Many
Beliefs, One Faith
Delivered by
Sally Franz, July 9, 2006
At the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, New Bern, NC
You might say my journey began two years ago when my moving van pulled away from the town I’d lived in since 1970. Newly retired, newly divorced, I faced the move with excitement, but some trepidation. – I felt a degree of hopeful reassurance from the fact that I seen an ad for a UU fellowship in the Sun Journal. That meant to me that I might find some kindred spirits in this little Southern town. I really cannot tell you how I knew that. Something somehow, must have seeped into my brain.
But that now seems long ago. This place, this congregation, has become an anchor in my life. Along the way I have visited UU fellowships in Charleston, Durham, Raleigh and Baltimore. Each different, each the same – different manifestations of ours, the “Uncommon Denomination.”
Two weeks ago I found myself heading for UUUniversity and the UUA General Assembly in St. Louis. The first UU I met was my suite-mate in the dorm at Washington University. What an inspiration! A young 78-year old woman recently returned from two years in the Peace Corps in Malawi, who found herself called upon to serve as president of her congregation.
We helped each other find our way downtown on public transportation, and helped each other digest and think through all the information and ideas.
One of the UUUniversity workshops, entitled “Effective & Spiritually Based Decision Making, “ explained the hierarchy of decision-making methods and encouraged selecting a method to fit the situation.
The least important and quickest decisions are most effectively made by:
an authority (i.e. president, committee chair);
next in importance and more time-consuming:
a minority (i.e. board, committee);
next, more importance, more time-consuming:
a majority (i.e. congregational meeting);
The most important decisions rest with the largest group. Yes, an “up-or-down” vote is most expedient, but often not most effective – many people may feel “shut out” and disgruntled. Better, but again more time-consuming is:
consensus. The decision may not be what each person wants, but it is the best one under the circumstances. Everyone ‘owns’ the decision.
unanimity hardly viable for the most important matters!
It took some time for me to get my brain around this model. At first I thought – “our decisions as a board are almost always unanimous.” But that’s not what they were talking about – those are the easy ones. Someone might have reservations about something, but choose to keep quiet because it just isn’t that important. Or someone might have some real objections that come out in the form of angry statements. An up-or-down vote risks escalating angry feelings. It is wiser, and more effective in the long run, to take the time to listen and to hear, to sort through the issues until we come to a decision we can all “own”.
That was the key point of the workshop – decision-making is not a purely rational process. The process is wise if it uses both head and heart. The really important decisions are the ones that evoke the most anxiety, and when we’re anxious, our “thinking brain” has a hard time functioning. Talking, listening, hearing – these things can help our thinking brain get back in control.
My goal for the board is to work toward attaining consensus in our most important decisions. I would love for our congregational meetings to attain consensus as well. In both bodies, in accord with our bylaws, decisions of record are in the form of motions and votes. However, I hope we will have invested the time to listen to and to hear each other, and to arrive at decisions we can truly feel good about – in other words, consensus.
Moving along to the General Assembly, my over all impression was “awesome.” The parade of banners was great fun. The banner from one of the New Orleans fellowships was most touching – bedraggled, stained, but there.
New Orleans figured prominently at GA. In a dramatic group presentation, half a dozen people, some from devastated areas, some from UUA, shared brief, interwoven comments on their feelings, reactions, grief, healing and gratitude. President Sinkford shared his anger at incidents like the evacuation buses that drove past poor residents to evacuate tourists from luxury hotels. Most moving of all was the Black pastor from a devastated community closer to the coast. He had high praise for the UUA/UUService Committee’s immediate and effective response. He was warned by his colleagues “not to get involved with those people,” but he proclaimed himself a Baptist Unitarian Universalist!
At Saturday morning’s worship service, New Orleans UU ministers Rev. Jim Vander Weele and Rev. Marta Valentin shared their stories and perspectives of resurrection, resilience, and renewal of church life post-Katrina.
Rev. Marta shared a wonderful story of resurrection: As a little girl growing up in Spanish Harlem, Rev. Marta was entranced by flowers growing in cracks in the sidewalks – she called them miracle flowers. Did you know the magnolias are blooming in New Orleans? Many of New Orlean’s magnolia trees lived, in spite of the storms’ battering, in spite of weeks with their roots under water. Magnolias are blooming along with wildflowers of all kinds, deposited by the wind, water and mud. Best of all, sunflowers have sprouted throughout the city. Sunflowers remove lead from soils. Life goes on, miracle flowers bloom.
I invite you to explore the websites (http://www.firstuuno.org/, http://www.communitychurchuu.org/) of these struggling, inspiring churches. It helps put our struggles to find a new home in perspective.
Also, take a look at the literature on the ongoing UUA/UUSC’ response to the Gulf Coast disasters. Unitarian Universalists have contributed more than $3,000,000 to the recovery effort, as well as countless hours of volunteer time.
