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Unitarian
Universalist
Fellowship of North Central
Iowa
606 North
Monroe Ave.
Mason City, IA
641-423-1793
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. . . Gleanings
from UU
Newsletters
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Children of a Chosen Faith
As a community of faith, we are “called” to plant and cultivate
the seeds of spiritual growth in our children’s lives. In our faith, the
mission of religious education is to help our children formulate their own
religious views, to nurture the unfolding of their unique spirituality, and to
cultivate a strong ethical character.
Whether we wish it or not, our children are religious,
spiritual beings. From within their own magical selves they know feelings,
intuitions, and impulses. From the people, stories, songs, and media of
their environs they hear religious words and messages and see religious
symbols and images. From the experiences of their daily living they
encounter religious events. They see dry sticks sprout pulsing green leaves.
They see a deer killed on the highway. They watch their teacher’s tummy grow
round with new life, and bid farewell to their uncle dying of AIDS.
If we do not respond to this reality, that children are
spiritual beings, faced with religious challenges and religious language all
of the time, then we are leaving them open to the random teachings and
influences that they come in contact with every day…. Children learn what
they live, and in the midst of what a significant number of children are now
learning and living stands this church, stands this religious community. What
will they live and learn here?
By sharing with our children our interpretation of events, our
definitions for the different terms that they hear, and offering them some
positive possibilities, on the notion of God, the nature of humanity and the
power of community, what they learn will be liberating and loving …. It is
through us that our children grow and learn what it means to be Unitarian
Universalist.
Many of us hold the hope that by raising our children Unitarian
Universalist their lives will be more ethical, more just, more critically
discerning than ours, free of guilt, in a tradition that respects them and
teaches the value of living in community …. If this is truly what we want,
then each member of the community is called upon to help them. If we share
the riches of our religious heritage, then our children -the Children of a
Chosen Faith- may one day call themselves Unitarian Universalist.
Rev. Jennifer L. Brower
Interim Assistant Minister
The Community Church of New York
Unitarian Universalist |
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Praise for Evangelism
“Millions upon millions of
people everywhere are drifting from the old formulations, no longer willing
to view the ancient myths as religious truths. They are
looking for a vital, modern religion with a personal and social imperative.
We may have it! I think we do!”
These words
are from the Rev. Lewis McGee, a minister raised and ordained in the African
Methodist Episcopal (AME) tradition, then fellowshipped as a Unitarian in
1948. McGee died in 1979, after helping to found the Free Religious
Fellowship in Chicago.
“Our
religion,” he continued, “is a religion of social concern, a religion of
intellectual and ethical integrity, a religion that emphasizes the dynamic
conception of history and the scientific worldview, a religion that
stresses the dignity and worth of the person as a supreme value and
goodwill as the creative force in human relations. This religion can and
ought to become a beacon from which this kind of faith shines.”
We need
the evangelism McGee brought to our tradition, an evangelism transmitted
through the AME tradition, but based on the Greek roots eu, “good”
and angelos “messenger.” We need to become the good messengers,
the messengers of the good news, the messengers who speak aloud the words
of dignity, the words of justice, the words of peace.
“Millions
upon millions of people everywhere are drifting from the old formulations,
no longer willing to view the ancient myths as religious truths. They are
looking for a vital, modern religion with a personal and social imperative.
We may have it! I think we do!”
Rev. Frank Rivas
First Universalist Church, MPLS
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“An Invitation to God”
Five-year-old Andy is in the shower looking for ways to use an
entire bottle of blue, no-tears Aussie shampoo (the kind with the kangaroo
on the bottle) without washing his hair. “I’m getting clean for Easter!”
he calls out.
John, his 13-year-old
brother, pops in: “Did you know that you have 2,000 red blood cells being
replaced every second?”
Me: “That’s pretty exciting.”
John: “And I have probably 1,000.
Me: “That’s exciting, too.”
John: “Maybe a humanologist could keep track of them – ‘there goes another
one.’”
Andy (the five-year-old) is singing in the shower, “I’m gonna make my
garden grow.”
John pops back in: “You know, my Latin is helping me with my science,
because I know why flagella is the plural of flagellum.”
Andy: “Zap, zap, zap, boom! Rayman watch out! Bzzyou ya ya ya doo da,
here comes Batman!” He dives against the glass shower door, crashing it
open and leaping forth naked and dripping to proclaim, “I’m done with my
shower!”
John runs down the stairs at top speed, then runs back up the stairs with
a radio – the Red Sox are playing – having finished his math, science and
social studies homework in 45 seconds.
And the mother adds, “All the while I have been sitting in the bathroom
admiring the astonishing swiftness with which young minds assimilate new
facts and make of them instant metaphysical landscapes.” (Carol Zaleski,
“The Christian Century,” 11/22-29/00).
The miracle of the human mind, seeking, creating, finding ….
These days, I think I now know more clearly what this something greater
is, what God is (which I know is an audacious claim to make).
Fundamentally, it is the Creativity that is within you and within me and
all around us. There is a grand cosmic Creativity: We call it Love, or
Justice, or Beauty …. We are part of something greater, something sacred,
something divine ….
Rev. Bruce Southworth
The Community Church of New York
Unitarian Universalist
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