February 2008
The Archives
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community, conjunctive faith, faith, james-fowler
Disciplined openness and the reality of community
From James Fowler: Conjunctive faith includes a genuine openness to the truths of traditions and communities other than one’s own. This openness is not to be equated with a relativistic agnosticism (literally, a “not knowing”), however. Rather, it is a disciplined openness to the truths of those who are “other,” based precisely on the experience […]
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love feasts, ritual, uuemergence, uus
A ritual to widen, deepen UU identity: Love feasts
02.27.08 | Permalink | 6 CommentsHere’s an idea. UUs should start doing regular love feasts. “Love feasts”—also called “agape feasts“—are a simple sharing of food and drink as a celebration of community.1 They are an ancient tradition from the Early Church that are sometimes connected to communion, sometimes not. My own experience of love feasts comes from my college fraternity. […]
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initiation rituals, membership, UU, uus
What congregational membership means
02.26.08 | Permalink | 2 CommentsI want to lay out the perspective on congregational membership that I’ve been using in my work as a membership director in a large UU congregation over the last year or so. Maybe this can add to the conversation about the meaning and scope of UU identity and the importance of initiation rituals in a […]
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baptism, communion, uu identity, uus
UU identity: Initiation vs. congregational membership
02.26.08 | Permalink | 6 CommentsPhilocrites makes a great point. In the Christian tradition, a person’s identification as a Christian is traditionally marked by a baptism. It is a public and symbolic ritual celebrated with a gathered community. Which is to say it is not a private or legal ritual, even when it is required for formal, legal membership in […]
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membership, UU
Pretend there are no members
02.25.08 | Permalink | Comments Off on Pretend there are no membersPretend there are no individual members of individual UU congregations. How would the movement go about being the movement?
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membership, UU, uus
Clarifications about membership
02.25.08 | Permalink | Comments Off on Clarifications about membershipFirst, I love that the discussion is still hot (as in cool, not as in angry). Please accept this post (and all others) in this spirit. I want to say more when I have more time, but I want to make some clarifications about my last post. 1. In saying that the entire movement depends […]
