Considering UUs, Lent, and Sacrifice with Vintage Murfin Verse

These days the Unitarian Universalist Association cheerfully provides Lenten worship materials for congregations and for individual spiritual practice.  It was not always so.

Note—Awhile back I got an e-mail from a reader who found an earlier version of the post below.  He asked, “Wondered why you didn’t have Starbucks on the list?”  The answer was simple:  The poem was written about 2002 before Starbucks was as ubiquitous as it is now.  There are other tip offs to its age.  There were plenty of Volvos in UU parking lots back then.  Today not so much.  There would be hybrid or electrics now.

In 2002 practical, safe, and boring Volvos dotted UU parking lots.  Today there would be Teslas--bought before Elon Musk went MAGA, Focus, or other small green friendly car often smothered in stickers and magnets like this but the messages would be things like "Coexist", "Support Whirled Peas", Rainbow flags, and old Bernie Sanders stickers.

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 Papish trappings liturgy, and anything that stood between humans and a direct relationship with God.  While in the 19th Century both remained 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.

Nothing could be more UU than a mug for coffee hour, often called Unitarian communion. This one expressed the feelings of many Humanists in the late 20th Century.

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 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.

Elements of Lenten practice--not just for orthodox Christians any more.

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 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 called 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

 

Of Unitarian Universalists, Lent, and Sacrifice with Vintage Murfin Verse

These days the Unitarian Universalist Association cheerfully provides Lenten worship materials for congregations and for individual spiritual practice.  It was not always so.

Note—Awhile back I got an e-mail from a reader who found an earlier version of the post below. He asked, “Wondered why you didn’t have Starbucks on the list?” The answer was simple: The poem was written about 2002 before Starbucks was as ubiquitous as it is now. There are other tip offs to its age. There were plenty of Volvos in UU parking lots back then. Today not so much. It would be a Chevy Volt or a not-a-Tesla electric now. 

 

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. 

Back in the aughts of the 21st Century  UU parking lots were rife with sturdy, practical, safe Volvos with bumper stickers.   Hybrids and electrics have taken their place.  The bumper stickers are still on them.

 

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 Papish liturgical trappings, and anything that stood between humans and a direct relationship with God. While in the 19th Century both remained 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 Her/Him/Them/It. 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. 

 

Nothing could be more UU than a mug for coffee hour, often called Unitarian communion. This one expressed the feelings of many Humanists in the late 20th Century.

 

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 for 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 lyrics. 

 

By the early 21st Century, however, there was a growing restiveness in the pews and a yearning for deeper spirituality largely due to the 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 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 on line. While Lenten practice is far from widespread, it is no longer an aberration. 

 

Elements of Lenten practice--not just for orthodox Christians any more.

 

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 UU 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 called 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

Ash Wednesday Calendar Coincidences Inspired Murfin Verse

Catholic school students at a compulsory Ash Wednesday service.

Regular readers know that silly calendar coincidences trigger compulsive versification in me the way a strobe light sets off an epileptic seizure.  It ain’t pretty to look at and witnesses are embarrassed for the victim but can not tear their eyes from the spectacle. 

Last year it was the quite contradictory urges of Valentine’s Day, fixed on February 14 way back in 496 CE when Pope Gelasius I was regularizing the calendar of feast days.  He assigned the date to a legendary early Christian Saint of whom literally nothing was known. Ash Wednesday, the floating observance of the first day of Lent and the second most solemn day of the year after Good Friday. 

One observation celebrates romantic love with all of the urges and excess that implies while the other calls for penance, fasting, and a solemn rejection of the temptations of the flesh that might detract attention from the coming sacrifice of Christ.

A guy could get whiplash trying to cover both bases in 24 short hours.

Valentine’s Day/Ash Wednesday
February 14, 2024

The convergence of Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday last happened in 2018. It happens again in 2029, but usually it’s rarer than that. It won’t occur again in this century.

Mark the day for failed love—
    abandonment, betrayal, cruelty,
    abuse, brokenness, contempt.
Wear scarlet, sack cloth optional
    dine alone.
Give up dreams
    for the season.

—Patrick Murfin

                                                Cupid, the Roman God of erotic love, son of Venus and Mars, lover of Psyche.

I had a different take on the subject the previous time it happened just in 2018.

Valentine’s Day/Ash Wednesday
February 14, 2018

Doth the thumb smear on Cupid’s brow,
dour penance and virtuous sacrifice
    subdue ard/or or blunt the arrows
    from his quiver?
Or doth affection triumph after all,
    lust work its wanton magic, pagan heart
    smother sanctimony?

