Last week was the Central Midwest District of UU ministers retreat, the first in-person gathering in three years and the first multiplatform gathering ever.  I hadn’t realized how much I’ve missed collegiality until I got there. 

I got to see colleagues I haven’t seen since before the pandemic, as well as meet colleagues new to the area.  We shared the joys and sorrows we’ve experienced in our ministry over the past three year, and I realized JRUUC isn’t alone in the struggle to get some momentum back into congregational life. 

I got to walk in the woods of the retreat center, feeling the autumn breezes (and rains!), watching the early morning sun make the colorful leaves stand out even more, and simply being alone with my thoughts. 

I got to collaborate in creating worship for all of us, and attend morning prayer circles. 

And I got to be part of a kind of programming that was new to me, led by Johnnie, the director for International Indigenous Initiative for Transformative Collaboration (INITC), a First Nations shared platform for allowing cultural perspectives to be heard.  Johnnie had served as the wellness coordinator for the Standing Rock camp, and he shared some of the wisdom he has gathered throughout his life about creating and participating in culturally safe spaces through a process and structure of agreement.

Ask me about it when you see me!

In faith and love,

Karen

This week’s question: Do you think there is any core theological belief that binds UUs together

I’ve saved the biggest question for last!  I do believe there is a core theological belief that binds UUs together, and I could write thousands of words about it. 

Here’s the short version: I think our UU theology has three intertwined components: continuous revelation, covenant, and love. 

Continuous revelation means we believe that we can’t possibly know everything about god (the sacred, the universe, that which is bigger than each of us individually- insert your own word or words here), but we do know that we’re always learning more about them/it and that there’s always more to learn.

Covenant is the structure for how we learn together; we build that structure together based on agreements about how we will be with one another. 

And love grounds us as we receive/share/create continuous revelation and as we build our agreements.  These three components work together to form a theology that is uniquely ours. 

I also believe that our seven (eight) principles are how we embody that theology; if we covenant to affirm and promote those principles, then we acknowledge that individual UUs believe different things about the nature of god/the sacred/etc., but agree on how we will move through the world as we learn more about it. 

Our UU theology says that love is ever-present, that what we understand about it changes as we learn and grow, and that we make a container for how we learn and what we do about what we learn together through covenant.