Dear friends,

The holidays have come and mostly gone, but we still have the last days of Kwanzaa and the New Year to look forward to as 2023 comes to a close. While we could easily do a look-back to see what we gained and lost this last year, let’s instead look forward.

With the new year comes new challenges. Many of those challenges will be addressed at our upcoming mid-year congregational meeting, where you get to see and experience the democratic process in action. You also get to see our congregation walk the walk and talk the talk of our spirituality. Praxis.

If you’ll indulge me, let me tell you a bit about my own journey to this congregation. Just like most of you, I came to Unitarian Universalism from another faith background. In fact, the first time I heard of UUs, I thought it sounded weird. Not just the faith, but even the name. It reminded me of couscous. The odd part, though, was not just the name but what they did. My friend was telling me that she was on the political action committee of the UU church and they were working to help free a political prisoner. I thought it was cool, but also odd that a church was doing what was taking a pretty radical stance. Radical in some ways, but really just standard liberal ideals that are rooted in democracy and freedom for all.

Nonetheless, a liberal church was not something I was used to, and often felt the two words together were oxymoronic. No church I’d ever been to was liberal in its ideals, thoughts, or even the consistency of its beliefs. Some aspects, maybe, but not overall. What I’ve come to realize is that UUs tend to be very liberal minded because we operate in a sea of diverse political and spiritual thoughts in our congregation.

One of the things I love about being a UU is that we all see the world somewhat differently, but are still united in our eight principles, despite our different backgrounds. We saw this reflected in our services throughout December. While one member is lighting the advent candles during Christmas, another friend is lighting the menorah. The next week we are talking about the pagan holidays, and then later we’ll have a service that’s not even religious but a holiday sing along.

When I first started coming to the church, one of the things I liked about it was that you never knew what you’d get. Each week could be very different. I grew up Roman Catholic, and for those lapsed Catholics out there, you can attest to the fact that little changes from week to week. With the exception of a short five to ten-minute homily, everything else has been scripted years in advance and often performed exactly how it’s been performed for around two thousand years (give or take a century). The UU church is not like that.

The fact that the church is accommodating to so many humanists, myself included, is a great example of how we differ from other faiths. I may not believe the things the person next to me believes, but that’s what makes our journey interesting. While some might hold Christian beliefs, others hold Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan, and other beliefs that are not contradicted in our eight principles.

We see these principles every week at the beginning of the service, but we might not take in what they mean. When we recognize each other’s inherent dignity, we are upholding the first principle. When we seek justice and compassion in our relations with each other, inside or outside our congregation, we’re upholding the second principle. When we accept each other’s beliefs or spiritual paths, we’re upholding the third principle and fourth principles. If we participate in the democratic process, within our congregation and in society, we’re upholding the fifth principle. When we hope and work towards peace, justice, and liberty for the oppressed people of the world, here or overseas, we’re upholding the sixth principle. When we recognize that all of our paths are connected, we’re upholding the seventh principle. Lastly, when we work against racism and other oppressive systems within our society, we’re upholding the eighth principle. As you know, we don’t have a creed in our church, but we have a covenant that we say to each other each week: To dwell together in peace, seek the truth in love, and help one another. When we uphold our eight principles, we’re doing this service to ourselves and the larger community, and acting out our faith.

So when we say that the UU faith is not like other faiths, I think that’s true. There are certainly similarities between our faith and others, but it’s not the same as any other denomination. For that matter, it’s really more than just another denomination but a way of life that goes further than Sunday morning.

Those are the reasons I am a UU. When I decided to join, it was after growing up in a Catholic background. I never really left Catholicism, and still consider myself a secular Catholic, which meant that the religious aspects of Catholicism weren’t speaking to me as much as the rituals. Along the way, I dabbled in some other denominations of Christianity, but I found the practitioners to be hypocritical and often hateful with smiles on their faces, so I stopped going to those churches. In fact, I was so turned off by most of these churches that I stopped going entirely, until I met a lot of UUs.

Where did we meet them? At anti-war protests. At League of Women Voters meetings. At university discussions. At peace vigils. At civil rights marches. At talks against religious intolerance. At humanist meetings. At rallies for political prisoners. At plays. At bookstores. In short, I met UUs in the community that I was a part of where they were living their principles. Walking the walk and talking the talk.

So when Lauren and I were looking to find a faith community that shared our beliefs, joining the UUCP was not a hard decision. In many ways, I was already one before I became one, which I suspect is the case for most of you. Is this spiritual? Is this religious? Sure. Not in the traditional way most of us have grown up with, but it’s more real than anything else I’ve experienced and more spiritual than I’ve known in very religious communities. Again, we walk the walk and talk the talk.

With that I mind, I hope to see you at the upcoming congregational meeting. As our society grapples with our own fragile democracy, it’s nice to be in one environment where we know democracy is strong. It’s also nice to be in a space where our just principles are center stage, and where we put our beliefs into practice through the democratic process in a loving community. Until then, I wish you all a Happy New Year.

❤,

Scott

Scott Satterwhite