#missionalism

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Members(hip) Matters

Members(hip) Matters: In a post written before the events of late last week, Thomas intended to continue the discussion of membership in Unitarian Universalism...

Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written before the events of last week on our Facebook Page. I will write more about all of that, maybe as soon as this week, but for now, this was the follow-up we had planned, presented as intended when it was written. Last week, I wrote a post about the importance of choice in what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist. No one is born a UU. Even those raised…

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Tolerance is not Inclusion

Tolerance is not Inclusion: Welcoming people into a community that refuses to change to accommodate them is never going to be sustainable.

Here on the blog last week, I talked about how the world still needs liberal religion; how many people still want all the community benefits and even the rituals and commemorations that come with religious practice. They want the good parts of religion without the dogma and the stifling traditions, and at its best, that can be Unitarian Universalism. But, we are not always at our best. While our…

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Justice must be Intentional and Institutional

Justice must be Intentional and Institutional: Being good in our own lives isn't going to ensure goodness for the future. We must build goodness into society and justice into governance.

The Principles of Unitarian Universalism dedicate us to building a world that is just, compassionate, and equitable. That will never come about by accident or even charity. People have fought their whole lives to see the world get better on any one of those points. They come together and build movements and organizations to do the work better. They knew what some still deny: If we want that…

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Failure is Essential

Failure is Essential: A new skill requires practice, & that inevitably means a few mistakes along the way. How you handle them is crucial.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” It is an old saying. Put more simply, if we aren’t risking anything, we aren’t likely to see much in the way of results. You can’t be great at everything the first time you try; you have to be willing to risk failure. You learn from failure. You get better. A lot of my favorite creators have said something to the effect of “Failure is an essential step to…

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A Church With 20 Religions

After giving whatever your elevator speech is, anyone with time and interest still remaining is very likely to ask you: How do you have a church where people have different religions?

After giving whatever your elevator speech is, anyone with time and interest still remaining is very likely to ask you,

How do you have a church where people have different religions?

Firstly, while we may have different beliefs and practices, we have one religion. It is a religion that allows us to worship together as well as worshiping separately as needed for our relationships with the divine.…

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You've Got to Do.

You've Got to Do: Unitarian Universalism is an active faith, committed to doing and building rather than just hoping for Heaven.

Roughly 100 years ago, in his book “Which way? A study of Universalists and Universalism”, Rev. Lewis B. Fisher tried to answer the question “What do Universalists stand for?” in a clever way.

The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all, we move…

We are not stationary nor are we defending any final position.

We come from a tradition of those who see faith as an…

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Inherent Worth and Dignity

Inherent Worth and Dignity: Our vision of Beloved Community demands that our systems of authority protect the humanity of every person & that we recognize the ability of each of us to grow & improve.

Your worth and dignity are inherent. They cannot be discarded or taken away. Maybe you made terrible choices yesterday or all last year. Today, you can choose to be different; today you can choose to be your best. While one’s worth and dignity can be tarnished or buried, made hard to see, there is no sin that can erase them or make someone irredeemable. It is our responsibility and privilege as…

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