WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST?

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Note: Andrew gave this sermon extemporaneously. The following text was used by Andrew when preparing the sermon, but it is not a transcript and as such will not always match the audio recording.

Good morning. My name is Andrew Young. I'm a second year student at Starr King School for the Ministry, which is one of the seminaries at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. I moved to Berkeley over the summer from Austin, Texas where I was the youth director for First UU Church of Austin for three years.

When I first started attending Starr King I kept the fact that I was in seminary largely to myself. I told my family and people at church, of course, but I didn't advertise to most people that I was a seminary student. After fourteen years as a software developer, I was afraid that people would treat me differently at work if they discovered that I was religious. I was also a little embarrassed by the idea that I had become so religious that I was now in school to become a minister. Luckily, my fears were unfounded. As I began to be more honest at work I discovered that people were either indifferent to my religious choices, or they were fascinated by them. I found out that many of my co-workers were also deeply religious, and that their religious beliefs spanned the gamut. The most interesting realization, though, was that everyone assumed that the fact that I was attending seminary meant that I was a Christian. Many of my coworkers were just as afraid of expressing their religious values at work as I had been, and this assumption put them at ease.

I'm going to sidetrack for a moment and talk about clerical garb before I begin my sermon. Clerical garb is the distinctive clothing worn by ministers in the Christian tradition. What we wear makes an important impression on those that we meet. As I mentioned before, most people who I talk to who are not Unitarian Universalists assume that as a seminary student I must be a Christian. Because of this, their image of me is often very similar to what you see before you today: a young man wearing a clerical shirt with a solid white clerical collar. To them, this is the quintessential seminarian or minister. This is often more true of those who do not attend church, as their image of a minister is often not informed by a specific tradition but instead by cultural references in television and movies. The clerical collar has become, for many in our culture, the outward symbol of a clergy person. How did this come to be? It began during the reformation when protestant clergy rebelled against the clerical clothing of the Catholic church and began wearing either the simple robes common to academics of the time or a plain suit. Beginning in the 17th century they began to wear a scarf tied around the neck called a cravat, which we can see in this picture of Hosea Ballou, one of the father's of American Universalism. When they entered the pulpit they would attach two strips of cloth called a "preaching band" or "neck band", which we can this in this next picture. This is William Ellery Channing, who is considered to be one of the foremost Unitarian preachers of the 19th century. This style of clerical dress was nearly ubiquitous among Reformed pastors from the 17th to the mid 19th centuries. The modern clerical collar comes from the mid 19th century, when it became fashionable to turn down the collar on your shirt, just as we still do today. Turning down the collar over the cravat produced the look of the modern clerical collar: a small band of white in the front of the shirt.

The other piece of common clerical clothing in the Christian tradition is the stole, which you can see in this picture of a modern UU minister. The stole is a wide band of cloth that is draped over the shoulders. It came into popular use in the seventh century. As congregationalists, Unitarian Universalists leave the question of clerical clothing up to each congregation. The UUA has no rules about the use of either the clerical collar or the stole, nor does the UU Ministers Association. However, it is generally considered extremely bad form for someone to wear a stole before they have received preliminary ministerial fellowship from the UUA. For this reason, I am not wearing a stole today. However, I am wearing a clerical collar. The unwritten rule on clerical collars is that they should only be worn by ministers and ministerial candidates, although not many ministers in our denomination wear them at all. I am not yet technically a ministerial candidate, as I am in aspirant status until at least February when I go before the Regional Sub Committee on Candidacy, but I ask your forgiveness in this case. My reason for wearing the collar is to evoke a reaction in my audience, and I hope I have done so.

Back to the point at hand. I've never lied to my coworkers about my religious community, but many of them either had no idea what Unitarian Universalism was, or they assumed it was yet another Christian denomination. When asked about my denomination I would explain in more detail, which brought confusion, acceptance or joy, depending on the person who I was speaking with. Those who were from more conservative Christian churches were often confused by the idea of a church without a creed. Those who were from liberal Christian churches were accepting and interested in learning more about our religious traditions. Those who were anti-church, whether they were hard-line atheists or simply anti-establishment were often confused about why we would bother calling ourselves a church. And some of my coworkers had been looking for a church community like ours but had no idea we existed.

