"Faith of the Free"

RE: Our Transylvanian Heritage (YouTube video)

liberale — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:29:28 GMT

Thank you for this video.

I joined the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) Council Meeting in Koloszvir, Transylvania, in early September. We delegates and observers visited the Unitarian churches but only the empty buildings (not worship time). Thank you for this video to let me see a Unitarain church comes alive. Thank you for bringing back the good memories of the Unitarian Centre of Koloszvir (next to the Unitarian Church) in which we stayed for 6 days for the meetings.

"Guess Who's Watching" (M. Lavanhar, 7/19/09)

uufreespirit — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:34:20 GMT

-- "Guess Who's Watching"

Link

STATE AND REGIONAL UU NETWORKS

uufreespirit — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:08:30 GMT

-- STATE AND REGIONAL NETWORKS OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS --

-- BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON REGION UU NETWORK;
http://www.baltwashuus.org/about-uus.htm

-- GEORGIA;
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62821697065

-- SOUTH CAROLINA;
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=136194430536

-- MONTANA;
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=93954391437

-- NORTH CAROLINA;
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204865162

,

"Separation of Church and Sex" (YouTube sermon vid

uufreespirit — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:52:26 GMT

,

-- This sermon was delivered by Rev. Tamara Lebak on July 12, 2009, at All Souls Unitarian Church of Tulsa, OK. Three YouTube videos;

-- Part One ( 9: 38 );

Link

-- Part Two (9:40);

Link

-- Part Three ( 9:51);

Link

-- Part Four ( 3:52 );

Link

"Turning Inside Out" (M. Lavanhar, 6/7/09)

uufreespirit — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:43:46 GMT

[size=16]-- "In the Eyes of a Buddha"

-- PART ONE: ( 9:54 )

Link

-- "PART TWO: ( 9:19 )

Link

-- "PART THREE: ( 6:39 )

Link

"In the Eyes of a Buddha" (M. Lavanhar, 6/14/09)

uufreespirit — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:25:52 GMT

[size=16]-- "In the Eyes of a Buddha"

-- PART ONE: ( 8:11 )

Link

-- "PART TWO: ( 9:52 )

Link

-- "PART THREE: ( 9:58 )

Link

IARF Scrapbook

uufreespirit — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:57:36 GMT

-- U. S. Chapter;

http://home.iarfus.org/home/

-- IARF Pakistan;

http://www.geocities.com/iarfpakistan/

http://www.geocities.com/iarfpakistan/about

The International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) is a global organisation striving to promote better understanding, peace and harmony among members of different faiths. The major objective of IARF is to promote religious freedom not only between religious groups but also within the groups.

http://www.liberalprotestants.net/english/Boddaert_%20P.html

IARF draws from the more liberal orientations in major religious cultures of the world.

IARF specifically focuses upon religious freedom in its emergent forms everywhere: individual freedom of conscience, tolerance, dialogue and understanding and cooperation among religious groups.

IARF encourages advocacy for individuals and groups for whom freedom is restricted, always with sensitivity to local understandings of freedom and its implementation.

IARF in its international practice is a coming together of member groups. The U.S. Chapter is comprised in individual and family memberships. Thus individuals benefit from a multitude of perspectives in their personal quest for global consciousness.

IARF is relational in nature, beyond arms-length dialogue to inner openness to growth and transformation.

Inspired by the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, Illinois in 1893 a group of Unitarians founded the 'International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Thinkers and Workers. They began the organization on May 25th, 1900 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The organization has changed its name from the International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Thinkers and Workers to the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom to its present name, The International Association for Religious Freedom. Names, of course, reflect social and cultural changes and for this organization, the name change reflected the growing number of member groups who were not American, European, Unitarian Universalists or Christian. At its beginning the organization was indeed dominated by western liberal religious groups. Thirty years ago there were no member groups from the Far East…no Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish or Muslim members and few women in leadership positions.

During the early years the international congresses were dominated by academic papers given by American or European professors or ministers. Once or twice a woman appeared on a panel but for the most part it was a patriarchal show in every sense of the word. The women sensing this reality as early as 1910 founded their own group called the International Association for Liberal Religious Women. Women’s participation and the growth of other Asian member groups are now established facts. Two former presidents of IARF were women, Carolyn Howlett and Natalie Gulbrandsen. The largest member groups are Buddhist located in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. One of these member groups, the Won Buddhist, hosted the international congress held in Korea in 1996. Their membership is over one million in Korea with international branches in many countries including the United States.

