Submission 302
Rick Holmgren
UU Church of Meadville (Meadville, PA) 7313
What is your suggestion or idea?
Amend the first paragraph of Section C-2.2 to read:
“As Unitarian Universalists, we covenant, congregation-to-congregation and through our association, to support and assist one another in our ministries. We draw from our spiritual, religious, and humanistic heritages, which value of freedom, reason, hope, and courage. We build ing on the foundation of love.”
What is the reason for your amendment idea?
I suggest modifying “heritages” by calling out the spiritual, religious, and humanistic roots of our faith, which encourage us to value freedom, reason, hope, and courage. Since the addition of these modifiers lengthens the sentence, which was already overly long. I also suggest making the last clause a separate sentence.
As a deeply spiritual UU, I was saddened and dismayed to see no mention, even implicitly, of our spiritual and religious heritage. To address that, I suggest modifying “heritages” by calling out the spiritual, religious, and humanistic roots of our faith, heritages which encourage us to value freedom, reason, hope, and courage. Since the addition of these modifiers lengthens the sentence, which was already overly long. I also suggest making the last clause a separate sentence.
The tensions between the humanistic and theological traditions within our denomination are longstanding and well documented, and the challenge of navigating those tensions serves to spur our spiritual growth. We become stronger by welcoming diverse perspectives and ways of knowing. Unfortunately, this paragraph, which sets the tone and foreshadows all that follows, seems to declare victory for the humanists and erase all memory of our religious and spiritual heritage. I note that there is no mention of the many religious traditions that inform our faith elsewhere in this section, and that they are only lightly suggested in the section that follows, which purports to describe our inspirations.
I hope that both this paragraph and Section C-2.3 can be amended to lift up and celebrate our diverse religious and spiritual heritages along with our humanist tradition.
Have you discussed this idea with your congregation or other UUs?
We have had two meetings after Church to discuss the proposed Article II revisions. Each was attended by about 20 people, a significant portion of our regular attendees. There was general agreement with this suggestion. Encouraging one another to spiritual growth is a focus of our congregation, and we draw heavily on our spiritual and religious heritages (as well as the current principles and sources) to support this work.