I’ve now attended two UU services in my hometown on two consecutive Sundays. I’ve read one book about the faith by a pair of UU ministers and started two more. I’m signed up to attend an “Intro to UU” class later in the month. I’ve collected information about circle suppers (the monthly church potluck) and book clubs and I even had a non-member who was also visiting hit on me after a service. Good to know I still have it going on, and in church no less.
I’m not sure if all congregations are like this one, or to what extent. I’ll assume Lansing is roughly representative of the organization. At least I’ll assume it’s not rogue.
During the first service, the minister interrupted her sermon to tell us about two social justice actions. They weren’t a part of the sermon. They were just so important to her that she stopped the sermon for a moment to talk about them. That surprised me when it happened. I was looking forward to the sermon as a way of learning about the theological underpinnings of the church and indeed I did – but instead of hearing about the Oneness of God I heard about the importance of community and our role in it. I’m just not certain that community-building without a religious creed is the direction I want to go. I’m not saying it’s not, just that I’m not sure.
After both services, a part of the congregation rallied on the busy city street on which the church is located to hold a #BlackLivesMatter rally. One active church group is dedicated to education about “the New Jim Crow” – the disturbingly high percentage of incarcerated African-Americans. If my statistics are up-to-date, African-Americans make up 14% of Michigan’s population and they were definitely a much smaller minority in that congregation but issues of racial justice figure prominently. I’m not entirely comfortable with that. I definitely think that white people can work on racism with each other but I’m concerned about the idea of a group of white people co-opting someone else’s movement.
I found that I knew several people in the congregation from anti- (second) Gulf War work that I was involved in with the Peace Education Center which was located in their previous building in East Lansing 14 years ago. I didn’t realize until now how much cross-pollination there was between the two groups. It was like old home week and it was nice to catch up with some people.
The rest of the congregation was very friendly as well. I didn’t find myself alone as I stood in the social hall with a cup of fair trade coffee after the service. On the second Sunday, easily a half dozen people came up and introduced themselves.
I’m in a wait-and-see mode with the UU. I’ll give it time to grow on me. First impressions are positive and while it aligns with my values, I’m still withholding judgement.
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