“Building Your Own Theology”: a service organized and
presented by participants and co-facilitators of the BYOT Adult Religious
Exploration class that met from January 10-March 13, 2008
Order of Service, March 16, 2008
Welcome LeeAnn Martin, Moderator
Chalice
Lighting Claudia
Hanes
Opening
music "Let
the Mystery Be" by Iris DeMent
Performed by Scott Stroot
Opening
Words # 683 Mary
Ann Johnson
Hymn # 354
Joys and Concerns
Silent
reflection, etc., Spirit of Life
Offertory
& special music "We
Are Each Others’ Angels" by Chuck
Brodsky
Performed by
Scott Stroot
Responsive
Reading 490 Peggy
Steele
Hymn # 346
Program: BUILDING YOUR OWN THEOLOGY
Presenters:
Claudia Hanes, Mary Ann Johnson, Ken Kuehn, LeeAnn
Martin, Meredith Martin, Peggy Steele, Linda Pickle
Closing
Music "Kindness"
(CD recording)
Written &
performed by Erika Luckett
Peace Song
Comments by BYOT participants and
co-facilitators in central program:
LeeAnn Martin
Introductory comments
on nature and scope of the BYOT curriculum and on her own positive experience
as co-facilitator and her appreciation of the participants’ engagement with the
course.
Linda Pickle
This was also a
wonderful experience for me as co-facilitator of this UU-developed Adult
Religious Exploration curriculum.
I congratulate the
five participants for perfect attendance – no mean feat for a class with 10
consecutive weekly meetings!
We experienced or
witnessed many “ah-ha!” moments during the last two and a half months in our
attempt to arrive at the articulation of personal credos. A credo – the word means “I believe” in Latin – is a statement of beliefs. Our
sessions even led to a few very concrete, life-changing public decisions – one
member of the group committed herself to vegetarianism, another took a
long-neglected novel out of a drawer to revise for publication. I can’t say
what other more private life changes may have resulted, in part because of our
pact to maintain confidentiality, but also because these are matters that only
the individual can know.
Being part of this
small group and engaging in a structured curriculum was a really stimulating
and rewarding way to examine in a thoughtful, intentional manner our current
personal core belief system and the extent to which we are living what we say
we believe. Doing so together was for all of us, I think, particularly
satisfying. Remember the 3rd and 4th principles of our
denomination:
Because Unitarian
Universalism has no creed to which all of its members must subscribe, and
because we believe that spiritual and ethic belief systems change and develop
over time, it is important for all UUs to engage in
the free and responsible search for truth and meaning in an intentional
fashion, at least occasionally. You don’t have to examine your beliefs and
behavior through this particular UU curriculum, of course. Many options are
available to you: private reflection and meditation, small group discussions
within our Religious Exploration program, engaging in church workdays and
community outreach projects are other forums for inward growth and enrichment.
Sometimes opportunities for shared self-exploration and examination happen
around the Circle Supper table – we encourage you to seek out many such
opportunities to gain insights and support from your friends and neighbors in
this sanctuary.
The members of this
BYOT group are now going to share with you some of their experiences or
insights in their own words and by integrating texts by others that speak to
their particular theological conclusions, to the credo that they developed. LeeAnn will introduce them all now in the order in which
they will speak as they wanted to be introduced.
Claudia Hanes
is a retired teacher of 32 years who “lost” her religion at age 55. Missing a
sense of community led her to join this church family of collected eclectic
spirituality.
I knew
what I didn't believe in, but I didn't know what I did believe in. I remember
my confusion during our first meeting, with the whole concept of theology, thus
balking repeatedly at the words "spiritual” and "religion" and
"theology" coming as I did from my perspective of a newly
non-believer by choice. But Linda, ever sensitive to the diversity of each of
us in the group, assured us lovingly that we would all discover greater clarity
of what belief system works best for each of us, if we would patiently explore
each weekly topic. Over the next eight weeks we pondered these 5 topics:
Human/Self Nature, Ultimate Reality (Cosmos, Nature, God or Other),Human/Beloved Community History, Developing/Refining
Ethical Stances, and finally Creating Purpose/Meaning for Life. The level of
reflection, freedom to speak honestly and be heard even when disagreeing, and
the common ground we all discovered, led to real anticipation of each week’s
session. For someone who doesn't believe in God, I engaged in
"God-talk" more than I have ever before in my spiritual history. That
said, I have chosen to expand on this religious
community history topic for presentation.
