Tag Archives: unitarianism

11/14/10

The First Day of Thanksgiving – Diversity Sunday

REPOSTED FROM 2009

CornucopiaToday is the first of the Twelve Days of Thanksgiving: Diversity Sunday!

While Diversity Sunday may not be as important as Remembrance Thursday or Harvest Thursday itself, this introduction to the celebration is vital to the full vision of Thanksgiving, as we remember that good things come to our lives through meetings.

These may be meetings of different opinions, as in the Continental Congress where America’s Founders met.  They may be meetings of different families, as at a wedding, or different religions, as in the Christmas story of three Magi traveling to Judea.  They may be different cultures, or even different business theories or scientific hypotheses. All new things, and therefore all new good things, come to our lives through meetings with others.

It is important to value diversity not simply for the sake of conflict-aversion, a “politically correct” way of not hurting anyone’s feelings, but to value it in full and rational recognition of the great value that difference plays in individual and societal growth.  Diversity is a rational expression of the virtue of Hope, openness to good turns in life.

And, for Reform Unitarians this day’s message of being open to diversity is particularly meaningful as it falls on Sunday, the Holy Day of many other Christians of different denominations.  Happy Diversity Sunday!

03/29/10

Celibacy, Catholic Sex Crimes, and Trinitarianism

Reform Unitarianism feels a particularly close kinship with the Roman Catholic Church, despite that it is the institution that adopted the apostasy of Trinitarianism.  Roman Catholicism retains the sense of the ancient pedigree of Christianity, which more recent off-shoots (which nevertheless imagine themselves reformatory) fail to project.

This is why it pains us to witness the perennial sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, now even shaking the Throne of St. Peter.  Only a few are calling for Pope Benedict XVI to resign, but many more are questioning the Church’s policies on clerical celibacy.

For Reform Unitarians — who accept both the marriage of priests and ordination of women — it is clear that the Vatican’s sex-related troubles stem from the same 4th Century political intrigues that pinned the Church to Imperial power and the conflationist theology that eventually became Trinitarianism.

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03/18/10

Attrition in Unitarian Universalism Reflects History

Earlier this year, a guest posting at the Unitarian Universalist Growth Blog discussed the perennial problem of high membership turnover in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), eliciting comments that highlight the tension between UU and its Christian origins, Christian origins that American Unitarian Reform (AUR) has chosen to embrace rather than hold at a safe arms’ length.

As a matter of etiquette among general friends and allies, Reformed Unitarians tend not to contrast ourselves with UU as often we do Trinitarians.  But, to understand the issues facing “Unitarianism” in America, it is appropriate occasionally to revisit the philosophical history of American Unitarianism, and explain the differences between our two divergent paths.

Or, more accurately, between the path of AUR and other Christian Unitarians, and the lack of an explicit path in the UUA.

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02/1/10

Notional American Unitarian Reform Church No. 8

This is the eighth in a series of light-hearted signs for hypothetical American Unitarian Reform churches, created using an online image generator. We hope to show a range of attitudes and ideas all possible within the scope of AUR.

The sign for today’s notional church, St. Arius of Africa, presents an interesting take on the martyr Arius, likely a Berber, and thus of North African descent.  The hypothetical sermon refers to Isaac Newton, who wrote a treatise in defense of Arius and indicting his persecutors.  Unfortunately, Newton had some very harsh things to say about Catholics, and honoring him is therefore a tricky matter for Reform Unitarians.

01/18/10

Martin Luther King Jr. – American Prophet

It is quite appropriate that the (actual) birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. falls on the 9th Day of Defiance in the AUR calendar, in the middle of Nika Week commemorating when competing factions stood together against oppression in the Byzantine Empire, just as multiracial crowds gathered before Dr. King stood together against Jim Crow oppression in the United States.

But Martin Luther King is significant to AUR for other reasons, not only in his ecumenical attitude, but also the purity of the way he spoke of God’s relationship with Creation and his commitment of character to the will of God.

Continue reading →

11/29/09

Andrew, Advent, and Annunciation

The Reform celebrates the transition from November to December with the feast of St. Andrew on November 30th (honoring 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.   By observing this herald of the Nativity together with Advent, 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.

And, on the Eve of Annunciation, as disciples of Christ we celebrate St. Andrew, the first disciple of Christ.

Reform Unitarian Advent is also the traditional feast day of St. Eligius, patron of goldsmiths, giving us the start of the first Dozen of the Advent/Christmas season: the Twelve Days of Gold celebrating Mary as the Mother of Jesus, which ends with the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th.

Now is the time for unlit Christmas decorations, and for placing Mary and the Angel in the crèche!

(NOTE: Our Lady’s Day falls on Thursday in 2009, setting the observation of the Twelve Days of Gold to Thursday the 5th.)

11/22/09

Notional American Unitarian Reform Church No. 6

This is the sixth in a series of light-hearted signs for hypothetical American Unitarian Reform churches, created using an online image generator. I hope to show a range of attitudes and ideas all possible within the scope of AUR.

The sign for today’s notional church, Unity Christian, announces guest speakers from other faiths for Harvest Thursday, here called Thanksgiving Thursday to avoid confusion. Harvest Thursday is the only one of the Four Great Thursdays of American Unitarian Reform.

Significantly, the guest speakers are from Islam and Judaism, for whom Unitarian Christianity creates a continuity of true monotheism.

07/2/09

Notional American Unitarian Reform Church No. 5

This is the fifth in a series of light-hearted signs for hypothetical American Unitarian Reform churches, created using an online image generator. I hope to show a range of attitudes and ideas all possible within the scope of AUR.

The sign for today’s notional church, Unity Christian, announces a “Seven Year Jubilee” for Declaration Thursday. Declaration Thursday is the only one of the Four Great Thursdays that has a date traditionally associated with it, and every seven years when the 4th of July falls on Declaration Thursday, this is celebrated as the Jubilee!

Sadly, the last Jubilee in 2008 was skipped over due to the leap year. The next will take place in 2013.

05UnityChristian

02/24/09

Why the Cross is Okay on Ash Wednesday

ashcrossTypically, Reform Unitarianism avoids the use of the cross.  One reason is that the cross did not become an important symbol in Christianity until well into the 4th Century, after conflationist corruptions had begun to undermine Christian theology.  The cross simply does not represent original Christianity.

More importantly, however, veneration of the cross puts salvific power in the murderous actions of Romans and the foolish decision of the mob of Barabbas.  In AUR, we believe that the moment of salvific power during the passion narrative was not at Golgotha but at Gethsemane, when Jesus of Nazareth committed his soul to the will of his Father and ours: the Creator of all things.  

The metaphorical Cup of Gethsemane (“take this cup from me”) which Jesus ultimately accepts (“nevertheless, Thy will be done”) is the universal key to salvation.  The cross is merely the local instrument of Jesus’s punishment and execution.  Suffering and death were indeed necessary for Jesus — as they are for us — but it is “Thy will be done” that effects salvation, not the Roman whip, thorn, nail, and spearpoint.

Still, although the chalice is a more spiritually accurate symbol of salvation through commitment of the soul, the cross remains a potent material reminder of what that commitment meant for the founder of our religion. To use the cliché that has arisen from the passion narrative, each of us has our own “cross to bear” — but the cross born by Jesus Christ was one of the thousands of actual crosses on which so many were tortured and executed in ancient times.

On this day, as a reminder of the material consequences of our spiritual commitment, Reform Unitarians join with other Christians in taking the ashen mark of the cross to remember that we are dust, and to dust shall we return.