Membership Pitfall: Practices Out of Line with UU Principles
January 1, 2002
Adapted from Belonging: the Meaning of Membership, a report issued in June 2001 by the Unitarian Universalist Association's (UUA's) Commission on Appraisal on membership issues in our congregations:
Ultimately it is in the congregations that our vision comes to life, or does not. No matter what is stated in the UUA's Principles and Purposes and our bylaws, our congregations are at liberty—with very little limitation—to define the nature of religious life and expression. Though many people are attracted to us because of our public expressions of religious tolerance, opposition to oppression, and inclusion of diverse populations, what they find in practice does not always match the principles we espouse.
The Commission's conversations with people who self-identify as Unitarian Universalist (UU), but feel left out of their local congregations, lead to the inescapable conclusion that exclusion is indeed a problem. One respondent said, "I cannot tell you how appalled I was when visiting a Unitarian Universalist church, one of the very few persons of color in the congregation was introduced to me as "our token black."
The Commission was told about opposition to incorporating neo-pagan and earth-centered rituals, ignoring of visitors week after week, criticism and disapproval of sermons or worship services presenting theologies other than those shared by the preponderance of members, financial policies that imply an assumption of middle-or-upper-class status, assumptions that people of different classes, cultural groups, or ethnic backgrounds would not be attracted by the UU principles.
Copies of the report and an Adult Study and Process Guide were mailed to each congregation. Additional copies of the report are free online.
For more information contact interconnections @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
