When people ask what Unitarian Universalists mean when we say, “I’ll be there for you” as our choir just sang, one response is our covenant – the 7 principles and 6 sources. Plus, the 8th principle newly adopted by hundreds of UU communities, including our congregation. Our principles are a set of promises we make to ourselves and to each other about how we will be when we are together and who we are becoming as a religious movement.
It matters that since 1985 we have covenanted to affirm and promote “the inherent worth and dignity of every person,” our first principle. It matters that we promise to create a United States and even a world where “all persons should have a vote about the things that concern them.” That’s the way it’s put in the children’s version of the fifth principle.1 And, it matters that we have newly covenanted, through our eighth principle, to dismantle racism and other oppressions and to build the beloved community.2 These are a few of the values and promises that shape our lives and who we are becoming.
As a covenantal faith, ours is a living tradition rather than a conserving tradition. Just think… in the 1800s, our heritage faiths of Unitarian and Universalism were both located on the progressive edge of Christianity. Most people at that time felt included by the identity of Protestant Christian.
But, clearly by the time the 1985 sources were adopted, and for decades prior, we had become something else. Yes, we continue to include UUs who identify as Christian, but we also have room for many other religious, ethical, and spiritual pathways. We are inspired by Christianity and Judaism and Buddhism and Earth Based traditions and Humanist teachings, and more. We are atheists, agnostics, and theists of all stripes. We are one community with many beliefs.
But, we are a movement. We do not remain still…
We allow the spirit of love to speak to us in every age. We have a practice of re-covenanting. We periodically re-draft the set of values and sources that guide us, as well as the promises we make to one another here and between all the Unitarian Universalists and participating friends in our congregations across the country.
Right now, we are in the middle of an historic moment for our faith. There is a new draft of language about our promises, about how we are here for one another and the world.
The Article 2 Commission will be redrafting it again before it goes to our General Assembly in June, and they have asked us to give feedback by the end of this month. There’s much more to learn and say about this, and you can join me and board member, Leslie Pohl-Kosbau in the Eliot Chapel, following the festivities today in Fuller Hall… or, you can read more in the Staying
1 https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles/for-kids 2 https://www.8thprincipleuu.org
Connected Blog this past week3… or, you could go right to the UUA website where you will find a link to offer your thoughts.
Today, we are gathered to celebrate this community, and how we are there for each other and the world. One thing that we do here is share in the creation of a place where blessings multiply. As in the story for all ages, Thank You, Omu!, we offer our time, talents, and treasure to nourish one another and in doing so we unlock the potential in others to do the same.5 This is a circle with no end… our gifts ripple throughout every corner of this city block, the internet, and beyond.
The good neighbor ethic of Omu soars in this place, and through it love takes flight in our lives and in the world.
One of the values articulated in the new draft language of a proposed Unitarian Universalist Association covenant gets at the heart of this. Here is what it says, in case you haven’t read them yet:
“Generosity. We cultivate a spirit of gratitude and hope.
We covenant to freely share our faith, presence, and resources.
Compassionate generosity connects us one to another in relationships of mutuality.”
Now, you might have thoughts about whether this specific promise should be included, or about different words that could express something similar, but just for a moment, let’s ask:
How might we be changed by the explicit addition of a promise to cultivate a sense of gratitude and hope and to build relationships of mutuality grounded in compassionate generosity?
How might we be changed 10, 20, or 40 years from now by explicitly adding a promise to cultivate a sense of gratitude and hope and to build relationships of mutuality grounded in compassionate generosity?
And before we answer that, let me ask a question. How many of you remember Unitarian Universalism before we had a 7th principle and a commitment to our Earth? Anyone with their hands up at home or in this room can testify how we have been reshaped by that promise to “Respect the interdependent web of all existence.” It has changed who we are and who we are becoming. It has changed the focus of our personal practices, our religious education teachings, our efforts to be as green a sanctuary as possible, and our advocacy efforts in the world. We are not the same because we made and continue to make that promise.
Well, I don’t know if a promise about building relationships of mutuality and compassionate generosity will be in the final covenant for sure, but I do know that it makes every difference to lead our lives from that place.
