteris]

5. sounds like a good place

to be for awhile.

:hi:

[Droopy]

6. Yeah and I was honest about why I was there

I basically just need something to do on the weekends to keep me from getting bored and drinking a bunch of beer. I also want to get involved with the political and charitable aspects of the church- something that I've been wanting to do for a long time on my own, but have never found the right outlet for. They were cool with all that.

[havocmom]

30. Sounds like you are looking for ::gasp:: FELLOWSHIP.

Sounds like you may have found a wellspring of it. ;)

UU communities can be great! I am not Christian but do love to study comparative religion from a cultural practice aspect. UU church where I used to live always has interesting, enlightening, thought provoking programs anyone could attend.

The one time I got to see Gloria Steinem in person.... yep, in a UU church program. She opened up with throwing a question to the audience: What have you been reading that we should know about?

People shouted back (in polite, orderly fashion, allowing for people to expound on the title just a bit) an amazing assortment of books! Had I known that was coming, I would have had pen and paper in hand to jot down titles. Picked up as many as I could remember, and yep, they were all life enriching if not flat out life changing. What an interesting bunch of people to have such a fantastic list of book recommendations.

One thing I dislike about living in a really small town now is no UU church. Not that I would attend regularly, but they are nice to have around for times you need to recharge hope, expand your view if it has become narrow, and FELLOWSHIP.

There are lots of really great people in the world. The trick is finding places where you can meet them easily to get you started. UU communities do seem like a great place to start finding people to work at life.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Sounds like a very good place to be. :^)

[quip]

8. I think Christians get a bad rep

from all of the high visibility RW wingnuts. I believe that most Christians are the type of people you encountered. Or at least TRY to be that way. :hi:

[Droopy]

9. I looked into a local Presbyterian church before I discovered the UU church

And I was surprised to learn about how active they are in the community, which encouraged me. But I did a little reading on it and they are pretty rigid in their faith. You MUST believe that Christ is your savior and you MUST be baptized to save your soul and become a part of the church. That was the type of thing that turned me off to the Baptist church that I went to when I was a kid.

[Critters2]

35. Presbyterians don't believe that baptism saves your soul.

Baptism is a sign of God's grace, not a vehicle for it. Yes, you must be baptized to join the church, but not as a way of getting saved. Baptism is not how one is saved, in the Reformed tradition.

[otherlander]

12. It's not just being right-wing that annoys people.

It's also telling people that they have to believe what you believe to be happy/smart/whatever. People who say that believing in God makes you stupid give atheists a bad rep. People who say that you have to believe in God to be truly happy give Christians a bad rep.

[hippywife]

10. Sounds pretty much like our

UU and UCC churches in Tulsa. Pretty cool folks.

[Critters2]

37. There are some good UCC churches in Tulsa. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. My dear Droopy!

Now that sounds great!

I think you will find that you have a home there...

Love the bumperstickers...I've seen both of those!

:hi:

[MorningGlow]

13. I enjoyed my visit to a UU church a number of years ago

I didn't join, but at the time I wasn't much of a joiner. Something about signing the paperwork renouncing any other churches you belonged to etc. Not that I belonged to any church at the time. I was just young and single and skittish--and not interested in being a member of any church. However, DH and I were married by a UU minister who respected the fact that I was a witch. He was cool. Looked like Santa Claus.

Anyway, I've often pondered looking into UU membership now that we have a toddler--I'd like him to have a community, and the UU community is uber-cool.

[EstimatedProphet]

15. We joined our local UU, and didn't have to renounce anything.

[MorningGlow]

17. Interesting--I wonder what that was about, then

There are two around these parts. I wonder if the other one makes you sign something or not. I should check it out.

[havocmom]

31. Perhaps they had problems with some people coming in & trying to 'SAVE' everyone?

If a local fundy church group (or particular pastor of same) had a burr up its collective butt about a church that actually respected diversity and had a history of sending 'missionaries' to the UU group, the UU congregation may have had to resort to some sort of paperwork as a legal defense should they have to toss evangelizing hard-heads out.

