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Post by grammyj64 on Dec 8, 2014 16:12:53 GMT
Is anyone here UU? I am at a point in my life where I am thinking of making a change and UU beliefs seem to align with mine. What I'm curious about is the form of worship, the music, what kind of studies are done. Where does the Bible fit in?
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Post by flanz on Dec 8, 2014 21:03:14 GMT
Hello! I was raised CAtholic, left the church at age 40 and was unchurched and never thought I would be part of any sort of church community ever again. After 6 or 7 years I went to my first ever UU service at a congregation just 3 blocks from home, and knew immediately that this was the place I had been needing (while not knowing I needed it!).
In our church the God word is rarely used, but there are Christian UUs, Buddhist UUs, atheist UUs and people of all different faith systems. That is what I love about UUism. We respect one another's ideas and it's a liberal religion which is basically about what happens during our time here on earth, in this lifetime. We don't claim to know that there is an afterlife or not, but IF there is one, we believe that every one is admitted, not that it has to be earned. That is the universal(ist) part of UU. The Unitarian part refers to the fact that if there is a higher power it is one, not a holy trinity. Most of us recognize Jesus as a great teacher like so many others, not the literal son of God. At my congregation of about 110 people, one of the ladies just had a first ever meeting of folks interested in starting a Christian Fellowship within our congregation. I don't know if anyone attended, but if so, it would be a small number. However, many congregations in the northeast are far more Christian, if I understand correctly.
We have a fabulous atheist minister whose services are extremely spiritually rewarding and intellectually inspiring. Worship consists of welcome, singing hymns with really great messages, a message for all ages focusing on the children. Then we take a collection of food for a local charity, and sing the kids out to their religious exploration classes with "This Little Light of Mine." Sermon, sharing of joys and sorrows, more singing, passing the collection basket, benediction "and now our service truly begins."
Sorry, I don't have time to write more now, getting ready to leave on Wed morning for 2.5 weeks, to a totally diff. climate. If you have curiosity about UUism, I strongly encourage you to check out UUA.org for lots of basic info, and to visit all congregations or fellowships in your area. Apparently their "flavor" varies a fair bit. And please let me k now what you think!
Oh, we do a lot of social justice work and care deeply for the planet.
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Olan
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by Olan on Dec 8, 2014 21:30:08 GMT
flanz thank you for sharing. Have a great trip.
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gsquaredmom
Pearl Clutcher
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Jun 26, 2014 17:43:22 GMT
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Post by gsquaredmom on Dec 8, 2014 22:03:52 GMT
The churches are all different. The one we visited excluded children from the service itself. We wanted to be there as a family, but that was their rule. They had a guest speaker who lectured. No singing. They asked us our income range (we refused) and they gave us examples of tithes at different income levels. Felt weird. I am sure others are different. I liked uu just fine in concept until I visited that one.
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