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QUOTATIONS
Are you already a UU? www.beliefnet.com offers an interesting "Belief-O-Matic" quiz that can help define your preferred religious tradition.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/
Sermons on the Web: http://www.allsoulschurch.org
We are a Welcoming Congregation
"When the kings had died, a pauper, barefooted and hungry, came and sat on the throne. "God," he whispered, "the eyes of man cannot bear to look directly at the sun, for they are blinded. How then, Omnipotent, can they look directly at you? Have pity, Lord; temper your strength, turn down your splendor so that I, who am poor and afflicted, may see you!" Then--listen, old man!--God became a piece of bread, a cup of cool water, a warm tunic, a hut, and, in front of the hut, a woman giving suck to an infant. "Thank you, Lord," he whispered. "You humbled yourself for my sake. You became bread, water, a warm tunic, my wife and son in order that I may see you. And I did see you. I bow down and worship your beloved many-faced face!"
~ Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
The creative process of ordering is an ongoing journey toward beauty. The inner understanding and outward expression must be integrous. The act of breathing is a sacred art.
~ Navajo wisdom
I forgive myself for not being God. And I forgive God for not living up to my expectations.
Yes, I reckon a whole lot more forgiveness would do us all a lot of good.
And what is forgiveness but open-hearted acceptance of what is?
~ Rev. Mark Gallagher, in a UU sermon, Me and My Shadow
You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating of flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to life up my life a trifle. Heaven knows, one's life can stand a little of that.
~ E.B. White in Charlotte's Web
A major Unitarian Universalist "sin" is a sophisticated resignation which prevents action. It is, in Martin Luther King, Jr's words: "a paralysis of analysis."
~ Quoted by Rev. Rick Davis
For us, religious experience is direct and personal... we do not try to make one another fit a given pattern of experience. We discover together that there are religious dimensions in all our varied human experience.
~ A. Powell Davies
Humans wrote the Bible,
God wrote the sky.
When people come to speak to me, whatever they say, I am struck by a kind of incandescence in them, the "I" whose predicate can be "love" or "fear" or "want", and whose object can be "someone" or "nothing" and it won't really matter, because the loveliness is just in that presence shaped around "I" like a flame on a wick, emanating itself in grief and guilt and joy and whatever else. To see this aspect of life is a privilege of the ministry which is seldom mentioned. ~ Marilynne Robinson in Gilead
"A myth is a false account bearing truth."
I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of man whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anythng else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I would not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.
~ Thomas Jefferson
One light, many windows.
One truth, many metaphors.
One hope, many paths.
One soul, many lives.
...It appears to me, one gradually formulates one's religion, be it what it may. A person has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one's religion is never complete and final, but must always be undergoing modification.
~ D.H. Lawrence
"Many who wander from the beliefs of their childhoods find their own paths to truth and meaning. Unitarian Universalists recognize that there are many paths, and we each must find our own way, guided by reason, conscience, and personal experience. Together we support one another's journey. Come meet some fellow travelers."
Modern Sermon on the Mount:
Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
~ Eugene V. Debs
The impulse to seek God overflows the banks of a single religious tradition.
~ Elaine Pagels
A Heated Debate Flares in Unitarian Universalism
- New York Times, 5/17/03
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religious movement that pitches a large enough theological tent to include atheism, religious humanism, liberal Christianity, non-Christian theism and much else. New York Times, writer Richard Higgins discusses UUA President William G. Sinkford's hope that Unitarian Universalists will reclaim a "vocabulary of reverence." Higgins reports that "in recent sermons, talks, and articles, Mr. Sinkford said he was struck by the fact that the association's Purposes and Principles... contain not one piece of traditional religious language."
Make of yourself a light.
~ the Buddha
Pluralism is not just another word for diversity. It goes beyond mere plurality or diversity to active engagement with that plurality. Religious diversity is an observable fact in American life today, but without any real engagement with one another, neighboring churches, temples and mosques might prove to be just a striking example of diversity....Diversity alone is not pluralism. Pluralism is not a given but must be created. Pluralism requires participation, and attunement to the life and energies of one another."
"Pluralism goes beyond mere tolerance to the active attempt to understand the other.....Although tolerance is no doubt a step forward from intolerance, it does not require new neighbors to know anything about one another....A truly pluralist society will need to move beyond tolerance toward constructive understanding."
