Envision UUFH in 2012
Presented to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington
February 4, 2007
Rev. Paul Ratzlaff
A traveler in Ancient Greece had lost their way. Seeking to find their way again, they asked directions from a man standing beside the road. The man was no less than Socrates. “How can I reach Mt. Olympus?” asked the traveler. To this Socrates is said to have gravely replied, “Just make every step you take go in that direction.”
What’s our Mt. Olympus? What is our dream for our congregation? Who do we want to be five years from now, in the year 2012? How do we make certain that our steps take us where we want to go?
This morning I want to encourage our thinking about what we – all of us - want this congregation to be as we move into the future. Before doing that, however, I want to speak to those of you who are visiting us for the first time, or who may be so new that you haven’t yet decided to join this community of faith. I want you to understand that this very process of engaging the whole congregation in deciding our shared future illustrates one of the defining traits of our liberal religious faith.
Nobody decides the future of this congregation for us, the members of this Fellowship. There is no outside body that directs us – no pope, no bishops, no presbyteries. We decide who we want to be. Our first UU principle affirms the “inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Each person’s input will be considered and welcomed, because we trust that we will make a better decision through the process of talking among ourselves, offering reasons for our points of view, and critiquing those reasons in the search for the best answer for the most people. Our fifth principle affirms, “The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process.” Yes, indeed. This morning’s sermon is my contribution to that democratic process. As a UU minister, I do not tell you what you must believe. Instead I offer my best understanding as an invitation for you to share with each other, and with me, your best understanding – trusting that together we will make better decisions than any of us would make in a vacuum.
Today is essential in our liberal religious faith. I also want to say to those who are new to us that you can contribute to this process as well. We welcome your fresh eyes. You bring your own set of wishes, dreams and values to this community. We need you to introduce those to the mix. As a living organism we need your fresh input. Otherwise we grow stale. I issue you a special invitation. Take what I say, and see how it connects or not with your hopes and dreams. Speak your reactions. Join our process of determining what we want this Fellowship over the next five years.
Before addressing specific areas of our congregation’s life, I want to speak of a broad cultural change in how we present ourselves to the larger world. I would like to see us more confident and enthused about our religion. I know there’s strong ambivalence about this. It’s expressed in jokes we make about ourselves. What do you get when you cross a UU with a Jehovah’s Witness? Someone who rings your doorbell for no apparent reason. That joke illustrates the inarticulateness some of us feel when a co-worker or neighbor asks, “so what is Unitarian Universalism anyway? Is it really a religion?” I would love it, if five years from now, more of us felt confident in our ability to explain our religion. I would love it if each of us had our own “elevator speech,” so that if someone gets on the elevator on the tenth floor, and asks us about Unitarian Universalism, we can give them a succinct summary of our faith before we reach the ground floor. An acceptable elevator speech is not, “I’m so glad you asked that question. Oh, I forgot something important…” as you press the fifth floor button to escape.
I fear that fundamentalist religion has so dominated public opinion, that we fear being seen as “religious” because people will assume “religious…must be some kind of fanatic.” I would love for us to claim our mission as educating others that there is a liberal approach to religion that is not fanatic, the welcomes the findings of science, and skeptical questions, that celebrates human sexuality in its many forms and expressions. I would love for us to be able to say proudly, “Yes, indeed I am religious. Now let me tell you what I mean by that.”
And when we say what we mean, we speak positively about what gives us hope and inspires us to act in the world. We will affirm the seven principles in our own words. It’s because every person counts, and because what we do to one, has consequences to all, that I commit myself to acting in the world in a way that enriches life for every person on this planet.
We would do this with enthusiasm. I’ve just finished Barack Obama’s first book, Dreams From My Father. I’m talking this up every opportunity I get, because I’m excited about how clearly and directly he talks about racism in America. I’m enthused because I think his book will promote clarity about how skin color works in this country. Have you heard a piece of music, seen a movie, read a book, that you can’t stop talking about because it’s touched you in a profound way? I would love it if you shared your experiences of this congregation and this faith when you have been touched deeply. In 2012, I’d love it if most of us were proud ambassadors for our liberal faith.
