Unitarian Universalists?

[redsquirrel]

UU churches engage fundraising, but I am not sure it is any more than any other church I have been to. It is certainly less than, say, NPR or a televangelist. There isn't a 'tithe' because, as mentioned, that is a Christian concept. Each church is on it's own. The congregation pays the minister and the staff and repairs etc, etc. If you want the church, then you have to contribute. And, yes, UU churches do often have a higher general standard of living BUT they also have one of the lowest rates of of overall giving! It drives me NUTS. Our church does have annual giving campaign and last year we also had a capital campaign to fix the roof. Every week we 'pass the plate' but that is always split with an area charity

 

Our old minister used to joke that every once in a while he was tempted to call a different church in town and ask them if they wanted to trade a lawyer for a plumber :lol:

[KarenNC]

Which segues into one of my favorite descriptions of the Episcopal Church: "There are two kinds of Episcopalians: Catholics who hate the Pope, and UUs who like a parade."

 

And then there's my favorite UU joke: "You might be a UU if you call construction paper, 'paper of color.'" :D

 

We are definitely "UUs who like a parade" ;) but we just couldn't stay Episcopalian once we both realized we couldn't describe ourselves as even the most unorthodox of Christians.

 

This almost made my husband fall on the floor laughing, though:D.

[KarenNC]

UU churches engage fundraising, but I am not sure it is any more than any other church I have been to. It is certainly less than, say, NPR or a televangelist. There isn't a 'tithe' because, as mentioned, that is a Christian concept. Each church is on it's own. The congregation pays the minister and the staff and repairs etc, etc. If you want the church, then you have to contribute. And, yes, UU churches do often have a higher general standard of living BUT they also have one of the lowest rates of of overall giving! It drives me NUTS. Our church does have annual giving campaign and last year we also had a capital campaign to fix the roof. Every week we 'pass the plate' but that is always split with an area charity

 

Our old minister used to joke that every once in a while he was tempted to call a different church in town and ask them if they wanted to trade a lawyer for a plumber :lol:

 

We do an annual canvass (pledge drive combined with asking for feedback on the church) and various activities such as a goods and services auction, yard sale, etc for fundraising. The majority of the "money talk" is concentrated in the month and a half of canvass in the spring and then the subsequent presentations of the budget. We also split our weekly plate collection with an area charity 50-50. It's hard to press for a tithe when you don't have the "stick" of it being a sin not to do so or a requirement of God. Also, even in most Christian churches I have attended, the tithe (at least in the understanding of 10% of your income, it varies whether that's gross or net to the church) wasn't the norm.

 

We could do like the Jews and just have a yearly required temple membership fee (some degree of sliding scale was available IIRC), I suppose, and not pass a plate at all. Unfortunately, we don't really have the equivalent of High Holy Days where we can charge non-members to attend (most recently, I think it was $75 a ticket for High Holy Days services at the local temple):). They also have regular fundraisers. Everyone's got to pay utilities, mortgage, wages, etc.

Edited July 7, 2011 by KarenNC

[KarenNC]

I can see that there really isn't much difference between my old UU church and yours. The reason we see them as different is we differ in our opinion of what constitutes community service.

 

I don't want this to turn into a "who does more" sort of thing, but I can't let the impression lie that UUs are only about either politics or navel-gazing. UUs *do* engage in hands-on community service as part of our faith. As a Girl Scout leader, I would count the community service that your Scouts do (and they do a lot) as something separate from that done by a congregation. Presumably they would do this regardless of whether they met at a church or a rec center or any other location. Worthy, but done for a different group regardless of the overlap in membership. As you mentioned, I also am not counting the hundreds of hours my family spends in volunteering to help keep the church and its programs going, or that we do for the Girl Scout troop, our aikido dojo, our homeschool group, our local library, etc, though they certainly fit anyone's definition of community service.

