Has Unitarian Universalism outgrown congregational polity?I respond:
The fundamentalist independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ have 1.1 million members in the USA and are far more completely congregational in polity than the churches of the UUA are with our less than 0.2 million book members, as they don't have any central or regional organizations comparable to the UUA and our districts. So, if we with our numerical stability that is not growth decide congregational polity is no longer for us, it would absolutely not be because we have outgrown it but, rather, because our goals and/or our willing participation have changed.
Or maybe the question is concerned with maturity rather than numbers? "Have we matured as an association to the point that we need central control rather than local freedom?" Seen from the angle of maturity rather than growth, the question is only ludicrous.
If and when we exercise our congregational polity to eliminate congregational polity, it will be because we have decided that we no longer want the responsibility that comes with freedom - not because we have "outgrown" it.
2 responses:
Never mind the Christian and Churches of Christ - the Baptists are also congregational polity (and our denominational cousins, at least in North America - Roger Williams was cast out from the Puritans, who became the Congregationalists, from which split the Unitarians.) Wikipedia cites 33 million Baptists in North America alone - so congregational polity hasn't slowed them down.
Ditto. The fundemental religious value of UUs is freedom. Advocates of diminishing the freedom of local congregations are advocating another religion, not Unitarian Universalism.
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