On Sunday mornings, people gather in a beautiful assembly hall in a mid-century building situated on Mt. Curve road in Minneapolis. The assembly hall has rows of benches facing a stage that has a piano, an organ, and a podium on it. People find seats in the assembly hall and chat with their neighbors as they wait for service to begin. At the sound of a bell, the service began.
In many ways this service was very similar to any Christian service. We sang an opening song, a candle was lit on the stage, we shared our joys and sorrows, a collection was taken, a passage was read, a message was delivered, we sang some more, the congregation recited things in unison, the congregation responded to the pastor as one, and at not time was there made any reference to God or the Divine. Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Church.
The Unitarian Universalist Church or UU formed from the 1961 merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America and is committed to living in the tensions between liberal Christianity and Humanism. The UU church makes no claims about God, Jesus, or the afterlife, it holds no creed, it emphasizes personal experience and the changing nature of religious understanding, and teaches the need for us to come together and share our wisdom and experiences.
UUs trace their history to the earliest followers of Jesus, at least those who rejected his divinity. These people, who would later fall into the Arian category, would be declared heretics during the Council of Nicea in 325 CE. Unitarian ideas reemerged in 16th century Switzerland, and later found strongholds in England, Hungary, and Italy. The movement spread widely through the United States, gave birth to transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau, and then experienced a decline in numbers (like liberal Christianity in general) during the 20th century. Today most American UUs live in the Northeast, yet the metro area with the second highest number of UU congregations (after Boston) is the Twin Cities.
Many humanists call the UU Church home. Humanism is being good without God. And while there are Christian Humanists and Muslim Humanists, these terms refer to people who stress the human aspects of their religious traditions. Here I will use humanism as a synonym for secular humanism. The First Unitarian Society calls itself "a heritage of forward-thinking humanism at home in the here and the now", and while I don't know the proportion of humanists in the FUS community, I will make the (unjustified) assumption that it was 100%. Given my current fascination with humanism, I knew a trip to FUS was in order.
Having recently read a couple of books about Humanism (Good Without God, by Greg Epstein and Living the Secular Life, by Phil Zuckerman) both of which stressed our human need for ritual, I was thrilled to see how FUS had cultivated rituals while eschewing any reference to God. While some rituals, such as lighting a candle in a candle holder shaped as the UU flaming chalice, seemed on their surface to be religous-y, the words recited when lighting and extinguishing the candle referenced our human need for community and our search for truth, not God.
The songs we sang, most of which celebrated nature, had a spiritual flavor to them, yet needn't have been viewed as spiritual. Still other songs were completely secular. While the collection was gathered, the pianist played Send in the Clowns, and the closing song was a parody of Elvis's Blue Christmas, in which the vocalist sang how, once the community had dispersed for the day, it would be a "Blue Sunday" at FUS.
The reading was from Hermann Hesse, and the "talk" that followed it discussed the need for sabbath, for us to slow down, take a break, get bored, and let our minds refresh.
FUS did an incredible job of creating an environment that led you to rejoice in and care for the world and those around you. The wall behind the stage was decorating with beautiful prints of flowers, trees, and waterfalls. The north wall was floor to ceiling glass offering a splendid view toward downtown Minneapolis. And alongside the welcome message and general announcements, time was set aside for the "Social Justice Minute" which praised the recent anti-sandpiper pipeline march in St. Paul and reminded people of the work FUS would be doing for the annual Twin Cities Pride Week.
Perhaps what strikes me most about Humanism is how much it helps people lead incredible, rich lives. Humanists understand deeply the need to be in community, and to share our life with those we love. Humanism is, in some ways, a celebration of life, and a recognition of our ability and responsibility to make life as wonderful and meaningful as humanly possible. After all if there is no hereafter, all your efforts should be focused on giving meaning and beauty to this life, to cherishing each moment you share with your loved ones, and to enjoying and celebrating life. As the congregation recited when welcoming new members to FUS "And we believe in life, / and in the strength of love; / and we have found a need to be together."
In many ways this service was very similar to any Christian service. We sang an opening song, a candle was lit on the stage, we shared our joys and sorrows, a collection was taken, a passage was read, a message was delivered, we sang some more, the congregation recited things in unison, the congregation responded to the pastor as one, and at not time was there made any reference to God or the Divine. Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Church.
The Unitarian Universalist Church or UU formed from the 1961 merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America and is committed to living in the tensions between liberal Christianity and Humanism. The UU church makes no claims about God, Jesus, or the afterlife, it holds no creed, it emphasizes personal experience and the changing nature of religious understanding, and teaches the need for us to come together and share our wisdom and experiences.
UUs trace their history to the earliest followers of Jesus, at least those who rejected his divinity. These people, who would later fall into the Arian category, would be declared heretics during the Council of Nicea in 325 CE. Unitarian ideas reemerged in 16th century Switzerland, and later found strongholds in England, Hungary, and Italy. The movement spread widely through the United States, gave birth to transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau, and then experienced a decline in numbers (like liberal Christianity in general) during the 20th century. Today most American UUs live in the Northeast, yet the metro area with the second highest number of UU congregations (after Boston) is the Twin Cities.
Many humanists call the UU Church home. Humanism is being good without God. And while there are Christian Humanists and Muslim Humanists, these terms refer to people who stress the human aspects of their religious traditions. Here I will use humanism as a synonym for secular humanism. The First Unitarian Society calls itself "a heritage of forward-thinking humanism at home in the here and the now", and while I don't know the proportion of humanists in the FUS community, I will make the (unjustified) assumption that it was 100%. Given my current fascination with humanism, I knew a trip to FUS was in order.
Having recently read a couple of books about Humanism (Good Without God, by Greg Epstein and Living the Secular Life, by Phil Zuckerman) both of which stressed our human need for ritual, I was thrilled to see how FUS had cultivated rituals while eschewing any reference to God. While some rituals, such as lighting a candle in a candle holder shaped as the UU flaming chalice, seemed on their surface to be religous-y, the words recited when lighting and extinguishing the candle referenced our human need for community and our search for truth, not God.
The songs we sang, most of which celebrated nature, had a spiritual flavor to them, yet needn't have been viewed as spiritual. Still other songs were completely secular. While the collection was gathered, the pianist played Send in the Clowns, and the closing song was a parody of Elvis's Blue Christmas, in which the vocalist sang how, once the community had dispersed for the day, it would be a "Blue Sunday" at FUS.
The reading was from Hermann Hesse, and the "talk" that followed it discussed the need for sabbath, for us to slow down, take a break, get bored, and let our minds refresh.
FUS did an incredible job of creating an environment that led you to rejoice in and care for the world and those around you. The wall behind the stage was decorating with beautiful prints of flowers, trees, and waterfalls. The north wall was floor to ceiling glass offering a splendid view toward downtown Minneapolis. And alongside the welcome message and general announcements, time was set aside for the "Social Justice Minute" which praised the recent anti-sandpiper pipeline march in St. Paul and reminded people of the work FUS would be doing for the annual Twin Cities Pride Week.
Perhaps what strikes me most about Humanism is how much it helps people lead incredible, rich lives. Humanists understand deeply the need to be in community, and to share our life with those we love. Humanism is, in some ways, a celebration of life, and a recognition of our ability and responsibility to make life as wonderful and meaningful as humanly possible. After all if there is no hereafter, all your efforts should be focused on giving meaning and beauty to this life, to cherishing each moment you share with your loved ones, and to enjoying and celebrating life. As the congregation recited when welcoming new members to FUS "And we believe in life, / and in the strength of love; / and we have found a need to be together."
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