Witnessing

[zvi]

I … rather envisioned people saying something here? I guess I'll go ahead and goose the discussion a bit, but I'd like people to can do intro posts or talk about practice, beliefs, intuitions, congregational life, anything that relates to your life as a religious person.

Okay, so, one of the things about me is that I'm a (non-UU) preacher's kid and some of the time I use Christian language to describe congregational practice that makes sense to me, but I'm an agnostic more-humanist-than-anything-else, and I'm not talking about Jesus or any god.

Are you publicly a Unitarian Universalist?

When people discuss religion in daily life, do you clarify the religious tradition to which you belong, rather than sticking to a single vocabulary of Christian sounding words like church or pagan sounding words like magic or Buddhist sounding words like meditation?

Do you proactively witness the tradition? Do your internet profiles include UU identifications*? Do you wear chalice jewelry or t-shirts? Do you have spare Principles & Sources cards to whip out of your business card wallet?

Does your family know what kind of religious community you belong to? Do they know that you don't only celebrate the holidays you grew up with, but now incorporate rites and practices from other traditions, or have given up rites and practices all together?

How do we tow the line between being open about our religious life and being proselytizers? Is being open on this issue part of your religious belief system? If you believe strongly in a specific faith tradition, like Islam or Judaism or atheism, alongside with your UU identification, do you prefer to identify that way? Is UU too complicated to talk about?

*Speaking of, can anyone recommend a more attractive icon than this one? It displeases me.

P.S. If anyone wants to reframe the questions, feel free? I know I stacked the deck with the implication that coming out is better, but if your coming at these questions from a whole other angle, feel free to lay that groundwork with your own questions and then answer those.

Comments

[estirose]

On my end, most of my family (with the exception of my step-grandmother, who's very, very evangelical/conservative christian and nobody with a sense of preservation mentions religion to) knows that I'm UU. There are a few that know I'm a secular Humanist but I just haven't been in touch with to tell them I joined UU. Some people outside my family know I've joined as well. It doesn't come up in conversation too often, but if people ask, I do tell them what I am. (An awful lot of people think I joined another Protestant Christian denomination until I clarify what UU is.)

As someone who doesn't get to a physical congregation on anything resembling a regular basis (I belong to CLF) and was raised as a Christian (and strongly influenced my my pastor grandfather, who encouraged me to examine the bible and my faith, and my family believes would have been fairly comfortable with me joining), I use the terms I grew up with. I don't celebrate most Christian holidays, but that's because I don't see the point - Christmas being an exception because it's the winter holiday I'm used to, and for the most part my family treats it as a secular holiday anyway.

[zvi]

I very nearly joined CLF, because of a really gripping bout of shyness! I eventually got over it and got to my local UU church, but I still listen to Quest every month.

May I ask how you found out about/got involved with UU, since you didn't have access to a physical congregation? (Or did you have one and move away?)

[estirose]

I believe I discovered it courtesy Wikipedia! I was reading up on something, ran across a reference to Universalism (the belief), realized that I'd shared that belief since I was a pre-teen, found the reference to UU, hit UUA and discovered that I had a lot in common with UU principles, looked for a local congregation, and ended up in CLF.

I love CLF because I do get to be in the ebbs and flows of a wonderful, thoughtful group, but I'm at a little disadvantage when talking to other UUs, because I have never belonged to a physical group and I'm a fairly new UU, so I don't know what people who attend physical congregations/groups know.

(There are two UU groups in my area, but as someone who's public-transit dependent, they're both a horror to get to by that on Sundays. I can't drive due to an illness, so I ended up in CLF.)

[shoshanna_g]

I've wondered how well CLF works, so I'm really glad to hear it's been so good for you!

[zvi]

You have found a congregation that works for you, so I am not urging you to quit that, but if your desire to check out a location-based group increases, it might be worth it to contact the minister or church administrator to ask if any members near you would be willing to give you a ride. That's how I started going to my local congregation. Just as an option, if you start wondering what a service might look like, or especially if you want to get in for flower communion or water communion or Passover or something specific.

Also, I know that CLF has a physical service at the Annual Meeting, if you ever have the wherewhithal to attend.

I'd love it if you made a post talking about CLF and how the members of CLF interact with each other, as well as with the ministerial team, and anything else you'd care to share. And if there are specific things that you'd like to know about how physically-based congregations work, please feel free to make a post asking that question, and everyone who wants to may answer. "What do UUs do?" questions are exactly the sorts I want to encourage here.