We
are about half way through the season of Lent
and I was reminded that there is at least a mild rash of interest in and even observance of the season of personal sacrifice and contemplation of the Holy among my fellow Unitarian Universalists. It was not always so.
As
heirs of the Radical Reformation and
step siblings Unitarianism and
Universalism as they evolved in the United
States instinctively rejected what they regarded as Popish trappings, liturgy, and anything that stood between humans
and a direct relationship with God.
While both remained in the 19th
Century avowedly Christian in
the Protestant tradition that meant eschewing the priesthood, Episcopal authority, the mass, saints, the liturgical calendar
and holy days like Christmas or Ash Wednesday.
Springing
from New England Puritanism, the
Unitarians often practiced days of fasting,
humiliation, and prayer in times of war or distress, they
saw no reason for a special 40 day season.
After all, a good Puritan lived his or her entire life in a kind of perpetual Lent.
The
Universalists preferred to joyfully celebrate the bottomless mercy of a loving
God who sooner or later reconciled
all souls to Him. The contemplation
of this universal beneficence was
enough to encourage mortal men and
women to live virtuous lives to show
themselves worthy of it.
Over
time both traditions evolved under the influences of Transcendentalism, Free
Thought, exposure to world religions
via the World Parliament of
Religions in 1893, and the explosion of Humanism following the First
and Second World Wars. Both tended to become less explicitly or orthodox Christian, although a wide variety of spiritual practice was found in both traditions.
 |
A reflection of agnostic Humanism hostility to traditional Christianity
|
By
the time the two united to become the Unitarian
Universalist Association in 1960 a flinty kind of agnostic Humanism was the dominant strain among Unitarians and
flourished to some degree among Universalists.
The larger and more muscular Unitarians soon dominated the united faith
and Humanism overshadowed theism in
its various guises for the rest of the century.
Humanists
denied any supernatural intervention
in human affairs and stressed the need for men and women to take charge of their own salvation in a
broken world to create a kind of heaven
on earth. That translated into activism in matters of war and peace, social justice, civil rights,
women’s equality, LBGTQ inclusion, and
the environment.
But
it also meant a bristling hostility to
conventional religion among many. In
some congregations a Minister could lose his pulpit for
using the “G word,” or citing Biblical scripture. The old joke was that Unitarians read
ahead in their hymnals to make sure
that they approved of the lyric.
By
the early 21st Century, however
there was a growing restiveness in
the pews and a yearning for deeper spirituality largely due to rise
of the women’s movement within the UUA which led to the adoption of 7th Principle, “respect for the web of existence of which we are apart. That gave rise to a kind of pantheism, neo-paganism, Buddhist practice, yoga, and various
elements of New Age Spirituality. Inevitably it also led to a re-examination of
Christian tradition and teaching.
As
an aging generation of Humanist ministers retired, they were replaced by graduates of UU Theological Schools and other seminaries who were more receptive to Christian theology and
practice. Today most UUs still identify
mainly as Humanists, they are more tolerant of the theists among them and are
more prepared to learn from the wisdom of religions including
Christianity.
Inevitably
that has led some to examine traditions like Lent as personal spiritual
practices. Lenten themed prayers or meditations, sermons,
and small group discussions are
easily found on line. While Lenten
practice is far from widespread, it is no longer and aberration.
About
2002 as those changes were just getting underway, I was moved to write a poem for
a service at the old Congregational Unitarian Congregation in
Woodstock, Illinois–now the Tree of Life Congregation in McHenry. It was included in my Skinner House Meditation Manual, We
Build Temples in the Heart published two years later. Since then it has occasionally popped up
services at other congregations.
Despite
its length and structure I have often call this my Zen poem.
What Unitarian
Universalists Should Give Up for Lent if They Observed It, Which They Don’t,
Most of Them.
Pews without
padding, Nature Conservancy calendars.
Volvos,
polysyllabic verbosity,
herbal tea,
austerity,
National Public
Radio, unread books in fine bindings,
isms:
Liberalism, Buddhism. Humanism,
Marxism, Feminism, Taoism,
Vegetarianism, Conservationism,
Transcendentalism,
Atheism, Consumerism, Sufism,
for Christ’s sake, Libertarianism,
Joys and
Concerns, pretension,
committee
meetings, Habitat t-shirts,
potluck tuna
casserole, black-and-white films with subtitles,
petitions,
sermons, tofu and brown rice,
drums, theology,
season tickets
to anything but baseball,
liturgical
dance, poetry readings,
pride:
Pilgrim pride
pride of intellect
pride of lineage
pride of lions
the pride that cometh before the fall
bistros, pledge
drives,
advanced
degrees, spirituality,
coffee hour,
sensible shoes,
philosophy,
choir rehearsal,
arrogance,
animal sacrifice,
gender-neutral
hymnals, learned clergy,
natural fibers,
string quartets,
whiteness,
turquoise jewelry,
recycling,
self-congratulation,
acupuncture,
bird-watching at dawn,
yoga, Common
Cause,
God, doubt,
egotism,
self-denigration,
yesterday,
tomorrow.
—Patrick
Murfin
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