Spiritual Vitality

by Kimberly Sweeney,

UUA New England Region Lead for Faith Formation & Safe Congregations

My love for the Beatles goes back for as long as I can remember. I remember singing songs with my mom and flipping through all of my dad’s records as a child. We sang Beatles songs in our school chorus, and I had posters all over my wall by junior high. In high school, I pored over their lyrics and read them like poetry. As a young adult, I heard a Beatles song being played in the first UU congregation I stepped foot in, and I chose Beatles songs to be played in my wedding. I cannot remember a time in my life that was not influenced by the music of the Beatles.

As a young parent, I introduced my children to the Beatles on the very days they were born. Haelie was wrapped in a blanket designed by drawings John Lennon had sketched for his own son, and she could identify each of the Fab Four by name before she turned two. Her yellow submarine birthday party was a big hit for people of all ages. Abby may have been named after a certain album, and the framed album cover would hang in her room. She would often fall asleep to soft acoustic versions of Beatles songs, and would look at children’s books about these musicians.

The drive to church on Sunday mornings would be timed perfectly with the Beatles Brunch radio show. My children cannot remember a time in their lives when the influence of the Beatles was not present.

I just recently attended an international interfaith conference focused on bringing the generations together in church. One particular workshop was focused on our youngest members, those under the age of three. It was suggested that early childhood ministry is the most important ministry of the church that nobody is talking about. I was reminded of things I had learned in my child development classes in graduate school. I knew that children would learn more in their first six years of life than they would in all the years to follow.

Take language for example. Most of our children will learn to understand and use the language(s) they are exposed to before they ever attend school. In their first four years, the average child will learn up to 45 million words. How many of these words are from the language of our faith?

What would happen if as a congregation, we raised our infants and toddlers to be in worship with us every Sunday, where they were routinely exposed to that language?

What if as a congregation, we developed religious literacy right from the start so that our children never remembered a time when they were not influenced or a part of our community of faith?

I listened to my interfaith colleagues share stories of how they welcomed and ministered to the youngest among them. I heard about the congregation who hired a nursery care provider to sit and interact with the toddlers in worship each Sunday, in a designated space in the front of the sanctuary, replete with quiet activities that were connected to the theme of the service. I heard story after story of what it has meant to have babies, toddlers, and small children not only in worship, but in small group ministry, fellowship, and learning as well.

I’ve been attending these interfaith gatherings for nearly a decade now. We have had so many similar challenges and goals in bringing our generations together more fully in congregational life. But this year, for the first time, I wept. I wept because ten years later, our interfaith colleagues had made marked progress where ours had been minimal at best. I wept because when I shared that our norm was to have our youngest in the nursery, while our school aged children were with us for 10-15 minutes of worship each week, our interfaith partners could not disguise their looks of absolute disbelief.

Our children will absorb and learn from their environment and experiences. My home has two generations of women who cannot remember a time when the Beatles did not provide the soundtrack of their lives. As we consider the future of faith formation, and the future of Unitarian Universalism, I pray that the next two generations will not be able to remember a time in their lives that did not include the music and words of our faith, the scent of flickering candles, the embrace of community, and the experience of being known and loved.

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Kimberly Sweeney serves the New England region of our UUA as the lead for Faith Formation and Safe Congregations. She is the author of The Death of Sunday School and the Future of Faith Formation. Kim and her daughters share a home with Lucy the Chihuahua, Eleanor Rigby the Siamese cat, and Finnegan the world’s most loyal dog whose name bears no Beatles related significance.

by AJ van Tine

From the Outreach Revolution Series: sign up to get shareable social media graphics, learning experiences, and join other UU outreachers like you.

The current social and political climate presents Unitarian Universalists with an opportunity, as well as a challenge. We are overwhelmed by the need to reach out to support those affected by recent racist, heterosexist, transphobic, and Islamophobic policies, and counter with our Unitarian Universalist message of radical love and beloved community. In times like these, how do we stay grounded in our core purposes for reaching out and not get swept up in the latest news cycle, as relevant as it may be. Why do Unitarian Universalists want to reach out?

One reason to reach out is to be loud about our values of love and justice – to evangelize. Evangelism isn’t about recruiting; it says that we have good news for the world, and that we should spread it! We have a truth to share because it may benefit others. Unitarian Universalism may not have a single creed that we want others to adopt, but we do have a message of hope. Our principles describe a vision of an equitable, peaceful, and justice-filled world. We can call this the “they need us” approach, although we know more accurately that they do not need you and me as individuals, but they need the message that we share.

On the other hand, there is a “we need them” approach. This is the seventh principle kind of “we need them.” More than the practical logic that we can accomplish more together than separately, it is the recognition that we have always been inherently interconnected to one another. When we try to achieve our vision of diverse and equitable community with only the people we already know, through networks and methods we are already familiar with, we fall short that very vision which calls us on. The act of outreach is not merely a means to the beloved community, but it is actively how we create it.

Of course, the truth is that these two approaches are not opposites. They are deeply intertwined aspects of outreach. I strongly believe Unitarian Universalism proclaims a saving message that our country is in dire need of today.  If we are to stay true to the content of this message and spread it far and wide, we have to be on guard against talking only to ourselves. Opening our hearts and doors to create vibrant relationships with new people and their communities is both the method and the message.

This isn’t easy. It requires being brave and putting ourselves out there and being vulnerable, and we always want to articulate our message as clearly and powerfully as possible. The good news is you are not left on your own! Here are some social media graphics you can use to spread the good word.

Why outreach? Because it is by building relationships and diverse community that we can transform ourselves and the world. If it is true that we should be the change we wish to see in the world, then our congregations can start the process by practicing radical hospitality within our walls and by preaching love outward into the larger society.

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AJ van Tine is a field education student completing an internship at the UUA. He is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist from Virginia with an aspiration for ministry, and in his second year at Harvard Divinity School. He lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife Ada, who is also a lifelong Unitarian Universalist.

From the Outreach Revolution Series: sign up to get shareable social media graphics, learning experiences, and join other UU outreachers like you.

Growth isn’t always about numbers and getting more people in the door, as has been the premise of this blog all along.  But there’s no denying that the act of growing Unitarian Universalism will always require us to focus outward while simultaneously nurturing capacity and spirit inward.  As more UUs ramp up the exercise of living their values in the political world, the Rev. Dr. James Kubal-Komoto shares the results of some studies that will train us for a marathon.

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Unitarian Universalists by the hundreds and perhaps by the thousands participated in the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., and in sister marches in cities across the United States to stand up for our shared values of compassion and justice for all people. I suspect this was the largest Unitarian Universalist public witness since the 1963 March on Washington. A weekend later, Unitarian Universalists across the country participated in demonstrations again at our nation’s airports.

Will this level of participation continue in the weeks, months, and years ahead, or will it fizzle? It may depend on three things:

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