A Witch Goes to Church - Unitarian Universalism

so have you heard the one about the witch that goes to church mm-hmm I can sound like the beginning to some kind of a joke candid I've had a lot of my viewers ask me questions about Unitarian Universalism so you'll be interested in this video if you're interested in learning more about being a uu her what do you you is what are you you believes and does or if you're just curious to know about that aspect of Who I am let me tell you a little story about how I came to be a Unitarian Universalists to begin with I was in my 40s and a friend of mine who was a druid who was reactive in the Charleston uu Church told me she thought I needed to visit my local union Church and of course my response was I don't think so I had no desire I hadn't had a desire since I was a teenager for anything that seemed like organized religion but my friend said to me and she was right by the way I come to a point in my life where I needed a wider sense of community I had the good fortune of being in a coven at the time and had had been in my first coven for over a decade prior to that so I wasn't a lonely pagan I had community but I had this small cloistered community of thirteen and her advice was she was an older woman than I very active in the wider community both pagan and ecumenical that I needed to push myself to extend myself into the wider world when it came to who I was spiritually and what I wanted to manifest in the world I only went to that uu church for my first visitation because she is someone I respected deeply what she said mattered to me so I decided to visit our local Unitarian Universalist Church at the time it was meeting actually in the Chinese American community center they didn't have a building of their own yet and I remember as I got to the front door I froze in place thinking I swear it never for my own reasons I'm not avoiding people's weddings or baptisms or things with my own reasons step foot over the threshold of a church again I had a moment of panic and it was somebody on the other side is it a hi welcome I don't think I recognized you and I have such good manners I had to step in now one of the reasons my friend encouraged me to visit being a turning Universalist Fellowship is they're welcoming attitude towards the pagan path actually towards all paths now do you thought it was time I come out of the closet in a way it says about 20 years ago and find a wider space in which all of who I was spiritually and all I would have believed in and all of which I was practiced was a part of what I was that I didn't hide anything kind of a cloning act coming out of the closet thinking of some of our recent discussions on that so it was a warm fellowship a lot of great people who said hello and engaged me in conversation and made me feel really comfortable and and asked me what my background was you know did I was I you you and if not what was my background and I remember was the first time in a non pagan group I said my background is I'm a Wiccan and they didn't know what that meant so they asked me what does that mean when I said well I'm a goddess centered earth-based spiritual practice and it was like oh well well one of our principles honors the wisdom of that path and and welcome and welcome we we don't really have anybody like you here but we're really glad that you're here I was the first Wiccan for the most of them I think for almost all of them at the time now they ended up being a hand full of people in the church who knew what that was but hadn't met them yet I'm the first thing I I remember enjoying the service and I was totally fascinated that when the minister finished her sermon as she opened the floor for conversation the microphone was passed for people to agree or disagree with what she'd said and it totally fascinated me and then someone come up to me afterwards who had become an important loved one in my life who had always hoped that she'd meet another Wiccan and when we didn't actually talk about that part of who we were until we knew each other better it made for a very warm feeling of welcome in the church well not being the kind of person who joins without joining in I became more and more involved with that fellowship over the next year's and taught classes I call it taught rise up and call her name a year-long curriculum to honor the feminine divine I led began and then led and co-led earth-based circles we celebrated the hobbits and it goes through a witch walks into a church - there's a witch in the pulpit they took on doing Sunday services and being in congregation from that perspective and looking out and everything about my experience there was what my friend had encouraged me to experience in fact when we were thinking about moving when we retired here one of the things that caused me to consider whether I wanted to or not was the fact that I would have to leave that fellowship is too far away from here it's a couple hours to drive and as you may know from the flogging of cher recently I have just joined our local Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in fact a couple weeks ago tell me well when we retired to feel the urge for that kind of community again because I was thinking nothing could replace the old one I was part of and that's true in some ways but today I went to a newcomer luncheon at my new church and I came away feeling very warmed and feeling very much at home so what's the Unitarian Universalist a little bit of a history lesson for you if I may because there is a history Divac terian universalism the unitarian aspect of unitarian universalism goes back to the 1500s I'm actually started in Transylvania and in fact the sister church of the church I've just joined is the Transylvania and while the movement changed in some ways when it got to America the Common Era commonality for the Unitarian aspect of Unitarian Universalism the history there is is a form of Christianity which did not believe in the Trinity which saw Jesus from God or inspired by God but not God Himself Unitarians did not believe that God that Jesus was to be worshipped he was to be considered a teacher he lived my example he was a savior he