Dear Ones, 

I’ve had two recent experiences that gave me a chance to remember who we are as a faith tradition.  The first was our annual General Assembly, which was based on the theme “Meet the Moment” – a clear intention to to inspire and comfort us in these days of chaos and violence.  It was a beautiful reminder that we have power as a faith tradition – power to offer each other companionship and healing, power to advocate for those rendered powerless by systems of oppression, power to show up and resist, power to move the values of peace and justice into the world.  The second was a conversation with a new visitor, who had never attended a UU congregation before.  They had all kinds of great questions, prompting me to think more intentionally about who we are and what we believe.

These two experiences have prompted me to share a few things about our faith tradition that I want to offer you toward your own comfort/inspiration:

• Today’s UUism is the product of the consolidation of two faith traditions that were historically Christian – Unitarians believed that there was only one god (not a trinity) and Jesus was a human teacher/prophet, and Universalists believed that god was a loving parent who couldn’t possibly bear sending their children to the torture of hell.  We carry those histories into how we express our beliefs today, and we’ve expanded on those ideas as we’ve evolved – there are many understandings and expressions of god and the holy, and love is at the center of everything we believe and do.
• We come together in worship on Sunday mornings.  The word “worship” is derived from the Old English “woerthship.”  So when UUs worship, we’re coming together to share and celebrate that which is worthy – which may be different for each of us, but collectively often includes welcome, community, and social action.
• We draw wisdom from many sources – which means that we get to learn from a wide variety of other faith traditions.  We have opportunities to share our faith journeys with each other, and we have the responsibility to listen to and learn from others’ stories.  We build our personal theologies (understandings of what is sacred) in relationship with each other, our history, and our experiences.  And they change as we learn and grow.
• This means that covenant is important.  When we share these deeply personal stories, we make ourselves vulnerable to each other.  We need to know that our stories will be honored, that we can have wildly different ideas about what is true and express them in our shared community – and that in that kind of community, we’re bound to make mistakes and we can admit and repair them, and continue our relationship.
• And we have a UU theology – of which that covenant is a part.  As a faith tradition, we share some beliefs, which have been expressed as values most recently, and as principles before that.  Our belief in them is a kind of theology – an expression of what is sacred.  And part of that theology is expressed in action – UUS believe that, whatever our personal truths/ theologies are, we’re called to live them in the world.

I very much welcome any conversations you’d like to have about your own reflection on my words, your faith journey (or whatever language you use), your connection to Unitarian Universalism and/or JRUUC, or anything else these thoughts bring up for you.  Please email me if you’d like to talk – or stop by Java Cat some Tuesday!

In faith and love, Karen

[July 2, 2025]