Just a thought. Have seen some independent fundy churches what were more about harassment of other congregations than about trying to become better individuals themselves.

[rosesaylavee]

46. We signed a membership book that included

all members who had ever belonged to our congregation - goes back over a hundred years.

[rosesaylavee]

45. Wow. We belong to our local UU and renouncing

anything wasn't part of becoming a member... at all. It was more an affirming statement of agreeing to participate and allowing others to participate. It is a covenant based community rather than a dogma-based one. If you agree with the covenant, you can decide to join ... or not. We have friends who have attended for a couple of decades. As most of us are not joiners, we certainly understand the impulse to not join up officially. But all who agree with the covenant are welcome to participate as fully as they wish to.

But I guess, much like other faith communities, there are differences from one congregation to the other. We have a largish group of earth based faith members or witches and activities to support events related to such. We feel very fortunate to have found such a great group of thoughtful, supportive people to be around.

[Burma Jones]

14. I went to a UU service in Mt. Kisco, NY

One of the hymns was "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"

Second time I got to sing "shit" in Church........

[EstimatedProphet]

16. Welcome!

[DarkTirade]

18. I just re-met some of my parents' old friends from up here where we used to live

(I left this area when I was in 1st grade, just moved back around halloween) and they're UUers. First thing I noticed when we pulled in the driveway was a bumper sticker on their car that said, "Zeus is god. Read the Illiad." That pretty much set the tone for our visit right there. :) Great people. Funny as hell. Big into local dem politics there too. They were also part of a big group that fought (and won) against Wal-Mart when Wal-Mart tried to buy up a bunch of perfectly good farmland to turn into a parking lot and store. I've also got a bunch of relatives that are UUers, and they're all pretty cool. My great-uncle is a UU pastor, although he is currently sans congregation I think, and on my stepdad's side of the family most of them are UUs.

I got dragged by my grandma to her Quaker church yesterday and it was almost as laid-back and cool as a UU one. They have a 'peace committee' that meets there to talk about how they can help end the war. I don't know if they actually get anything done, but that says a lot about the mindset of the churchgoers right there. We also went to a little debate group before the service, where there were actually intelligent, open-minded people debating. It was quite strange. You don't see that very often. :)

[doc03]

23. We have a Friends Church nearby, are they Quakers?

[TreasonousBastard]

48. Probably. Quakers are more or less divided into three...

groups, with the Evangelical Quakers having "Friends Churches." The rest of us call our congregations "meetings." All of us consider ourselves members of The Religious Society of Friends.

My brand of Quakers uses silent worship-- which means we have no pastor or minister but sit around in a circle waiting for an inspioration. Kinda like a group meditation. Quaker churches have ministers and actual services.

[doc03]

51. There is a Friends Church near here would they be

fundamentalist wackos? I attended a UU service yesterday and was thinking about going to the Friends Church to see what it is about next time. Those born again types are downright creepy, they want to kill everyone that doesn't fit into their little narrow minded view of things.

[TreasonousBastard]

52. I doubt it. Just because they are evangelicals doesn't...

mean they are whackjobs. Probably the most easygoing evangelicals you'll meet anywhere. Most of them are in the Midwest or Africa, so I haven't run into too many.

Check out www.quaker.org and then scroll down to the links to Evangelical Friends International for more about them. They might be part of Friends United Meeting, and there's a link to them, too.

At any rate, drop in and check them out. I'm sure they won't bite and you might find them surprisingly agreeable. Many prefer them to the silent worship because it's closer to what they grew up with, but not full of hellfire and damnation.

[Maat]

19. Proud UUer here!

:patriot: :hi:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

20. Welcome!

We take everybody, and don't throw anyone out!

We worship the Giver of Life -- The Coffeepot.