proved that there was the possibility of salvation but he was not one with the Godhead now you can imagine at the time that was quite at a heresy quite a change in the view of it there are still people today who do not consider Unitarians to be Christians because I think it can't be a Christian if you don't see Jesus as specifically of the Godhead as part of the Trinity the only thing the Unitarians didn't believe in which obviously at the time you can imagine was quite something they didn't believe in you becoming one with your religion or living your religion through the expression of Creed's of reciting words or principles or certain things they thought that all religious writings were open to interpretation so they kind of didn't if some level didn't trust religious writing because there were writings of man man being fallible but on the other hand they did appreciate and used the Bible but they didn't make it there be all end all in the sense of it wasn't the final word they believed in reason and that you read you let that sit with you and they believed very powerfully in choice and free will and you're making the decision one of those words resonated within you therefore declaring a Creed to them was an invalid religious statement because a Creed would only have value if you personally connected to it and chose it for yourself someone couldn't tell you to recite a Creed and therefore you will be a certain religion they didn't believe in original sin or predestination again imagine in the times to hold those beliefs very different from the Christianity of the time American Unitarian churches had a connection to that history specifically here though the point in our histories in the 1700s when there was a a revival of strict Puritanism it caused those who had a Unitarian mindset a Unitarian difference in belief to be separating themselves farther from the Puritans brothers and sisters they actually set themselves the opposition to the reformed more strict aspect of Puritanism all the things I mentioned are the reasons why they distance themselves from that religious movement and additionally in the 1700s in America a hinge point of what being an Unitarian meant was Universal salvation that everyone no matter had the potential for being saved Unitarians in general founded the United States of America almost all the signers of the Declaration of Independence for Unitarian that is why Unitarians don't tolerate very well those who use the Constitution who those early government documents as a way to bring God into law it simply wasn't part of those documents as they were originally written the founding fathers most of whom were Unitarian believe we all saw God in our own way and importantly that we all had the right to use our minds and our reason and determine what it is for us we could not be told somewhere almost at the same time the United States universalism was taking off so we had you Nativity unitarianism and we had universalism universalism was very similar to unitarianism except unitarianism well it promised universal salvation still thought you had to go through a bit to get there a universalism still Christian had a view that God was all loving and there was no such thing as eternal damnation purgatory eternal punishment it was not part of the process of salvation so while the unit urns believed in universal salvation the Universalist took it a bit further in that everyone and including as their religion grew everyone of all faiths would be welcomed at the end by a loving God so there were great similarities being between the two of them living its difference amongst others but the biggest difference was this welcoming embrace of God that was equal and offered to everyone equal in the time is it meant that freed slaves were members of Universalist churches not the slaves who were not freed not yet because they couldn't get to those churches however the Universalists were very active active in the abolition movement in the United States they were the first denomination I know in the United States and I wish I knew my history better it seems to me I read in the world who ordained women ministers as Christian ministers interestingly those women ministers went west the Unitarians did not proselytize they were rather quiet and close within their ranks perhaps reason two thinkers tend to be that way the Universalist though felt very drawn to share the love of God as they knew it and they did reach out to people and reach out to congregations and they were establishing new congregations and they moved westward and often it was women ministers that were those ministers that moved westward sometimes it was easier for the spinster minister to move westward than it was for the settled minister with family to move interestingly I'll mention something later about famous Unitarian Universalists you know the expression go west young man that Horace really the great journalist wrote he was a Universalist and there were some other famous Unitarians in early history and famous Universalist that are interesting you can find them if you do a little research the universe lists believed in a God who loved everyone and they weren't so positive that it was the God that they knew they actually give credit especially as time went by to other religions of you of God is also being possibility and I saw that he was present in all religions all religions that could be expressed in loving ways or at least the loving aspects of all religions that is still a great part of Unitarian Universalist principles today that aspect of universal universalism that is lasting truth deep truth is found in all religions maybe not all religions in their entirety but in the particularly inspirational and wise aspects of all religions so you have the Unitarians and you had the Universalist and they were so similar in nature the big difference being that the Universalists believed in a sufferer free salvation even though the Unitarians believed all could be if they chose to be saved you know the universe lists that we were kind of born saved and that we'd be welcomed to the whatever at the end the two began in the 18th or the 19th centuries to work