Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Briarcliff, Croton, and Ossining

Does This Fellowship Have a Soul?

Given by James Covington on October 10th, 2004

Does your fellowship have a soul, and if so, how would you describe it?

“Yes. Every member of my family is better for our involvement.” “Yes, in its caring for others.” “If this congregation has a soul, I don’t see it or feel it.” “The church’s soul is not just in this building, but in the many members whose professional lives give witness to making the world a better place.”

“Yes, because there is a greater presence than self.” “Yes, in theory, but only about 10 percent of us wear our souls on the outside.”

“Yes, but it is a candidate for life support.” “No soul. Too structured.” “Yes, it is in the loving acceptance of one another.” “Well, I’d say it has a burned out soul.” “The soul of this congregation is that we value variety, and we eat well.”

“No, I don’t think a church can have one unless people do intense work together.”

“I think this church has ‘flashes of soul’ but we are terminally individualistic.”

“Yes, but it changes quickly, and needs to be created over and over.” –The Almost Church, Michael Durall

In a book I’ve been reading this week, The Almost Church, the author, Michael Durall speaks about congregations that have a soul. I was quite taken with that particular depiction and of course couldn’t help but wonder if we have a soul around this place.

I like the word soul. I assume we all understand the word as poetry for the impassioned human spirit. Soul is not some disembodied state. On the contrary, soul, to my mind, refers to “embodied” spirit. My man, Ray Charles surely embodied this spirit and expressed it passionately through his music. Often credited with being the creator of soul music, he said on one occasion: “Some people tell me I’d invented the sounds they called soul—but I can’t take any credit. Soul is just the way black folk sing when they leave themselves alone. . . . It’s the sort of music where you can’t fake the feeling.”

In soul work, we can’t fake it. We confront who we really are; it doesn’t matter how old we are, how much money we make, the extent of our fame, the house in which we live, the car in which we drive, or even the church which we attend. Alas, while so much of culture is connected with the production and accumulation of things, we neglect the soul—that center of the self that gives us our identity beyond all our roles in the economical, political, social world of busyness in which we live the great part of our lives.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about the Oversoul—God as directly experienced by the soul—to break his fellow liberal out of the strait-jacket of what he called “corpse-cold Unitarianism.” The soul, when it breaks through “intellect” is genius; when it breathes through our will, virtue; when it flows through our affections, love.”

So how do we think about the soul of our Fellowship? Do we have a soul? Or are we just faking it when come together here on Sunday mornings? Or on other occasions? Do we have passion about what we do here? Do we believe passionately in the UU principles as we read them on the back cover of the program each Sunday?

Now I understand that some people are fiercely reluctant to join any religious institution where beliefs are spelled out for them. There is too much risk of conformity involved. I understand that. Yet, I for one, am happy to affiliate myself with an institution, sign my name to its membership role and pledge my financial support, as long as it essentially represents what I consider to be my own personally evolved convictions and values. It enhances my personal identity by affording me an opportunity to take a public personal stand about my values in a community with others who think similarly.

So to my mind, my membership here is a highly personal decision. My membership says something about who I am and what I stand for and what I am committed to. I believe that what I do here and what we do together can make a difference in my personal life and in the world. I believe that what we stand for can change people’s lives in some fundamental way.

A Powell Davies, a senior minister at the All Souls Church in Washington D.C., after WWII once said it this way:

Do you belong to a religion that says humankind is not divided—except by ignorance and prejudice and hate; the religion that sees humankind as naturally one and waiting to be spiritually united; the religion that proclaims an end to all exclusions—and declares a brotherhood and sisterhood unbounded! The religion that knows we shall never find the fullness of the wonder and the glory of life until we are ready to share it, that we shall never have hearts big enough for the love of God until we have made them big enough for the worldwide love of one another.

As you have listened to me, have you though perchance that this is your religion? If so, do not congratulate yourself. Stop long enough to recollect the miseries of the world in which you live; the fearful cruelties, the enmities, the hate, the bitter prejudices, the need of such a world for such a faith. And if you can still say that this of which I have spoken is your faith, then ask yourself this question: What are you doing with it?

And there you have it! You see, that’s where soul comes in. It’s when you stop faking things and being in your beloved fellowship and the world truly according to your faith!

So what are we doing with our faith? Durall, in his book, tells us that according to his observations, we are not doing nearly enough. He writes: Most UU congregations serve educated, middle class, relatively affluent white people. Is this our only calling? I yearn for the day that our congregations will boldly reclaim a heritage of faithfulness and service. We must do this to survive as a religious movement.

I read all the time about how “church shoppers” are on self-identified religious pilgrimages. They are seeking an “authentic” community of faith. What does this mean, and how do we create such a congregation?