However, one thing that all of these people had in common was that they couldn't understand how a church with such diverse belief systems could come together every Sunday to worship as one community. What shared beliefs did we hold in common? What did we worship? Why bother calling it worship at all? Was it even possible for a Christian and an Atheist to worship together? What did it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist?

This question: "What does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist?" has been at the heart of my seminary experience so far. Seminary, for those of you who have never experienced it, forces you to rethink everything you think you know about your religious tradition. To come through the process successfully, you must take nothing for granted about religion and the way that your tradition expresses its beliefs in the world. Everything is to be questioned and discerned. Seminary is perhaps best expressed through the image of the Tower card in a tarot deck: the destruction of the old to make way for the new.

So what does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist? Many UUs work on so-called "elevator speeches" which are designed to express what UUism is in the time it takes to ride in an elevator with someone. These are often vast generalizations, but the worst of them is "UUs can believe whatever they want to believe." If you think this is true, ask yourself if someone who believes in slavery could honestly call themselves a UU, or if someone who believes that gays and lesbians will burn in hell could call themselves a UU. We allow for a great difference of belief, but we can not believe whatever we want to and still call ourselves Unitarian Universalists. Many UUs would point to our Seven Principles and Six Sources as a definition of what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist and as proof of our cohesion as a single religious movement. However, the adoption of the principles in their current form in 1985 was quite contentious at the time and it demonstrates some of the problems that arise when trying to define Unitarian Universalism.

Unitarian Universalist Principles (1961)

The Association, dedicated to the principles of a free faith, shall:
(a) Support the free and disciplined search for truth as the foundation of religious fellowship;
(b) Cherish and spread the universal truths taught by the great prophets and teachers of humanity in every age and tradition, immemorially summarized in the Judeo-Christian heritage as love to God and love to humankind;
(c) Affirm, defend, and promote the supreme worth and dignity of every human personality, and the use of the democratic method in human relationships;
(d) Implement the vision of one world by striving for a world community founded on ideals of brotherhood, justice, and peace;
(e) Serve the needs of member societies;
(f) Organize new churches and fellowships and otherwise extend and strengthen liberal religion;
(g) Encourage cooperation among people of good will in every land.

Unitarian Universalist Principles (1985)

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote
1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:
1. 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;
2. 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;
3. Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
4. Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
5. 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;
6. (Added in 1995) 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.

It was the acceptance of other sources beyond the Judeo-Christian tradition and the removal of God from the principles that angered many Unitarian Universalists. In a very spirited letter published in The Unitarian Universalist Christian in 1992, Rev. Duke T. Gray, the minister at First Parish Church in Malden MA wrote to UU Christians about his concern over the newly adopted principles and sources. His fear was that Unitarian Universalists no longer shared a single faith. He believed that the new principles reflected the reality that the UUA was an interfaith organization and that each UU church had its own religious traditions. He argued that the principles were not a statement of faith, but instead a covenant describing how churches of different religious traditions could work together in harmony.

So if we can't point to our principles as a statement of our faith, then what does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist? The answer to this question has a lot to do with how we got to where we are.

In an article published in 1979 in The Unitarian Universalist Christian, Marvin C. Shaw, a Unitarian Universalist and a professor emeritus of religious studies, claimed that there were three distinct religious philosophies at work in Unitarian Universalist churches at the time. He said that each of these philosophies represented a shift in thinking among Unitarian Universalists and he believed that they were all equally important and should remain separate. Unlike many Protestant denominations which had splintered over disagreements in belief, the Unitarian Universalist church had remained cohesive and become stronger in his opinion due to the diversity that these philosophies provided.

The earliest of these was Liberal Christianity.