very very closely together for social justice Clara Barton and somebody that most of us the United States studied and we were in school they called her the angel the battlefield she nursed wounded and recovering and dying Civil War soldiers was a Unitarian and that is an example of their presence in society is also often as doctors and healers and teachers as early as the 1830s and this is a note I have to myself because I maybe you can tell by the way I'm presenting this I've taught a uu 101 class often which is the beginnings of it to help people consider the street of the Unitarian and the Universalists and the hell they came together and what they had in common I've always found it fascinating that it was relatively early in the 1800s that they used not only the Bible but other religious texts we might not think much of that now but think of that in the 1800s and very interesting in the 1900s early in them both of them had gotten to the point where they believed you could be a spiritual even a religious person without believing in a specific God or even a God it was the evolution of where they were going they believed that truth was not unknowable through a singular religious experience or teaching the truth is out there from so many sources they came more and more alike and we move into contemporary times and in 1961 they merged they were the Unitarians and they were the Universalist and then there became the Unitarian Universalists now what's happened in the time since 1961 you can see where the send-off was loving God wisdom from all religious sources inspiration from all religious sources even if one did not choose to believe in a specific deity or even in deity alone so the Unitarian Universalists began including folks from all different faiths mind you both Unitarian Universalists have been Christian faiths even though some other Christians would not have called them so because of their concept of Jesus has not divine himself Buddhists Hindus and Jews agnostics and non deist and humanists all started gathering under this umbrella of Unitarian Universalism what they had in common was believing there was wisdom to be had in the teachings of all religions they came together to explore that and experiment with that all along they were extremely devoted to social justice to act activism in the community to devotion to causes shared causes to exploring together what might be and it got to a point where New Age philosophy and practices were included in part of that included in the sense of indigenous practices were considered to be as powerful as those from more organized mainstream religions and there was a statement made in the 80s that included indigenous practices and earth-based practices as part of the sources of the wisdom that were the inspiration for you terian Universalist celebrations there are principles and there are sources which inform Unitarian Universalist fellowships around the world they are agreed worldwide the umbrella organization is called the Unitarian Universalist Association uu a.org and these seven principles and the sources are the things which probably most describe who we are the interesting thing about them is we haven't lost the Unitarian philosophy words are written by another our responsibility towards them is to use our intellect and our reasoning and determine what the words mean for us some were taught the principles as a Unitarian Universalist the art of a declaration of this is so they are what does this mean to you let me read the principles to you I'm not such a good uu that I can rattle them off what the inherent Worth and dignity of every person to justice equality and compassion in human relationships three acceptance of one another and encouragement despair of spiritual growth in our congregations it's that concept that when you come together you can create something you really can't quite create a win that's my reasoning on that one at least number four of a free and responsible search for truth and meaning the responsible harkens back to think don't be told think what something is for you my fifth principle is the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large you use are often marching for something or another they're affecting change they work within a political environment to make things happen they work at a social and activism environment to make things happen the sixth principle the goal of world community the peace liberty and justice for all this one's always the one that feels hokey for me it sounds like the pledge of allegiance doesn't it but then I think about every human beings right to be at peace to be free may be treated fairly not I'm okay with it and the side of the principle and this came into the in the 80s with the respect of indigenous spirituality in the earth-based path respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are all apart that's the seven principles these are not Creed's Unitarian Universalism is not a dumb dogmatic religion in fact there's constant debate about those seven principles and what they mean the sources inspire me probably more than the suppose do I release a were a non dogmatic religion the principles kind of feel like that to me sometimes but the sources the sources are where I found my greatest joy and being a Unitarian Universalist and they are a direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder affirmed in all cultures which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life direct experience of mystery they open to the wonder of life and the recreation of life the words and deeds a prophetic woman and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice compassion and the transforming power of love a challenge to do something the third sort the source is the wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and our spiritual life the power of this simple sentence is those wisdoms from the world's religions or the wisdom of humanity whether we relate to their God or a God we can still relate to the wisdom of history captured in the words from the world's religions a source that perhaps is the only source I don't quite relate to because you have to consider the Unitarian