Religious Education

For the past 3 years I have been attending off and on the Ann Arbor Unitarian Universalist (AAUU) Congregation. I went alone for awhile, then with the monkey, now the whole family goes (including my mother sometimes).

This past Christmas 10:30pm service (I have always loved the Christmas candle light service) I went solo. I cried through the entire service. Most services I tear up a bit but this one was full on. It was lovely and emotional. The next Sunday service I could not attend due to illness so it was a bit until I went back again. (This year I have been going almost every Sunday) When I did walk through those doors again it finally felt like home. Many of my friends were now going there also so I now had a community there. Going to church felt like a warm hug.

Now I have decided to take the next step and dive deeper into what this religion is all about. More than once I have heard the snarky comments about UU and it has been offensive but I acknowledge that there is much misunderstanding/misconception about what UU is.

I signed up for the Intro to UU class. My first class was this past Thursday. I will share with you a bit of what I learned. (i love the historical backgroud stuff)

History Factoids:

Unitarian beliefs have been around ince the first years of the Common Era (CE or AD) but they were forced underrgroud. There were the trinitarians and the Unitarians. The unitarians did not believe in the holy trinity.

In the Universalist history it was in 185-254 CE an early church father Origen was a proponent of theological universalism (all will be saved/no original sin). In 544 CE Council at Constantiople declared Universalism heresy.

In Unitarian history Unitarianism (known as Arianism at that time) was declared heresy in 325 CE

This was a time of fear mongering and control by those in power. The bible was only read by priests and the lay person waas told what to believe. The bible was read in service in Latin and only the wafers were given to the congregants and the priests only got the full communion if any communion was shared at all. Religion and politics were closely intertwinded the era of Constantinople was the time where free thinkers or an inclusive religion would hinder the powers of the state and church.

1425 - The Czech priest Jan Hus was burned at the stake for serving the communion wine to people and saying the mass in the language of the people reather than Latin

1498 - Pater D'Aranda, condemned for denying hell as everlasting punishment

1539 - Katherine Vogel, Krakow Poland, burned a the stake for denying the trinity

1553 - Spanish doctor and Bible scholar Micheal Servetus was burned at the stake by order of John Calvin with his book The Errors of the Trinity strapped to his leg

1568 - King John Sigismund of Transylvania issued an Edict of Tolerance, having been persuaded by Francis David, his chaplin, that God is one, not three, and that no one should be persecuted on account of religious belief. Thus was founded Unitarianism as a public religion rather than simply a private belief.

1620 - The Pilgrims founded Plymouth colony, incorporating government by covenant, seperation of civil and religious authorities, and congregationalism (the beginnings of the UU congregational polity)

1759 - "Union" a statement of Universalist theology stressing universal salvation, was sritten by James Relly and published in England.

1770 - John Murray, convinced my relly, came to America and preached a Universalist message from the meeting house Thomas Potter had hopefully built on his New Jersay farm.

1774 - Theophilus Lindsey began the first Unitarian church in England

1779 - John Murray organized the first Universalist Church in America at Goulster, Massachusetts

1782 - John Freeman takes King's Chapel into unitarian position.

1791 - Joseph Priestly, a unitarian minister and scientis in England, had his meeting house and laboratory attacked by a mob on account of his radical beliefs; he immigrated to Philadelphia and had major influence on Thomas Jefferson and the founding principles of his country.

1805 - Universalist Hosea Ballou wrote the "Treatise on the Atonement" arguing that human beings do not need a savior such as Jesus to save them from damnation for their sins, but that instead Jesus showed by example that sin can be overcome by love.

1819 - Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing gave his foundational " Baltimore Sermon" on the unity of god, the Bible as written by humans and subject to interpretation through reason, and religious tolerance.

1825 - The American Unitarian Association formed with 125 ministers, most of them educated at Harvard Divinity School

1838 - Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a Harvard Divinity School address that became another foundational expression of Unitarianism as well as Transcendentalism, stressing that direct intuition of God is available directly to each person, and that Christianity is not the only path to truth.

1841 - the third foundational expression of Unitarianism was Theodore Parker's South Boston sermon on "The Transient and Permanent in Christianity"

1863 - The Universalists ordained Rev. Olympia Brown , the first woman ordained by any religious organization in the United States.

1865 - The attempt to prganize Unitarians (not just ministers) through the National Conference, led by Henry Bellows, led the dissenting independent thinkers to form the Free Religious Association, with Emerson as the first signer of their "declaration of independence" from anything resembling a creed. Emerson then left the Unitarian ministry for a life as a writer and lecturer

1887 - William Channing Gannett wrote his "Things Commomly Bleieved Today Among Us" a significant attempt to bridge the chasm between the institutionalists and theists on the one habe and the atheistic free religionists on teh other, the latter group seeing themselves as both firmly non-creedal and believing staunchly in a strictly ethical basis for religion.

1893 - The Chicago Unitarian congregation of ministers Jenkin Lloyd Jones put on the first Parliament of Religions, associates with the World's Fair; this revolutionary event introduced to the Unitarians (and others) the wisdom of the world's religions, especially Eastern religions, so that "universalism" began to take on a new meaning, and American Unitarians began to be universalists in their thinking.

1933 - The Humanist manifesto was formulated in Ann Arbor, with many unitarian and Universalist ministers as signers. It stressed the universe as self-existing and evolving, science and reason as not seperate from religion, and the betterment of human conditions here and now as the purpose of life.

1937 - Sophia Lyon Fahs wrote the first ground-breaking curriculum for Unitarian religious education for children.

1940 - The Unitarian Service Committee was formed to launch efforts to bring out of harm;s was Jewish people, homosexuals, and others being persecuted in Nazi Europe. After merger, the USC became the UUSC, which partners around the world and in this country with groups working for the well-being of people who are persecuted or otherwise suffering.

1961 - The American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged to form the Unitarian universalist Association of Congregations.

The following is "Unitarian Universalism - The Religion" as prepared for the UUMA Convocation by Daniel O'Connel 03/08/02

=many scriptures, not one
=here and now, not the hereafter
=freedom, reason, tolerance,love as overarching values
=deeds not creeds, show your work, live your faith
=evolutionary theology, language changes
=we are saved by love, we are made holy by character

We share withother religious liberals:
=no original sin, God is Love
=unity of experience: faith & knowledge, sacred & secular
-non-creedal, authority of conscience
=need for religious community
=congregational polity, democratic methods
=a spark of "divinity" or the "highest good" in every person
=a destination: an earth made fair, all her people one, we co-create the world.

~~~~

This concludes my report on my class on Thursday.

One thing I feel is intersting to note is that Thomas Jefferson thought that Unitarian religion would become the popular religion before the end of his generation. This did not occur to any fault ar flaw in the religion but the fact that other religions started becoming more open and liberal in their practice.

Also there is a new book out about Joseph Priestly called The Invention of Air I heard an interview on NPR yesterday. Sounds fascinating.