 

I'm sorry your previous congregation was disappointing to you in this regard. We have a congregation of about 125, a fulltime minister, plus religious education director, choir director/pianist, and church secretary (who all are paid for about 10 hours a week each). Not a large church by any stretch;). We struggle regularly to make our budget of $170K, but have actually doubled the percentage of our plate collection that goes to charity (from 25% to 50%). In addition to the activism (of which we do a lot), over the last year, church members have done, in the name of the church, not another organization:

 

• extended canned food drive for food pantry (over several months)

• worked in Room in the Inn over the winter (a program to ease the burden on the homeless shelters by giving sleeping space in churches---we don't have showers, so instead we helped staff and provide food for this at another church)

• school tools drive to provide school materials for homeless children in the local school district

• provided supplies and holiday gifts for women (and their children) who are in a halfway house for those coming out of incarceration. Also went to the house to provide a Christmas party for the residents---food, decorations, served, cleaned up, etc

• collected food and supplies for local animal rescue organizations

• Purchased and delivered a 20 week share in a local community supported agriculture program in order to provide fresh, organic, locally-grown vegetables to a training home for those moving out of homelessness.

• served as escorts to women at abortion clinics to block harrassment

• served as peace partners at the local Pride festival to, again, physically block participants from harrassment

• held a clothing drive for the local Crisis Assistance program

• started an addiction recovery group that meets at the church

• hosted quarterly blood drives at the church

 

 

This is in addition to the money we provide to a different charity each month by splitting our plate collection with them. We have, this year, supported our local library system (which suffered huge budget cuts, closed branches and drastically reduced hours), an overflow women's shelter and a program for people with developmental disabilities. This was during a year in which we brought in a new minister after our previous minister of 16 years retired and we had an interim for 2 years.

 

Other efforts in recent years included going to New Orleans to help rebuild after Katrina, literacy tutoring, adopting a home that provides an alternative to incarceration to women with small children to help keep families together (food, supplies, holiday gifts, mentoring), working on Habitat houses, gleaning, providing a weekly weekend backpack nutrition program for needy kids in the elementary school across the street, providing food and supplies for a program that works with teen moms to increase their parenting skills and prevent repeat pregnancies (again, clothes, food, supplies, holiday gifts), gathering and packing toiletries for homeless shelters, etc.

 

I would put our community service record up against any other church our size or larger, regardless of denomination and not be ashamed. Frankly, when I see community service from many more conservative churches (not all, but many in our area of the South), a large part of the focus is on witnessing and winning souls to Christ, so the service is given with a large helping of "message." None of this involved tracts, attempting to convert anyone to our religion or any other form of proselytizing. Most of the efforts were interfaith to some degree, as we partnered with larger congregations from other religions (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc). We have a high percentage of folks in our congregation who don't celebrate the holidays for which we provide gifts to groups.

[tinkhs]

Karen, thank you for taking the time to describe the above post. The detail of your service is wonderful.

[ocelotmom]

I don't want this to turn into a "who does more" sort of thing, but I can't let the impression lie that UUs are only about either politics or navel-gazing. UUs *do* engage in hands-on community service as part of our faith.

 

Yes. My old UU church had a similar list of legitimate community service activities.

 

Things I can remember:

 

* Heavy involvement with a local group home for boys - taking them along on church activities (fun things, not UU-evangelism), donations, and each boy who was admitted had a handmade quilt made for him.

* Quilt making for children with long hospital stays, too.

* Food, mitten, and toy drives

* Each year, the children's service (in between the two normal services) had a charity to which it gave the offering collected during that service. The adult service did this once a month.

* The RE program (Sunday School) had a monthly "Service Sunday" where they did some sort of service project.

* Sponsoring a social worker

* Participating in the interfaith homeless shelter program during the winter (helping staff - the church is a ways outside the edge of town, so we didn't actually host it because it would be impractical for the people who needed it) and food distribution program throughout the year.

* Rebuilding after Katrina (we're in California, so this isn't a day trip)

* Trip to provide medical care, construction, etc. to a town in Mexico

* Something with local migrant workers

* Fundraising for members who did "mission" work (for lack of a better term) in Africa and Asia - starting schools and such.

* Participation in the community emergency aid program

* A lot of stuff that straddles the fence between community service and politics, but for causes whose goal was to improve the circumstances of a disadvantaged group, and that involved a lot of selfless work from people who would not directly benefit from the cause they were working towards (universal healthcare, same-sex marriage, immigration issues)

 

There's definitely more that I'm forgetting, but it should be clear from what I remember that it went beyond selling cookies to preach to the choir.