"I am no longer living in the
waiting room to enter heaven or hell." I am on a scary, confusing,
exhilarating adventure, trying to nail down my belief system. Giving up God has been such a religious experience, the irony pales the imagination. My new belief system
accommodates this paradox with the personal clarification that spiritual
experience for me translates as any moment of life-altering, awe-striking,
profound period of deep reflection, rational thinking, and/or
take-my-breath-away natural setting that reminds me what an incredible gift
existence... life... is. I have looked at my history and am amazed at the
journey. Mentally, it was a natural outcome to give up an idea once the proof
for it was no longer credible. But old habits die hard, and I still catch
myself in habitual prayer. I find myself genuinely ticked-off that I am now the
sole blame for poor decisions. I 'm forced to reach decisions with more careful
deliberation and research. There is no magic man who will deliver safe
outcomes, handle troubles and buffer difficult setbacks. I am carefully
restructuring core ethical convictions, constantly re-evaluating and
prioritizing. But, I embrace this freedom of thought and sense of obligation to
my community that has arisen out of the rubble and chaos of this inner war with
theism. That IS "me in the corner, losing my religion", in the old
sense of the word. In its place, joyously, is the new awareness that humans are
strongest when functioning as a team, not as individuals. I am comforted,
encouraged, empowered and validated by the social, political and... yes... spiritual
groups/communities with which I engage. I believe it is essential to choose
them wisely, abandon any that become, or seem to be, destructive or
mean-spirited. I believe community is capable of agreeing on basic values,
since we all share the same needs, interests and goals, and this good Earth
(stress on capitol E). When community is allowed the freedom to pursue goals,
to think reflectively and purposefully within its body, to develop talents and
operate in liberating settings, beneficial discoveries increase and humanity
advances self-respect, better laws, better institutions of government and reaps
the rewards of the ethically enthusiastically-lived life.
Mary Ann Johnson
is a rehab nurse specialist at SKY Rehab who feels she has found a home in this
church. She is happy to be around
like-minded people!
This I Believe
On one of those
special days when my oldest daughter was about 18, we were having a heart to
heart conversation and she said to me, “you said something once which really
made sense.”
“I did?” I replied,
surprised that I had ever said anything worth remembering. Hey, I actually said something she
remembered!! I wondered which of my
words had stuck with her. I was
expecting something profound. Certainly
it must be profound. Something I had
tossed out in a moment of unconscious genius.
“You
said, ‘Innocence is overrated.’”
“Oh,” I said
slowly. Out of all the advice, the
hints, the suggestions I had given to her over the years, she picked this one
to emulate. Oh my God. What would my mother have thought? Innocence in the world I grew up in was
revered. I was sure she was turning in
her grave at that very moment.
Innocence is
overrated. I vaguely remembered saying
this to her but I couldn’t remember why.
I think it was one of those flippant remarks I made one day out of
frustration when talking about one of her conservative friend’s family. Innocence is overrated. Hhhmmm.
Well, innocence IS
overrated. After all, what is innocence
but a lack of knowledge? Babies arrive
in this world in innocence and we try our best to keep them innocent as long as
possible; but at what price to them? As
a child grows we protect them, but at some point this becomes detrimental to
their development. How can we expect
them to learn how to deal with the real world if they are kept from it?
When my youngest
daughter was about 10 she typed “girls.com” in the URL address in the computer
thinking she would find jewelry and make up and other things for girls. However, when she hit enter; well, you can
imagine what she saw. When I discovered
this I was not angry nor did I put parental controls on the computer. We talked about what she had seen and how to
use search engines and why some people go to these sites. Evidently I laughed, though I don’t remember
it that way. She says I did.
But the point is that
I helped her deal with the situation rather than make her feel afraid of
it. And that can work for discussing
politics, controversial art, movies, discrimination or any number of other
things.
I don’t propose that
we force children to lose their innocence.
But an innocent young adult is naïve and naïveté does not help a person
to think clearly or problem solve.
So I do believe
innocence is overrated. I believe in
curiosity. I believe in answering questions.
I believe in respecting children and their right to grow into
thoughtful, worldly adults who can make decisions based on fact and not
fear.
[In submitting her
text for posting online, Mary Ann wrote: “Keep in
mind that it is meant to be "performed" rather than read.”]
Ken Kuehn calls himself citizen, geologist, and professor.
My Personal ‘Ten Commandments’
Each stop in our
ten-week theological odyssey became the ‘port of last resort’ for some moral or
ethical issue that was brought under our collective lens and subjected to
intense scrutiny and discussion.
Unfortunately, with so many good thoughts being shared, we rarely were
able to reach a definitive conclusion.
After several frustrating sessions we finally did agree on one thing -
our favorite quote from the readings thus far.
It went something like this, “You may still be confused, but at least
now you are confused on a higher level!”
