Witnessing
Jun. 9th, 2011 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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uudreamersI … 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-11 02:39 am (UTC)Tangentially, I would like to confirm that Building Your Own Theology is an awesome course! I had the luck to take it with Rev. Gilbert, who wrote the course book, when he was serving as an interim at my current church several years ago. It helped me mop up the lingering dregs of the spiritual crisis I wandered into in high school, and it was really neat listening to everyone else slowly articulate what they believed about the world, humanity, religion, and so on.
Ithaca is kind of spoiled when it comes to local musical talent. The fine arts students at Ithaca College are always interested in performance venues and are therefore willing to be guest musicians at a Sunday service in return for using the sanctuary as concert space in the evenings.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-11 02:10 pm (UTC)I'm a little wary about jumping into BYOT because I will be leading ARE and I've never done it before, so it seems kind of heavy for the first time out for all of us. I mean, I guess everyone has a first time, so that's not a real reason not to do it, but it does make the whole thing a little scary.