So, General Assembly, the annual convention of the Unitarian Universalist Association has been going strong for several days.
Jan & I arrived on Monday and took in some sights and had dinner with two old and increasingly dear Zen friends before my buckling down for minister stuff on Tuesday and then our launching into the full assembly on Wednesday.
I’m not exactly sure what day it is, I do know we’re running on not quite enough sleep. I don’t know the exact number but somewhere in the neighborhood of four thousand, I think plus, are gathered at the convention center and environs in downtown Minneapolis. It is UU world…
Although we lived for four years in the suburbs of Milwaukee when I first began the UU ministry, we never got out here. It is a lovely, lovely city, what we’ve seen of it. At its size one knows there is poverty and sadness here. Well, there’s sadness everywhere. As is poverty… That acknowledged our experience is of a clean and well planned city with a progressive ethos. The only thing that prevents fantasies of ending up here some day are the tubes and tunnels that connect most of the downtown buildings, a looming reminder of what winter looks like here, how long and how deep…
But actually the thought of the day came out of a conversation with a barista while waiting on my nonfat 16 oz extra hot latte.
So, sez the barista, “What is a Unitarian Universalist, anyway?”
Because there is no creed, no faith statement one must memorize when one joins this strange little faith, people are expected to have their own small confession. And I have prepared for this for ages. I’ve got what they call the elevator speech down in several variations.
For me the big stuff turns on three assertions, two theological and one about practice. The two theological assertions turn on an assertion of a fundamental value to the individual while at the same time asserting that everyone and everything are woven out of the same stuff. I usually give this a Buddhist spin. The other practice thing is an assertion of a “free and responsible search,” which I consider an imperative. Usually I tip my hat to the wonderful homegrown practice usually called “small group ministry” before suggesting sitting down, shutting up, and paying attention might actually be the universal solvent…
But, this time, I didn’t do that.
I think, because after the barista asked, “What is a Unitarian Universalist, anyway?” He added “Aren’t those Christian…” He then tried to reach for a word other than heresy…
I replied, “Yes, we began in response to two Christian heresies Unitarianism and Universalism.”
And, then turned.
“But, really, through a peculiar evolution, we’ve become more a Western Taoism.”
As is often my experience with folk pulling lattes in coffee shops, he seemed to understand all the codes in these phrases. I didn’t ask but I suspect advanced degrees in something useless like philosophy or religion…
Since then I’ve been ruminating on what Unitarian Universalism as a Western Taoism might mean.
Tao, of course, means Way, and as a religious tradition, while actually way more complicated is usually meant to be a form of nature mysticism closely associated with the spiritual text the Tao Te Ching and the writings of Chuangtzu…
I think it is true that Unitarian Universalism at its best is a naturalistic mysticism. We have more interest in rationality, we, I, love, love, love the scientific method as the great gift of the West to the human endeavor. But, at heart, at heart we know we belong to the earth, and have spent ages and ages exploring what that might mean.
And shove to push, well, I think we are a way not so unlike what they call “high” or “philosophical” Taoism.
At least right now, in a Dunn Brother’s coffee shop, gearing up for a day of GA…
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