The only church I can deal with.

Nice church with people with lots of different opinions. Grew out of the anti slavery movement with Emerson, Thoreau and such. Some of the founding fathers were Unitarians.
The Unitarians and Universalists merged in the early 60s.

The first Unitarian, Michael Servetus of Transylvania, was barbecued by John Calvin in Geneva in the 1500s. Servetus had John Calvin, Martin Luther and the Inquisition all after him.

www.uua.org

One of the recent presidents of Amnesty International, USA, was the former president of the UUA, Rev. William Schulz.

[eridani]

21. Q: How do you terrorize Unitarians?

A: Burn question marks on their front lawns.

[skyblue]

26. LMAO --but with a few qualifications (exceptions?)

If you're going to be involved in politics its best to choose a religion. Unitarians are not the worst. Less socially acceptable unfortunately than other churchs tho'. Rather hang with a Unitarian than other types of holy rollers. ( evolutionist- here) But where liberal ideas gather then that's at least in the correct general direction. in my longwinded opinion.

[eridani]

40. If I lived in a small town, I probably would

In the big city, there are way too many other outlets for my do-gooderism.

[Sugar Smack]

22. The UU church dad & I go to sometimes is like that. Wonderful.

We all talk about what's going on in the rest of the world. :-)

[doc03]

24. I have heard that at the local UU Church they don't have

a pastor. I hear anyone in the church can lead the services if they want and you could conduct a Jewish, Mormon, Catholic, Muslim etc. service whatever you want, is that true?

[doc03]

25. I saw a strange thing yesterday at the Cabela's store

in Wheeling WV. Cabela's is a national hunting and fishing chain store if you didn't know. Anyway there are a lot of Amish that visit the store, I saw an Amish lady talking on a cell phone yesterday. Another thing I see a lot of, they have TVs around the store with hunting and fishing programs playing, many times I have seen the mothers waiting with the kids by the TVs. They won't look at the TVs themselves but will let the kids watch them and act like they are not aware of what they are doing. I wonder if maybe they are trying to encourage the kids to leave the Religion in some way. I would think a cell phone would be strictly forbidden. Maybe they have found a way to justify them since they have no wires or something who knows. They do have phones on their farms but they keep them in a booth outside.

[Critters2]

38. Probably not Old Order Amish.

I used to live in Amish country, and there's a whole spectrum of Amish and Mennonite groups, that allow a variety of levels of technology. When I was in Amish country, we used to chuckle at the tourist's reactions when they saw "Amish" people get into a car and drive away. We realized they weren't Old Order Amish, but "church Amish" or some variety of plain dress Mennonite.

Btw, the Amish have about the lowest rate of attrition of their young people of any religious group in this country. As teenagers, they get a period known as "rumspringa", where they can dress in modern clothes, party, use electrical appliances and the like. They kind of get it out of their system, and then the vast majority return to the church and settle into plain life.

So, no, the adults weren't trying to encourage the kids to leave.

[Hand]

29. NO PASTOR?????

Clearly they hate America! Bombing begins today! :rofl:

[havocmom]

32. Have seen lots of different types of 'services' offered- many different traditions observed

and RESPECTED.

How cool is that?

[SaveElmer]

27. Welcome aboard...

Hope you will keep going!!!

[rainbow4321]

28. UUer here also....

My kids and I started going when they were little. They attended the RE (religious education) classes. Every week they learned about different cultures and religions. Even made artwork for Kwanzaa one year.
My 16 yr old says the tattoo she wants to get when she turns 18 is a chalice.
Both went to the UU church's OWL (Our Whole Lives) program. Basically sex education program that lasts several weeks. REAL facts, covered everything judging from the agenda papers and pictures that were brought home. Birth control, different orientations, STD's, etc..
Several years ago when Carol Strayhorn (forget her other 5 names right now)was treasurer she tried to deny a local UU church tax exempt status. Claiming that in order for a church to get that their congregation had to all hold the same belief and since in any given UU congregation there maybe 50 different beliefs, it was not a real church.
Til lawyers and the media got involved and she backed down..quickly.
Guess she was choosing to ignore that UU is a church recognized around the WORLD and Texas had no frigging business saying otherwise!

