The Archives
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love feasts, ritual, uuemergence, uus
A ritual to widen, deepen UU identity: Love feasts
02.27.08 | Permalink | 6 CommentsHere’s an idea. UUs should start doing regular love feasts. “Love feasts”—also called “agape feasts“—are a simple sharing of food and drink as a celebration of community.1 They are an ancient tradition from the Early Church that are sometimes connected to communion, sometimes not. My own experience of love feasts comes from my college fraternity. […]
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initiation rituals, membership, UU, uus
What congregational membership means
02.26.08 | Permalink | 2 CommentsI want to lay out the perspective on congregational membership that I’ve been using in my work as a membership director in a large UU congregation over the last year or so. Maybe this can add to the conversation about the meaning and scope of UU identity and the importance of initiation rituals in a […]
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baptism, communion, uu identity, uus
UU identity: Initiation vs. congregational membership
02.26.08 | Permalink | 6 CommentsPhilocrites makes a great point. In the Christian tradition, a person’s identification as a Christian is traditionally marked by a baptism. It is a public and symbolic ritual celebrated with a gathered community. Which is to say it is not a private or legal ritual, even when it is required for formal, legal membership in […]
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membership, UU, uus
Clarifications about membership
02.25.08 | Permalink | Comments Off on Clarifications about membershipFirst, I love that the discussion is still hot (as in cool, not as in angry). Please accept this post (and all others) in this spirit. I want to say more when I have more time, but I want to make some clarifications about my last post. 1. In saying that the entire movement depends […]
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congregations, cultural uus, membership, uuism, uus
Without members of congregations, UUism would die
02.19.08 | Permalink | 16 CommentsWithout members of actual congregations, Unitarian Universalism would die. Without members of national UU organizations (like C*UUYAN, to pick a timely example), Unitarian Universalism will be just fine, if somewhat more sedentary in lifestyle. Let’s lay it all out on the table.1 The movement known as Unitarian Universalism is kept alive by actual people who […]
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barack obama, uus
Why are so many UUs for Obama?
02.03.08 | Permalink | 14 CommentsI’ve noticed a lot of Obama endorsements in the UU blogosphere these past few days. Why so many? Because Obama speaks our language: aspirational humanism. We believe that words of hope change things; similar words are spoken from UU pulpits each Sunday. But it’s more than his rhetoric. It’s his argument that the rhetoric of […]