[catz]

Our church does a ton too. From fundraisers for a girl's school in India, to sending out crews for Habit for Humanity to serving as a homeless shelter for families a month every year (that requires a huge volunteer presence) to partnering with other churches. Community service is integrated into the educational programming for kids too. We have a HUGE church by Unitarian standards and I would be hard pressed to list ALL the activities our church does. Many of the activities the previous people listed would definitely be part of our church community too.

 

Our church has a huge fund drive at the beginning of the church year, and due to the success of it, that sends out 100% of plate offerings to selected (usually local) charities every week. I don't remember what our budget is, but it's large.

 

On the lawyer, Unitarian joke I'm reminded of something that happened in our UU church this spring. A woman in the middle of service fainted. 5 doctors got up and helped her within seconds! There probably weren't much more than 100 people at service that morning. :D So our church is a great place to faint. For the record, the woman was/is fine!

[PinkInTheBlue]

Methodist

 

 

Why Methodist, Joanne? I've been looking at churches and considered visiting a Methodist until I looked up their statements of belief. They didn't appear to be any different from the Southern Baptist churches I'm very specifically getting away from. I visited the local Episcopal church and liked it very much but my family didn't. I'll probably go back.

 

Anyway, Methodist seemed to me to be saying the same things Baptist did. How are they different? I'm sincerely very interested. The big Methodist churches in our area are all United Methodist.

[twoforjoy]

Why Methodist, Joanne? I've been looking at churches and considered visiting a Methodist until I looked up their statements of belief. They didn't appear to be any different from the Southern Baptist churches I'm very specifically getting away from. I visited the local Episcopal church and liked it very much but my family didn't. I'll probably go back.

 

Anyway, Methodist seemed to me to be saying the same things Baptist did. How are they different? I'm sincerely very interested. The big Methodist churches in our area are all United Methodist.

 

More than any other churches I've attended, Methodist churches vary wildly in where they fall on the liberal-to-conservative spectrum. There are some very liberal Methodist churches and some that are as conservative as any conservative church in a conservative denomination. So much depends on the individual pastor and church.

 

I think part of it is that Methodists aren't as divided up as some other denominations. If you're a Presbyterian, you'll head for the PCUSA if your liberal, and the PCA or OPC if you're conservative. If you're a Lutheran, you'll probably pick an ELCA church if you're liberal, and a LCMS or WELS church if you're conservative. But if you're a Methodist, you'll probably pick a UMC church whether you are very liberal or very conservative.

[Mandy in TN]

How did I miss this thread! I love the UU church, but it is so far away.

 

I would label myself Christian and dh would label himself Muslim. We both like the UU church.

 

Different UU churches have different congregations- a congregation in one area may be primarily atheist and another may have people who identify themselves as Christian, Hindu, Muslim, etc. Go visit. See how your family fits.

Mandy

[AuntPol]

I don't want this to turn into a "who does more" sort of thing, but I can't let the impression lie that UUs are only about either politics or navel-gazing. UUs *do* engage in hands-on community service as part of our faith. As a Girl Scout leader, I would count the community service that your Scouts do (and they do a lot) as something separate from that done by a congregation. Presumably they would do this regardless of whether they met at a church or a rec center or any other location. Worthy, but done for a different group regardless of the overlap in membership. As you mentioned, I also am not counting the hundreds of hours my family spends in volunteering to help keep the church and its programs going, or that we do for the Girl Scout troop, our aikido dojo, our homeschool group, our local library, etc, though they certainly fit anyone's definition of community service.

 

 

I'm sorry your previous congregation was disappointing to you in this regard. We have a congregation of about 125, a fulltime minister, plus religious education director, choir director/pianist, and church secretary (who all are paid for about 10 hours a week each). Not a large church by any stretch;). We struggle regularly to make our budget of $170K, but have actually doubled the percentage of our plate collection that goes to charity (from 25% to 50%). In addition to the activism (of which we do a lot), over the last year, church members have done, in the name of the church, not another organization:

 

• extended canned food drive for food pantry (over several months)

• worked in Room in the Inn over the winter (a program to ease the burden on the homeless shelters by giving sleeping space in churches---we don't have showers, so instead we helped staff and provide food for this at another church)

• school tools drive to provide school materials for homeless children in the local school district

• provided supplies and holiday gifts for women (and their children) who are in a halfway house for those coming out of incarceration. Also went to the house to provide a Christmas party for the residents---food, decorations, served, cleaned up, etc

• collected food and supplies for local animal rescue organizations

• Purchased and delivered a 20 week share in a local community supported agriculture program in order to provide fresh, organic, locally-grown vegetables to a training home for those moving out of homelessness.