Would you like to see this enrichment in how we speak of ourselves and our faith?
Now to focus on specific areas - For a congregation to be sturdy, solid and vital, it, like a chair, needs four equally strong supports. The four are powerful worship, deep caring, inspiring education and transforming social action. I’ve said them in a certain order, but each must be equally effective to enliven a congregation. Like a chair, each must carry its weight or the chair wobbles, or topples over. So, if we were terrific at being a community, at caring for one another, but do a poor job of worship, education and social action, we will become another social club. If we do an excellent job at social action, but not the other legs, we will become an advocacy group, not a congregation. Together the four areas – worship, caring, education and social action – make a religious congregation.
I invite you to consider, along with me, these four areas five years from now. What do we want to keep from the present that continues to serve us well? What would we like to see changed? Or added to? How would we like the community at large to think of us?
Begin with what I’m calling “worship” i.e., our Sunday service. What do you value and want to continue to see in 2012? What might you want to see changed? Can you imagine enrichments, additions to what we do currently?
When I dream a little about this, I imagine the main Sunday service continuing much like it is at present – excellent music centered around the choir; a mix of ministerial and lay-led services; a celebration that includes all ages for at least part of the service; joys and concerns and silent meditation; lighting the chalice; a variety of themes from the spiritual to personal growth to social/political issues.
However I get excited envisioning this main service enriched by an additional service that would, for sure, have the same underlying values, but would have a different flavor. I’d love to have an in-house rock band as the foundation for a more energetic service than at present. I’d love for us to experiment with offering our basic values but in a different package. How about you?
I envision a rich variety of spiritual offerings, many taking place in smaller group settings. In this way “worship” would infuse more of everyday living. I’m not sure how to phrase this, but I’d love it, if in the year 2012 our congregation had a group of what might be called spiritual guardians/friends. In other words, people who were committed practitioners themselves who would share their experiences with others. For example, the Stony Brook Fellowship has such a teacher in Linda Mikell who facilitates regular guided labyrinth walks there. Would it not be wonderful to have such a facilitator here? I see a variety of teachers, each skilled in a practice that she or he finds spiritually meaningful. A leader of journaling, a ritual leader of earth-based worship, a meditation leader, a leader of chant, and so forth. We currently have a cluster coordinators council that sees to the administrative life of our committees. How about a council of spiritual leaders that sees to our spiritual well-being? Obviously this is tricky because authentic spiritual leaders are often humble as well; unwilling to put themselves forward. Regrettably some who do promote themselves are sometimes driven by something other than spirit. Nevertheless, would our congregation not be enriched by having such spiritual lay leaders, recognized and celebrated?
One of the aspects that I would like to see carried forward is the deep sense of caring that many of you have for one another. I’m inspired by the depth of community that many of you feel. You describe this as your “family” – a chosen family, especially when one’s family of origin may be sparse, far away, or for other reasons distant. I’m touched by the commitment some of you have made to be health proxies for one another; to administer another’s finances when a beloved member is no longer able to do that for her or himself.
The challenge is always how to extend those feelings to newcomers. The temptation is to draw the boundaries tight; when what a healthy congregation needs is very permeable boundaries that invite new people into the circle(s) of caring. I don’t mean to be critical here. Any one of us can only welcome so many into our intimate circle. At some point, as others come, we feel overwhelmed. So there’s a natural very human tendency to keep our intimate circle small. Once our circle satisfies our needs, there’s a natural tendency to close it.
How do we foster deeply satisfying community, and welcome newcomers, the stranger in?
The challenge of a growing congregation (especially when there’s more than one service) is to maintain the feeling of intimate community, even when you’re part of a larger organization with people you do not know.
I’d love to see UUFH in the year 2012 being confident that even though there are faces you don’t know, there’s a deep trust that these are all people who share the underlying mission of this congregation and Unitarian Universalism as a whole.
I’d love to see us think of ourselves as a small town, with several neighborhoods. Each neighborhood would provide the kind of thick community that UUFH has at its core currently, but instead of one core, there would be several neighborhoods. All would be members of the town. All would be confident of their UU identity and commitment to this Fellowship, but they would meet our very human need for intimacy in their neighborhood, and would not keep others out of the town, because our intimacy is “full-up.”
