Centering (5 minutes)

This is a time to make the transition from the busy world to the group experience. A member of the group may read these words from the twentieth-century Unitarian minister Von Ogden Vogt:

We are united in the efforts of faith:
Faith in the truth, in the growth of knowledge and of understanding;
Faith in love, in the labors and rewards of friendly living;
Faith in people, in the power of humanity to build an earthly commonwealth of freedom and peace,
Faith in life, the life of all things that is the life of God, whose service is perfect freedom, whose presence is fullness of joy.

Check-in (10 to 25 minutes)

Each person in the group has the opportunity to share something about his or her life. What significant events have taken place recently in your life? Have you accomplished something meaningful to you? Have you experienced any losses or setbacks? Have you had any insights or new ideas?

Group Discussion (45 to 70 minutes)

Our spiritual theme for this month is Faith. Does faith imply conscious assent to something contrary to reason or contrary to evidence? Or is faith reflected in how we live? What is the difference between faith and belief? Is faith something one receives all at once, or is it something that one develops over many years? Might faith be a willingness to put forth effort even when one is uncertain of the result? How do we sustain our faith when traumatic events take place?

For group discussion, please consider the questions associated with one or more of the following numbered sections. You need not address all of these sections, and you need not address them in this order.

1. In what parts of your life do you put forth effort even when you are uncertain of the result? Do you do this at home? At work? Through your participation in social justice work? Through your participation in humanitarian service? Can you think of your willingness to put forth effort even when you are uncertain of the result as faith?

2. D. H. Lawrence wrote, “I believe that one is converted when first one hears the low, vast murmur of life, of human life, troubling one’s hitherto unconscious self. I believe one is born first unto oneself – for the happy developing of oneself, while the world is a nursery, and the pretty things are to be snatched for, and the pleasant things tasted; some people seem to exist thus right to the end. But most are born again on entering maturity; then they are born to humanity, to a consciousness of all the laughing, and the never-ceasing murmur of pain and sorrow that comes from the terrible multitude of brothers [and sisters]. Then, it appears to me, one gradually formulates one’s religion, be it what it may. A person has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one’s religion is never complete and final, it seems, but must always be undergoing modification.”

Would you agree with Lawrence’s distinction between being born first to oneself, and then later being born again to humanity? Would you agree with Lawrence’s statement that one’s religion must always be undergoing modification?

3. Wilfred Cantwell Smith wrote, “Faith, then, is a quality of human living. At its best it has taken the form of serenity and courage and loyalty and service: a quiet confidence and joy which enable one to feel at home in the universe, and to find meaning in the world and in one’s own life, a meaning that is profound and ultimate, and is stable no matter what may happen to oneself at the level of immediate event.”

Wilfred Cantwell Smith distinguished sharply between belief and faith. For Smith, a belief is an affirmation that a particular proposition about the world is true. Faith, on the other hand, is “a quality of human living,” as described above. Using Smith’s distinction, would you say that “faith” is a term that can be used with integrity by Unitarian Universalists? Using Smith’s distinction once again, what would we mean by “faith development”?

4. If faith is “a quiet confidence and joy which enables one to feel at home in the universe, and to find meaning in the world and in one’s own life,” as Wilfred Cantwell Smith states, then what is the opposite of faith, or the absence of faith?

5. W. H. Murray wrote, “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Would you agree with this encouraging advice? Does it agree with your experience?

Have you had the experience of being fearful of a new situation – traveling to some unknown destination, for example, or starting a new job – but then finding that you could manage just fine once you actually entered that new situation?

Conclusion (5 to 10 minutes)

What will you take away from this discussion? What would have made this time together more meaningful or satisfying to you? What did you enjoy? A group member may share these words from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.