• served as escorts to women at abortion clinics to block harrassment

• served as peace partners at the local Pride festival to, again, physically block participants from harrassment

• held a clothing drive for the local Crisis Assistance program

• started an addiction recovery group that meets at the church

• hosted quarterly blood drives at the church

 

This is in addition to the money we provide to a different charity each month by splitting our plate collection with them. We have, this year, supported our local library system (which suffered huge budget cuts, closed branches and drastically reduced hours), an overflow women's shelter and a program for people with developmental disabilities. This was during a year in which we brought in a new minister after our previous minister of 16 years retired and we had an interim for 2 years.

 

Other efforts in recent years included going to New Orleans to help rebuild after Katrina, literacy tutoring, adopting a home that provides an alternative to incarceration to women with small children to help keep families together (food, supplies, holiday gifts, mentoring), working on Habitat houses, gleaning, providing a weekly weekend backpack nutrition program for needy kids in the elementary school across the street, providing food and supplies for a program that works with teen moms to increase their parenting skills and prevent repeat pregnancies (again, clothes, food, supplies, holiday gifts), gathering and packing toiletries for homeless shelters, etc.

 

I would put our community service record up against any other church our size or larger, regardless of denomination and not be ashamed. Frankly, when I see community service from many more conservative churches (not all, but many in our area of the South), a large part of the focus is on witnessing and winning souls to Christ, so the service is given with a large helping of "message." None of this involved tracts, attempting to convert anyone to our religion or any other form of proselytizing. Most of the efforts were interfaith to some degree, as we partnered with larger congregations from other religions (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc). We have a high percentage of folks in our congregation who don't celebrate the holidays for which we provide gifts to groups.

 

 

Karen -I made sure to separate out what they do at the church sponsored Girl Scouts and what they do as "ministry" with the church (service within church or things that fall under witnessing like VBS and Community Christmas Event). I should point out that the church pays for or provides opportunity/tools, etc for many of the Scout service projects. I also only listed what one of my preteen children has done in past year. There is so much more done by our church, similar to what your church has done, but done by adults and most. There are some wonderful projects they've done in past years. I could never list them all. There are some things that drive me completely batty about my current church (mostly certain people lol) to the point of wondering if I need to look elsewhere but the spirit of community service is what I love most.

 

However, I was not trying to make anyone defensive or say UU is bad. There are many things I love about UU -I miss the candle lighting for sure. There were some lovely people that I truly miss. I also wish my new church was a bit more environmentally conscious as the UU church was! I just wanted to point out the huge difference in certain areas that are important to me that I witnessed between the UU church that I attended for years and the Non-Demon/Seeker Friendly type church that "I" attend now (and why I italicized phrases to show that it was a personal experience). It was glaringly huge!

 

I also wanted to point out that I make a distinction between community service and political activism and Church ministry/Witnessing. All have their place in making the world a better place but one is not the other. Trust me, I get aggravated with my homeschool group and other Scout troops who only do church service/witnessing that is within their church!

 

I am so glad to know that there are UU churches out there who actually DO something!!!

[tinkhs]

What exactly is RE?

[Mrs Mungo]

What exactly is RE?

 

Religious Education

[tinkhs]

Religious Education

 

:lol: Well, I got that much. Better question: what does it entail on a normal Sunday?

[Matryoshka]

:lol: Well, I got that much. Better question: what does it entail on a normal Sunday?

 

I'm sure like with everything else, this may vary widely from church to church.

 

Our church has the kids sit in service for the first 10-15 minutes, or a bit longer if there's a baptism/dedication. Then the kids go up front for a "Word for All Ages" where the minister gives them some kind of mini-lesson/sermon, then they are released to RE for the rest of the time.

