Living Faith
January 2012
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” —Frederick Douglass
Articles
Nothing Short of Evangelism
In 1990, a hundred and thirty American and Canadian Unitarian Universalist congregations formed one-to-one covenantal relationships with the same number of Transylvanian Unitarian churches. Later this Partner Church Program widened to involve close to four hundred churches on both sides of the Atlantic. Read more »
Feeding Faith
Some of my most intense experiences of faith have come at the small window that overlooks a field and a ridge, which I’ve dubbed Freedom Ridge. It is at this prison cell window that I have come face-to-face and, quite literally, nose-to-nose with spiritual teachers that have given me glimpses no human teacher could. Read more »
The Marker’s Meaning
Some years back I read a story in the Indianapolis Star. It was a Sunday paper kind of an article about finding happiness. “The truth is,” says the column, “the real secret to happiness isn’t a secret at all. It’s just not that pleasant a truth. Nor does it rhyme. Read more »
We Are All About Saving Souls
What are we doing here? What is our business? The answer is simple: we are in the business of saving souls. You heard me right: what we are about is saving souls. Read more »
From Your Minister
“I often think of humankind as a long procession whose beginning and end are out of sight. We, the living, are an evolutionary link between all life that has gone before and all that is yet to be…” Read more »
REsources for Living
But we know what Dr. King really cared about from his actions and his words while he was living. And so they decided to honor his words: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” by creating a day of service. Read more »
Birdfoot’s Grampa
The old man must have stopped our car two dozen times to climb out and gather into his hands the small toads blinded by our lights and leaping, live drops of rain. Read more »
How Do I Live a Good Life?
Perhaps the central question of religion for Unitarian Universalist is the question of how to live a life that is ethical and compassionate, and leaves the world in some measure better than how we found it. Read more »
Hope
December 2011
“What is to give light must endure burning.”—Viktor Frankl
Articles
You Are the Light of the World
“Make of yourself a light,” said the Buddha upon his death. Like Jesus, he knew that he was light, and people were drawn to him. Read more »
Hope: The Theology of Despair
The truth is that I am not an authority on hope. Until recently I didn’t even know what hope was: I thought it was something akin to a wish, a pipedream. Read more »
Hope and Sorrow
I had a very different sermon prepared for Christmas Eve, and I tossed it just a few hours before the service rolled around. A more sparkling, effervescent sermon, it was. Read more »
From Your Minister
According to Joshua Friedman, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago, “All the visible world that we see around us is just the tip of the iceberg.”… Read more »
REsources for Living
Have you seen the musical Into the Woods? It’s a Broadway show in which a variety of storybook characters—Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack (of the Beanstalk), etc.—meet up together in an adventure in the woods,.. Read more »
Looking For a Sunset Bird in Winter
The west was getting out of gold, The breath of air had died of cold,When shoeing home across the white, I thought I saw a bird alight. Read more »
Alcoholism
Step Three: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”
People say this step is a great tool in pain management—asking a person to turn her or his will and life over to the care of God, as we understood Him. In my alcoholic bottom I cringed when I first heard this approach. I said, “This is not what Dr. King taught. Dr. King taught people to sacrifice in order to help make the world a better place.”
For me AA’s, “Let Go and Let God,” conjured what Catholic Bishops working on the side of the landed elite told the peasants of Latin America.
Wedding Ceremonies
There is no one “right way” to structure a wedding ceremony, but there are ways to create a pleasing flow that allow you to most powerfully express you love and commitment. Just as ingredients are added in a general order when cooking, your wedding will be a more meaningful and enjoyable experience for you and the congregation if you give careful thought to how it will unfold.
Here is a typical traditional wedding ceremony to help couples start thinking about what you would like. Feel free to add, remove, embellish, and rearrange elements according to your wishes and the suggestions of your officiant.
Note: Some churches and officiants consider weddings to be an extension of their worship tradition and, as such, may only perform weddings using a set ceremony. Check with your officiant for details.
For more information about weddings in general, see Weddings 101.
Weddings 101
Now that you’ve made the decision, it’s about time to start thinking about the wedding. Weddings come in many shapes and sizes: big and small, formal and casual, and they join couples of many kinds in many places with many different types of people officiating.
What is a Wedding?
A wedding celebrates the love shared between two individuals. It is also the ceremonial act during which two people commit to one another publicly. A wedding is a joyous occasion, a day of recognition and affirmation of the great love a couple shares. It provides a way for the couple’s community to affirm their support for that relationship and the family the couple builds together, and for the couple to affirm the importance of their community in upholding their life together. And even beyond that, a wedding is a sacred ritual that reminds us that the Holy is present wherever there is great love.
Marriage both acknowledges an emotional bond between two people, and strengthens that bond one that is made in the company of a community of people, usually family and friends that acknowledge that bond and agree to support the couple in their joined lives. While weddings can and should be fun, they are also one of the most important occasions in a couple’s life together, and they can get complicated. Yet even with this “stressful adventure,” a wedding ceremony is a unique and beautiful celebration that expresses all that is in the hearts of the couple, their friends and their families.
CLF Nominating Committee Seeks Leaders
The Church of the Larger Fellowship Nominating Committee seeks CLF/CYF members to run for positions on the Board of Directors beginning June 2012. Read more →
Thanks! You Did It!
In an enormous show of support, CLF friends rallied to meet the CLF’s $30,000 Year End 2012 Challenge Fund. Gifts and new pledges during that time were matched by an unprecedented initiative taken by the CLF Board and a very special group of CLF friends.
Memorial Services
Whatever may happen after death, we know that our lives continue on in the memories of those who loved us, and whose lives we touched. Memorial services are celebrations of life, at time to honor the loved one who has passed, and to affirm the bonds of community, memory and hope that sustain us in sorrow. Memorial services bring healing most powerfully when they call to mind the full reality of the person who has died, treasuring the person’s gifts and honestly acknowledging their failings. The leader of the service can create a narrative of the deceased life by listening to stories that family members and close friends have to tell and weaving those stories and the themes they bring out into the eulogy. However, it is also powerful to invite those in attendance to share their own stories, memorializing the person who has died in a very personal way.
Below are examples of elements you may wish to include in a memorial service.
Coming of Age
Across religions and cultures people honor the transition from childhood to adulthood with ritual. For Unitarian Universalists this coming of age ceremony is usually the culmination of a process that involves the young person meeting with a mentor, studying the history of our liberal faith and, most importantly, creating a statement of beliefs to share with their congregation. Rather that asking young people to affirm a creed, we ask them to think carefully about what they hold to be true, and the principles that guide their choices. Families which do not belong to local congregations may, however, wish to create a ceremony with and for a young people who are coming into their full capacity to choose their religious beliefs. Also, check out this podcast from The VUU where our guests talk about Coming of Age.
Below are examples of various elements you may wish to include in a coming of age ceremony.
Baby/Child Dedications
When a child joins a family through birth or adoption, not only is that family forever changed, but also the community in which that family lives is widened and enriched. Because baptism is conceived of as a sacrament that washes away the stain of original sin, and Unitarian Universalists affirm the inherent worth of every person rather than their innate sinfulness, we do not baptize children (or adults). We do, however, ceremonially welcome babies and older children into this world, and into the community which holds them, offering our lifelong commitment to the nurture of each child. A baby dedication is a joyful ritual which affirms that each new person is a gift and which celebrates the covenant of family and community.
Below are examples of various elements you might wish to include in a baby dedication ceremony.