3 https://www.firstunitarianportland.org/new-principles-and-purposes/
4 https://www.uua.org/files/pdf/d/draft_chrg_art_ii_stdy_com.pdf
5 Thank You, Omu! written and illustrated by Oge Mora
It may be an ethic of gratitude and generosity that undergirds everything we make possible when we come together here.
Why gratitude?
Gratitude is the natural response to our interdependence. It is a miracle that any of us is here at all. That the stars in the universe collided in ways to form planets and seas and mountains and trees. It is a miracle that life arose in the oceans and moved onto dry land.
The sheer diversity of the creatures who have crossed from continent to continent, evolving over time is astounding. Just think, any one shift might not have allowed any of this to have happened. We might not be here at all. The Earth could be silent, but instead it is filled with song.
Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way, “I can believe a miracle because I can raise my own arm. I can believe a miracle because I can remember. I can believe it because I can speak and be understood by you. I can believe in a manifestation of power beyond my own, because I am such a manifestation.”6
When we recognize fully how surprising is the mere fact of life itself, we experience it as a gift. One that we could never earn and never fully repay.
Gratitude is the natural response to the awe and wonder we feel knowing we interdepend on so many cosmic and earthly events. An ethic or practice of gratitude is how we respond when we realize that others also interdepend on our presence and our actions. We are nourished by and can nourish many in relationships grounded in mutuality and reciprocity. This is the only way our global village has and will continue to flourish.
We have a choice. There are many who do not promise compassionate generosity or an ethic of mutuality. I think that many of us feared that this other orientation might win out on the ballot last week… I’ll name, no matter who wins, we always have more work to do as a society to move in the direction of gratitude and hope for the future.
As Unitarian Universalists, we know that we are not aligned completely with any political party. Instead, we aim to align ourselves with a love and compassion that includes all the living. We center those on the margins and help give voice to the voiceless. No person and no creature is left out of our vision of who is worthy of our care.
As it is written in the draft language, “We covenant to freely share our faith, presence, and resources,” and I might add, in service of life, in service of one another, in service of love and liberation.
We offer our gifts in service of this beloved community because together we can offer each other and the world far more than any of us could do on our own. Remember the moment when Omu has nothing left to give, the community which surrounds her has plenty to spare. We do that for each other in a community like ours too. Our church is based on reciprocity and gifts. And, when we share our collective gifts, we multiply and magnify what’s possible.
6 https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotations/view/1080/spiritual-quotation
Here is but one story from this week:
I visited with our “Community for Earth” team meeting to learn more about what they are working on, and one leader shared this:
She wanted to share her resources with an organization caring and advocating for our Mother Earth out of a desire to make a difference. She investigated different possibilities in Portland, such as 350.org, the Sierra Club, and other service and advocacy groups. She also wanted to engage in personal practices, as well as being part of changing corporate practices and those of the wider society. She wanted to work with an organization centering people of color and pushing us beyond fossil fuels. She wanted to work with children and adults of all ages for this generational work.
She visited different places, including our Community for Earth Team…
Soon, she realized that our congregation and our Community for Earth team is like the hub at the center of the spokes of a wheel. If she joined this one team, she would be able to connect and collaborate with others working across all these possibilities. We have people embedded in many of the climate justice organizations she was considering, and here she could also find the spiritual renewal that is essential for sustained work and resilience in the face of setbacks.
In addition, at First Unitarian, she had the possibility to work with Cassandra and Nicole, our religious educators, and to learn from and with our children and youth. It is so often the youth in this congregation and beyond this congregation that are leaders in the climate justice movement.
You see, there is a power and possibility in this spiritual hub, to participate in communal and societal change that exists when we share our resources with one another and the world.
You are invited today to join in this Season of Giving and to come up with a pledge for 2023 that is generous for your circumstances. Remember when you turn in your pledge card in Fuller Hall or online (if you haven’t already done so) your gifts help us to multiply and magnify life and a spirit of love that is on the move towards liberation. Remember, that without you none of this is possible and with you many things are possible.
This can be clear to young and old alike. Last year, a 10-year-old in the church where I was serving came to me and said, “Here is my allowance. I want to tithe a portion to the congregation because I trust you will do good things with it.” That is not too far off from what the Community for Earth leader shared about why she devotes her time and talents here. She trusts that we will do good things here in this hub of the wheel for climate justice.
Let us all join our gifts together so that love may find wings!
May it be so!
Topics: Neighbor