It
is only 11 days until Easter Sunday, so
we are well into 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.
By the
time the two united to become the Unitarian
Universalist Association in 1960 a flinty
sort 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/her 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 a part.” 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, but 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 online.
While Lenten practice is far from widespread, it is no longer an 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 U.U.
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 in 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, birdwatching at dawn,
yoga, Common Cause,
God, doubt,
egotism, self-denigration,
yesterday, tomorrow.
—Patrick Murfin
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