[UncleSepp]

33. Hasn't UU been around since before 1776?

Isn't it one of the religious traditions that helped birth the Revolution?

[rainbow4321]

34. 1793 for the Universalists, 1825 for Unitarians.....consolidated 1961

http://www.uua.org/aboutus/index.shtml

The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is a religious organization that combines two traditions: the Universalists, who organized in 1793, and the Unitarians, who organized in 1825. They consolidated into the UUA in 1961.

Both groups trace their roots in North America to the early Massachusetts settlers and to the founders of the Republic. Overseas, their heritages reach back centuries to pioneers in England, Poland, and Transylvania.

Each of the 1,041 congregations in the United States, Canada, and overseas are democratic in polity and operation; they govern themselves. They unite in the Association to provide services that individual congregations cannot provide for themselves. Each congregation is associated with one of the UUA’s 20 districts.

-----------------
Leave it to TX to try to mess with groups that have been around since the 18th/19th centuries.
There's even a UU religion as an option on the personal information section of the SAT's scantron (according to my oldest back when she took it a few years ago--she was pretty impressed with that).

[Critters2]

36. King's Chapel, in Boston, was the first Unitarian Church

It became Unitarian in 1785. There were no Unitarian or Universalist Churches in this country before that.

[FloridaJudy]

39. Another UU here

Our church has a "shared ministry". The ministers are a married couple: he's a Buddhist, she's a Sufi.

It takes all kinds, and in UU churches, we get 'em.

[Tikki]

41. As did I and my family....

We've been going to our UU fellowship for years, now.

Today we talked about humanism.



The Tikkis and family.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

42. I went to a UU church today too....

And the sermon was by a Humanist Minister. He's active in the Asimov Humanists of Montgomery County. And since his middle initial is H, he tells people he has the same middle initial as God, as in jesus h. christ.

[underpants]

43. It was JEESUS who made you loose all that weight

Praise JEESUS

Actually my wife wants us to start taking Josie to church.
I have agreed mostly because I have come to realize as I have grown older that I missed a huge source of jokes and humor material over the years. :bounce:

[doc03]

44. After reading about the UU here I

attended a service today. It is a very small congregation (44 members), I would say maybe 25-35 people were there counting children. The first thing I noticed most people just had their normal everyday blue jeans on, no one seemed to be trying to show off their wardrobe. I noticed most people had a cup of coffee. Before the service the Pastor asked us to greet our neighbors and people greeted each other and shook hands. They had a guest speaker that talked about Haiku it was interesting, but most of it was over my head. The guest also played the guitar and sang a song. We sang a couple hymns one we sang the verses in Japanese then repeated them in English. After the service they had coffee, a vegetable plate, fruit plate and cookies. One person ask me to join them for lunch at a local restaurant, I couldn't because I had to do something else. It was interesting, I may try it again, the one thing I didn't particularly care for was the small congregation, it's hard to remain anonymous in such a small group.

[TreasonousBastard]

49. Been going to one for over a year now, since...

there are no active Quaker meetings nearby. Spiritual fellowship without dogma works for me.

We work fairly well with the Presbyterian and Methodist churches in town, but the Catholics are a bit standoffish.

[barb162]

50. I've heard nice things about Unitarians n /t

[MilesColtrane]

53. Q: How do you know when you're being persecuted by Unitarians?

A: They burn a question mark on your lawn.

[kwassa]

54. uh, the original joke was .....

Did you hear about the Unitarians?

The Ku Klux came to their house and burned a question mark on the lawn.


(there is a whole lot of Unitarian jokes about themselves. This was a Mort Sahl joke, as I recall.)