by Paul Kent Oakley, Student Minister
Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship
October 17, 2010
Good morning! Thank you for being here this Association Sunday morning.
I’d like to take a moment to introduce someone to you. My partner Walter Lazenby is with us this morning. I’ll ask Walter to raise his hand so you can know who he is. Walter and I have been together for 24 years. For nearing a quarter century, Walter has encouraged me and, in the well-known phrase, has loved me “in sickness and in health.” Please welcome him as you have made me welcome here. …
1961. In 1961 I turned one year old and learned to walk. This congregation was nine years old then, formed as a member fellowship of the American Unitarian Association. The building at the corner of University Avenue and Elm Street was already feeling cramped, so this growing congregation was in the process of adding onto that building. And after more than a century of moving in the same direction, after more than a century of considering off and on whether and how to do it, the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America consolidated into a single organization: the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, better known as the UUA. It is this Association that we honor and celebrate this Association Sunday.
Now, my partner Walter tells me that he can remember his own christening. I have laughed at the idea, yes, in front of him, but I do not doubt him. His memory has proven reliable, and he has held and preserved common memories for many friends and relatives. Most of the time, though, our true memory is more limited. I don’t actually remember what happened when I was one year old. But with family pictures and stories standing in for memories, my early life feels like my story. Other family stories from long before I was born became part of my own story by hearing them and taking them into myself – how my parents met; the way my grandfather learned to swim when his mean drunk of a father threw him in the deep end of a farm pond; the fact that one ancestor came to the US in the early 1800s as a stowaway… Similarly, most of you here today don’t remember from your own experience this congregation’s story in 1961. Can I see a showing of hands – how many of you were part of this fellowship in 1961? …I see six! Wonderful! How many of you were members of other Unitarian or Universalist congregations then? …I see seven! Let’s honor with a round of applause these here today who carry within them parts of our common story. [Applause] Some of us were not yet in this area in 1961. Some of us were not yet Unitarian Universalists. And some here this morning were not yet born. But we each glean elements of the fellowship’s story that speak to us and help shape our identity as part of this community. And the consolidation of the Unitarian and Universalist organizations in 1961 is part of our common story.
Sometimes it’s hard even for those of us who are middle aged and older, to remember what a difference nearly a half-century makes. In 1961 earth’s human population was just 3 billion, less than half its current level. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing but had not yet brought about the landmark Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968. The Vietnam War protest movement had not yet begun. The Immigration Act of 1965 had not yet brought the level of diversity to this country that is now simply assumed. Oral contraception had just been approved, and the sexual revolution and the opening of the workplace to career women was still ahead of us. The Stonewall Riots and the onset of the Gay Rights movement would not come until near the end of the 1960s. We’d not yet had to endure the assassinations of that era: John F Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy. And others. Nation states were largely protectionist, and the globalism of today was the stuff of utopian or apocalyptic fiction. And the information explosion was sheer fantasy. For those of us who do not remember, it is important to flesh out our sense of identity with history.
In a time that hadn’t yet experienced these momentous things, the Unitarians and the Universalists saw consolidation of their organizations as a necessary process. The decline in membership in the Universalist Church, for example, threatened the long-term survival of Universalism at the denominational level. Yet the two denominations approached the final agreement with great optimism, expecting that their numbers would increase quickly. In 1961 the combined adult membership of the congregations of the new UUA was 152,000. A few years later the UUA Committee on Goals projected that, if certain proposals were adopted, adult membership should grow – possibly to as much as half a million by 1980. Half a million! Well, the proposals weren’t accepted and in 1974 our numbers had actually dropped. The Commission on Appraisal’ report summarized it this way, “We primed the pump and embarked on new programs confident of growth. But it did not happen. So far as growth was concerned, we took the ‘Great Gamble’ and we lost.”
We had no growth spurts, but we have not shrunk, unlike the Mainline Protestant denominations, which have hemorrhaged members since the 1960s. Today our adult membership is 156,000. But we live in a time when the growth area, according to recent Pew surveys is not religion but non-religion. Atheists, the unchurched, and the spiritual-but-not-religious are growing in numbers and most religions in America are seeing hard times, but we have maintained our population. Not only that, when we look at atheists, the unchurched, and the spiritual-but-not-religious, we see many kindred spirits. Some of us might have used those terms for ourselves at some point. Some of us still do. In other words, yes, the rise of non-religion may sound ominous to us as religious people with a message of hope to share with the world. But we can also see it as an unprecedented opportunity.