Universalist Christian beginnings this one is the Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves I'd be ok with that by saying that the wisdom from all of the world's religions and they call us to respond to the love of the Divine by loving our neighbors as ourselves but the selecting out that Jewish and the Christian is actually not something scene selected out specifically much as a declaration in uu churches this source the next-to-the-last one human humanistic teachings which counseled us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science and warned us against idolatries of the mind and spirit how's that to a balance in consideration of the inspiration of religious words is to consider the power reason and science to me that source is all about freewill not taking anything because someone said it is true the attitude of curiosity and personal exploration and you might not be surprised that the last source is my favorite the spiritual teachings of Earth Center traditions would celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature there is within you attorney Universalist a very active Pagan collective these are Unitarian Universalists who do use those sources as perhaps the most powerful in their own spiritual journey the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist pagans I've not joined it I actually have some differences in philosophy with it so it's not something that has appealed to me I'm more purely a Unitarian Universalist in my fellowship honoring Oh words of wisdom I love it when every Sunday wise words are read from the pulpit that come from religious books the Bible or the Koran or that might be poetry or quoting a Beatles song or putting something albert einstein reported the sources the sources of contemporary Unitarian Universalism are what holds me as part of the family that's why I look forward to every Sunday because you don't know what's gonna inspire you in that Sunday maybe it'll be something you've never heard of or something you haven't considered and you're always left and you know me if we worked and a student-teacher relationship you're always left making of it what you will it's not presented to you that it is it's presented to you for consideration Unitarian Universalist Church often have families that mom and dad mom and moms or dads and dads may come from very different religious backgrounds individually and they have decided that their children will find their own way in a loving community where they can explore what god or goddess is or is not to them I have had friends who were devout Jews devout Hindus devout Christians even a devout Roman Catholic sat next to me in church last Sunday who are exploring what that can be in a wider world with the freedom of their engaging and question for the religion of their families the religion of their heritage combining it with that feeling of relating to it as science and religion together in an environment that encourages that we question everything you learn so much from each other it's home to me because it doesn't tell you what to believe or or what to do it challenges you to think it provides your constant insight and inspiration than the wisdom of all who have come before most not all but almost all Unitarian Universalist fellowships have undergone training to be a welcoming congregation and if they have you're going to see it on the sign for their church or their fellowship however they've chosen to call themselves and is an awareness of it started out but it was first happening gay lesbian and transgendered issues of the force now of course it's embraced every possibility of what being a human might be here I live we happen to have a large gay and lesbian community unitarian universalist churches were doing civil commitments and marriages before it could be legal and they fight on the forefront of that effort continually that's a very important part of who we are as a church this welcoming of all the aspects of what a human being might be I thought to end that discussion on you tearing Universalist the first thing as I suggest you go to the UUA website it's you you a.org the principles of the sources are there you get a chance to read and and do what you you would guide you to is think what it might mean for you if you are lonely pagan it's a great way to be someplace where even if you don't find somebody that thinks like you you're gonna find in somebody that respects how you think if you are someone raising a child and you'd like to raise that child in a more liberal religious environment it's the place yeah I just got it all throughout the United States there might be one within driving distance from where you are sometimes they're a bit scattered according to the region but I thought I'd end this with kind of a little list of some famous Unitarian Universalists you use tend to love to quote historically people like Benjamin Franklin or George Washington or the Adams or all these older historical Unitarians and then later on universe lists like EE Cummings and the Rho Herman Melville I like it going on but I wanted to pick some more contemporary Unitarian Universalists after the merge because the thing about when you try explain you to turn universalism is it can be hard to explain because of not a direct creed that says this is what I believe and it is what I do because I am Unitarian Universalists and but it is what each individual uu does with their life that kind of gives you an idea what kind of people we are spiritually by spiritually I am acknowledging those who are non disbelief aynd the spiritual union with others of what you create out of that to be a higher purpose for living so if I just mentioned some famous Unitarian Universalists that you might recognize oh there's a lot more but I just pick some Tim Barron or Lee the founder of the World Wide Web Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut I think many of you will know Margot Adler we love her we miss her if you're a little older Steve Allen the old talk-show host he was a very active Universalist Albert Schweitzer galo to this chair Patty Duke and in fact patty Dukes life has been focused on activism that's why we haven't