"Pluralism is not simply relativism. It does not displace or eliminate deep religious commitments. It is, rather, the encounter of commitments."
"The process of pluralism is never complete but is the ongoing work of each generation. In America, we might go further to say that part of the engagement of pluralism is participating in the 'idea of America.'"
~ Diana Eck
Our Prayer of Thanks
For the gladness here and where the sun is shining at evening on the weeds at the river,
Our prayer of thanks.
For the laughter of children who tumble barefooted and bareheaded in the summer grass,
Our prayer of thanks.
For the sunset and the stars and the women and the white arms that hold us,
Our prayer of thanks.
God,
if you are deaf and blind, if this is all lost to you -
God,
if the dead in their coffins amid the silver handles on the edge of town, or the reckless dead of war days thrown unknown in pits, if these dead are forever deaf and blind and lost, Our prayer of thanks.
God,
The game is all your way, the secrets and the signals and the system; and so for the break of the game, and the first play and the last, Our prayer of thanks.
~ Carl Sandburg, 1946
Love is holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really what matters...
If [the old man] could stand up out of his chair and out of his decrepitude and crankiness and sorrow and limitation, he would abandon all those handsome children of his...and follow after that one whom he has never known, whom he favored as one does a wound, and he would protect that child as a father cannot, defend him with a strength he does not have, sustain him with a bounty beyond an resource he could ever dream of having. If he could be himself, he would utterly pardon every transgression, past present and to come, whether or not it was a transgression in fact or even his to pardon. He would be that extravagent. And it is a thing I would love to see. ~ Marilynne Robinson in Gilead
COUNTING GOD
The assured voice on NPR spoke of the man
who made his life work to count and name
of all the gods of India—
every deity of tribe or clan or village,
each rock and dung hill spirit,
all of the many names for every apparition.
After many years he had to swear defeat,
no one can count and name them all—
there are more gods than Hindus.
Jew and Muslims are appalled
and vow there is but one God
to die or kill for.
Christians quite concur,
but opt to slice Him into Three,
then bind Him back together.
Some Amerinds know each tree and rock,
each crawling thing
is and has the Spirit.
And there are Buddhists who do not care
if God be one or man,
or even if he be at all.
This quibble over name and number
engages a murderous passion,
a lethal zeal and worse—
stands between Is What Is,
and us, restless and lonesome.
~ Patrick Murfin, in We Build Temples in the Heart (Skinner House Books)
When there is nothing to guide me in the present, help me, O God, to be guided by the insights of the past. Let not breavement blind me to what is good and lovely still: let me see it through my tears. Unitl I again I see it plainly.
~ A. Powell Davies in The Language of the Heart
The name Unitarian originally came from the belief in the "unity" of God rather than a Trinity. The name Universalism originated with the belief in "universal" salvation, the idea that everyone will be saved and no one is eternally damned. Unitarians and Universalists merged in 1961. Contemporary Unitarian Universalism has no creed. The most fundamental of its principles is individual freedom of religious belief.
A heretic is one who is able to choose.
- Forrest Church in A Chosen Faith
Knowledge is free. Bring your own container.
Love is not concerned with whom you pray or where you slept the night you ran away from home. Love is concerned that the beating of your heart should kill no one.
~ Alice Walker
What does the Eternal ask of you but to be just and kind and to live in quiet fellowship with your God?
- Micah
Love is holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really what matters...
~ Marilynne Robinson in Gilead
...Salvation is by character; character is not an end, but a means, and salvation lies in being saved from sin here, not from punishment in the hereafter. Hell and eternal punishment are held to be inconsistent with the concept of a loving and all-powerful God.
- Mead and Hill in A Handbook of Denominations in the United States
The Unitarians challenged the belief in the trinity which was held by the majority of Christians. The Universalists questioned the doctrine of original sin, claiming rather that the "elect" for whom Christ died were indeed all people, not just a few. ~ Forrest Church
...It appears to me, one gradually formulates one's religion, be it what it may. A person has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one's religion is never complete and final, but must always be undergoing modification.
~ D.H. Lawrence
Universalism struck hell from the theological menu; Unitarianism removed original sin.
~ Forrest Church
Emergency UU Grace
We give thanks for Being
We give thanks for Being Here
We give thanks for Being Here Together
I can believe a miracle because I can raise my own arm. I can believe a miracle because I can remember. I can believe it because I can speak and be understood by you.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
There was a dawn I remember when my soul heard something from your soul.
