Article I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind.
Translation: The Hebrew and Christian scriptures tell us something about the divine, and what it means to be human.
Article II. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness.
Translation: God is love, and eventually the whole human family will be restored to the happy holy starting place where they began the whole journey
Article III. We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practise good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men.
Translation: Being happy and being holy are connected. Do good works, you’ll like it.
...Yet while we, as an Association, adopt a general Profession of Belief and Plan of Church Government, we leave it to the several Churches and Societies, …within the limits of our General Association, to continue or adopt within themselves, such more particular articles of faith, or modes of discipline, as may appear to them best under their particular circumstances, provided they do not disagree with our general Profession and Plan.
Translation: we think this is a good statement, but if your congregation or cluster wants to come up with a different one, that’s fine, as long as it doesn’t directly contradict this one.
And while we consider that every Church possesses within itself all the powers of self-government, we earnestly and affectionately recommend to every Church, Society, or particular Association, to exercise the spirit of Christian meekness and charity towards those who have different modes of faith or practice, that where the brethren cannot see alike, they may agree to differ; and let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Translation: Churches are free to be their own boss, but pretty please, be humble, kind and respectful when you run into folks who do or believe differently. please agree to disagree. Let everyone be true to their own inner wisdom.
Reflection:
What do Unitarian Universalists believe? It’s a hard question to answer. Rev. Douglas and I spent some time compiling lists of the many statements of belief that have evolved over our UU history, and the long list illustrates that that this has been hard to answer for a long time, and that the answer keeps changing.
One thing that we often seem to agree about, is that folks have the capacity within them to discern what is true. We tend to agree that we want to be free to follow that inner compass. Over 450 years ago in Torda, now Romania, the first and only Unitarian monarch issued the Edict of Religious Toleration, which included this line: “no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied”
I love that… “their souls would not be satisfied” it implies a certain belief about the soul, that it can be satisfied or dissatisfied, and that the soul is a trustworthy guide.
There’s a corollary I heard in my spiritual director training; that one hint we are headed towards the sacred is that we feel we are growing in freedom.
In his lovely book Everything Belongs Richard Rohr helps parse out a bit what we mean by freedom:
“We have defined freedom in the West as the freedom to choose between options and preferences. That’s not primal freedom. ... The primal freedom is the freedom to be the self, the freedom to live in the truth despite all circumstances.”
The freedom to be the self. The freedom to live in truth- even when circumstances are hard.
Back in 1803, Universalists in the New England convention were asking themselves “what do Universalists believe?” when they wrote that Winchester profession of faith we heard a moment ago. First they made a list of things folks found important, a list I bet they spent quite some time arguing about and wordsmithing. But then they put in this “freedom clause” which tells us that that none of these principles are more important than each person being fully persuaded in their own mind.
What do UUs believe? At least this- we believe in the freedom to be yourself, to be true to your own inner wisdom.
Reading:
Things Common Believed Today Among Us, William Channing Gannett, Western Unitarian Conference, 1887 (Translation by Darcey Laine and Douglas Taylor, 2023)
The Western Conference has neither the wish nor the right to bind a single member by declarations concerning fellowship or doctrine. Yet it thinks some practical good may be done by setting forth in simple words the things most commonly believed among us—the Statement being always open to re-statement and to be regarded only as the thought of the majority.
Translation: Everyone in our group is free to disagree, but generally speaking – most of us believe something similar to what we wrote down here.
Douglas: All names that divide "religion" are to us of little consequence compared with religion itself. Whoever loves Truth and lives the Good is, in a broad sense, of our religious fellowship; whoever loves the one or lives the other better than ourselves is our teacher, whatever church or age he may belong to.
Translation: If you love truth and are a good person, we feel you. If you do it better than us, we’d like to learn from you.
The general faith is hinted well in such words as these: "Unitarianism is a religion of love to God and love to man."
Translation: A good meme for this would be “Love to God and love to Humanity”.