I can imagine that if we were to offer a different style of service, it might lead to an additional sense of community for those who found that service touched them. It would be like adding a neighborhood.
I’d love for people in Huntington and along the North Shore to know that there’s a remarkable kind of loving that takes place at 109 Browns Road: a kind of loving that Christians call “agape love,” the Jewish philosopher calls “I-Thou, the Buddhist call “metta” or lovingkindness, the Sufi Kabir says “God is the breath inside the breath.” In other words there would radiate from the way we are with one another a kindness, a warmth, an intent listening and presence, that would offer the world a taste of the beloved community.
Education is the third area I invite us to reflect on. How do we want to be in the year 2012? How do we want to be known in the community?
I’m excited that the Religious Exploration Committee has set as its short term goal enhancing our children and youth’s identity as UUs. It’s not enough that they learn about other religions, worthy as that is. How much richer their experience will be if they can articulate what we UUs believe with pride in our heritage, in our present work, and in our future. This is a worthy goal for us adults as well.
We are already doing a number of things to increase our children and youth’s connection with our congregation. We have developed the Growing UUP program to enrich the identity of our 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. A trial “club” for late elementary school kids has been experimented with. We are encouraging our Coming of Age youth to deepen their connections with UUFH; and we are enriching our senior youth with additional activities island wide. All of this is good, and I hope to see the fruits of this effort over the next years.
I would love to see in the year 2012, more participation of our older youth in our overall Fellowship life – Sunday services, Board of Trustees, social action projects. Would it not be possible to have a “youth trustee” on our Board?
I would love to see an active young adult group. When I consider my own spiritual development in my twenties and early thirties, I remember some of the most open moments in my life. I was asking all kinds of questions; exploring all kinds of religious possibilities; trying on different practices. What a role our congregation could play in this very alive period in our young people’s lives.
I’d like to think that in the year 2012, the word on the street would be that UUFH is a “happening” place, or whatever the jargon is of that time for an alive, inspiring, accepting place to explore, to encounter, and to engage life.
Do you see how these aspects could come together? A lively, interactive service, a panoply of spiritual offerings, a happening young adult world?
The fourth leg of our chair is social action. Five years from now, I’d like to see us continue our Beyond Our Walls program, fully funded, perhaps even at 10% of our pledge – in order to support a number of you in doing work in the community to further our vision of a just and equitable society. How about you? What would like to see? How would you like us to be seen?
I don’t see specific social action programs in the year 2012, although I foresee that similar issues will confront us – the lack of housing, poverty, racism, heterosexism, and so forth. While I don’t know the specific focus we will take five years hence, I see enthused congregants, committed and working to create the kind of world in which we believe. To reiterate, a vibrant faith needs all four legs. If we are not working toward our vision of the world in a hands-on way, we are in the words of the scripture, nothing but sounding brass, making a loud noise, but signifying nothing. “An old Pentecostal grandmother used to say to her children, ‘Children, it doesn’t matter how high you can jump or how loud you shout in church. It’s what you do when you come down that really matters.’” Amen. In 2012, I want people in the community to say of us, “they actually live what they preach.”
Powerful worship, deep caring, inspiring education, and transforming social action – these four legs will support a “happening” place. What do you think?
Rev. Alison Cornish will lead two sessions with us in a couple of weeks. On Friday evening, Feb. 16th we’re inviting RE families to be part of our envisioning. There will be a meal together, activities for children, so that parents can engage each other on these questions. The next day, Saturday, the 17th, Alison will facilitate the conversation for the whole congregation. Then Sunday, the 18th, there will be a President’s forum to continue the conversation and begin to strategize about how we get there. All the details are in the most current Beacon. As many of you know we have a Master Plan for improvements to this building. For the moment, we’re setting the Master Plan discussion aside. But we will pick it up again soon, as we move toward a shared vision for our liberal religious community.
What a wonderful time to participate in this community – a time of reflection, a time to dream, and a time to share. This all reflects our deep faith in each other, in the UU heritage we have been entrusted with, and our confidence going forward that we do and will make a difference in people’s lives.
Together we can move mountains. | 
