At UUCA, people have a passion for social justice. UUCA member Camille Cassingham helped organize the Walk For Choice last weekend here in Atlanta. Walk for Choice rallies took place all over the country, in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, and Alaska. The focus was on reproductive health for women—how these are being threatened by current actions in Congress. Participants in the rally included Rev. Anthony David, Sophia Keys-David, Kristin Buckley, and Guy and Tanya Cassingham. “The environment of political speech right now is dangerous for women,” says one rally participant. “Women are adults and should be treated as nothing less, but the current actions of Congress threaten individual autonomy on more than a medical level.”

On Wednesday February 3, the “second annual” Unitarian Universalist service was held at the Cannon Chapel of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  Candler is both a graduate school of theology within Emory University, and a Methodist Seminary.  Candler is a very progressive school and is the destination of choice in the South East for Unitarian Universalist ministerial students.  Rev. Marti Keller, Rev. Jeff Jones, Rev. Terry Davis, Rev. Julie Lepp, Norm Horofker and Duncan Teague are all Candler students or alumni, to name a few.  For the past two years the UU students at Candler have been presenting a service at the school in February.  This year UUCA was represented by the participation of Duncan Teague, Norm Horofker, and Don Milton III.  This service presents an opportunity to raise the profile of Unitarian Universalism at one of the nation’s leading seminaries.  There was a reception after the service that was sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Atlanta Cluster.

One of the ways UUCA serves the community is through its Give Away the Space program, in which eligible groups are able to meet (and events held) at UUCA without having to pay a fee. Recently, UUCA received a note of gratitude from Karen Turner, Co-President of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. “With the sponsorship of UUCA’s Interweave, PFLG Atlanta has enjoyed 21/2 years of ‘First Monday’ support meetings at UUCA. Over the months, attendance has grown from 4 or 5 to almost 30. We are so appreciative of UUCA’s continued support for this endeavor. THANK YOU for helping us make a difference in people’s lives!”

At UUCA, we have a passion for social justice. Recently, the Sustainability Justice Action Group sponsored a conversation on the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Food and Environmental Justice Statement of Conscience (SOC). At two well-publicized open meetings on this subject, a vote was taken and 100% of those present at each meeting agreed that the SOC as written was worthy of being advanced to the General Assembly. In part, this statement reads, “Food is essential for our survival and an important element in family and cultural life. Religions have devised food rules and rituals to promote group solidarity, to ensure human health, to hallow sentient life, and to provide food for the stranger and the poor. Religions have called for fasting as a spiritual discipline and prayers of petition and thanksgiving to God or gods for provision of food. In keeping with these religious traditions, we, Unitarian Universalists, are called to address our relationship with food.” To learn more, go to this HYPERLINK

Broccoli, Potato Latkes, Cuban Pork, Plantains and Yucca, Sushi, Creole Gumbo, Jamaican
Curried Goat, and Southern Macaroni and Cheese. We even celebrated Kwanzaa with an
African curry dish! The next Cultural Mosaic event will be in February. Stay tuned, you don’t
want to miss this exciting blend of people, perspectives and passions.

UUCA is about people with a passion for social and economic justice. A recent Atlanta-Journal
Constitution article featured the role UUCA congregants played in raising toys for a good cause:
Guice Educare, an Easter Seals child development center in East Atlanta. A former elementary
school, Guice specializes in serving impoverished students and children with learning needs.
Thanks in particular go to the Preschool Family Ministry Team for their leadership. As the article
says, ”The final tally: clothing and toys for 155 children; bedding, cooking utensils and other
home necessities for three single-parent households; and gift cards from Kroger totaling $1,120
— all without government grants, permits, community studies or focus groups. It took two days
to distribute it all.” For more, see the article at AccessAtlanta.

One key function of the Board of Trustees is to listen to the congregation. To this end, the Board’s Congregational Life Committee has been holding “listening events” with invited congregants. One of the interesting discussion points that emerged during the two recent events is the theme of membership, belonging, and connection within the congregation. As representatives of the congregation, this theme is of great interest to us and the topic of frequent discussion. We want to make sure that the congregational budget and priorities are aligned with making the congregational experience at UUCA as meaningful and valuable as possible.

In the conversations during the listening events, several participants shared stories of how fellow congregants rallied to their aid in the face of significant personal crises.The support and care they felt made them realize that this was their home; that we are their people.

