A Congregation For What Matters
The Rev. Joshua Mason Pawelek
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation
April 9th, 2006

I begin with a deep and heartfelt “congratulations!” I read your newsletter and I stay in touch with Rev. Patierno. I know what you’ve been going through in terms of your search for a larger physical space. I know all about your capital campaign and how well it is going. I hope it is meaningful to you when I, as a minister from another UU congregation in the region, say “congratulations, you’re doing great!” When you’re in the middle of the frenzy and stress that come with finding a property, raising the money, signing all the papers, working with the architect, it’s sometimes hard to maintain perspective. When you’re a leader in such an effort, you get caught up in the excitement and the drama associated with a buying and renovating the property. With every little step forward, your mood swings toward elation. With every little step backward—and there’ve been a few of those along the way—your mood swings toward worry and concern. You can’t always tell whether you’re doing well. Let me assure you, from my perspective, things are going very well here at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation of New London. Congratulations!

Our congregation and your congregation are in similar places right now. You’re bursting at the seams and need a way to expand your space. We’re bursting at the seams and need a way to expand our space. You’re in the midst of a capital campaign. We’re planning for campaign to take place a year from now. You’re in the midst of what experts in the field of “congregational studies” call the transition from pastoral church to program church. We’re in the midst of the same transition. Both congregations participated in a series of workshops with Alice Mann, one of the national gurus of mid-size church transitions. So not only are we in the same place in terms of our congregational growth, but we’ve actually been doing this together. We’re not in this alone.

In the midst of all the hustle and the hub-bub associated with buildings—in the midst of managing it well—we sometimes lose sight of why we’re doing it. We lose sight of why we’re growing, and why growth matters. We even mis-name what is actually going on. In my congregation we’ve gotten in the habit of naming this time of growth and change the building expansion. This is understandable. There is much to say about the physical expansion of our building, just as there is much to say about your acquisition of the Jay Street property. Expansion will be complicated. It will be expensive. When it is done it will be beautiful. It will be accessible. It will be green. And once we break ground, it will be very, very dusty for a while. But I’m talking about the building expansion and, in a sense, I’m mis-naming what is really going on. I’m talking about the ‘what’ and leaving out the ‘why.’ If you were visiting my congregation for the first time and you knew nothing about Unitarian Universalism and I started talking about building expansion, your very logical question would be, “why?” “Why is expansion necessary? Those of us in the thick of the project often forget to talk about the ‘why’.

We must take our buildings seriously. But let us not forget: this time of growth and change is about much more than buildings. Ultimately, we’re not talking about buildings. Buildings are material, bricks and mortar, transient. Let us not confuse the building with the congregation. The congregation imagines the building, owns the building, invests in the building, maintains the building, uses the building. But the congregation is not the building. Congregations lose their buildings from time to time. Think of all the images you’ve seen of abandoned or destroyed church structures on the gulf coast. Think of the images you may have seen in the pages of the UU World magazine of storm-battered Unitarian Universalist congregations in New Orleans These congregations lost the use of their buildings. They are still congregations.

We feel the intense need to expand our physical spaces not because a time of growth and change is upon our buildings; rather, it is upon our congregations—upon the people, upon you and me, upon our covenant with each other, upon our collective spirit. If in Manchester we find we can’t expand our building, for whatever reason, that time of growth and change is still upon us. We still must grow, we still must respond.

Respond to what? What is this time of growth and change that is upon us? Let me draw your attention to Dover, PA where, in November, citizens voted out all eight members of the local school board who were trying to introduce religion into the biology curriculum. At the same time the state Board of Education in Kansas voted to open the way for teaching the supernatural in public schools by deleting from the definition of science the words: “a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena.”* The educational outcomes in Dover, PA and Kansas represent two sides in a so-called clash of civilizations, cultures and religious values. Unitarian Universalists are familiar with this clash. It manifests in many different ways. Intelligent design was in the news last November, but I could’ve started with reproductive rights which have recently become non-existent in South Dakota. I could’ve started with immigration reform or health care—both have been in the news this past week. I could’ve started with marriage equality, or the death penalty, or torture, or the war in Iraq, or the war on terror, or separation of church and state, or the gutting of federal social programs, or Israel and Palestine, or global warming. We live in the midst of a clash of civilizations. There is a predictable lining up, a marshalling of forces, a polarizing of the electorate, of economic classes, of nations, races, and religions.

Back in October Bill Baird addressed our congregation. He is the Baird in the Supreme Court case known as Baird v. Eisenstadt, which made birth control legal in the United States outside of marriage and established some of the precedents upon which Roe v. Wade was decided. He was also the Baird in Baird v. Belotti I and Baird v. Belotti II, the Supreme Court cases that helped expand full reproductive rights to minors in the late 1970s. Bill Baird stood in our pulpit and said, “Friends, we are in a holy war.” Part of me shies away from such language. Holy war? Isn’t that somewhat overstated? Another part of me says absolutely not. It was happening long before the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, but somehow that event broke this holy war wide open on many fronts. And if it isn’t a holy war, then in the very least we must recognize that powerful people, not only in the United States, but throughout the world, are manipulating religious traditions, language, and culture to fan flames of fear, hatred, and violence—to make people believe there is a holy war where one hadn’t existed before—to construct a holy war for personal gain at the expense of everyone else. So call it a holy war, or call it an international class war. Call it a war of the imagined values of tradition against the imagined vices of modernity. Call it a war of fundamentalists against pluralists. Call it a war against the earth. All these clashes interrelate with one another. More and more, we feel drawn into a massive conflict. We feel polarized. We feel confused, anxious, sad, angry, and fearful.
What if I said to you, “this time of growth and change that is upon us calls us to enter into this holy war, to struggle against religious fundamentalism; against so-called traditional values which are always code for racial apartheid, sexism, and homophobia; against the destruction of the earth?” What if I said to you we need to assert ourselves in this holy war, rise up, stand tall, be that beacon of liberal religious values, respect for religious pluralism, religious freedom, and a deep commitment to the founders’ vision of the separation of church and state?” Is engaging in holy war a sufficient answer to the question, “why grow Unitarian Universalist congregations?” Sufficient, perhaps; possibly even compelling for some, and it has indeed led to growth in our congregations. But it has not led to change. When we agree to engage in holy war—and we are quite capable of such engagement—the great clash of cultures remains unchanged. And worse, it defines who we are. In entering into it, we remain unchanged, and our growth is limited.

