Unitarian Universalism, The Next World Religion
Doug Rogers of the Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation dropped me a note pointing me to a sermon he delivered at his church recently. Absolutely worth reading in its entirety, but here's a few concluding paragraphs ...We have all the elements of a great religion, one that could bridge the gap between modern science and ancient wisdom. One that really could bring peace to the nations and peace in our hearts. We have both a clergy and a membership who, together, comprise an expertise in both science and religion that is unmatched. We have a culture of open discussion, and we also are willing to change and have changed our service format, music and words. We could be the force that reinterprets spirituality in our time.We lack organization. We are stuck in the worst possible model - every church for itself, but with a centrally educated clergy and a weak national association dominated by a professional staff (although that part is changing). We don't know what our message is, we are unable to separate important issues from distractions, and we have the foolish idea that every individual has the right to pull the organization in his or her particular direction. Sometimes I wonder that we exist at all.
It's ironic that we are quite clear on advising individuals on how to organize their individual lives, how deal with grief or loss, how to prioritize and move forward, but we have not yet figured out that the same issues and problems exist at an institutional level. As an institution, we need to do the work that a weakly functional individual does when he or she sees a professional; that is to review, refocus and move forward with purpose.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 5:39 PM
2 Comments:
I feel like I've heard/read this exact sermon a dozen times. I'm not saying it's not an acceptable sermon, or an interesting one, but I feel no real energy from it, or vision, or inspiration.
Would you be willing to say more about what you got out of it?
My feeling is that this sermon, or sermons similar to it, need to be heard dozens of times, in slightly different ways. The danger is that the message in this sermon will be intellectually accepted - ho, hum, been there done that heard it before - and it will be ignored like the other similar sermons you've heard before.
I think this sermon - and sermons similar to it - speaks to the fugure of our denomination, or its lack of a future.
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