Because we have no "creed" which we impose as a condition of fellowship, specific statements of belief abound among us, always somewhat differing, always largely agreeing. One such we offer here:
Translation: there’s no statement of belief to be a UU, so we have lots of different ways of saying what we believe in common. here is one version:
We believe that to love the Good and to live the Good is the supreme thing in religion;
Translation: Being a good person is more important than anything else;
We hold reason and conscience to be final authorities in matters of religious belief;
Translation: You are the boss of your own beliefs
We honor the Bible and all inspiring scripture, old and new; We revere Jesus, and all holy souls that have taught men truth and righteousness and love, as prophets of religion.
Translation: Jesus and the Bible are among the inspiring resources available to us
We believe in the growing nobility of Man;
Translation: We are growing into better people.
We believe that this self-forgetting, loyal life awakes in man the sense of union here and now with things eternal—the sense of deathlessness; and this sense is to us an earnest of the life to come.
Translation: Humbly working for the good of all will awaken in us a sense of connection with everything, a sense that we are all in this together.
We worship One-in-All—that life whence suns and stars derive their orbits and the soul of man its Ought—that Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, giving us power to become the sons of God,—that Love with which our souls commune.
Translation: We honor a sense of connection with our amazing universe; we are part of it. That same light in the sun and stars is in every person in the world. That is why we have the power to become amazing too. We are connected to the divine through the love in our souls.
Reflection
A few years back, I asked my congregation why people so rarely talked about what they believed. A few insightful folks said it was because they were afraid of disagreeing with one another.
I think not talking about our deepest beliefs because we might disagree is a bad compromise for a church. Instead, I believe our job is to create a circumstance where each can speak their truth and feel heard and held even if and when they disagree. When we get together for Soul Matters, or other discussion groups, we make a covenant about what it would take for us to do just that. Obviously, no insults, no telling people they’re wrong, not even giving each other advice. We each speak from our own heart and experience. And then each of us listens with an open mind and heart, as others speak from their life and their experience. It actually works pretty well.
Throughout our UU history there has been this tension between wanting to get down on paper what we believe in common, and allowing each of us the freedom to know our own mind and heart and soul. The Winchester profession gives us some words to hold this tension. First of all, “we earnestly and affectionately recommend …[that we] exercise the spirit of Christian meekness and charity towards those who have different modes of faith or practice“. That word --“affectionately” --Love that.
They earnestly and affectionately recommend that when we find ourselves disagreeing we approach one another with “Christian meekness and charity” Those wouldn’t be my words, so Douglas and I came up with “be humble, kind and respectful when you run into folks who do or believe differently. Please agree to disagree. Let everyone be true to their own inner wisdom.”
There have been many times over our history when parts of the UU movement have disagreed vehemently with one another. There are great historical controversies when people cancelled each other and wrote insulting unkind things about their opponents in pamphlets and magazines and sermons. Really, once you’re using the word “opponent” you know you are way past affection, meekness, charity, humility. For many, this moment in UU history is one of those times.
In the Western Conference statement, they point us towards actions rather than statements of belief: “Whoever loves Truth and lives the Good is, in a broad sense, of our religious fellowship” Perhaps this is good advice to us today, to encourage one another to love truth, to live the good, and to encounter our differences with humility and a generosity of spirit. Agree to disagree.
Many of that long list of statements throughout our history include some word about love; it was important to both Unitarians and Universalists. IN many different ways they expressed that love was sacred, and part of the nature of the divine. Way back in 1790 at that first convention of Universalists in Philidelphia, before Binghamton, Athens or Cortland universalist churches even existed, they spoke of God as “infinite, adorable, incomprehensible and unchangeable love.” In 1935 the Universalist bond of fellowship used the phrase “God as Eternal and All-Conquering Love. In the western conference statement we just heard, they end with the phrase “that Love with which our souls commune.” And Unitarians and Universalists have often agreed that one of the most important things we could do to express our faith was to cultivate love with one another.
In Hosea Ballou’s long career as a Universalist minister I bet he knew something about theological differences that seem like they could tear our faith apart. perhaps that is why he said: “If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace. “ (Treatise on Atonement 1805)
And so I encourage us in times when our differences of opinion and belief seem ready to tear us apart, to remember that at our core is love. Let us practice a freedom of belief that does not tear down those who disagree, but frees us to return to our center which is love.
Note: This service was prepared in collaboration with Rev. Taylor as part of the partnership between UUCAS, UUCC and UUCB.
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