 

We have RE for Pre-K to middle school. In K-3 they learn Bible stories, in 4-5 it's been a bit different from year to year - one year they did a curriculum on "Peace and Social Justice" that they really liked. Last year they a program that was called something like "Your Spiritual Toolbox" - I think the latter, if not the former, was from the UUs.

 

In middle school they learn about World Religions. I wasn't too crazy about how it was being taught (I thought rather superficially) when my girls were in 6th, so I taught it myself last year, and will again next year. They pretty much let whoever volunteers run it as they see fit, for better or worse.

 

In high school there's a monthly youth group, but I honestly have no idea what they do. Guess I'll find out in another year!

[LibraryLover]

What I remember most are the arguments. It's like the old joke; 2 Jews, 3 opinions (I heard that from a Jewish friend who is a UU lol) , except it's 2 UUs, 100 opinions (quite a few UUs are also Jewish, surprisingly).

 

PS Did you know that statistically, the highest scorers on the SAT are most often UUs? True:

 

Average SAT score by religion for 2002, average ~1000, about 40% of each students take it Unitarian-Universalists1209Judaism1161Quakers1153Hinduism1110Mennonite1097Reformed Church of America 1097Episcopal1096Evangelical Lutheran Church 1094Presbyterian Church (USA) 1092Baha’i1073

 

Anyway, here's a good UU joke:

 

 

 

 

You might be a UU if . . .

 

• you have ever been in an argument over whether or not breast milk is vegan.
  
• when you dress for a formal evening out you wear a little black dress, pearls--and Birkenstocks (and your wife thinks you look great!)
  
• you are unsure about the gender of God.
  
• you own six pairs of Birkenstocks and your favorite pair needs to be thrown away.
  
• you get Newt Gingrich confused with the Grinch who Stole Christmas.
  
• the money you sent to the Sierra Club last year was more than you spent on your mother at Christmas.
  
• you think the Holy Trinity is "reduce, reuse and recycle."
  
• you study the "ten suggestions" instead of the "Ten Commandments."
  
• the only time "Jesus" is mentioned at church is when someone trips or stubs a toe.
  
• your child says to you before eating dinner at a friend's house "I'll remember to say my 'pleases' and 'thank yous' but I'm not going to say that dinner 'pledge of alliegance'."
  
• You think a Holy day of Obligation is your turn to do coffee.
  
• You get mail from committees you didn't know you were on.
  
• You know at least two people who are upset that trees had to die for your church to be built.
  

 

Edited July 8, 2011 by LibraryLover

[tinkhs]

Thank you. That sounds great. :)

[tinkhs]

:lol: Library Lover! That's great!!

[Perry]

 

You might be a UU if . . .

:lol: Love these.

 

After reading this thread, I think I'm a UU who likes parades. I'm UU at heart, but the UU church here is just a little too self-righteous for my taste. Well, maybe the church isn't, but some of the members are.

 

I'd love to attend our Episcopal church, but I think they frown on agnosticism. :(

[catz]

 

Anyway, here's a good UU joke:

 

 

You might be a UU if . . .

 

:lol: ROFL - it's good to be able to laugh at ourselves.

 

We have a gem of an RE coordinator at our house. Kids ages 3 - through kindergarten go to "spirit play". They do a story with manipulatives. They have a ritual where kids can share a joy or sorrow they had from the week. They sing some songs. And then they can do activities related to the story afterwards. They can also make cards for families that are on the prayer list for the week.

 

Kids ages 1st through 6th grade do what is called "rotation" after doing a short chapel service together. Every 6 weeks their is a particular theme - spiritual practices, death, sharing, social justice etc. And then each week kids rotate to a particular room - art, music, body, story, science, drama and engage that theme in a different way. For example, when the theme was spiritual practice and kids were in the body room they tried yoga, tai chi, and meditation. In the art room they tried writing Chinese characters. Usually some form of community service is written into each rotation.

 

6th to 8th graders have choices of several offerings including learning about world religions. I don't have a child this age yet.

 

7th to 9th graders do OWL - our whole lives that is a sex education program. 9th graders do what is called "Coming of Age". Kids spend the year exploring their own spirituality and writing their own credo.

 

Junior kids have options - they

[tinkhs]

Kck sounds fun. It will be interesting to see how this church compares.