Somewhere in mid-course,
far out to sea and beyond the point of no return, we took up the topic of the
biblical Ten Commandments. I’ll just
read a few sentences from our text to set the tone for my part this morning. “We
live in an age of moral deconstructionism. We fearlessly critique and criticize, dissect
and dismantle our culture’s conventional wisdom. For example one of the great running jokes
about Unitarian Universalists is that we believe, not
in the Ten Commandments, but the Ten Suggestions.”
Nor was Moses himself
spared: “In a cartoon Moses says to God, ‘Maybe I’d better deliver just the
first ten now and see how it goes down.’…In another cartoon, Moses brings down
the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai for two people who are waiting anxiously
and says, ‘It’s just a first draft, but it seems that no one is going to get
away with anything!’”
After we had our fun,
the usual ferocious discussion erupted and we were presented a challenge, to
write our own personal set of ten ethical commandments. Not an easy task! But that’s what we all did and we shared our
thoughts the following week.
At the end of the
course, as I began to write my credo, I found myself repeatedly referring to my
‘Top Ten’ list and realized that those statements were at the core of my belief
system. So, this morning I will share my
list with all of you.
These statements are
personal; they are of me, by me, and for me.
I will read them for your consideration without comment or
explanation. If any of them is useful to
you then, please, help yourself!
1) I will treat
others honestly, respectfully, and generously.
2) I will slay my
inner ‘judgmental giant’ and be accepting of differences between people, and
among peoples.
3) I will neither
proselytize nor criticize in matters of faith for these are truly personal.
4) I will resolve my
conflicts and maintain a peaceable kingdom within, and with others.
5) I will strive to
become the best possible version of myself.
6) I will employ my
talents and energy for goodness’ sake.
7) I will inform and
educate others in issues of science and technology.
8) I will acknowledge
and accept that there are forces at work in the world beyond my understanding.
9) I will respect the
sacred and interconnected nature of all living things.
10) I will leave a
positive legacy for future generations, something beside my own DNA.
And a bonus:
10b) I will honor my
planetary home by always writing its name with a capital ‘E’ thereby raising it
to the level of Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the countless other proper nouns that
populate our universe.
So
please, my friends, let there be peace on capital ‘E’
Earth!
I appreciate having
been given the opportunity to do the work needed to find the voice for my
personal beliefs. The ‘Building Your Own
Theology’ class was a very satisfying and enjoyable experience.
Thank
you, UU!
Meredith Martin
is a Folk Studies graduate student from Arkansas. She is married to the
wonderful Bryan Moats and they live with two dogs and 3 cats and many plants.
[Meredith’s comments
were not available at the time this document was posted because of serious
illness in her family.]
Peggy Steele is a retired English teacher who tries to live her life as
a writer.
The biggest, baddest assignment we volunteered for is this: write your
credo. I tried to
write
my credo, but I couldn't do it. It's against my religion.
Therefore, I'll open
with a poem by the Sufi poet, Rumi. His words are
very old. His
800th
birthday was celebrated last year.
Out beyond ideas of
wrongdoing and rightdoing
there
is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies
down in that grass
the
world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even
the phrase each other
doesn't
make any sense.
I don't have a
formula or directions for the way to that field. Rumi
is a love poet. It's
love
that takes him to it. I don't think we can just plan a visit and go there. I do
think we
can
live our lives so that now and then, we might find ourselves all opened up in a
place
like
that.
From the Bible the
injunction: Be still and know that I am God.
From Wordsworth:
Poetry is intense experience recollected in tranquility.
From Emily Dickinson
about writing a poem: it's "the divine exhilaration/ of the first
league
out from land.
From me: Keep the
faith, Baby.
I mean I mustn't
allow my practical, counting sort of mindset to push out the yearning
eagerness
of my childhood and youth. For me, for a statement to be religious, it must
point
beyond the horizon. I'll end with part of a poem by Randall Jarrall.
The situation
of
the poem is that a sick child is in bed imagining that the postman has brought
a letter
saying
You are the president of a fabulous Republic. But the child sends the letter
away,
I'd rather be sick.
The Sick Child
If
I can think of it. it isn't what
I want
I want… I want a ship
from some near star
To land in the yard,
and beings to come out
and
think to me, "So this is where you are!
Come." Except
that they won't do.
I thought of them…
And yet somewhere there must be
Something
that's different from everything.
All that I've never thought of---think of me!"
At the end of these
presentations, Linda Pickle invited all present to participate in a UU-style
communion by reflecting on their own theological or ethical beliefs and sharing
a word or phrase that encapsulated their most fundamental belief or an
important aspect of their ethical or spiritual life. 15-20 people in the
congregation responded accordingly.