Well I believe there are three things that have to happen to become an authentic, soulful congregation:

1. What we do here has to deepen our spiritual life—whether it’s through worship, music, community circles, men’s and women’s groups, religious education, or other programs. We live in a consumerist society where our lives are measured by material possessions and corporate rank. This place should be a counter to that life-style and offer substantive alternatives to experiencing and shaping the soul. But I also believe as members, there should be an expectation that all of us are here because we are committed to spiritual growth. To that end we participate. Spiritual growth cannot be pursued solely independently, in my opinion. The kind of spiritual growth I am talking about requires interchange, engagement with others, participation. If we come here to become more whole human beings, then we must participate. The level of participation may vary according to need, but spiritual growth through membership requires active involvement.

2. I think a soulful congregation must become involved in creating a more just and humane world. As someone said, “the purpose of a religious institution is not to bring people into the building and “cage” them in programs. The major purpose of a congregation is to empower people to go out and make the world a better place in which to live. The spiritual life is not just an inward process of self-enlightenment. It is a commitment to a community of faith that participates in making a difference in the world. The poet Annie Dillard once said that when people come to church they should not be handed an order of service with a smile, but should be given hard hats and life preservers; because a religious community should be a dangerous place, a zone of risk, a place of new birth and new life, where we confront ourselves with who we truly are and who the religious community is calling us to become.

3. The third element of a soulful, authentic congregation is charitable giving. Michael Durall asserts unapologetically that we must confront head-on the disgraceful pattern of low-level giving. He points out that clergy and lay leaders of most UU congregations across the country report that the culture of money in their congregations is one of scarcity, even in affluent communities. These congregations do not have what is termed as a “strong charitable identity.” Charitable identities have to be worked on in each individual congregation. Some congregations are wealthier than others, but nonetheless, a much healthier, abundance minded attitude needs to be developed in soulful congregations. It needs to be understood that money is an instrument to accomplish much good in the world. Charitable giving is a core element of being people of faith. Durall strongly believes that members should be willing to tithe their income and the congregation should allocate 10 percent of the operating budget for outreach. Only by revisiting our attitudes about financial giving will we be able to renew the importance of charitable giving among people of all ages, as a core value of people of faith. This does not mean asking people for more money to pay the church’s bills. The challenge is to redefine the “good life,” as one that goes beyond acquiring ever more consumer goods and charitably giving for the common good.

Next weekend, we will assemble here on Friday evening and all day together on Saturday at the White Plains Community Church for congregational retreat. If you haven’t signed up to attend, you can still do so today. I urge to come if at all possible. During this time together, we will not only have an opportunity to spend a little more time together and have some fun time, we will also be focusing on our the mission of the Fellowship. Who are we? What is our purpose? How do we want to be together as a religious community? What are our expectations? What are our expectations for growth? Are we a congregation with a soul?

What is our mission? Is it to provide a unique spiritual orientation? Is it to be a kind of moral conscience to the community? Or is it to develop a qualitative religious community which can be a model for other congregations in the UU and wider world? Or might the mission of this congregation be articulators of human hope? In a time when we seem to be surrounded by problems, when movies and books like “the left behind” genre suggest an apocalyptic end of age, there ought to be at least one religious community on the block that expresses hope for the human venture on this earth.

These are some of the questions as you individually and corporately consider the vision and the mission of this congregation. You will be asked for you opinions about some of these matters. I urge you all to be truthful and honest and then be action-oriented. Decide to do the things and change the things and expect the things that you believe need to be done to be a congregation with soul.

There is a familiar hymn in the Black Church, “Standing on the Promises of Christ My Savior.” One black preacher jarred his listeners in a challenge to action by saying “most of you aren’t standing on the promises; you’re just sitting on the premises.”

Promises and premises. Are we keeping the promises or just sitting on the premises? What are the promises we make to one another?

The late rabbi, scholar and activist, Abraham Heschel once wrote that there are no adequate proofs of the existence of God; there are only witnesses. In that same vein, a French Communist once said to a Dominican theologian: “Don’t speak to me of Christianity. Just point out some Christians.” And so it is with us. We can talk all we want of vision and mission. That will help answer the questions, “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” But the real answer to those questions is lived out in how we are with one another, what we do in the world and what the meaning of this life is for us.

All of this will take time—time—and we are prone to be impatient. I have great sympathy for the minister who announced, “Today’s final hymn will be No. 238, ‘Take Time to Be Holy.’” Then he added, “in the interest of time, we’ll sing only the first and last verses.”

We’ll have to sing all the verses, and it will take more time than a single sermon or a single exercise. But for a starter, I believe that the mission of this congregation is to build toward a vision of the Beloved Community of Human Beings—in this sanctuary, in this congregation, in this community and beyond. Our mission, then, in the words of Mahatma Ghandi, is this: “We have to be what we want to see in the world.”