Reflections on Unitarian Universalism
Quieting
“Unpacking the Great Experiment” was written as my final paper for the Multi-Religious Intensive course offered with Dr. Som Pourfarzaneh during the Summer of 2024.
This course reviewed multi-culturalism and religious pluralism as they apply to ministry, and situating those concepts within a Unitarian Universalist context, I was interested in how one might understand our faith as a historically multi-religious faith through its origins in the merger of Unitarianism and Universalism. Through this paper, I explored this multi-religiosity for lessons to help current and future UUs live up to our ideals for a just and pluralist faith.
During this process, I learned a great deal about the founding of Unitarian Universalism and had time to reflect on our founders' perspectives when the two faiths merged. This period of reflection offered me a time of Quieting in regards to understanding my faith tradition and what I was called to achieve through my ministry; I was able to process and integrate the valuable lessons from our history. These reflections have continued to inform my approach to community ministry and the growth I hope to inspire within Unitarian Universalism.
Blooming
I presented this paper in the fall of 2024 as part of the Adult Faith Development course with Rev. Dr. Sheri Prud’homme.
This paper outlined several adult learning theories we engaged with during the semester and evaluated them as relevant and compelling to our Unitarian Universalist ministry, which is grounded in the values of pluralism and counter-oppression.
In my reflections on Unitarian Universalism, I often seek to engage with our faith's current context and understand why Unitarian Universalism struggles to grow in a multi-cultural and multireligious context. These investigations feel especially important as I think towards my future ministry, in which I hope to deepen our faith’s grounding in our principles of interdependence, openness, and the search for truth.
In this paper, I addressed my understanding of the connection between our Unitarian Universalist history and dogma and the modern critiques and shortcomings of our faith. Through this work, I felt inspired to claim my Blooming prophetic voice as a witness to our growing edges and to propose approaches that could bring us closer to the ideal we espouse. As I continue in my ministry, I hope to bring this prophetic witness to bear to help our religious tradition to Bloom as well.