Author Archives: unitarian reform

12/4/07

Why AUR seeks to revive traditions

Protestant Unitarianism has traditionally been about shedding traditions, for example the traditional belief in the Trinity.   Churches that take the name “Unitarian” have generally rejected these traditions because they fail to stand up to reason, while other groups with Unitarian theologies (like the Jehovah’s Witnesses) reject them on the grounds that they are not found in scripture. 

For example, the Unitarianism of St. Lucian of Antioch, whom Reform Unitarians honor on the anniversary of his martyrdom on January 7th, was of the latter variety: unfortunately drawing justification from the idolatrous concept of scriptural inerrancy.

The Reform has recognized, however, that traditions serve a valuable cultural function in drawing a community together with shared metaphors and a common language in which to discuss spirituality, morality, and justice.  Over the past two centuries, American Unitarianism has abandoned its commitments to tradition and, in the process, reduced a once-powerful movement to a religious curio.  Continue reading →

11/30/07

Andrew, Advent, and Annunciation

The Reform celebrates the transition from November to December with the feast of St. Andrew on November 30th (which honors the first disciple of Jesus) and Advent/Annunciation on December 1st.

This differs significantly from other Christian traditions, which celebrate Advent four Sundays before Christmas, and celebrate the Annunciation (the day on which Mary was told by the Angel Gabriel that she would conceive Jesus) on 25 March, a materialist nine months of gestation prior to Christmas. 

For the Reform, the historical placement of the Annunciation is not as important as the inspirational role it plays as part of the Nativity story, so we celebrate it with Advent.  And, by observing this herald of the Nativity together on the first day of the last month, AUR brings the entire narrative of the birth of Jesus together in one ritual season, setting aside December as a month of preparing for new beginnings: the beginning of the life of Christ, the beginning of the age of the Tree of Life, and the beginning of the new year when December finally turns over to January. 

As the traditional feast day of St. Eligius, patron of goldsmiths, this day also begins the Twelve Days of Gold celebrating Mary as the Mother of Jesus, which ends with the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

05/14/06

Neither Mug Nor Magdalene : The True Divine Vessel

With the controversy over Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code reaching a high pitch as the release of Ron Howard’s film version nears release, one can hardly turn on the television without hearing the debate about whether the “Holy Grail” was the cup of the Last Supper mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew 26:27, Gospel of Mark 14:23, and Gospel of Luke 22:20, or was actually Mary Magdalene in her purported role as wife to Jesus and mother of his child or children.

But, does this debate really mean anything for the spiritual truth of Jesus’ last days, or are both sides materialist distractions from the real message? If we speak of a Divine Vessel, are either the womb of Mary or the chalice of the Last Supper up to the task?

The important cup of Jesus’ final days was neither the physical cup passed around the table at the Last Supper, nor the symbolic vessel of Mary Magdalene’s maternity even if she actually were his child-bearing wife.  The cup of Gethsemane, the cup of ultimate sacrifice which Jesus in prayer asks to be taken away but then immediately accepts, is the truly important vessel.  Appropriate to one who taught by way of parables, it is a metaphorical cup pointing to the spiritual reality that underlies our material world.

The Divine Vessel holds not a dram of symbolic wine nor the seed of a royal bloodline, but the absolute surrender of the personal will to the Divine… in Jesus’ case, the surrender of the Son of Mary to the Son of God.

This event in the Passion sequence (which appears in Mark 14:35-36, Matthew 26:39, and most elaborately in Luke 22:41-44) depicts an agonized plea for mercy which Jesus follows with a central phrase from the prayer that he specifically instructed his followers to pray: “Thy will be done.”

This is the true Divine Vessel, a metaphoric cup holding the will of God, an unfathomable Ocean of meaning and purpose that overwhelms the life of any mere creature who lifts that cup to the lips.