Comments on: It’s God’s World, I Just Work Here

By: Wally Nut

Wally Nut — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:04:06 +0000

O.K. I’m coming in late here with a comment, so I’ll just give you a link to my own blog where I share a little about this topic.

By: LaReinaCobre

LaReinaCobre — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:38:02 +0000

Philocrites and mysticseeker,
Definitely helpful thoughts … thanks for sharing!

By: Mystical Seeker

Mystical Seeker — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:11:18 +0000

The word “worship” always struck me as a strange word in UU churches, left over from a time in the past when most UUs actually believed that there was a transcendant infinite personal reality to worship. It’s kind of like talking about “dialing” the phone, even when phones don’t have dials anymore. The term has no literal meaning anymore; it is just a word.

By: Philocrites

Philocrites — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:58:37 +0000

I think I’d describe what I’m doing in church as listening or paying attention. I started out attending a clearly humanist Unitarian church, and loved the emotional and psychological quality of attending the services because it drew me into a much more retrospective or receptive place than my college classes. (I was in college then.) And I remember the morning when I thought, midway through the minister’s spoken “meditation,” “Hey! This is prayer!”

What I found was that the quality of listening the service was encouraging was opening a door to the transcendent, and that I could pay attention through that open door if I was willing to.

I actually have the same experience in Christian worship settings. Whether I’m in a worshipful UU service or in an Episcopal service with my wife, I would describe the common activity as paying attention. Maybe soul-attention or “deep attention.”

By: PeaceBang

PeaceBang — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:37:03 +0000

And sometimes both.
Glad this is generating good reflection, Hafhida. I hope you find your way back to church soon.
I often think that worship is a thing best done and not reflected overly much on. Only in that what brings us together is often largely intuitive.
In my church’s original covenant, it speaks of welcoming those “whose hearts God hath inclined to join with us for the good of their Souls.” Which may be another way of saying, “It’s a mystery that draws us together, but we know that it’s good for our souls.”

By: LaReinaCobre

LaReinaCobre — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:27:47 +0000

A lot of these posts on this subject really have made me think about why I am in church on Sundays. I am questioning whether “worship” is the appropriate word for what I do when I’m there on Sundays. I don’t think I’ve ever worshipped in a church with several hundred other people, if worship is defined as recognizing some higher power or having reverence for all those things that are greater than my individual spirit and understanding.

And it is likely no coincedence that I haven’t attended church service in nearly two months now.

One can be righteous, inspired by a belief in God, and one can be righteous, inspired by a belief in the holiness of people.

By: PeaceBang

PeaceBang — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:21:43 +0000

Right. Which to most of the world, means paying reverence to some transcendent reality, doesn’t it?
So I still wonder what those who have no sense of transcendent reality are doing in that time. My guess, as I’m suggesting here, is that many of them/us assign a transcendent quality to human potential, or perhaps to human Love, and that they pay reverence to that.

Lizard Eater has some good reflections on it. I will post the links.

By: SC Universalist

SC Universalist — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:50:31 +0000

I think we’re back to language again. In this case, it’s the word “worship”….

By: PeaceBang

PeaceBang — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:12:17 +0000

Jay, your comment was most helpful in that you used the word “feed.” I think I understand how “feeding” and “worshiping” could be used almost synonymously.

I’m not questioning the belonging of non-theists. I am actually, literally asking what non-theists are DOING in worship, as in, what is their interior process? Not, “hey, what you are doing here?”(insinuating that they shouldn’t be here) but what are you actually DOING as a worshiper? What is going on inside you? That’s what I meant to say. Sorry it wasn’t clear.
Chalice Chick, who doesn’t believe in a creator God, says that she thinks that some folks may be worshiping human potential (do I get you, CC?). That’s what I really wanted to know. I wanted to know if that, in fact, is what’s going on for some UUs.

I have never doubted that people of all theological stripes need community. It is my #1 reason for being a constant evangelist for UUism, and my reason for shamelessly promoting church to my non-theist friends and acquaintances.

By: Jay

Jay — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 20:15:36 +0000

Nontheists need community, too, PB! And if we just think about the terms broadly enough, nontheists like me are on our own “faith” journeys, anyway. We go to church to nourish that.

I like much of what Chalicechick, Brett, and Jamie wrote, too. In essence, many of us “do” church to find the transcendent–even if we don’t think we’re connecting with God. We’re trying to connect with whatever larger (societal, cultural, theoretical, etc.) forces motivate us. A beautiful liturgy, a few well-directed words, etc., can sure help accomplish that.

Don’t forget to feed the non-theists! After all, they helped sustain UUism for much of the last century.