[Matryoshka]

After reading this thread, I think I'm a UU who likes parades. I'm UU at heart, but the UU church here is just a little too self-righteous for my taste. Well, maybe the church isn't, but some of the members are.

 

I'd love to attend our Episcopal church, but I think they frown on agnosticism. :(

 

Some of them can be pretty liberal, I think. The only church I ever attended as a child was Episcopal, because it was the most liberal church my mom could find when I asked to go to Sunday School. They let my mom teach Sunday School even after she told the priest right out that she did not believe in the divinity of Jesus...

 

Or, try out a UCC or Unity church.

[WishboneDawn]

:lol: Love these.

 

After reading this thread, I think I'm a UU who likes parades. I'm UU at heart, but the UU church here is just a little too self-righteous for my taste. Well, maybe the church isn't, but some of the members are.

 

I'd love to attend our Episcopal church, but I think they frown on agnosticism. :(

 

Give it a try. Episcopal (and Anglican) churches are generally open to all Christians and many are also generally welcoming to others. My agnostic husband attends church on occasion. The only thing would be that you shouldn't accept communion (it's for baptized Christians - any Christians) but even then you could go to the altar and cross your arms as a signal to receive a blessing rather then communion if you wanted. Heck, if I were you I'd even be upfront about my agnosticism with the minister.

 

I know some churches are exclusive but most in the Anglican communion are not. There are requirements for baptism but not for joining us in worship and being a part of the community. Everyone is welcome: doubts, questions and all. :)

[KarenNC]

I'd love to attend our Episcopal church, but I think they frown on agnosticism. :(

 

Officially, probably. In practice, not so sure. I remember a friend visiting an Episcopal church somewhere in New England (she and I were both in the EC at the time). She said it was a bit entertaining to sit between two church members during the hymns, with one inserting gender-neutral terms on the fly and the other referring to Jesus as "one of the Sons of God.":) If we had been just agnostic, we might have been able to stay. When we acknowledged that we were specifically not at all Trinitarian, we couldn't. Similarly, when we acknowledged that instead of just not being Trinitarian, we were actually polytheist, we couldn't stay with the Reform Jews either.

 

As for RE, we are introducing Spirit Play for 5th grade and younger this year. I'm actually building most of the stories. It's a Montessori-based program, the UU version of a Christian curriculum called "Godly Play" that I know at least one local Episcopal church uses. http://www.spiritplay.net/ Kids are in the service for the first 15 minutes, including a Story for All Ages time (where the kids gather up front), then we sing them out to their classes (the song lyrics: "Go now in peace, go now in peace, may the spirit of love surround you, everywhere, everywhere you may go"). Previously middle school and high school also left to have their own time, but recently they are staying in the service and instead having youth group meetings after service. We are a regional church, with folks traveling sometimes close to an hour to get to us, so we try to clump as much together as possible.:)

 

We've done all sorts of programs in the past. One comparative religion one was called "A World of Friends." http://www.smuuchurch.org/uploads/pdf/RE/World%20of%20New%20Friends.pdf is the full text if anyone is interested. For a long time, one Sunday a month was designated Social Justice Sunday and the kids worked on a social justice project, but I think that is no longer the case.

 

Throughout the year, the kids do various things. The older youth will lead at least one service a year. There's usually a holiday play in the winter, ranging from a Nativity play to one based on Dr. Seuss' "The Sneetches." This last was part of the year we did a curriculum focused on character-building using Dr. Seuss stories. My daughter still has her God Shelf that she built when they did a curriculum on images of God/divinity in various religions.

[Jenny in Florida]

I can see that there really isn't much difference between my old UU church and yours. The reason we see them as different is we differ in our opinion of what constitutes community service. I don't view any of those as community service but more pushing a world view, particularly gay-rights. I am not anti-gay but I just don't think marching in a gay pride parade or raising money for a political awareness among those who are already aware as service. I don't consider anything that is geared towards trying to get more government money or change the law as community service. It's political activism.

 

Well, the organization that helps LGBT kids would disagree, I think. They deal primarily with teens who have been kicked out of their homes because of their sexuality/gender identity. The goods and money our kids collected went directly to providing a safe space (and food and school supplies and gasoline for the shelter's van and so on) for kids in need.

