Author Archives: Sonya Schryer Norris

Working on my faith statement part 2

Are there any concepts, myths or stories from the other religions that are meaningful to you? Why? For this one, let me just address my own faith, Islam. There is a rich tradition in Islam called the Hadith. These are the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). They are a source of customs,ContinueContinue reading “Working on my faith statement part 2”

Working on my faith statement part 1

One of the goals of the BYOT class is for each member to develop a faith statement. We’re following some of the same guidelines that UU youth do as they develop their own personal faith statements at about the age of 13 but these are good questions for all of us to ask and toContinueContinue reading “Working on my faith statement part 1”

BYOT: My Own Ethical Ten Commandments

The homework assignment for this week is to write our own ethical ten commandments. There’s a joke that UUs believe in the Ten Suggestions, or, alternately, that they’d agree to consider the Ten Commandments if they were scheduled to come up for a vote at the next annual conference. I’m not even a Christian but thatContinueContinue reading “BYOT: My Own Ethical Ten Commandments”

The Upside and the Downside of UU

I’ve spoken mostly about the positives of the UU church but there are some negatives too so I wanted to check back in on how I’m doing with this religion whose services I’m attending every week. Let’s start with the services. I enjoy them – the singing, lighting candles to commemorate joys and sorrows, theContinueContinue reading “The Upside and the Downside of UU”

BYOT Revisited: Prayer

This whole class on the nature of God has generated so many thoughts that just keep going! Another one of the questions we were asked to ponder was on the role that prayer plays in our lives. One of the possible responses to the questionnare we filled out for class about prayer was: I don’tContinueContinue reading “BYOT Revisited: Prayer”

BYOT: The Nature of God

So, once again, I’m revisiting material from class. And I apologize to everyone who has legitimatley studied theology and finds me a bit on the slow side but I’ve never done this before so it’s all new to me. I’m back to something that really bothered me. It was from a questionnaire sent out toContinueContinue reading “BYOT: The Nature of God”