Circles Within Circles – UU Paganism, Community and World

Having returned last week from the Parliament of the World Religions in Salt Lake City, I am present to the rich spiritual and religious practices we as human beings hold. It was incredible as a Unitarian Universalist Pagan to participate with practitioners of a variety of earth and nature centered traditions worldwide. It was also amazing to see how UU Pagans in general are part of this larger community and have really taken the international UU community.

I stopped into the booth of the International Association of Unitarian Universalist Congregations. Sitting in the rack were brochures about many of the various faith based ways UU’s practice. As I picked up the one about Paganism, the sixth source and seventh principle, I was reminded of the time before these were part of our denomination. How far UU Paganism has come over the past 30 years.

CUUPS has a presence at the Parliament with presenters and performers also. Maggie Beaumont and I performed in “Goddess Alive! A Masked Performance” as goddesses and Wesley Hildebrand was on the technical crew.

Leslie Hugo gave a workshop on “Prayers for the Earth” and I facilitated a workshop with Audrey Addison Williams called “Reviving the Heart of Religion through Storytelling.” During the plenaries, we heard from many religious leaders including UU’s.

Wesley Hildebrand also worked with the media at Parliament as a photographer and some of his images are used in this article. Wesley interviewed and photographed activist Jane Goodall and UN NGO Children of the Earth Vice Present Patrick McCollum.

All in all, this event was a big deal and the scope and reach of its impact will take a bit of time to figure out. What is known is that 9,806 people participated including performers, & volunteers, 73 countries were represented, and 30 major religious communities with 548 sub-traditions. There were 1800 presenters and over 1000 programs offered in the form of workshops, art exhibits, music performances, theatre performances, plenaries and a huge Sacred Music Concert at the Church of the Latter Day Saints Tabernacle Church.

Over the five days subjects like climate change, women’s issues, violence, hate speech, indigenous peoples issues, creating peace, bring deep listening and compassion to the world and so much more were discussed. We previewed Oprah Winfrey’s new show called Belief about various belief systems all over the world. During that time we also  watched a video on One Billion Rising. A trigger warning about One Billion Rising…this film is graphic and is about standing up against violence against women all over the world.

I also want to say I am impressed with the Emerging Leader’s community. These young adults are training themselves now to stand as leaders in the world; committed to issues our world is facing as people of faith and conviction ready to step up NOW!

Attending from CUUPS were two board members, two soon to be board members, the executive director and several individual and chapter members. It was exciting one evening to sit with CUUPS Executive Director, David Pollard and incoming Membership VP, Peter Dybing. Peter’s energy and love of social justice issues and service is mind blowing. Debra Gilbert, the future CUUPS Secretary is ready to get us organized. We shared ideas about supporting members, chapters, congregations, and the history of the organization. It is very exciting to have new board members coming in who are so energetic.

We all bring home a new, refreshed image of our world and our connections to the web of humanity. We bring to CUUPS a revitalized energy to move the organization to the next level. We look forward to the next Parliament in 2017.

Next month, I will share information about CUUPS Convocation 2016!!!! It will be exciting and incredibly fun! Save the Date!!! August 26-28, 2016 at First Church Unitarian Universalist in Salem, MA.