The Time is Now
October 14th, 2007 The Reverend Anne Felton Hines
As I have mentioned before, I first learned of Unitarian Universalism back in the mid-‘60s, when I was a student at Immaculate Heart College, and had begun to question the existence of God. Distraught at the thought that what I had relied on all those years for comfort might be only a fantasy, my husband-to-be suggested we attend a church he’d heard of called Unitarian Universalist. I do not know how he’d heard of it, but look what he started!
You may also recall that when we did attend that church, I didn’t like it! The minister wasn’t there that Sunday, and I found the service to be insulting to Christians and completely lacking in inspiration. But I took some of their pamphlets back to my dorm room, and what I read convinced me that I had found a new religious home.
Still, it would be some five or six years before I would return to a Unitarian Universalist church. And then it would be in response to my five-year-old daughter’s questions about God, and the religious attitudes she was adopting from some of her friends at school. Like many of you, I began attending a UU church for the sake of my child, but I ended up finding a spiritual life-saver for myself.
It was a Unitarian Universalist church where I learned that a minister could stand in the pulpit and denounce a war that many in his congregation still supported.
It was a Unitarian Universalist church where I began to explore feminism, and found my voice as a woman.
It was a Unitarian Universalist church where I felt safe to turn my back on the god of my childhood, and later embark on a quest for a new vision of the Eternal.
It was a Unitarian Universalist church where my husband and I found hope on the Sunday following Martin Luther King’s assassination.
And it was this Unitarian Universalist church where I found strength the morning after my mother died.
I began attending a Unitarian Universalist church for my daughter, and discovered that it was I who needed it after all.
For those of you who were not raised UU – and that would be the majority of you, you have your own stories of how you found your way here.
But most people are not as fortunate as you and I, and unless we as a religious movement change our approach, most people will die never hearing anything about this Faith of ours.
There are approximately 220,000 Unitarian Universalists in the United States, which is less than one-tenth of one percent of the population; one-tenth of one percent. That’s pretty tiny – especially when you consider that in the 1850’s there were more than 500,000 Universalists alone. And we know how prominent the Unitarians were in the early days of this country; there’s hardly a town in New England that didn’t have one. Thomas Jefferson once said that “someday every thinking (person)” would be a Unitarian. So much for his accuracy in predictions!
Why have we become – and remained - so small a denomination? The Rev. Peter Morales, whom I quoted in my sermon a couple of weeks ago, after he’d conducted a workshop on congregational growth, thinks it’s primarily because we aren’t welcoming enough to those who come through our doors for the first time on a Sunday morning; and I don’t disagree with him. We could do much better with that I’m sure.
But I think it’s also about what happens – or rather, doesn’t happen – before those visitors even reach our doorstep. How many times have any of you told someone you’re Unitarian Universalist, and had them know what you’re talking about? I suspect not often. Instead, the response you receive is a quizzical look and a “Huh?” Or they’ll ask, “Is that that Rev. Moon’s church?” – meaning Unification. My least favorite response is, “Oh yeah…isn’t that where you send in 10 bucks so you can be the minister at a wedding?” People are more familiar with the church on paper – Universal Life – than with Unitarian Universalism – a religious tradition that goes all the way back to the Protestant Reformation – and some would say even to the founding of the early Christian church.
And that’s a shame. Because when you think of what it was you were searching for when you found a Unitarian Universalist church, and the blessings that this faith has brought your life, why in the world wouldn’t we want to make sure that it’s available to everyone? And if everyone doesn’t know about it, then it’s not available!
Unitarians and Universalists have chosen to keep our faith hidden, hoping that people will sort of fall into it, as so many of us did. We haven’t wanted to advertise ourselves; we’ve even tended to downplay what church we attend when talking with friends or co-workers – because Heaven forbid we should appear to be proselytizing!
But I can almost guarantee you that whatever it is that brought you to this faith, is also an issue for someone else you know. Whatever it is that compels you to come to church on Sunday morning, or join a Small Group Ministry, or sing with the choir, or even serve on one or more of the many committees we have at Emerson – is an experience that hundreds of other Americans are still seeking, for which they would gladly join a UU congregation if they only knew we existed!
A couple of months ago, several of our long-time members spoke during a worship service about what they’d learned in life. Al Trumpler used his time to “evangelize” about the benefits of being part of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. He pointed out in part that the church is “a platform,” a jumping-off spot from which we show others and our community what we stand for and what we believe in” – even though “sometimes this has cost us dearly and exposed us to hate crimes.”
Our many UU congregations have a message and a hope for peace and justice for its people;”… he said: we are part “of the means by which the world can be saved for all of humanity.”
Why would we keep such a church secret?
The Rev. Daniel S. Schatz speaks of the “good news” (or “gospel”) we have to share: “a faith of the free, of seekers,…of depth,…of openness, of diversity, of acceptance, of celebration.”
Why would we keep that “good news” a secret?
And Rev. Stephon Papas shares the story of a religious leader who noticed one of his members no longer attending worship services. He sent another member to inquire why, and learned that the person wasn’t attending any longer because the religious leader’s sermons only raised more questions. The disaffected member said that the religious leader “leads us out into deep waters and then leaves us there to drown!”
Upon hearing this complaint, the religious leader sent the messenger back to the man, saying, “Tell him that our religion does not exist as a life preserver, but rather to teach people how to swim.”
Most of us began attending a UU church not because we wanted someone else’s answers given to us as a life preserver, but because we wanted guidance in finding our own answers; we wanted companions in our own quests for truth and meaning.
And there are thousands of others longing for such companions. Why would we keep ourselves hidden from them?
The Unitarian Universalist Association wants us to stay hidden no longer. And so they have embarked on a major marketing campaign – some of which began a few years ago in various areas of the country. Last week this full-page ad appeared in Time magazine; some of you may have seen it.
At the top it reads: “Nurture Your Spirit. Help Heal Our World.” And in the middle of the page, in very big, bold letters, appears the question: “Is God keeping you from going to church?” Then, in smaller print: “Maybe you’re uncomfortable with the idea of God – or at least someone else’s idea of God.
Yet maybe you yearn for a loving, spiritual community where you can be inspired and encouraged as you search for your own truth and meaning. This is a church, you ask? Welcome to Unitarian Universalism.”
Had my future husband not known about Unitarian Universalism 40 years ago, this ad would have brought us to it. For I know of no other religion in the Western world that welcomes those “uncomfortable with the idea of God.” Even if you put your faith in a Presence you call God, is it not remarkable to find a tradition that is so open that it embraces not only theists, Christians, Jews, pagans, and Buddhists – to name a few; but agnostics and atheists? And even more remarkable is that each of us is accepted not only with whatever theological label we have chosen, but are encouraged to remain open to other possibilities as well, knowing that tomorrow some new experience may unfold, pointing us in another direction on our spiritual path.
Our world has reached a point that tempts us to turn away in despair and cynicism. For those of us who long for a world of peace and compassion and intelligence, it can seem overwhelming and lonely these days.
But we have found a faith that believes in putting our moral values of equity, peace, and absolute love, into practice. And we have found a religious home that welcomes us fully, wherever we are on our spiritual journey. Here we can both “nurture our spirit” and “help heal our world.”
We must not allow this faith to remain a secret!
May we let our “good news” be known – not only to those who walk through our doors, but to all those who might otherwise never reach our doors. They need us now; our world needs us now. There has been no more urgent time to share the Good News of Unitarian Universalism than now.
Let us make it happen.
© 2007 Anne Felton Hines. All rights reserved.