—Patrick Murfin

George Washington supposedly took communion with his aides and officers at an outdoor service  held by the Morristown Presbyterian Church which claims that he officially joined during the period when the Continental Army was headquartered there.  The claim is boosted on right wing web sites trying to prove that Washington was a fervent evangelical Christian.  But there is no evidence that Washington actually took the communion wafer or that he ever joined the congregation.

Before either of those occasions Ash Wednesday bumped right into George Washington’s Birthday in 2012.

The Vestryman
Ash Wednesday/Washington’s Birthday 2012

The Vestryman performing the duty expected of the local Squire
                attended chapel when absolutely necessary
            and when no good excuse like fighting an Empire
            or Fathering a Country was handy.

He sat bolt upright on a rigid pew
                    contemplated the charms of Lady Fairfax
                            or later dental misery.

            When came the Altar Call, he would stand up,
                        turn on his heel, and march straight out
                        as if a legion was at his back.

            No filthy priestly thumb ever grimed
                        that noble brow.

—Patrick Murfin      

 

 

Tossed Like Beads—Mardi Gras with Murfin Verse

Note—It’s a busy time on major religion calendars.  As Muslims observe the month of Ramadan with fasting, prayer, and purification, Western Christians will begin their own period of  austerity  preparation on Ash Wednesday, March 5.  That means a final party—a carnival—is celebrated on Fat Tuesday, Mardis Gras.  And so we have a two-fer—the second entry for today. 

Revelers are crowding the French Quarter again in New Orleans 

There are a downsides to having been raised vaguely Protestant and residing in sometimes inhospitable northern climes.  Perhaps the biggest is regarding with wistful envy the liberating extravagance of Carnival and Mardi Gras.  It is the un-religious holiday—a day of wallowing in the ways of the flesh and merry making before getting down to the serious and unpleasant tasks of the proper piety of Lent.

Catholics seem to know how to take advantage of the opportunity, especially in warm places where the streets beckon—New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro most famously.  But folks from countries where Romance languages are spoken can find ways to celebrate even in icy Quebec City.  

It's Mardis Gras in warm places.

The idea is simple.  Finnish up the Christmas season on the Feast of the Epiphany, the fixed day of January 11, and then coast down the hill of Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday kicks off of Lent, which by the lunar calendar falls anywhere from February to March, gathering speed all the while.

It is the “dead of winter.”  Even in Mediterranean countries it was dark and often cold.  Folks stayed inside more, got on each others’ nerves.  But by Fat Tuesday, the sap was running and Spring seemed just over the horizon.  Perfect for one last opportunity to bust loose before breaking out the sack cloth and ashes.

Protestants, particularly Calvinists, their decedents, and those who stood close enough by to be infected, took a dim view of the whole process.  More Papist/pagan nonsense to them.  A good Calvinist existed in a state of perpetual Lent.  The experience of any sensual pleasure was regarded as a sinful distraction from contemplation of the awesome majesty of God and our totally undeserving souls.  It was for good reason that Puritanism has been described as the nagging suspicion that somewhere, somehow, somebody is having a good time.

  

Cute.  But English alter boys flipping pancakes is a poor substitute of sex, sin, and degradation

England, I am told, once celebrated Carnival—a cultural gift of the Norman French aristocracy.  Cromwell and his boys pretty much wiped that out at the point of the sword.  Even when Kings remounted the Throne and the Anglican Church regained the upper hand, the old traditions fell away.  They shrank the celebration down to something called Shrove Tuesday, which is celebrated mostly by making and eating pancakes.  Now I bow to no man in my affection for the flapjack or griddle cake, but even a high pile drenched in butter and real maple syrup is a poor substitute for dancing semi-naked in the streets.  Brits passed this tradition on to all the former pink spots on the globe where the Empire once ruled and to all the Protestant sects derived from Anglicanism and Calvinism.

Of course, not all Catholics party with absolute abandon.  Those from northern and eastern Europe either never celebrated or toned down Carnival.  The Poles celebrate with Pączki Day (pronounced pŭtch-kē).  In the old country it was held on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, but in the immigrant communities of North America it is held on Fat Tuesday.  Folks line up at bakeries at the crack of dawn to purchase pączkis, a kind of jelly doughnut made only once a year.  This is a much bigger deal than it sounds on Chicago’s Milwaukee Ave, the main street of the Windy City’s Polonia.