We are part of a living tradition. Things change over time, and we celebrate that! We are part of a covenantal tradition. We do not have a creed, a list of beliefs we must submit to, a correct way to worship, or a leader to revere as God’s representative on earth. Instead, we have a commitment to be together with each other and in the world in positive ways. Some Unitarian Universalist congregations have a written covenant. Set wording of what the congregation agrees to live out together. Sometimes these are used in Sunday services. This fellowship does not have a formal, written covenant. But there is an implied covenant here. Take, for example, the words of the vision statement:
In a nurturing and democratic atmosphere of openness, mutual respect and friendship, the Carbondale Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is a welcoming, diverse congregation of individuals who share values and seek to celebrate life, support each other in our inward and outward search for spiritual meaning, provide a liberal religious presence, and strive for compassion and justice in our community and our world.That statement implies a commitment: to nurture; to democracy; to openness; to respect; to welcoming; to diversity; to mutual support; to spiritual search; to liberal religious presence; to compassion; to social justice. That’s a lot of stuff you’ve committed to! Did you know that you had signed onto all that? It may not be a formal covenant. But this vision shapes the way we are, together, in this fellowship.
The member congregations of the UUA are also in covenant with each other. Did you know that? In a formal, written and voted upon way. Do you know what I’m referring to? …Yes, the Seven Principles. Sometimes we think of them just as a list of values we hold in common. And they are that. But they are not just values, they are our shared commitments. They are part of the Bylaws of the Association, voted on and approved by the delegates of the member congregations, and periodically reviewed to determine whether they still are the best wording we can agree on for our shared commitments. Remember how they begin?
We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote…
That’s right, the Seven Principles are not just the values that we hold in common. They are the values that this fellowship has made a commitment to affirm and promote, together with all of the UUA member churches, societies, parishes, fellowships, congregations, communities, and other names we choose to call ourselves. This is not some ersatz-creed. This is a call to action. A call we share with other congregations. We covenant to affirm, maybe that’s words, and promote, that’s definitely more than just words…
In this congregation, consider the ways we honor our covenantal commitment to promote the values of the Seven Principles. If I were your school teacher, I might say, your homework is to make a list of at least five ways this fellowship is fulfilling each of the commitments of the Seven Principles. No, it is not homework, but it would still be a good exercise. You may be surprised at the ways we work to fulfill these commitments.
In addition to providing the forum in which to negotiate our covenanted commitments, our Association stands at the center of this group of 1,050 member congregations, developing resources and setting priorities to help our independent congregations work toward common goals. The UUA develops curricula for Religious Education, currently expanding the Tapestry of Faith series, and provides continuing education for religious educators. Through the UUA Bookstore, it makes Unitarian Universalist books and pamphlets available to individuals and congregations. The UUA this year has joined with the UU Service Committee to sponsor aid to victims of the floods in Pakistan through the cooperative arrangements already developed between the UUSC and Pakistani organizations. The UUA maintains many resources on its website, from worship resources, to organizational and planning resources. The UUA helps congregations work their way through the Welcoming Congregation process. It has anti-racism/ anti-oppression resources for congregations. And, of course, the UUA credentials Unitarian Universalist ministers, through the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. The UUA keeps the national media informed about our values and activities and works to inform and remind lawmakers of the positions the member congregations voted to support at General Assembly. The list of things our Association does on our behalf and in support of us all goes on.
Under the leadership of our current Association president, Peter Morales, UUs turned out en masse to protest the Arizona laws that effectively turned police officers into immigration officials charged with arresting people who appear foreign, whatever that means, if they are not able to produce proof of citizenship on the spot. Several of our ministers, seminarians, and lay leaders were arrested in those protests. Under the same banner of “Standing on the Side of Love,” Morales’ leadership calls UUs to stand for marriage equality and immigration reform. These are two of the most relevant ethical and social justice issues of our day. These are issues of religious values that affect countless Americans.
Also among the many initiatives being led by Peter Morales are growth initiatives. Particularly under the heading of “A Religion for Our Time,” President Morales is encouraging our congregations to intentionally seek to become even more inclusive than we are, becoming a religion whose face matches the multicultural, multiracial reality that the cultural and economic developments since 1961 have made into our everyday reality. We believe we have a message the world needs to hear. “A Religion for Our Time” aims to help us present that message in ways the world will listen to. Each congregation is in a unique cultural and racial setting, but all our congregations need to grow to have the resources we need to meet our service and justice goals. This congregation now has 178 members, but growth is slower than was anticipated in the strategic plan. We need to grow. Our association is with us in this goal and needs our support in order to exercise economies of scale to provide us what we cannot provide for ourselves.
I would like to close with the anonymous words of a hymn,
Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won.
Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none.
And by union, what we will can be accomplished still;
Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none.
Amen and Blessed Be.
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