"Is There Unity in Our Diversity?"

Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne
January 24, 2010

Reading   Central and Uniting Statements  UUA Commission on Appraisal
Our reading this morning comes from the report by the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Commission on Appraisal delivered in 2005 entitled, Engaging Our Theological Diversity:  “The UUA is an intentionally non-creedal religious body, and individual freedom of belief and conscience are central to UU values; thus we cannot make universal statements of faith that apply to all of us individually.  Yet it is possible to suggest statements that are central and uniting.  Here are a few:
As Individuals:
• We base our convictions upon our own experience of the depth dimensions of life, which is richer and more complex than any words or concepts we use to describe it.  Individuals experience this depth encounter in relationship to many and different aspects of life and name it differently.  For some, the most powerful encounters are with aspects of themselves, or mentors, or others within community; others find them in the natural world or in inspired writings or ideas.  Some define what they encounter as “God” or “mystery”; some use other words. Such profound encounters often have the power to transform us as we cannot willfully transform ourselves.
• We embrace a sense of possibility—an openness to what is unknown – the not-yet, the new, the different—an openness that fosters qualities of authenticity, curiosity, creativity, courage, and compassion, all of which nurture hope and healing in our world.
• We are committed to being people of character. We value education, examples, and disciplines that strengthen our ability to be responsible citizens of the earth and our society—honest and committed, kind and generous, reasonable and persistent, courageous when need be and able to be true to our values in the face of social pressure to be otherwise.
As Communities:
• We claim a vision of religious community that protects and respects individual freedom, fosters acceptance (historically, “tolerance”), and supports an active quest for greater understanding and deeper meaning and purpose.  We strive to create a place where the authority of the individual conscience is acknowledged and cultivated, where disciplined inquiry is encouraged a community friendly to wisdom from the sciences and social sciences as well as to the wisdom of many faith traditions.
• We share a conviction that wisdom emerges from the process of dialoguing across our differences in community. In dialogue we are challenged to examine our assumptions and to be open to growth and transformation, and to develop skills in communication that serve our world well.
• We are committed to religious community as a place where we work together for a more just and compassionate world. It is not enough to gather in a safe, supportive sanctuary for ourselves alone. We must be visible and present to those who need us. Our experience of religious community strengthens us to go forth into the world empowered to make a difference.
Toward the World:
• We acknowledge a primary responsibility to value persons and to serve humankind—to affirm and promote “justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.” Therefore we are moved to challenge societal assumptions and practices that are counter to those values.
• We affirm a vision of the natural world as an interdependent web, of which we are inextricably a part—not as dominators but as companions and at times protectors. Our cosmology draws heavily from the teachings of science. We acknowledge an ethical responsibility to foster sustainable use of the world’s resources and to live in harmony with all beings.”

Sermon            Is There Unity in Our Diversity?                      Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne

I love to tell stories, so I was drawn to a wonderful story of a spider named Anansi, who also loved to spin a tale, in the center section of the latest UU World magazine.  For those who have not yet read Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom I’ll give you a brief version of it:
“Anansi, the spider can regale you for hours with stories full of wonder. Because he is so nosy, Anansi knows almost everything about almost everybody. Almost. But Anansi wants to know everything!

So, one day, he implores the Sun God, “You see everything and everyone!  Won’t you share your great wisdom with me? The Sun God says, “Anansi, I will put all the wisdom in the world here in this clay pot.  You must share this wisdom with everyone.”  Anansi looks deep into the clay pot and sure enough, he sees sights and hears sounds he did not know existed. “This is too good to give away. I will keep this great wisdom for myself.”
To hide the clay pot Anansi starts climbing a tree holding the pot in front of him. The climbing is hard! Anansi wishes he had nine limbs!  His daughter sees what a hard time Anansi is having. “Father, it would be easier if you tied the pot to your back. Then all your limbs would be free for climbing.”

“She is right! But why is it some young pup thinks of this, when I who possess all the wisdom of the world did not?”  Anansi gets so angry that he throws the pot to the ground.  All the wisdom of the world comes flowing out of the pot. Some falls here, some falls there. No one gets all the wisdom, but everyone gets some.  This is why, even today, wisdom is everywhere.”
:::
The story of Anansi is a wisdom tale from our new Religious Education curriculum called “Tapestry of Faith.”  After the story, the teacher might ask her 6th graders, “What was in Anansi’s clay pot? Can we ever know?”  This is not a trick question.  I think UUs would have an answer.  We borrow this tale from a nature-honoring religious tradition because it resonates so strongly with Unitarian Universalist values.  We honor diversity and believe no one has all the answers, not even the Sun God.  And, we believe in sharing our individual pieces of wisdom with each other in our religious community so we can learn from each other.  I can tell you, just ask anyone at coffee hour their opinion of the morning’s sermon, and you’ll get one!  UUs like to share their stories.  Indeed, if you get a UU started on a subject, she might not stop until she’s told you the whole saga of why it’s important to her!