Not everyone, of course, shares this experience. This is a large and growing congregation, and there is always lots going on. Compared to a smaller congregation or fellowship, it is easier to feel lost or bypassed here. We heard stories of those who do not feel fully connected, who do not feel quite at home, and about long term members who have stopped coming and whose absence no one seemed to notice.

Where do you fall along this continuum?

During our listening events, many participants described a broadening and deepening of their sense of engagement and belonging as they got involved in one or more groups, activities, or volunteer opportunities at UUCA. One participant described how she selected an adult education class at random, just for the opportunity to meet and engage with new people.

If you do not yet feel at home here at UUCA, perhaps checking out the “Finding your Place” brochure may be a good place to start to change that. It is a rather comprehensive listing of the great variety of groups and activities that are available. Consider making a New Year’s resolution to reach and out try something new. Who knows where that might lead?

In Faith,
Conrado Marion-Landais

This month, we’re looking at numbers 8 and 7, both of which are responsible for how ministers and congregants relate to each other in Unitarian Universalist congregations today. Number 8 is “the priesthood of all believers” and number 7 is “freedom of the pulpit/freedom of the pew.”

Both of these ideas are gifts from our spiritual parent, Christianity (or, to be more specific, from the 16th century Radical Reformation wing of Protestant Christianity, led by people like Michael Servetus in Switzerland, Francis David in Transylvania, and Faustus Socinus in Poland). The essential and revolutionary idea of the Radical Reformation (besides “separation of church and state” and others) was that people are always already connected with God and don’t require church or priest to create the connection for them. Church and priest can help people’s sense of connection grow stronger and clearer, yes; but they don’t create it. It’s there already.

The message here, which continues to guide us roughly 400 years later, is that, in religious community, everyone’s gifts matter. Everyone has a contribution to make, professional minister and congregant alike. It’s not just ordained clergy who can do important things and serve. If everyone has a connection with the Holy, then everyone has a gift to give. Everyone has a role to play

1. in bringing comfort to the suffering,
2. in making the key decisions of the community,
3. in helping create love and justice in the world, and
4. in teaching the key ideas and beliefs of our faith.

Even as ministers are “ordained” or “set apart” to contribute to the work of religious community in unique and special ways, they fulfill their special calling in partnership with congregants. Ministers work side-by-side with their people, to the good of the whole. It’s just as a Hopi wisdom saying puts it: “one finger alone cannot lift a pebble.” Everyone is needed because everyone is a channel for love and wisdom.

The next item, number 7, is “freedom of the pulpit/ freedom of the pew,” and it’s also been critical in forming the relationship between pastor and congregation in contemporary Unitarian Universalist congregations. Consider this quote that comes from a remarkable man known as King John Sigismund of Transylvania, the first and only Unitarian king in history. In 1568 he said,

In every place the preachers shall preach and explain the Gospel, each according to his understanding of it, and if the congregation like it, well. If not, no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied, but they shall be permitted to keep a preacher whose teaching they approve.

That’s what King John Sigismund said, a radical statement in a time when preachers were supposed to preach only the company line, and congregants were supposed to take it in without question. But King John disagreed. King John said that ministers must be free to communicate their Gospel, whatever the particular topic: religion, politics, where the congregation is going, where it needs to go.

As for “freedom of the pew”: that’s every congregant’s assurance that they belong even if they disagree with what the minister says. It’s their reminder that, though what’s communicated in the pulpit always comes with force and can feel like a summary of what every good Unitarian Universalist is supposed to believe, it’s just not so. Congregants are ultimately accountable only to the dictates of personal reason and intuition and conscience; they are free to believe as the Spirit leads them. With “freedom of the pulpit/freedom of the pew,” both minister and congregant alike are able to do the work that is theirs to do. The minister can preach out of his or her integrity, and the congregants can receive (or not) out of theirs.

“The priesthood of all believers”; “Freedom of the pulpit/freedom of the pew.” Both ideas came out of the Radical Reformation in Protestant Christianity 400+ years ago, and they continue to shape and form who we are today. These are the gifts of our Christian past, and knowing about them helps us understand ourselves in our post-Christian, more-than-Christian present.

Numbers 8 and 7 in our UU Top Ten!