In 1961 two Christian denominations merged to form the Unitarian Universalist Association. These two denominations were the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America. Both had been founded in the mid 19th century, but they both traced their existence back to colonial America before the revolutionary war. Unitarianism was based on the belief that there was only one God and that Jesus was fully human and not equal with God. Universalism was based on the belief that the God of the New Testament was a loving God who wouldn't condemn His children to hell but would instead redeem them through universal salvation. These two denominations represented an American form of Liberal Christianity. Liberal here does not refer to a political stance, but to the way in which theologians in these denominations approached the study of the Bible. Instead of relying on dogma or creeds, they applied the same skeptical methods that were being applied to all ancient literature at the time. Most importantly, they made the assumption that the Bible was not free from error, but instead assumed that it was divinely inspired but written by human hands whose interpretations should be subjected to modern criticism and inquiry. Their viewpoints were in fact so similar that motions were made to merge the two denominations as early as 1865.

So what did these Liberal Christians believe?

From the Unitarian Manual of Belief (1884)

Liberal Christianity, or freedom in religion, does not mean liberty to believe what we choose, but freedom to seek the truth anywhere, everywhere, and always. It means that we should not only be willing that others should differ from us, but ready to help them to inquire freely, even if their inquiries lead them to believe what we consider erroneous.
Rational Christianity does not mean that we are to reject all beliefs which we do not now see to be reasonable, or to make reason the only source of truth. But it means that we are to test every belief by the light of our reason, and to understand clearly what we think and why we think it.

From the Washington Declaration (1935)

...we avow our faith in God as Eternal and All-conquering Love, in the spiritual leadership of Jesus, in the supreme worth of every human personality, in the authority of truth known or to be known, and in the power of men of good-will and sacrificial spirit to overcome evil and progressively establish the Kingdom of God. Neither this nor any other statement shall be imposed as a creedal test...

These statements sounds very similar to our own Seven Principles and we can see our Unitarian and Universalist roots clearly in them. Liberal Christianity strengthens our churches because it grounds us in the symbols and traditions of a particular tradition.

The second religious philosophy entered Unitarianism in the mid 19th century when Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned his Unitarian pulpit after he refused to participate in the Lord's Supper, also known as Communion. He believed that the divine soul of the universe was manifest in all religions, and our spiritual growth shouldn't be confined within the style and symbolism of one particular tradition. This belief that all religious traditions point to God is called Universal Theism by Shaw. The Transcendentalists led the movement towards Universal Theism within the Unitarian church in the 19th century and the effects of their work can still be seen today. Many UU churches display symbols from many different religious traditions in their sanctuaries and many Unitarian Universalists celebrate holidays from a vast array of religious traditions. It is not uncommon to see a Passover Seder, a Yule ritual, and a Christmas pageant on the same church calendar in December. Universal Theism strengthens our churches because it helps us to see past the concept of "us" and "them" and to appreciate all paths to God as equally beneficial.

The third religious philosophy came to Unitarianism in the early to mid 20th century with the rise in Humanism, especially Religious Humanism. Religious Humanism is the belief that it is more important to focus on the here and now than on what might be but is not provable. Instead of worrying about whether or not God exists, Religious Humanism asks us to focus on making the world a better place. Rather than focus on the afterlife, Religious Humanism asks us to create paradise here on Earth by feeding the sick and taking care of the poor. It says that human nature is essentially good and that we don't need to look to supernatural forces for a solution to our problems. Religious Humanism strengthens our churches because it teaches us to act now to create the world we want to live in. It is one of the reasons we are so active in social justice causes.

So how does this inform our understanding of what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist? Shaw would posit that there are three different kinds of Unitarian Universalists: Liberal Religious UUs (whether they be Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Pagans, or of another religious tradition), Universal Theist UUs, and Humanist UUs. He believed that each of these three types of UUs were an integral part of our congregations, and this is largely what I've seen in my experience. So perhaps Rev. Grey is right: the UUA is an interfaith organization whose congregations contain people from different faith traditions.