In each New UU class I lead, we share some of our individual stories with each other.  One week we briefly tell our families’ church history; another week we summarize our own spiritual paths and so on.  One reason for doing this, is so newcomers can get to know each other, and so I can begin to learn their life stories and to ascertain some of their spiritual needs.  Sharing stories commonly happens very early in the formation of new relationships.  In Courting, 2 people are trying to find out if it is OK to go further with the other person.  They tend to look for common interests first, and if they find enough to feel safe that they won’t have to change too much, they’ll explore the differences – to see if the other person can provide something they want or need.  In a New UU class, the new people are trying to make sure Northern Hills Fellowship is spiritually safe for them and to determine if we have what they need to help them with whatever is going on in their lives.

After we go around the circle telling our histories, we talk about what that exercise felt like and what we learned.  Someone usually finds a similarity between their story and someone else’s.  Sometimes that connection is a little convoluted – a former Mormon might correlate how it felt when he told his family he was leaving their church to the story of a former Catholic nun who gave up her vows – going underneath the particulars they find similarities.  Always, though, we are struck by the diversity of backgrounds around the table.  People have always come into Unitarian Universalism from every spiritual and religious direction, and honoring our diversity and the individual search for truth and meaning are among our central values. 

Today, many people find Unitarian Universalism through Belief-O-Matic.  This is a test you can take on the BeliefNet.com website where after answering 20 questions about your concepts of God, the afterlife, human nature, etc. Belief-O-Matic will tell you what religion ought to consider practicing.  Obviously, BeliefNet oversimplifies in order to be able to classify all the world’s religions in the answers to 20 questions, and I don’t agree with some of the things it says about us.  But, that aside, people who come into our churches have already self-identified that they have some things in common with UUs.  So, if the author of Belief-O-Matic can list 20 things UUs commonly believe, why we can’t we?
:::
In our “Being a UU Parent” class last year, one mother was wondering how to tell her neighbor, a devout Christian, that she had found a church which would give her daughter a good perspective by introducing her to many of the world’s religions.  The neighbor was a bit skeptical of this approach and said, “I want my children to know what they believe so they aren’t fooled by another religion.  What do Unitarian Universalists believe?”  Our new member parent asked the class, “What do I say after I say ‘I'm a UU?’.”  Well, it is expected that a new church member might have a little trouble with that question.  All of us at some time have felt her discomfort with our level of knowledge of the exceptional UU religious approach.  But, it’s not encouraging that long time UUs still squirm trying to answer that question.
In the class, another parent offered, “Belief is not what UUism is about.”  That statement is a typical UU response and relates to the nonexistence of a UU creed.  We don’t have one set of beliefs which all members must acknowledge.  However, that doesn’t mean UUs don’t believe anything.  So her answer simply begs the question.  Another parent ventured the answer, “UUs don’t share beliefs, but an ‘array of values’.”   Well, saying UUs have values not beliefs is like saying a tomato, technically, is a fruit and not a vegetable.

So the first parent pressed the class with this further question, “What is the center of UU religious life?”  This really is the heart of the matter  In our Building Your Own Theology class the other night, we discussed definitions of religion and theology which would be used throughout the course, and one student said, “I see religion as the center of the wheel, the thing that holds all the other parts of life together.”   For religion to be powerful enough to hold our lives together, it has to be more than an intellectual belief; it has to have the strength of conviction; it has to be able to compel us to act in accordance with our principles, values, beliefs, or whatever you want to call them.

We have a reading by Lao Dzuh in our hymnal, called “The Space Within,” in which he uses the wheel metaphor:
“Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes that make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.”

Many of Lao Dzuh’s poems in the Dao de Jing seem a little abstract and open to different interpretations.  Hearing “Usefulness comes from what is not there,” is confusing at first, but one lesson we might take from this is to keep an open mind, that our jar can only receive new knowledge if it isn’t already full.   However, remember that Lao Dzuh says that profit comes from what the wheel is asked to carry; he doesn’t say to never put an axle in the hub of the wheel.
 