Blessings (and Happy Holidays!!)
Rev. Anthony David, Senior Minister

In a congregation as large and as lively as UUCA, there is no one who knows everything there is to know about all the wonderful things that go on around here every day. As a Sunday morning greeter, I know there is nothing like a question from a visitor to make me suddenly aware of some aspect of our congregational life that I don’t know enough about.

Even the basics of how we are governed can often be fuzzy to many of us. If, for example, someone approached you in the Social Hall one day and asked, “So, what does the Board do around here?” would you know how to answer? If not, you are surely not alone.

The overarching duty of the UUCA Board is to ensure that our congregation is run in a way that furthers our mission and goals, while honoring and respecting our values and principles. To this end, we monitor the work of the Executive (our Senior Minister) and hold him accountable for operating in accordance with the wishes of the congregation.

To fulfill its duties, the Board must:

• Listen to the congregation: Be in dialogue with congregants in as many ways as possible in order to discern and update the ends we collectively seek.
• Establish norms and expectations: Provide the Executive with clear guidance on the goals of the Congregation and our expectations on how the church should be run.
• Monitor the results: Through both the review of reports and on-going discussions with the Executive, ensure that we are advancing towards our goals in a manner that is safe, ethical and in accordance with the Congregation’s wishes and needs.
• Learn and lead: Be attentive to the developments and best practices of the wider denomination and beyond, and challenge the congregation to innovate and bring about positive change.

In practical terms, what does this mean the Board does? Here are a few examples the recent activities of the Board that illustrate how we work:

• Launch of the Long Range Plan process: The Board has set in motion a process of discernment with the congregation to establish our vision and priorities for the next 5 years. Learn more about our new long range planning process here.
• Analysis of absentee voting options: The Board’s Bylaws & Policy Committee has been looking into ways to modify our Bylaws in order to facilitate participation in congregational decision-making by those who cannot be physically present for votes.
• Wisdom conversations: The Board has been engaging in deeper study of big-picture trends and challenges that are affecting the congregation or may in the future, and looking at ways to take advantage of opportunities.
• Monitoring of the budget and financial status of the congregation: The Board has worked with the Executive to develop improved monthly financial reports that facilitate better oversight over the budget and stewardship of the congregation’s resources.
• Listening sessions: The Board’s Congregational Life Committee has been holding in-depth listening sessions with small, diverse focus groups of members to learn what is on their minds about how we are doing.

The Board welcomes your ideas and comments. Please write us at board@uuca.org.

Once again, it’s time to experience the power of a long-range vision. Please welcome to our new Long Range Plan Steering Committee (LRPSC) members Mary Ann Oakley (Chair), Lanie Damon, Mary Ann Gaunt, Wynn Montgomery, and Gary Moss.

Thanks go to our UUCA Board for their careful efforts in assembling this outstanding committee. The Board’s process in this was

1. Announcing to the congregation (in several ways) the need for a strong, committed group to lead the LRP process,
2. Developing a questionnaire for interested candidates and encouraging all UUCA members to consider applying, and
3. Selecting, out of the 15 resulting applications, five people whose skills and experience were the best overall fit for steering a participatory long-range planning process.

UUCA is a diverse community, and the Committee is passionately dedicated to making sure that congregational conversations reflect this. One of the main things the LRPC is charged with is listening. Their job is to spark conversations among as many people as possible, around questions like, “What about UUCA gets us energized and fired up?” “How do we want to see people’s lives changed by being a part of UUCA?” “What distinctive gifts do we have to give to metro Atlanta?” “Where do we want to be five years from now, in 2016?”

Besides sparking conversations, the LRPSC is also charged with reporting back to the congregation what was said. From these responses, and with its wisdom, it will develop a report on Long Range Priorities, which the congregation will then be asked to vote on, and hopefully to approve. Beyond this, the Committee will work with Rev. David and the staff in developing an Implementation Plan that details the things we will do over the next five years to make the vision come true. As with the Long Range Priorities Report, this plan will belong to the congregation. The congregation will be asked to vote on and approve the Implementation Plan.

Please watch for communications from the LRPSC in the near future. At this time, they are finalizing a process and tentative schedule that will ensure that every member/stakeholder has an opportunity to be heard.

As the beloved Unitarian Universalist hymn says, “We’ll build a land.” But first, “Let’s build a plan!”