However, this mindset leads to several serious problems. For example: which traditions are honored, which holidays are celebrated, and who has the right to take part in them? UU Christians won't be happy with UU Buddhists taking communion, for example. And Universal Theists often misappropriate the religious traditions of other communities. Is it okay for a UU church that doesn't have a single African American member to sing an African American spiritual in the service? Is it okay for a UU church that doesn't have a single Spanish speaker to sing "De Colores"? Is it racist, or are we being an ally? The truth is that it is in the eye of the beholder, that is to say, the group from which we are appropriating the song or tradition, and in many cases we offend those groups even though we don't mean to.

Another serious problem has to do with our children and youth. In response to a survey I took of UU congregants, 60 percent described their religious views as either Humanist, Atheist, or Agnostic when Unitarian Universalism was not offered as an option. Another 25 percent listed either Pantheist, Panentheist, Spiritual Naturalist, or New Age Spiritualist. Only 14 percent listed one of the world's major religious traditions: 8 percent listed Buddhist, 4 percent listed Pagan, and 2 percent (a single respondent) listed Christian. This means that 60 percent fall into Shaw's "Religious Humanist" category, 25 percent fall into his "Universal Theist" category, and only 14 percent fall into his "Liberal Religious" category. To be fair, this was a small survey with only 50 congregants responding, and the sampling is biased on those congregants who are within two or three degrees of separation from myself on Facebook, but the results are still staggering. When split between congregants who had been UUs for more than 10 years and those who were new to UUism the results are even more clear cut, with long term UUs (which made up half of the sample) being 68 percent Religious Humanist, 27 percent Universal Theist, and only 4 percent Religious Liberal (a single Buddhist was the only person in this category).

It's no wonder then that between the mid 1980s when the new principles were adopted and the turn of the 21st century there was often an idea in UU churches that religion was something that was taught to our children out of a book instead of something that must be experienced and experimented with. Many parents subscribed to the "religious banquet table" concept of religious education. Many expected UU churches to teach their children about all of the world's religions so that they would have a free and responsible search for truth and meaning as our fourth principle declared. But for various reasons, many of them were unwilling to use terms such as God, salvation, faith, or even religion when describing Unitarian Universalism to their children.

In his essay, Shaw states that "A religious quest that never finds anything is at best a failure. And if we decide in advance that nothing must ever be found or treasured, it is also insincere. The quest that never finds, that is prohibited from finding, may be based on the fear that commitment is the loss of freedom." In his defense of Liberal Christianity, he states that "Humanism may reflect a shallow enlightenment, a superficial rebellion against limiting and constricting forms forms of religion which fails to see their hidden depth and value." And he also states that "Universal theism plays on the surface of many traditions without entering into the depth of any one of them." This is something I have also found to be true. In fact, I think that is the reason that some UUs also attend services at Christian churches, Buddhist temples, and Pagan gatherings. They provide the spiritual depth that our congregations often lack.

Because our youth were rarely given glimpses into any sort of deep religious tradition, many of them didn't understand why their parents considered UUism important. Other UU youth found deep religious traditions in their high school youth groups, which have a united spiritual experience across our entire denomination that has been passed from generation to generation by the youth in our congregations. So-called "CON culture", referring to our youth conventions which are held yearly in churches across the country, holds a deep spiritual meaning for many of our youth and is focused on small group ministry, direct involvement in worship, deep community sharing and support, and a heavy emphasis on social justice. Many of these youth found traditional adult worship in our congregations to be greatly lacking in depth and meaning. Many of them were also theists and felt threatened by the fact that many UU adults often say disparaging things about theists and other religions, especially Christianity. When these youth got older, many of them left our tradition for other traditions where they could find a deeper spiritual connection with the congregation and the worship services.