A major goal of the panel administering these funds has been “to make a difference in the region by funding grants that have a lasting impact for those who wouldn’t have found relief from other sources.” Intrinsic to this goal, and clearly an example of putting faith into action, is the effort is to “strengthen and support community organizing in areas affected by Katrina so that people, particularly people of color and low-income families, can have a greater voice in how their communities are rebuilt…” Made me so proud to be part of this faith community.
Moving right along, let me mention my biggest frustration: too many and too few choices. During the four days I attended, there were five plenary sessions, where the work of the delegates occurred, and three sessions for congregational presidents (there were at least 300 of us!). Meanwhile, there were 30 (yes, thirty) concurrent workshops! Although worthwhile, the “command performances” left me with precious few choices to make.
One word about the plenary sessions: amazing. Gini Courter, the Moderator, is simply amazing. For example, the “Threat of Global Warming” Statement of Conscience came up for consideration Friday morning. I had no idea it would be a “hot button” issue until I saw the 47 proposed amendments. Picture an assembly of at least 1200 UU delegates with “Pro”, “Con”, and “Procedural” microphones. Alternately pro people and con people spoke. The con’s found the whole thing much too weak. Then a con made a motion to send the whole thing back to the committee to be strengthened. I do believe the whole room got silent – these things represent two years’ work! Believe me it took lots of work and lots of consultation between Gini and the lawyer and parliamentarian on stage, but, as a “Committee of the Whole” the assembly agreed that first we must consider the amendments because they did strengthen the statement.
That plenary went over time, and following ones had to be re-ordered, but the end result that morning was overwhelming agreement as to which of the amendments were needed to strengthen the document. I left on Saturday afternoon not knowing for sure if it would pass until I read it in Wellspring.
As Gini was ending that plenary, a delegate marched up to a microphone. Did I hear a collective gasp? What now??? But all was well, she grinned and suggested we give Gini a standing ovation for working us through a complex situation, and doing it with grace and humor. It was truly the most amazing exercise of “Democracy at work” I had ever witnessed. As far as I could tell, everyone left that meeting feeling really good about the process. At least we all leaped to our feet and cheered!
One of my challenges at GA was finding time to tour the amazing exhibit hall, but tour it I did. I brought home books, booklets, CDs, fair trade coffee, handouts, and treated myself to this chalice pendant and two Guatamalan shirts (fair trade, of course). Most of the literature is on display at the back. I would be glad for you to borrow any of it.
As I sorted through all my treasures, one thing became clear: the biggest pile was “green”: Green Sanctuary, Earth Ministry, Fair Trade coffee. Even one of the 4 worship services I attended fit that theme: “Gaia – Earth and Spirit, song and poetic reflection by Jim Scott,” a truly inspiring UU celebration of the “interdependent web of all life.” Jim authored our opening hymn, and maybe he sang it several years ago when he visited this fellowship for a service with Bob Murphy.
One more topic before I try to tie all this together: I mentioned green above. Green kinds of things have crystallized for me as my mission.
In my visits to other Unitarian Universalist fellowships, I’ve noticed that most make a point of serving only Fair Trade coffee. My roommate at GA runs a Fair Trade Café in Minneapolis. An idea has been incubating for a while now, and she was a big help, and encouragement, in pursuing it. I would like to see this fellowship explore serving Fair Trade coffee, but for that to happen it needs a champion – someone to do the research and put together a proposal. Our coffee today is Fair Trade coffee.
In presidents’ gatherings I learned that many congregations support social action projects by dedicating “the plate” (cash donations, not pledges) for social action projects. Deborah and I have talked about projects we might undertake. Stay tuned.
I missed the worship service conducted by the Ministry for Earth, but I spoke with them in the exhibition hall and became a member. I did attend a “Green Sanctuary Program” and learned that, in the last five years, demand for sustainable design practices and materials has increased dramatically and they are now competitive with “standard” practices and materials. I say Hallelujah to that!!! I say let’s make our new space as green as it can be!
“Many Beliefs; One Faith”. You may have noticed I took the title from the UUA advertising materials that you may have seen playing on my computer. The “many beliefs” part is easy, but what do we mean by “One Faith”?
Faith is one of those “fuzzy” words that means different things to different people. When I stopped attending church my first year in college, I also stopped using “religious language”, or maybe I never did use it, and I certainly have never attended four worship services in one week! Amazingly, I enjoyed, loved, felt something in each one.
I really wanted to attend more of the workshops put on by the huge variety of different beliefs encompassed within Unitarian Universalism, but that will have to wait another time. For now, let me leave with a definition of faith that works for me. It’s the fifth definition in the unabridged dictionary inherited from my dad: Faith: something that is believed or adhered to, especially with strong conviction. I have faith in the ability of nature to heal, given half a chance; of flowers to bloom. I have faith in the outcome of our most recent visioning process, winter of 2005, from which emerged desire for and a vision of:
More spirituality
More social action
Our fellowship in its own space
And, finally, I have faith in the Mission Statement that grew out of that process: “We join in fellowship to create a community that encourages free spiritual discovery and growth, celebrates personal and religious diversity, and promotes lives of justice and compassion.” In other words, we seek to support, to grow, to serve. May we always pursue our vision.
Amen
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