The Victoria Unitarian

February 2010

Transitional Reflections Reverend Don Vaughn-Foerster

There have been some requests to set down the four stages I itemized in my January 3 sermon that need to be accomplished for the full development of our liberal religion. Here they are in abbreviated form but the sermon itself, Four Stages of Unitarian Universalism, is on the website if you want to read the fuller exposition.

The first stage relates to first year Unitarian Universalists – those who have just recently found this religious approach and the assumptions and baggage they bring with them, i.e. the “come-outers” and the “newly-religious.” The “come-outers” sometimes still carry a lot of old emotional baggage and can be more disbelievers in the religion they "came out of” than confirmed believers in UUism. For the “newly-religious,” it is more a problem of figuring out just how, without compromising themselves, to be organized with other people on something so personal and profound as religion. If, during the first year or so, the “come-outers” don’t identify more with the positive potentials of UUism or the “newly-religious” don’t connect with the values and ideals of UUism, both groups are likely to be gone by the second or third year. 

The second stage inquires more deeply into the positive character of UUism itself – studying, sorting, and affirming among the many theisms and humanisms, worship and celebrational practices, ethical and social perspectives that this approach to religion contains. At this stage we delve into the dynamics of how reason, freedom, and toleration fit together and our religious identity as Unitarians becomes more apparent and appropriate to us. We move beyond being novices to become bona fide initiates.

The third stage widens our field of understanding considerably. Now come efforts to understand religion itself in a more comprehensive way. Here we can compare UUism with other religious approaches and study those approaches for their own merit. It even becomes possible to objectively examine the religion from which we may have come and to see its positive aspects. New and different ideas are examined and, perhaps, incorporated into our world views as we realize that these other approaches may be appropriate for those who need them. With this wider knowledge comes healthier humility. 

The fourth stage is where it all comes together – or should. This is where we have so internalized UU ideas and practices that our task is to implement them – not just inquire into them, but do them! We want the religious seed we have planted to grow, to bloom, and to produce fruit. Some of us want our beliefs to bear ethical fruit, some of us want to deepen our understanding of religious philosophies, some of us want to deepen our sense of mystery and spirituality – all of us want our religion to be a resource and a comfort in the face of life’s tragedies – i.e. the death, suffering, and injustices that inevitably catch us up in their clutches. In stage four we deepen and expand the beliefs and attitudes that are most natural and persuasive to us.

All this boils down into stages that may overlap for many of us, that is, we may be doing one or more of them at the same time. But however we implement the process, at the end we will find that 1) we have become believers in, and sincere affirmers of, where we are and not just disbelievers in where we come from or too comfortable to examine life seriously; 2) we have clearly identified ourselves as part of the Unitarian Universalist heritage; and 3) we have affirmed the overall value of religion and become more tolerant toward other religious approaches; and we have become secure enough to practise our own religion fully and liberally!