For me, the idea of a holy war has become a path of bondage. It requires me to engage on someone else’s terms, on someone else’s battlefield, with someone else’s interpretation of scripture, in someone else’s place, in someone else’s time. To follow the path of holy war is to mis-use religion, to manipulate religion, to warp and even destroy religion. To follow the path of holy war is to sever the ties that bind, rather than connect them.

The temptation to take sides in holy war is intense, and engagement is easy. It is easy to articulate what we feel is wrong with the other side. We do it all the time, blurring the line between our liberal religious values and liberal political doctrine. It is time for wandering in the wilderness, through the thick underbrush so tight even the sharpest blade can barely cut a path; or through dry, barren dessert where nothing grows on the sand-caked surface. It is my prayer that our wandering will teach us that we must do better than take sides in holy war. Imagine a liberal religious response that actually rises above holy war. Imagine a Unitarian Universalist response that understands the nature of holy war, knows where we traditionally stand in the midst of holy war, but somehow eclipses holy war, transforms holy war, refuses to equate holy war with destiny. Imagine a liberal religious response that refuses to demonize, refuses to instill fear and hatred, condemns violence.

When I say a time of growth and change is upon our congregations, my deepest instincts lead me to reclaim and proclaim what I believe is the true purpose of liberal religion: liberation. Liberal religion, at its best, liberates people from personal spiritual brokenness and collective, social injustice. I don’t care to engage in holy war with religious fundamentalists. I care to engage in acts of liberation—personal spiritual liberation for myself and my congregation always intimately connected to social, economic, and political liberation for those who suffer injustice. Liberation is the answer to the question, why grow Unitarian Universalist congregations!

When I read your mission statement that All Souls is a "liberal religious congregation that nurtures life-long spiritual development”, I draw from that the impression this is a congregation whose members seek for themselves and each other liberation from spiritual drift, from brokenness, from pain and suffering, from overbearing doctrine and dogma, from fear, from materialism, from addiction, from ignorance, from busyness, from apathy and boredom. When I read in your mission that All Souls "covenants to create a welcoming, caring, justice-seeking community within and beyond these walls", I draw from that the impression that this is a congregation committed to participating in acts of liberation in the wider world: liberation from racism, sexism, and homophobia; liberation from poverty, homelessness, hunger, and violence; liberation from abuses of power designed to privilege the few at the expense of the many; liberation of the earth from all human practices that slowly destroy it. Engaging in holy war is a distraction from our true calling. Engaging in holy war leads us down a path that ultimately binds our hands and feet and hearts and minds. Being at war with our fellow human beings in any way does not and should not matter. Liberation matters. A holy war congregation does not matter. A liberation congregation matters. Whether I am conservative or liberal in my religious views doesn’t matter. Whether I stand for liberation matters. Whether I am conservative or liberal in my political views doesn’t matter. Whether I stand for liberation matters.

It is my prayer that those who hear my words, no matter where they locate themselves in relation to holy war, do not perceive me as a radical or, worse, as a heretic. Religious liberals have often presented themselves as radicals and heretics, people who buck the trends, who disagree with the established doctrines; lone rangers, mavericks, individualists, free thinkers, people who choose—which is the root meaning of heretic. I have come to believe that claiming the ‘radical’ or the ‘heretic’ badge of honor is a profound weakness in our efforts to proclaim a liberating message. Claiming this badge of honor isolates us, marginalizes us, and keeps us small. There is nothing radical about trusting in democracy and wanting it to be more reliable for more people. There is nothing heretical about embracing religious pluralism and theological diversity. There is nothing radical about supporting the separation of church and state. There is nothing heretical about opposing theocracy. There is nothing radical about spiritual questioning and searching. There is nothing heretical about working for peace. There is nothing radical about struggling for justice. There is nothing heretical about following and trusting one’s heart. There is nothing radical about believing in the inherent worth and dignity of people. There is nothing heretical about believing in the interdependent web of all existence. There is nothing radical in the effort to truly welcome all people as they are. There is nothing heretical about a congregation that stands, simply, for liberation. Nothing.

When we talk about building expansion and renovation, strategic plans and capital campaigns, always bear in mind, there is far more at stake than the cost of bricks and mortar. When we talk about these things, we are not ultimately talking about our buildings. We are talking about liberation! We are talking about the things that matter. There is a time of growth and change upon us. May we choose the path out of bondage. May we wander well in the wilderness of our lives. May we rise above holy war and learn to engage in acts of liberation, say prayers of liberation, sing songs of liberation, dance dances of liberation, live lives of liberation. And may this always be a congregation for what matters.

Amen and Blessed Be.

* Will, George F., “Conservatism’s Wrong Turn", printed in The Hartford Courant, Other Opinion section, Thursday, November 17, 2005, p. A17.

Sermon ©The Rev. Joshua Mason Pawelek

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