In addition to the Won Buddhists, IARF has 75 member groups in 26 different countries with representatives who are Buddhists , Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Jews, Humanists, Shintoist. Recent international congresses held every three years still have academic papers read but the major events are rituals, ceremonies, small group meetings that share religious faith experiences. In addition, there are opportunities to visit temples, shrines and above all, times for social interaction among the participants. The most recent congress was held in Taiwan where the Fo Guang Shan hosted the event at the Buddhist Fo Guang Shan Monastery.

During all the years of its growth and development, IARF has committed itself to sponsoring community development projects in cooperation with its local groups in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. IARF also has representatives at the United Nations in New York City and Geneva, Switzerland so its voice is heard for the cause of religious freedom at international forums.

In addition to all these activities, the IARF continues to ask questions about its legitimate role in promoting and maintaining religious freedom. Although strongly committed to their own religious perspective, all the member groups are willing to discuss and to share concerns about how we human beings can promote interfaith understanding and cooperation. Some of our member groups suffer from religious intolerance practiced by their governments and yet with great courage and commitment they become a living witness to religious freedom.

We IARF members are also uniquely committed to personal sharing and friendship. We are not primarily an advocacy organization although we do join forces with others to work on certain issues related to religious intolerance. We are not primarily a research organization although we do have a website listing areas where religious freedom is being denied. We are essentially a “community creating” organization sharing our hope for a world of religious freedom and understanding. We are a voice for religious freedom in a world where this precious freedom is too often denied. We cannot be silent or our children and their children will inherit a world of continual war. This voice for religious freedom is our IARF history and our present witness.

-- IARF Main Website...

http://www.iarf.net

-- Canada Chapter;

(Christine Johnston christine_johnston at telus.net)

-- East Asia Chapter;

(Rev Fumihiko Katayama - Japan)

-- Germany Chapter

(Wolfgang Jantz - jantz at t-online.de)

-- Netherlands chapter;

http://iarf.net/2008site/Members/EuropeandMiddleEast/Dutch%20Chapter/Home.htm

-- Northern Ireland Chapter

(Sandra Gilpin - isgilpin at btinternet.com

-- South Asia Chapter

http://www.iarfsacc.org/

-- United Kingdom Chapter;

http://iarf.net/2008site/Members/EuropeandMiddleEast/ch_uk.htm

-- USA Chapter;

http://home.iarfus.org/home/

-- Young Adult Network

http://www.iarf.net/2008site/YoungAdults/RFYN.htm

--

UU as a "Christocentric" Faith

uufreespirit — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:06:28 GMT

This is the first of several "devil's advocate" threads. Please feel free to differ, OK?

My question is whether our "tradition," although deeply rooted in Christianity, is in any way wedded to that tradition in the present time? I would suggest that ours is also a tradition and legacy of movement...a movement of radical reform, aimed first at purifying Christianity but ultimately moving modern-day Unitarian Universalism beyond the notion that any one faith-tradition can fully capture "the questing human spirit." Maybe the challenge before us, of distinguishing between a Christocentric UUism and a truly Universalistic UUism, was best laid out by a past-president of the Universalist Church of America, Robert Cummins, who in a 1944 (pre-merger) speech drew a clear distinction between universalism and "partialism"...arguing that a "circumscribed universalism" is unthinkable...a contradiction in terms.

I'm not in any way questioning whether individual Unitarian Universalists can be Christians but whether institutionally (even at the congregational level) it is proper to say that organized Unitarian Universalism is Christocentric? (I might quibble just a little, however, with whether a person can really be, at the end of the day, a "Unitarian Universalist Christian" -- seems to me that it should be the other way around, because the open, questioning method or process should be given the greater emphasis. If ours is truly a faith of many belief-paths, wouldn't we be better described as Christian UUs, or Buddhist UUs, or Pagan UUs, etc.?)

One of the most eye-opening descriptions of modern-day Unitarian Universalism, for me, was Duncan Howlett's book, "The Critical Way in Religion," which drew a clear distinction between "modifying religious liberalism" (which, for example, maintains a Christocentric core-faith and simply keeps updating and massaging it), and "thoroughgoing religious liberalism" (which holds that nothing, even a core belief, is untouchable in the critical human quest for truth and meaning). Howlett argued that the future of Unitarian Universalism depends upon us getting off the fence and taking a full plunge into that "critical, reformist tradition," instead of choosing to stop short and truncating that process. The difference between the two is a basic difference between two processes of human logic. The modifying liberals rely first (although not exclusively) upon deductive logic, holding certain beliefs to be established as true and then "deducing" and building a wide array of other beliefs based upon them. They can modify parts of that "array" but not the core "truth." The thoroughgoing liberal begins (primarily) with inductive reasoning, the same process used by good science. It doesn't assume anything to be true or factual unless or until there is evidence from real-world observation and testing to establish it so. (It too is a legitimate "tradition" in religion, although a path not nearly so widely followed.)