Near riots have been known to break out at certain celebrated Chicago bakeries.  Purists denounce the faux Pacziki sold in boxes at supermarkets starting weeks before Fat Tuesday--pretty much ordinary jelly donuts with plenty of preservatives.  Only fresh bakery ones served by a grandmotherly lady in a hairnet with a thick accent are acceptable. 

In Germany, the Baltic states, and Scandinavian Fat Tuesday is likewise celebrated with special local pastries meant to use up the supply of sugar and lard before the Lenten fast.

Tonight night the biggest and most honored Krews will be conducting their parades in New Orleans. 

Down there, they take Mardi Gras seriously and have stretched it to the whole season between the Epiphany and Lent.  Various parades have been winding down the streets of different neighborhoods for weeks, each followed by its own Ball.  The streets of the French Quarter will be crowded this evening.  Many revelers, as always, are drunken northerners and Calvinist escapees.  They will party next to the locals, drinking copiously, begging for beads cast from the parade floats, and eying the pretty young girls flashing their tits.

 Everyone will forget sturm und drang, dread, and chaos of this new year.  Even a good many MAGA loyalists, Christian nationalist acolytes, and the rest of that tribe will be at the big party in the Big Easy hoping that TV cameras do not broadcast their participation back home.

Kill joy Donald Trump will make his first address to the Joint Houses of Congress for his second term tonight.  Mardi Gras partiers will miss it.  Given the grim circumstances of the world, it will be a buzz kill for those at home trying to celebrate vicariously.  Drinking games like downing shots for every lie or incoherent rant could rival the consumption of the heartiest revelers on Bourbon Street.  I will dutifully tune in, but I will wish I was with them in New Orleans.  It’s been far too long since the Old Man reveled in sin and degradation. 

Eleven years ago, Social Justice Committee of the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry was scheduled to dutifully meet to do its earnest work on the evening of Fat Tuesday.   We were, after all, the stepchildren of those old Massachusetts Puritans.  As Chair it was customary for me to open the proceedings with a reflection.  Usually, it was a reading I snatched from the internet.  But that bitterly cold night smack dab in the Winter that would not end with howling winds blowing snow dangerously across the roads, we gathered anyway. I read them this.  Fitting and apt.   Sitting through my poetry ought to be hair shirt enough for any Puritan.

 

                                                 The radical equality of Samba dancers in Carnival in Rio.

A Prayer for a Committee Meeting on Mardi Gras
March 4, 2014

        Drudges like us throw on our heavy coats
                and slog through the still arctic night
                to rendezvous around a table
                for the earnest business of making the world
                a kinder place
                or so we tell ourselves.

        We pass the hours elbow deep
                in the common dishwater
                of routine and rote,
               duty and debate
               and adjourn the world not moved
               a centimeter from its calamitous orbit.

        But tonight in the Big Easy,
              down in Rio or far off Nice,
                    any of the warm places
                    where the evening pulses expectantly,
            they don masks and dance heedless
            in the streets.

        In timeless Carnival
             the rich and poor,
                 Black and White,
                    queer and straight
                        alien and citizen
            revel together in absolute equality.

        In the common streets
             justice rolls down like bons temps
             and righteousness,
             the enemy of comity,
             is tucked away in a samba dancer’s thong.

        For this one night there is Joy
             and the old world dances to a coronet.

        —Patrick Murfin

On UUs, Lent, and Sacrifice with Vintage Murfin Verse

These days the Unitarian Universalist Association cheerfully provides Lenten worship materials for congregations and for individual spiritual practice.  It was not always so.

 

Note—Awhile back I got an e-mail from a reader who found an earlier version of the post below.  He asked, “Wondered why you didn’t have Starbucks on the list?”  The answer was simple:  The poem was written about 2002 before Starbucks was as ubiquitous as it is now.  There are other tip offs to its age.  There were plenty of Volvos in UU parking lots back then.  Today not so much.  It would be a Chevy Volt or a Tesla now.

In 2002 practical, safe, and boring Volvos dotted UU parking lots.  Today there would be Teslas, Focus, or other small green friendly car often smothered in stickers and magnets like this but the messages would be things like "Coexist", "Support Whirled Peas", Rainbow flags, and old Bernie Sanders stickers.

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 Papish trappings liturgy, and anything that stood between humans and a direct relationship with God.  While in the 19th Century both remained 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.

Nothing could be more UU than a mug for coffee hour, often called Unitarian communion. This one expressed the feelings of many Humanists in the late 20th Century.

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 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.

Elements of Lenten practice--not just for orthodox Christians any more.

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 on line.  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 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 called 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