UU Sunday Gatherings

Over the last three Sundays, I have visited three Unitarian Universalist congregations for their Sunday morning gatherings. All three were friendly and welcoming. At two of them, the minister was among those greeting us as we came in, and at the other, there was a team of welcomers who made sure newcomers were greeted, inquired about, and informed as to what was going on. Two had memberships in the upper two hundreds; one was in the mid-hundreds. One had a traditional UU building, dating from the 1960's and sited on a wooded suburban tract of land. One had bought and remodeled an old movie theatre from the days when "multiplex" meant two or three screening rooms (the seats were wonderfully comfortable!). The smaller one was meeting in a Masonic hall near the loosely defined downtown of the area it serves. The services differed in structure, offering varying amounts of music, participation by children, and speaking from the congregation. The "feel" of each was different: one energetic, one friendly, one contemplative, and in each, there was no doubt that this was a Unitarian Universalist gathering.

How did I know? The emphasis on human connection and openness to one another was one clue that began outside the sanctuary and continued all the way through. Two congregations had traditional sharing time; the other had people write their milestones into a book for the service leader to read. The use of silence as part of the service, a time when everyone could pray, meditate, invoke white light, or think their own thoughts in their own way, that was another clue. And the message in each case had a connection with what we could do in our lives, another way of telling we're UU. There were readings from many sources, references to but not total reliance upon the Judeo-Christian tradition, and that's a way to know we're UU. References to, but not total reliance upon the Principles and Purposes was another common thread.

I liked worshiping with the congregation that sang at every opportunity-- before the service, in hymns, and in response to everything: the offering, the sharing time, the children leaving, even the benediction had its own congregational song. I liked worshiping with the congregation that mostly kept silence, singing two very familiar hymns during the service and singing along with the show tune that ended the gathering. I liked worshiping with the congregation that sang more or less as my own congregation sings, three hymns and a familiar refrain as the children leave.

These were three gatherings for our kind of worship. There are UU gatherings that don't rise to the level of worship, and I am blessed not to have been part of any of those lately. For me, the key is to induce a kind of blending of our individual quests for meaning and our need to belong to a group. The singing together and the silence together, those things work well for me to bring that feeling of deep belonging. It's not just about the message. It's about being together, searching for meaning each in our own ways, somehow united in the searching and the finding.