So, back to the original "devil's advocate" question: Do you think that any part of present-day, organized, "post-merger" Unitarian Universalism is best understood as Christianity-centered? Or, does its greater "beauty and genius" lie elsewhere...as a part (and leading exponent) of a somewhat different tradition, a more thoroughly, stubbornly and radically "protestant," more critically questing movement...which has no vested interest in what specific path or paths our individual journeys as "curious seekers" may take...except they be as honest as possible?

What do you think?

"Lineage"

uufreespirit — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:43:04 GMT

I viewed a YouTube video of a sermon recently, by a prominent UU minister, and although I very much admire this person and it does pain me to say this, I still must register my disagreement with the basic thrust of his sermon. The topic was the three streams of our "UU lineage," which he described as Christianity ("first and foremost, as he put it), also The Enlightenment and Transcendentalism.

First of all, I view modern-day Unitarian Universalism as a continuing, still unfolding "movement" in religion. Yes, our heritage is deeply rooted in Christianity, but what defines us most of all is, I would argue, a commonality of "attitude." The "radical reformation" (in this case within Christianity, but not exclusively so) was ultimately compelled to proclaim that the boundaries of no single religious tradition (even the wineskins of traditional Christianity) were/are able to confine (or define) it. So, again just my perspective, the roots indeed are within Christianity, but the ongoing movement itself is not "about Christianity." It's about movement, a kind of movement which "dares not fence the spirit."

Also, I think the sermon underemphasizes the vast scope of the Enlightenment-- again as a process or movement...critical thinking, of rampant curiosity and bold questioning. I would say that the Enlightenment also, by its very nature, must transcend even the boundaries of Christianity.

Finally, Transcendentalism was ultimately a profoundly humanistic (and arguably mystical) reorientation of both the radical Reformation and Enlightenment process. Yet again, this is not a part of our lineage which is in any way Christocentric.

Unitarian Universalism is ultimately a movement that is marked by a shift of attitudes and new ways of looking at religion. Our lineage, therefore, is more aligned with that movement -- with those attitudes, those new ways of looking at religion -- rather than any particular manifestation of our heritage at any given time in its development. This is what makes Unitarian Universalism, as a particular mode of liberal religion, unique on "far left end" of the wide spectrum of the world's religious associations and movements. That's the way I see it. No doubt some of you will view it differently. I look forward to discussing those understandings with you here further.

Actually, again departing from the thrust of the sermon, I'm afraid that I also have to dispute that entire "Christian church" paradigm within modern-day Unitarian Universalism. I believe that Christianity is indeed a valid pathway for individual (and arguably group) spiritual questing and growth, but I must confess to having a serious problem with calling even one of our present-day 21st Century Unitarian Universalist congregations Christocentric. The very notion of placing Christianity in the center and all else on the periphery runs counter to the radical-Universalism which speaks to me the loudest of all -- which proclaims that Universalism and partialism are contradictions in terms. We may well be justified in calling a UU congregation "Christian heritage" but to define it either overtly or subtly as in any way Christocentric (in its present-day worship) is arguably prejudicial and, in my opinion, this undermines its effectiveness as a representative of our broadly inclusive, pluralistic religious movement.

Again, just my opinion. Ours is a very mobile society and people during their lifetimes are forced to move around from city to city any number of times, for any number of reasons. I just believe that a Unitarian Universalist should be able to set foot in ANY UU congregation ANYWHERE and feel at home...comfortable that he/she is not, for any reason, considered an outsider, or an "outer circle" participant.

OK, there I've said it. Again, I look forward to your thoughts on this. I initially posted a link to the sermon in question, but have since removed that part because I don't believe this should be construed as a personal attack. It's more about ideas and issues, and should be tackled on that level. (If any of you want to view the sermon on "Lineage," to maybe judge for yourself if my response is appropriate, please send me a personal message and I'll direct you to that sermon video.)

(In defense of my position I would recommend the books "The Critical Way in Religion" and "The Fatal Flaw," both by the late Rev. Dr. Duncan Howlett...also the sermons of the late Rev. Duncan Littlefair.)

Excellent job...although it pains me to have to disagree with one of my favorite UU ministers.

"Lineage" (M. Lavanhar, 5/3/09)

uufreespirit — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:07:48 GMT

[size=16]-- "Lineage"

-- Lineage...Part One: ( 9:47 )

Link

-- "Lineage...Part Two: ( 9:24 )

Link

-- "Lineage...Part Three: ( 7:09 )

Link