Celebrate!
Welcome to summer (at least for those of us in the
Northern Hemisphere). June is certainly a time to celebrate
– getting out school, for one thing! (Is there
an official Vacation Day?) More than that, it seems
that June is a time for being grateful: Jews celebrate
their gratitude for the Torah (the Hebrew Bible) on
Shavuot, pagans celebrate gratitude for the generosity
of the Earth at the Summer Solstice, and we all can
celebrate gratitude for our dads on Father’s Day!
Click on a link below to find out more about the holiday
and how you might celebrate it in your family.
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We Honor… |
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| our Unitarian Unversalist Principles and Purposes.
Usually in this space we honor some particular Unitarian
and/or Universalist who made a difference in the world.
But this month marks the 20th anniversary of when the
Unitarian Universalist Association officially adopted
our Principles and Purposes statement, which says what
we hold in common as UUs. You can read
the actual statement, but in language designed for
kids, here’s what they say:
- We believe that each and every person is important.
- We believe that all people should be treated fairly.
- We believe that our churches are places where all
people are accepted and where we keep on learning
together.
- We believe that each person must be free to search
for what is true and right in life.
- We believe that everyone should have a vote about
the things that concern them.
- We believe in working for a peaceful, fair and
free world.
- We believe in caring for our planet Earth.
Our first statement of principles and purposes was
created when the Unitarian Universalist Association
was formed, by combining the American Unitarian Association
and the Universalist Church of America. There was a
big fight about it at the time, and they barely managed
to reach an agreement by the deadline. However, in the
late 1970s some people began to talk about wanting to
change this original principles statement, because the
language was not inclusive of women. In 1981 various
UU women’s groups came up with a version which
was non-sexist, and again a big fight was ready to happen,
partly because UU Christians felt they were excluded
by the new language. But then Denise Davidoff, who was
president of the UU Women’s Federation (and who
later became moderator of the UUA), had a really good
idea. Instead of a fight and a vote, they decided to
ask everyone what they thought. All UU congregations
were invited to send in their ideas about what our principles
and purposes statement should say and how it should
be different. It took quite a long time to gather everyone’s
thoughts and shape them into just the right language,
but eventually they came up with the statement that
we have today, which almost everyone thought was just
right! The new statement was voted on at the General
Assembly in 1984, and finally affirmed at the next
year’s GA on June 21st, 1985.
Our principles and purposes statement is the only words
we have that say what we share as Unitarian Universalists,
but more than that, the way it was written says a lot
about what we believe—that each person should
have a voice, and that by listening and talking together
we can come up with more than we can on our own.
Want a fun version of the principles written all in
limericks? Click
here (PDF
file).
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Act!
Some people feel that relationships between two men
or two women are wrong, and against what the Bible says.
Most (although not all) Unitarian Universalists believe
that our principle that says that each and every person
is important tells us that we should respect the different
ways people live, and the different ways they fall in
love. June is Gay Pride month, so it’s a good
time to think about what you believe on this issue,
and to offer support to same-sex couples and families
with two moms or two dads. What can you do?
Talk about it. Have a conversation with your
family about what you believe and why. Do you hear people
saying bad things about homosexuals (people who fall
in love with someone of their own gender)? Do you think
relationships between two men or two women is OK, or
do you think it’s weird or wrong? Why?
Stand up. If you hear a friend, or someone
on the playground, calling another person a “fag”
or a “faggot,” that’s a mean name
for being gay. You can say, “I don’t like
it when you use language like that. It’s rude,
and I think you should stop.”
Make a sign. You can make a poster that states
a belief that all families are fine. Some ideas might
be “We are all family, and we all have value”
or “Hate is not a family value” or “Standing
on the Side of Love,” but something you think
up yourself is even better. You might want to decorate
your poster with rainbows or pink triangles, both symbols
of gay pride. You can put your poster in a front window
of your house or ask if it can go up at your school.
Or see if there is a gay pride parade near you and march
in it or watch as a supporter. (Parents, just be aware
that, like Carnaval, gay pride parades can include celebrations
of overt sexuality that may not be appropriate for children,
or may require extra preparation and conversation.) |
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Nurturing Your Spirit
One way to get in touch with your spirit is as simple
as putting one foot in front of the other. You can do
a walking meditation by walking slowly, breathing in
when you step forward on your left foot, and breathing
out when you step on your right. Or just take a walk,
giving all of your attention to what you are experiencing
at that very moment, from the air on your face to the
feel of the ground under your feet.
One special kind of walking meditation is done with
a kind of maze, called a labyrinth. As you walk the
winding way into the center of the labyrinth you can
envision walking into the center of yourself. See
what a labyrinth looks like, to find if there is one
near you, or to go on a virtual labyrinth walk online. |
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Practicing the Principles
Our first principle as Unitarian Universalists is to
affirm “The inherent worth and dignity of every
person.” Or, in simpler words, we agree that each
and every person is important.
The practice:
For younger kids — Get a roll of butcher
paper and cut off a piece large enough that you can
lie down on it. Have someone trace the outline of your
whole body. You can also do this outside on pavement,
drawing in chalk. Inside the outline, write or draw
things that you think make you special—talents
or interests or personality traits. If more than one
person is participating, each person can write or draw
outside the outline things about the person pictured
that they think are special.
For older kids — Get
the lyrics to the song “Would You Harbor Me?”
by Ysaye Maria Barnwell of the singing group Sweet Honey
in the Rock. The song asks about “harboring”
various kinds of people. Who would you harbor—help,
or have as a friend, or welcome into your home—and
who would you rather not? Think about groups or cliques
there might be at your school. What assumptions do you
think that people in one group make about people in
another group? |
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