But not all of them left. Some of those that stayed even went on the seminary and became ministers. There has been a jump in the last several years in the number of new ministers who were raised as Unitarian Universalists. We don't often think about it, but our youth - those people raised in our churches - are often the elders of our faith. Most of the adults in our congregation, including many ministers, have only been UUs for a fraction of their lives, but many of our high school youth have been UUs for as long as they can remember. As these youth started to become religious leaders in our congregations, they began to slowly change the worship services and the overall environment in our churches. This work is just beginning, but it is continuing steadily. We are, in fact, seeing the rise of something completely new to Unitarian Universalism: a fourth religious philosophy.

In his essay, Shaw said that the three philosophies should not be merged because they would not form a cohesive tradition. He, as a Liberal Christian, believed that a new religion could not be created because it would have no traditions to build upon. But this is exactly what is happening. A single Unitarian Universalist faith tradition is emerging that combines the reliance on reason and human endeavor of Religious Humanism, the acceptance of many paths and beliefs of Universal Theism, and the spiritual depth found in studying a single religious tradition. The first of these is shown through heavy involvement in social justice. The second is shown through our support for those who defy labels. (For example, a quarter of the seminarians I surveyed consider themselves to be fully UU as well as an adherent of another religion.) But it's the last of these three that is the trickiest, since to do it properly we must stop appropriating traditions, songs, and ceremonies from other religious traditions, even those that were our forebearers. UUism already has two rituals which are uniquely ours: Water Communion and Flower Communion. But what we need are more rituals to call our own. Luckily, those who were raised as UUs are making up for the lack of UU traditions by inventing their own. CON culture taught them the art of creating meaningful ritual, and they are putting it to good use.

Tomorrow is the first day of Chalica. For those of you who have never heard of it, Chalica is the Unitarian Universalist winter holiday. It began in 2005 and was thought up by a group of UU seminarians at the Vancouver School of Theology. This may sound like a new tradition compared to the traditions of ancient religions, but it is now 8 years old. How many of you have been Unitarian Universalists for less than eight years? I have. I started attending a UU church in 2007, and Chalica has been a part of my family's religious life since the beginning.

Chalica starts on the first Monday of December and runs for seven days, ending with a church service on Sunday. Each day is devoted to one of the seven principles and each day the family takes part in an activity related to the principle. At the end of each day there is a shared meal, a chalice lighting, and a reflection on the day's principle. Celebrating Chalica allows Unitarian Universalists to take part in the winter festivities without appropriating Advent, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or Yule. Of course, if a Unitarian Universalist is also an adherent of one of those religious traditions, then they should celebrate that tradition's holidays as well, but Chalica creates a shared tradition among Unitarian Universalists without the fear of cultural appropriation.

I invite all of you to take part in Chalica this year. If you don't own a chalice of your own, lighting a candle will do for this year, or you can make a simple chalice from a terracotta pot and a plate. Laine has prepared a Chalica brochure for those who are new to the holiday and there are copies in the back of the sanctuary, so please pick one up if you're interested. If we run out, Laine can print more; just see her after service.

I also invite all of you to get involved in the education and care of our children and youth. It truly takes a village to raise our children. No prior knowledge is needed and you will find that you learn just as much from our children and youth as they do from you. Being involved with our children and youth and living out your values both in the classroom or youth group and outside of it is the most important thing you can do for them. In the Southern Region of the UUA, also called the Hallelujah Region due to it being in the bible Belt, there is a saying among regional staff, ministers, and religious educators: Faith development is all we do, Unitarian Universalism is all we teach, the congregation is the curriculum. Everything we do at church is faith development: from committee work to social justice to worship planning. Take every opportunity to tell your kids that you are Unitarian Universalists and to tell them why. Instill a shared UU identity in them so that when they are lost and can't find their way in life they will have a firm grounding to return to. The curriculum we teach in our classes is of minor consequence in comparison. Religion isn't something you learn from a book, it is something you learn by doing. We must support each other by bringing our whole selves to church each week, by accepting each other with all our talents and flaws, by living our faith openly and honestly both at church and in the world, and by forgiving each other when we fail to live up to our own expectations. That is what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist.