-How does this compare or contrast with your previous religious experiences?
-What are you personal reactions or reflections of the service?
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A reflection of our visit to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Providence by Nina Carriero, Lauren Santiago, Alicia Hartley, and Michelle Un.
My parents are both Roman Catholic, and so that is how my brothers and I were raised. Despite our childish protestations, my parents dragged us to mass every weekend, made us say “Grace” at family dinners, and put us through years and years of dreaded Sunday School, where we learned, and then forgot, the fundamentals of Catholicism. Well, I guess we didn’t completely forget what we learned.
ReplyDeleteDespite its many, many faults, Catholicism is the only religion with which I feel comfortable, to some degree, because it is how I was brought up. I felt like an outsider while visiting the Unitarian Universalist Church. Everyone there knew one another, and immediately recognized our group as strangers. Though the members were unbelievably welcoming, I still felt slightly uncomfortable because I didn’t understand what they were celebrating, to whom they prayed, or why. The hour was loosely structured and felt more like a group meeting than a worship service. A Roman Catholic mass, in contrast, has a definite structure and always includes 3 Bible readings, a homily, communion, and specific prayers and songs. There were no Bibles in the pews, and the Bible was neither read aloud nor referenced during the service. There were no crosses to be found, and no mention of Jesus Christ whatsoever. What might be the equivalent of the homily was not a deep reflection on the Gospel but a somewhat lighthearted story about kitchen utensils and time with family. Though we sang hymns, much of the music, such as Hungarian composer Bela Bartok’s “Bagpipes,” would never be played during a Catholic mass.
To put it simply: I found no similarities between Unitarian Universalism and Roman Catholicism, and though that made me feel a bit uncomfortable, the contrast is certainly not a bad thing. The Unitarian Universalist acceptance, open-mindedness, and friendliness that I experienced was a refreshing and encouraging difference from the strict, often closed-minded doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Their non-creedal worship and celebration makes for a welcoming environment to one and all, which, I think, is a rarity in today’s society.
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the church was the rainbow scarf that was worn by the usher. At first, I entertained the thought that maybe it was his own personal fashion sense, but when I saw other ushers and congregation members wearing them too, I knew it was Unitarian Universalist thing. It was then that I realized that we were about to experience something very different from the Catholic mass that I am accustomed to, and more like the Quaker meeting that I’ve attended on occasion with my family.
ReplyDeleteI was, for the most part, raised Catholic. My dad was raised Catholic and attends church regularly. My mom, however, has a more diverse religious background—her father was a Jew living in Germany, but converted to Quakerism when he came to the United States. Up until high school, I attended Catholic mass almost every weekend with my dad and brother. In the summers, for about six years straight, I went to Friends General Conference, a week-long, multi-generational Quaker meeting. In our family, we have always celebrated a mixture of traditions—we celebrate Christmas and Easter, we sometimes light a menorah on Hanukkah, and we attend neighborhood Passover Seder (when we’ve been invited).
Even though I have been exposed to many religions, I was still very surprised by the Unitarian Universalist service. It’s not that I’ve never been involved with a liberal religious community—Quakers are quite liberal and believe in all types of tolerance. However, I’ve never been to a religious service or a mass that was so open-minded and so free of religious dogma and even scripture itself. I’ve always associated being in a church with reciting prayers, hearing gospel-readings in their historical and hardly-accessible language, and most of all receiving communion. Additionally, I agree with Lauren about the loose structure of the mass being surprising—almost unsettling. Catholicism, it seems to be, is all about the order of things and the tradition—which can lead to a very cookie-cutter experience. It was a very new experience to sit in a pew, at church, and hear two ministers speak, a man and a woman about very liberal ideas. Overall, this was nothing like what I expected a church service to be like, but it was a very positive experience.
My mom was very religious growing up, attending an Evangelical Christian Church in rural Pennsylvania. She went to church every week and even went to and worked at what she called “Jesus Camp”. My dad, on the other hand, who was born in South Korea, attended church with his family once they arrived in the United States, but always described himself as atheist. I have always had an interesting relationship with religion. Growing up, my mom, my sister and I, were members of the local Presbyterian Church, but I never really connected with ideas and people of the Church. Despite my protesting, I ended up getting confirmed, mostly to appease my mom. Throughout the whole confirmation process, I think that I started to fully realize how much I no longer connected with the church, such that, after I was confirmed, I stopped going to church altogether.
