Hoot Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 One thing I like about UU is the readings drawn from secular traditions. We get lots from religious traditions but also passages from George Eliot or Auden, or from great speakers like Lincoln and Mandela. It's very freeing to be able to draw inspiration from so many sources. This I love. It makes sense. There is so much wisdom in the world that it seems a shame to limit oneself to just one group of people. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 I know it's probably a missing comma, but I am just tickled pink at the idea of a gay chorus whose entire repertoire is clapped African rhythms. That is not their entire repertoire, but yes, we heard that in church a couple weeks ago! :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Fascinating! My great aunt is a UU minister but I have never had a chance to talk to her about her church. Now I'll know some good questions to ask if I see her again (she lives across the country). One for the board: I have seen reference to paid clergy. Are most clergy full time or part time? What kinds of duties are involved? Is a minister expected to visit the sick, do counseling, clean the church, etc? I realize it might change from congregation to congregation. The bigger the congregation and its budget, the more likely they'll have a full-time minister and other staff. In my city, there's a large congregation (mine) with a full-time minister and a 3/4-time assistant minister, and then another congregation a tenth the size with no minister (although a retired minister is one of their members). Ministers' contracts specify duties, salary and benefits, and time off. Typically the minister delivers sermons, works with the Board to help develop and execute the church's vision and goals, visits the sick, and conducts weddings and funerals. (We don't have baptism. Children can be dedicated, which my congregation does en masse twice a year, but the director of religious education leads that.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Ministers are paid, and pretty well, too. In the spirit of our commitment to social justice, UU staff- minister, music director, admin, RE director, etc - are paid and get benefits based on "Fair Share" wages set on the national level (adjusted for geography & church size). The staff generally gets at least one month off. It's all very public. Here are the wage scales for the New England area: http://www.uua.org/documents/mpl/finances/geoindex5_1415.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrookValley. Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 We have a UU fellowship a few miles from my house. I know a few members and have always been intrigued--I think my oldest would enjoy going--but I would be so uncomfortable with music/singing. :o I know, I know, weird hangup, but there you have it. I am much in love with the local Quaker meeting, though it's further away and I never seem to make time to go. No worries about music there... :p Rivka, this is an excellent and informative thread--thank you for sharing! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Fascinating! My great aunt is a UU minister but I have never had a chance to talk to her about her church. Now I'll know some good questions to ask if I see her again (she lives across the country). One for the board: I have seen reference to paid clergy. Are most clergy full time or part time? What kinds of duties are involved? Is a minister expected to visit the sick, do counseling, clean the church, etc? I realize it might change from congregation to congregation. We have a full time minister and recently hired an assistant minister (his full time position was created by combining an empty director of religious education with a new part time ministerial position). We employ a cleaning service and are looking to hire a lawn service this year. The minister's duties are the same as one in any similarly sized Protestant church, but perhaps with a larger emphasis on being very active in interfaith and social justice efforts. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbmamaz Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 I'm not very involved with the running of my church. I know that the bigger, older downtown church has 2 ministers (i think the second is part time, but I'm not sure). We only have one, and a director of RE (religious education, which is a part time position), an office person (also part time), and a cleaning service which employs disabled people. We also have two 'community ministers' - i dont think they are paid? but they are associated with us while they do other work. I know one works at the childrens hospital with seriously ill kids, and I'm not sure what the other one does. They both do occasional sermons for us (and i'm sure get paid for that). But certainly you can drop in to a service any time. Dress is pretty casual (I was informed I HAD to wear shoes, tho). We have members, friends (people who come regularly or have a long term relationship with the church) and guests. And music is my church's thing. That was one of the things our current interim minister pointed out - that we need to figure out what makes our church unique, and it might be the music. We also have a lot of classically trained, amazingly talented people. When we sing well-known hymns, pretty much every voice is raised and in key. We have a number of lifetime UUs, and founding members of our 20 year old church, who seem to know just about every song in the hymnal. Our choir used to be lay-led, by amazingly talented people, but now we have this fantastic music director. She has worked at other churches, but approached us as her spiritual path diverged from the church she was working at. She not only runs the choir and coordinates music w the minister, she's gotten us hand bells and organized a bell choir, she's organized a drumming group, she's done kids music summer camps, she's doing an acapella improv group, a junk band, a guitar ensemble, and an orchestra! I cant find membership numbers, but it looks like weekly attendance is in the 80-100 people . .and we managed an orchestra? i mean, its small, but still - its good! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Our family just became UU. We were Fundies Christians for awhile and Baptist. I just couldn't deal with the judgementalism anymore. Neither could my teens. We never really felt real love in any of the churches we were a part of. We were never totally accepted. So glad to finally feel free and ask questions and believe in other possibilities without feeling bad or wrong. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Our family just became UU. We were Fundies Christians for awhile and Baptist. I just couldn't deal with the judgementalism anymore. Neither could my teens. We never really felt real love in any of the churches we were a part of. We were never totally accepted. So glad to finally feel free and ask questions and believe in other possibilities without feeling bad or wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Welcome! : ) Hugs, Nan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 What can you tell me about the Our Whole Lives program? Can non-Unitarians participate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 (edited) Welcome happycc!! OWL typically happens in a "Sunday school" context, but, everyone is welcome to be part of it as far as I know. You can read about it grade-by-grade here: http://www.uua.org/re/owl Click on a grade and then "Table of Contents" to get an idea of topics covered. Edited September 25, 2016 by poppy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 What can you tell me about the Our Whole Lives program? Can non-Unitarians participate? I just went to the OWL Parent orientation today, my dd starts the classes next week & is super excited! (We do not attend the fellowship, although I have always wanted to. Perhaps this will be my time) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Welcome happycc!! OWL typically happens in a "Sunday school" context, but, everyone is welcome to be part of it as far as I know. You can read about it grade-by-grade here: http://www.uua.org/re/owl Click on a grade and then "Table of Contents" to get an idea of topics covered. It can depend on the fellowship/church. Our program got so popular they no longer have it open to non-members. My son's class was ridiculously large! It is a fantastic program used by more than just UU groups. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Agreed, OWL fills up fast at my congregation, but if there's room, then it would be open to anyone in the community. They don't have it during the regular Sunday school time (which is during the service); DS's class was on weeknights and one Saturday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 My daughter went to OWL at the larger UU church in our area, as ours didn't have enough kids of similar ages to pull together a class. They only offered 7-9th grade (most kids were 8th grade). It was great and very thorough, including lots of work on healthy relationships, not just mechanics, and ran for several hours on several consecutive Sunday afternoons and one longer session on a Saturday, IIRC, for about 40 hours total. Last year, our church had a larger group of middle schoolers and tried it in a Sunday School context for the year, but I don't know how it worked out. I think it would be hard to have the continuity that is desirable by spreading things out so much. If the UU church in your area doesn't have space or doesn't offer it, check with a United Church of Christ, if there's one nearby. The program was developed jointly by the two denominations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Ours will run most of the year, on Sunday during fellowship time. 25 weeks of 90 minute meetings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted September 28, 2016 Share Posted September 28, 2016 Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! Just so glad to be free! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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