seen as much from her we might have as an actress Michael Lerner does the mom on the Waltons I was always trying to get her clan to go to church well and real life she would have getting them would have been getting them to go so we gonna tear in Universalist Church Clarence Darrow Robert Fulghum Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward think of Paul Newman and Newman's Own and his relationship to donation to charity Frank Lloyd Wright Sylvia Plath may Sartain my favorite poet and Pete Seeger I was just I wanted to give you a little bit of variety of some of the more contemporary folks who are you tearing universalist you don't see so much like in the new millennium kind of lists because the we've gotten to be large enough as a religion that I'm not getting that kind of oh it's so unique and odd to be one so I'm going to declare that I am a TLC is much the newer lists and what I wanted to end with when my family discovered I was a Unitarian Universalist not explained to you in other videos that they don't understand what being a twitcher Wiccan is i've chosen not to go there with them for many reasons I've shared and when I did share with them that I was involved in you terian Universalist Fellowship and my father was terribly concerned that I had joined a cult of some kind because that sounded like some kind of a strange cult to him I sound to the UUA website so he could look at it he didn't find anything there that seem particularly cultish but then the space shuttle Columbia disaster occurred so sad and in that sad sad happenstance Laurel Clark died where the astronauts and there was a lot of coverage of her life and I remember when I read it cuz I didn't know that she was a uu I sent my dad the link to the information about her and her local church and how she'd been involved and what it meant for her as a Unitarian Universalist to view the Earth from space and what she imagined that would be like and by dad who had been positive until that point that I was involved with some kind of a strange religious cult decided if an astronaut could be a Unitarian Universalist it must be a real religion oh yes listen so there's my long-promised video on what being a Unitarian Universalist means to me sorry for the history lesson but it sent me to preach a little bit about the history and where we came from it informs who we are now which is congregations that will be so different from congregation to congregation because the mix of people and their individual spiritualities or their philosophies on the way they live their life would be so different there's things that we will all share and yet we will always also be very very different each congregation is very very different so in a way i proselytized like those early Universalists did i found it to be a spiritual home that encouraged me to explore to further define who I was and who I was in relation to as a pagan woman it was very helpful to me not only did it bring me out and into the wider community who had never met one of us what quite sure what I was at first but who embraced me and learned from me and therefore the exchange became I learned greatly from them they accepted me before they even really knew what I believed in because they had a sense I was coming from a place of love the opportunities I've had to grow and mature within the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship have changed my life I expect that to continue even now what are the benefits to the fact that I have joined my local churches and will find myself once again with those who have a very different life experience an expectation even than I do younger people older people folks who have come from many different religions and there auu for many different reasons and I learned so much from them I won't stop growing because of that it's home to me we talk about often in the pagan path when we found it we felt like we'd come home I felt when it come to the pagan path it had always been there I think like I arrived anyplace I have to admit I felt like I arrived home when I settled into my first unitarian universalist fellowship I felt truly I was with family members and it defines Who I am as much if not more so and then that sometimes boxy feeling of what being a pagan might be because by nature uu is not labeled or boxed we don't even define ourselves individually or collectively we're all about exploring who we are and not expecting the person next to us to be at the same place on their journey where to discover the same things it has brought me into contact with many different religious practices and cause me to respect consideration of sources the Wonder and the magic and the love and the wisdom that is part of so many religions of the world it's really turned me into a very ecumenical witch and I'm deeply truly grateful for it and for those I've met along my journey through uu fellowships if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask me most Unitarian Universalist fellowships have pretty darn awesome websites we tend to be pretty tech savvy and use it so you can explore not only do you a org about the entire umbrella organization in the United States and for those of you overseas search it out it's overseas too it's not simply an American experience overseas there are still active Unitarians active Universalists and then there's Unitarian Universalist groups and you will find them they are scattered throughout the world for those of you who are in America go to the websites of all within drivable distance of your home if you're interested because you'll pick up a sense of what their individual personalities are to see if it might suit you or suit you and your family so consider that might a bit of a journey into something that matters a very greatly to me Unitarian Universalism I wish you will more than reverence marry part

Channel: MIRTHandREVERENCE

Views: 12,087

Rating: 4.7711172 out of 5

Keywords: goddess, witch, witchcraft, wicca, pagan, pagan spirituality, wiccan spirituality, paganism, unitarian universalism, uu, unitarian universalist

Id: ExlzpyhFQnY

Length: 41min 35sec (2495 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2016