ReplyDeleteSince then, I never agreed with churches that forced religious ideals on you, and thus I have never been very supportive of organized religion. One thing that amazed me about the Unitarian Universalist Church was the emphasis on spiritual exploration. While the church has a couple principles that congregation members must abide by, the main purpose of the church is to support people in their quest for answers to some of life’s most difficult questions, such as how to live a good life, and about death. Another aspect of this church that I enjoyed was the diversity in religious views in the community, which was especially conducive to the church mission, as people seemed were openly encouraged to challenge each other’s views. At the same time, because of the many different beliefs, everyone seemed to be very respectful of one another’s views, no matter how new or different they were.
While I am grateful for the religious experiences that I had when I was younger, I think that if I grew up in a religious community more like that of the Unitarian Universalist, that I would be much more welcoming to the idea of spirituality. Even though my hometown church was pretty open and welcoming, I was turned off to the church because there was little room for different perspectives. As a member of the Presbyterian Church we were always told exactly what to believe, without giving reasons why; and thus if you didn’t believe in what the church believed, you didn’t belong in the church. A more alternative and liberal denomination, such as the Unitarian Universalist, would have been more beneficial to me given my uncertainty regarding my faith, as I would have been able to craft a belief system of my own. While the Unitarian Universalist perspective is certainly refreshing in many ways, I do agree with Lauren that it lacked a cohesive mission or goal. There seemed to be little content in the service such that after attending the service I wasn’t entirely clear on what united the congregation except for that they all disagreed with traditional organized religion. I don’t think that this is either a good or a bad thing, but rather a different approach to religion altogether.
Even though I knew the service was going to be liberal, I did not anticipate just how liberal it was going to be. Like Nina, I too noticed the rainbow scarf draped from the Usher's belt and I had a debate within myself if that was just his personal style or if it was a sign that this church was “open and affirming.” Even though this church is not a United Church of Christ church, which the title “open and affirming” is affiliated with, I wondered if this church was openly accepting of members of the LGBTQ community. A little into the Pastor's sermon, I soon realized that this church was definitely a place that members of the LGBTQ community could feel welcomed and embraced. I've never heard a sermon where the Pastor openly talked about members of the Queer community in such a positive and supportive way.
ReplyDeleteMuch like you, Michelle, I too am a skeptic of organized religion. I believe that organized religion is one of the major, if not the biggest, reason for all the hatred, wars, and marginalization in our world. Belonging or supporting a church that promotes hatred and inequality is not something that I can do.
The thing that seemed to hook me so much about this church was the diversity of beliefs among the members of the congregation and the acceptance, even encouragement of those diverse beliefs. This is what I believe a church should really be like. It should be there to support individual spiritual growth no matter what path the individual chooses to take. If I ever choose to belong to a church, it is going to be a church like this one. It will embrace the diversity of the people who walk through its doors and it will support, yet challenge one another's beliefs about what God, Jesus, religion, spirituality, and the Bible are all really about.
Nina--what does a Quaker service look like? How does it differ from the Unitarian Universalist service we went to?
ReplyDeleteNina, I'm also interested in hearing a little about the Quaker service. My mom for years has talked about how she wants to become a Quaker. Also, in my hometown, Quakerism is very prevalent, but I know little about it.
ReplyDeleteTheologically, the Friends have many things in common with Unitarian Universalists. Over all things, they believe in peace, integrity, equality, and simplicity. Although I would say they follow the Bible more closely than UUs do, it is not a part of meeting for worship, and not all Quakers are Christians. Quakers are extremely tolerant (religiously and generally in all facets of their lives).
ReplyDeleteHowever, a Quaker meeting for worship looks very different from the structured UU service. In a Quaker meeting, Friends (the name for 'congregants') gather for about an hour. There is an appointed clerk of the meeting who is in charge, however, the clerk does not really lead the meeting in any way. Friends sit there in silence and wait for the spirit to lead them to speak, or even sing. There is usually time left between spoken contributions, to give Friends time to reflect on what was said. Sometimes meetings for worship are filled with words and songs, but sometimes they almost entirely silent.