Comments on: Breaking out of UU Culture into what's NEXT

By: Election assessements and other General Assembly reactions « uuworld.org : The Interdependent Web

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:17:56 +0000

[...] succeeded David at Pathways) responded by inviting other UU innovators to help plan a summit about “what’s NEXT” for Unitarian Universalism (“Sunflower Chalice,” June [...]

By: revtony

revtony — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:02:29 +0000

What we need to offer is not just entertainment. I really encourage UU’s who are not familiar with the emergent church movement to learn about it. The Emergent Church movement was in large part a reaction against the mega church McReligion of the Evangelical Christian variety by people who literally grew up in that environment. They found, for all its bells and whistles it didn’t feed the soul and left too many people excluded. What they learned from growing up in that environment, however, was how to deeply engage their culture, so the Emergents know how to reach out to people who live in a post-modern, global media culture, but when they gather, make judicious use of multi-media elements and also are very care to cultivate spiritual community. Some groups go way outside the box, and things like Ikons Last Supper are not for everyone, but the same criticisms could be leveled at Flower Communion, for example.

There’s a lot of resources out there in how to do things. There just isn’t a UU perspective. Check out Creative Worship Tour http://www.creativeworshiptour.com/

or UU 2.0 http://uu2point0.wordpress.com/

By: Scott Gerard Prinster

Scott Gerard Prinster — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:45:58 +0000

This partly excites me and partly gives me pause. Creative responses to our smallness and complacency are always welcome, but it also seems to me that our nation is a culture already addicted to novelty for its own sake and constant stimulation. I see that the media’s response is just to capitulate to this and claim that they’re “giving people what they want,” but is that what the church is called to do? I’d like to hear how what we’re offering is not just one more piece of entertainment like the TV and film industries are producing.

And I share Marc’s impression of the “Last Supper” program. I’m definitely a fan of more small groups in our lives. But seriously, this doesn’t sound like anything innovative. The 18th century did them and called them “salons”, and we tried to recapture the salon model in the 90s, which was going to rebuild community. That lasted a few months, as far as I can tell, because looking for whatever’s next is often more exciting than working on what we already have.

By: Marc R. Loustau

Marc R. Loustau — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:36:26 +0000

I am a turned off by the description of the “Last Supper.” One of the important aspects of the Last Supper, for me, is the historical context of the event: Jesus was an outcast leader of a colonized people. He must have known that he was heading toward his arrest by the colonial authorities. He must have known that those colonial authorities would treat him as someone easy to kill and then easy to forget.

I find it difficult to think of the Last Supper as a “conversation on an important topic of the day,” a la the Last Supper you describe from Ikon. And I’m equally disgusted by the idea that if the conversation isn’t satisfying, it would be the leader’s “Last Supper.” Sure, it’s “wild.” But I think you mean by that, “it’s fun!” And making the Last Supper into a “fun” dinner party inappropriately makes light of the anguish and worry that surely surrounded Jesus’ friends as they gathered with him for the Last Supper.

And besides, I am always hesitant to put myself in the position of Jesus’ disciples. I have never been faithful enough to follow Jesus like that. And I am hardly in the position of being colonized by an expansive and brutal empire. If I am anyone in the passion story, I am a member of the crowd that later is complicit in sending him to his death.

I’m not against reinterpreting ritual for the present day. But let’s not trivialize it in the process.