 

And, for what it's worth, Standing on the Side of Love is not intended to raise awareness among UUs. Nor is marriage equality their only campaign. I'd suggest checking out the website for more information about the specifics: http://www.standingonthesideoflove.org/

 

(As a side note, when I went to the website to make sure I had the correct address, I saw a photo of one of the wonderful couples from our very own church. They served as advisors for my daughter's middle school youth group and are among our favorite folks. What a lovely surprise!)

 

And marching in the Pride parade was not intended to push an agenda as much as to show solidarity. One great side-effect was that we made it clear to people who thought all churches would reject them that there is a safe, welcoming religious community available to them. We also had a large number of spectators and participants thank us for being there with them.

 

In a similar vein, I am very pro-life. However, I don't consider protesting at an abortion clinic or having a pro-life float in a community parade, doing any kind of "awareness" of life project like wearing or handing out red bracelets, fundraisers for billboards, anything that is geared towards making political changes, etc as service. I consider that political activism. The only pro-life oriented thing I consider community service is things specific to helping out mothers who have decided to not abort their babies -job training, parenting and nutrition classes, fundraising to help provide medical care, maternity clothes, needs for the children, counseling, etc.

 

I agree on most of these points, actually. I, too, am pro-life, which is one of the reasons I occasionally feel uncomfortable with the more strident UUs. I have never bought any of those little rubber bracelets or anything else. Nor do I usually take part in protest for the sake of protest.

 

Working in soup kitchen

 

Helping with the weekly Canning Hunger Drive (donations of our church feed 40 extra families alone); Stocking shelfs at the food bank, etc.

 

 

Yep, we have a group that works the soup kitchen, too. And another that sorts food once a month for a food pantry. The youth group also maintains boxes for non-perishable food donations. (I did mention I was just saying what came to mind immediately, right?)

 

Maintaining an Angel Tree and hosting a Christmas party for children of incarcerated parents

 

We call ours a Chalice Tree. As I mentioned above, the last couple of years, the donations have gone to the program for LGBT kids, but it changes periodically.

 

Packing up school supplies for local low-income school. Painting over graffiti and reading to/with struggling students.

 

Yep. A group from our church has "adopted" a school in the neighborhood that has a large percentage of lower income students. We have donation boxes in the social hall and wish lists posted.

 

Making and taking lunches to Habitat of Humanity workers (our church does this but she is too young to participate as a builder for insurance reasons).

 

Our kids, including all of the ones down to lower elementary ages, made sandwiches for the homeless a couple of times this year. It went really well, and the plan is to add it on a more regular basis next year.

 

Gathering water and food, cooking for families who lost power/houses in the local tornados.

 

Our area was lucky this year and didn't have any significant local disasters. We've done similar things in the past, though, to respond as the need arises.

 

Then there is the community service that was done with the Scout troop of the church (also just this year):

 

Our church does not have a scouting troop. UUs don't generally support Boy Scouts, and while there have been several attempts to get either Camp Fire or one of the pagan-type alternatives going, nothing has stuck yet.

 

Packing Operation Christmas Child boxes;

 

While Operation Christmas Child is another organization I don't think most UUs would feel comfortable supporting, we have in previous years collected and packed donations for an organization associated with the Quakers.

 

Making blankets and baked goods to take to Ronald McDonald House,

 

One of our RE classes made blankets this year, too. It wasn't one I taught or the one in which my son participated, so I can't tell you where the blankets were donated.

 

It doesn't include the volunteering that they do to help our church specifically.

 

Yes, I didn't include that sort of thing, either. My son ushers at least once a month, assists most weeks supervising the younger kids on the playground, sings and acts for services, etc. The youth group also put on the haunted house for the church's annual Halloween bash. They worked on that project for weeks, including coming in several Saturday afternoons to build props.

 

It also doesn't include the things our family does for community outside the church either.

 

Ditto.

 

I suspect some of this may come down to the size of the church, too, and the demographics of the membership. While I always think it would be nice to do more, I actually think our little church does pretty well.

 

In the end, though, I see no need to make this a competition. I'm glad both of our churches are out there doing things that make the world a better place (even if we're not always working for the same things).