I drank water from your spring and felt the current take me.
~ Rumi
Skepticism has its place in the religious life, but to glimpse the Spirit and to be gladdened by Grace require more than a sophisticated skepticism - These require a kind of radical authenticity which, in Rilke's words, lets "our hidden weeping arise and blossom."
~ Rev. William F. Schultz
Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the Internet, is UU
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/UU.html
Universalism has become a harmonious body of theists, naturalists, humanists, mystics, Christians, and non-Christians who find great significance and meaning in a universal approach to life.
~ Mead and Hill in A Handbook of Denominations in the United States
It is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Small as is our whole system compared with the infinitude of creation, Brief as is our life compared with the cycles of time, we are so tethered to all by the beautiful dependencies of law - That not only the sparrow's fall is felt to the uttermost bound but the vibrations set in motion by the words that we utter reach through all space and the tremor is felt through all time.
~ Maria Mitchell
Ritual opens human life to ‘marked time’ - the sacred times of special seasons, events, and relationships.
~ Creek wisdom
The bond of unity in a church is not a shared belief but a shared worship. Worship (worth-ship) is an act of reverence for what is regarded as of great or supreme worth. In the ultimate analysis, this is but another way of capturing the real meaning of love... Worship in a Unitarian setting becomes a shared act of celebration expressing our love for things of worth - those values by which and for which we live, in whatever picture-language they may be symbolized.
~ Phillip Hewett, Canadian Unitarian minister
Cherish your doubts for doubt is the attendant of truth; it is the servant of discovery. Truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger.
~ Robert T. Weston
Seek for your God within yourself, not in persons of bygone ages......
~ R.W.Emerson
Everything is futile but we must do it anyway. Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.
~ Mohandas Gandhi
The Saturday, April 8th, 2000 edition of The New York Times includes religion editor Gustav Niebuhr's article, "A Civil Rights Martyr Remembered" about the murder of the Rev. James Reeb in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Niebuhr interviews the Rev. Clark Olsen who, along with the Rev. Orloff Miller, was with Reeb when all three were attacked on a Selma street by a white mob on March 9, 1965. Reeb died on March 11, 1965. The three UU ministers were among the many clergy people who responded to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's call to Selma in the wake of the vicious attack upon marchers several days earlier at the Edmund Pettus bridge.
Look up, and not down; Out and not in;
Forward and not back; And lend a hand.
(Edward Everett Hale)
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge—
That myth is more potent than history.
That dreams are more powerful than facts—
That hope always triumphs over experience—
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death."
--Robert Fulghum, 2003
UU Minister and author of many books, including
All We Really Need to Know We Learned in Kindergarten.
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
-Thomas Paine
We believe that salvation is for everyone or no one. The Universalist side of our tradition posits an Infinite Spirit that holds every creature in loving embrace. Universalism excludes no one. Our Unitarian side has a compatible emphasis, affirming the inherent worth and supreme dignity of every person, contending that even the shaggiest and shadiest among us is redeemable. Our stubborn belief in the bedrock preciousness of individuals ought never be taken for granted: It is not shared in large portions of the world, and it is frequently threatened by bigotry and intolerance here in America. It remains a distinctive, critical hallmark of our way of doing church.
~ Tom Owen-Towle, UU Minister
Hospitality--the mission of every Unitarian Universalist community--relates to larger questions of salvation as well. If someone approaches a Unitarian Universalist and inquires, "Are you saved?" we're likely to respond in one of several ways. "I don't know; it's not my call to make. A greater power than I will need to render judgment!" Or: "You shouldn't take my word for it. I could tell you anything, so here are some references to check out. These folks will give you a more rounded assessment of the kind of person they sense me to be." Or: "Our faith claims that ‘Am I saved?' isn't the right question to ask or answer. A more relevant one is, ‘Are we saved?' We affirm that human regard should embrace a larger reality than our own hides. In short, liberal religion focuses upon universal rather than individual salvation."
~ Tom Owen-Towle, UU Minister
"What does the word 'soul' mean? ... No one can give a definition of the soul. But we know what it feels like. The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves, something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the world of goodness, truth and beauty. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it--to remain children of light." ~ Albert Schweitzer
Unitarian Universalist Church
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