Last month, Number 10 was 325AD and 544AD. This month, we’re looking at Number 9:

The image to the left is already familiar to you—it’s the Flaming Chalice, the official symbol of our faith tradition. But do you know the history behind it? And, did you know that a part of that history includes the existence of other powerful symbols, which can also speak to us today? We’ll take a look at one of those alternate images, the Off-Centered Cross.

Both symbols emerge out of the events of the 1940s. Let’s take a look at the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Flaming Chalice first (and for this, I’m drawing from Dan Hotchkiss’s article “The Flaming Chalice“).

The story begins with the formation of the Unitarian Service Committee (USC), founded to assist Eastern Europeans, among them Unitarians as well as Jews, who needed to escape Nazi persecution. The nature of this work was cloak-and-dagger dangerous, involving a secret network of couriers and agents. Given this, the newly-formed USC faced a difficult challenge up front. It was fresh on the scene, a virtual unknown, but for its work to succeed, it needed to establish trust quickly across barriers of language, nationality, and faith. In particular, it needed to establish a system of signs and countersigns that people could immediately recognize.

Enter the Flaming Chalice. Commissioned by USC head Charles Joy, he described this symbol as follows: “It was a chalice with a flame, the kind of chalice which the Greeks and Romans put on their altars. The holy oil burning in it is a symbol of helpfulness and sacrifice…. This was in the mind of the artist [Hans Deutsch]. The fact, however, that it remotely suggests a cross was not in his mind, but to me this also has its merit. We do not limit our work to Christians. Indeed, at the present moment, our work is nine- tenths for the Jews, yet we do stem from the Christian tradition, and the cross does symbolize Christianity and its central theme of sacrificial love.”

The 1940s also saw the creation of the “Off-Centered Cross” (and in describing this, I’m drawing from the New Massachusetts Universalist Convention website):

The off-center cross was invented in late April, 1946, in a hotel room in Akron, Ohio, during the Universalist General Assembly, where a number of Universalist ministers pooled their ideas. Here is how two of the symbols’ originators later described it:

The circle is drawn to represent the all-inclusive faith of universalism which shuts no one out. In that circle is placed the cross, symbolizing the beloved faith out of which our wider insight has grown. We feel that universalism is not the product of any one cultural or religious tradition, but is in fact implicit in all the great faiths … we consider ourselves to be “Universalists of Christian descent.” (Rev. Albert Ziegler)

The Circle is a symbol of infinity–a figure without beginning or end. The Cross is the symbol of Christianity. It is placed off-center in the circle of infinity to indicate that Christianity is an interpretation of infinity but neither the only interpretation of the infinite nor necessarily for all people, the best one. It leaves room for other symbols and other interpretations. It is, therefore, a symbol of Universalism. (Rev. Gordon McKeeman)

The New Massachusetts Universalist Convention website goes on to say:

The circle, a traditional symbol of infinity because it has no beginning or end, represents the universe. The empty space at the center represents the mystery at the heart of the universe that people call ‘God.’ The cross represents Christianity, out of which Universalism grew, and which is the path toward God that most religious people in North America are brought up to follow; but it is placed off-center, to leave room for other points of view and to acknowledge the validity of other paths toward God.

And there you have it. Two symbols of our faith, born in the 1940s under very different circumstances, reflecting essential aspects of who we are. The Flaming Chalice comes from our Unitarian side, and reflects our heart for service. It also only “remotely suggests” our historical roots in Christianity. The Off-Centered Cross, on the other hand, comes from our Universalist side, and it telegraphs the message that in our search for meaning, we are responsive to our human heritage of all the great world religious traditions. God is too big to be the possession of any single religious way. The Off-Centered Cross also explicitly acknowledges our historical roots in Christianity, even as it says that we are now post-Christian.

Today, barriers of language, nationality, and faith still exist. At times, conversations with other people (conversations with friends, co-workers, and family!) can feel fraught with danger, and can feel cloak-and-dagger. Which symbol, for you, is the most effective sign and countersign enabling you to share your faith with others—and to understand it best for yourself?

The Flaming Chalice and the Off-Centered Cross: that’s Number 9 in our UU Top Ten List. Next month: Number 8!

Blessings,
Anthony
Rev. Anthony David, Senior Minister