Are You New?

I went to a Unitarian Universalist service this morning, it was my first.  I have been meaning to go to a service for a few months now but I guess my usual Sunday morning services of This Week and Meet the Press keep my home on Sunday mornings but today I decided to go.  The congregation was small but extremely inviting.  Right away people approached me and asked me if it were my first service.  I was introduced to just about everyone there.  They asked why and how I got here.  When I explained that I have a friend who is a Unitarian minister in New Orleans and she suggested I try this, everyone was impressed and excited.  The service was interesting.  There was a guest minister, she talked about the world’s religions and how they each have a unique answer to our lives questions:

• Why am here?
• What does this life mean?
• What happens to me when I die?

She discussed the different gender roles of God.  Sometimes we can refer to God as mother, when we need to feel nurtured and sometimes Father when we need to feel like God has directed for us all but God can all be neither, God can be everything and nothing because we don’t actually know God, we just believe.  There were some songs, one song we sung was a Cat Stevens song.  She even read a passage from Islam.

The reason I finally went was an NPR program I listened to last week.  It was about a Pew Research Survey on how much Americans really know about religion.  Well not surprisingly, we are a religious nation that knows very little about religion, both others and our own.  One caller told his family’s story, how is father was studying in a Franciscan Seminary to become a Catholic Priest and left and became a Sufi Muslim, his mother a former Orthodox Jew who became a Unitarian.  He said he really benefited from the Sunday School education he received as a child at her Unitarian Church, he ate Seder dinner at Passover one week and studied about Hinduism the next.  He felt it gave him a solid foundation and understanding of the world’s religions but also his own family’s history.  It clicked with me.  I wanted to find out more before, since the Roman Catholic Church has abandoned me.  I needed a place to worship that allowed me to be the person I am: committed to Social Justice and tolerant and accepting of all people as equals.  Knowing that one day, I might live in an interfaith household I want to find a way that I can allow my spouse and children to be Muslims while sharing my own faith with my children.  I believe this might be a beautiful way to allow my children to be brought up with a certain faith while still learning about others and in turn about me.

I think I will go back.  It was nice to be welcomed into a community, there were no sermons about the evils of Gay Marriage or abortion, just about love and tolerance.  While I love the foundation Catholicism has provided me, especially in my commitment to Social Justice (Catholics really get involved in some righteous issues), I am eager to be a part of a community that allows me to be me.

Finally, I wanted to share with you my favorite prayer, The Prayer of St. Francis, its also a beautiful hymn.  It encapsulates the way I feel about my own faith.