Another member of our parenting class gave this answer: “We believe and live as if life matters,” and heads all around the room nodded in agreement.   So, there is a belief many if not all UUs share.  When pressed for an answer about UU beliefs, some UUs cite the 1st and 7th Principles: “We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person; and respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”  That is certainly a good answer, and other UUs create their own short answers for the belief question.  But why is it UUs so often hem and haw around and don’t give their short answer first? 
:::
Are UUs simply afraid of giving offense or are we in denial that Unitarian Universalism is a “real religion”?  I don’t think it’s either of these things, really.  It is rather a failure on our part to articulate a principle of unity in liberal religion.   A principle of unity could be called a common story, a shared system of beliefs, or a theological center.  The concern over there not being an explicit shared understanding of our religious center, motivated the UUA’s Commission of Appraisal to undertake an extensive study guided by the question, “Where is the unity in our theological diversity?”  Their methodology was not to invent or create what it should be, but rather to discover through surveys and observations what the underlying unity actually is.

One important finding was that while UU congregations are autonomous, in the first four decades of the UU Association there was an increasing desire to have a “more organically connected community of congregations.”  The Commission noted the following trends:

• Many historical churches modified their names to include both Unitarian and Universalist, and we use Unitarian Universalism to describe one common and definite thing.
• The vast majority of UU churches have adopted the UU hymnals and the flaming chalice as a symbol for our Association and as a ritual component in worship.
• The adoption of the 7 Principles as the common expression of a common faith, prominently placed in orders of service, at the head of the hymnal, and reformulated for children to learn what UUs believe.

In practice, the Chalice and the Principles have emerged as real symbols of unity in our congregations.

Maybe it is part of the curse of liberal religion to have to try to find common ground amongst people who are so committed to individual freedom of belief.  The issue has been with us since our beginning, and there have been many attempts to name our commonalities.  In 1963, when the UU Association was just 2 years old, the report entitled The Free Church in a Changing World concluded: “certain valuations have characterized almost all religious liberals throughout our history, such as:

• This worldly concerns: focusing on the here-and-now rather than the hereafter, and developing character rather than abrupt conversions
•  Strong ethical responsibility: efforts for social reform
• Deep commitment to democracy: a religion which respects individuality and dissent, concerned with insuring the integrity of all.
• True community is religiously-based: a religion that strives to transcend individual differences by an inclusive vision

On the level of core values, I don’t think we’ve changed all that much since 1963, but let me give you another way to think about our shared values by connecting them to the Flaming Chalice, the symbol of our faith.  There are many artistic versions of it, but the original one shows two interlocking circles representing our Universalist and Unitarian heritages surrounding an off-center flaming chalice and open inclusive space.  These four elements represent our progressive church.

Universalist values – Acceptance, kindness, and love tell us of an inclusive and embracing way of life which has good intent at its heart.  We live in a generous and generative universe.

Unitarian values – Freedom, reason, and creativity affirm the potential for everyone to grow in wisdom and integrity.  You can trust your core potential for growth in mind, body and spirit.
The Flaming Chalice – since its inception in World War II, it has been a beacon of hope.  We live our ethic through service and engage the issues of our times through public witness for justice.  Aware of the interrelatedness of all life, we hold ourselves responsible for creating a more wholesome future for our children.

Sacred Space – As the reading from the Dao de Jing tells us, we always keep open space in our fellowship and in our worship.  It is an active, openness, providing a womb for emerging possibilities and in which we help each other grow and co-create a meaningful, beloved community.
:::
The liberal free church, and in particular our Unitarian Universalist expression of it, embraces a broadly based theology which welcomes diverse religious narratives and encourages creativity in our building of beloved community.  We do have a common set of values, but the lack of a clear Association-wide articulation of how Unitarian Universalist theology, ethics and practice relate to each other makes it difficult for individual UUs to put it all together.  We know we have religious communities because we need one another to comfort us when we suffer, to celebrate us when we grow, to challenge us when we are complacent, and to correct us when we are wrong.  But now I will add to this list that we need religious community to help us understand our communal identity, and to help us co-create meaning and take action in the world.

The next time you are working on your short answer for the “What do UUs believe?” question, think about going beyond the 1st and 7th Principles, the bookends.  Why not add something about the 3rd – acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth?  Go a little deeper and think about its implications like: people are not unconnected selves but depend on relationships; that we are co-creators of our world; and that it takes a whole church to build a theology.   Maybe you’ll want to say something about the 5th Principle – the right of conscience and democratic process – that to us democracy is not only a political value but a religious one as well because in our religious community we shape relationships which in turn help shape us, and that in our liberal church, we learn that we do not have to believe alike to love alike, and what we do together becomes central.