Each month, a member of the board shares a reflection on the Soul Matters monthly theme. The theme for May is Pluralism. This month’s post is offered by Jeff Adrian.
Throughout most of my life, until the ripe age of 74, I had not found myself attracted to religion or any faith system. It wasn’t for lack of any exposure. For short periods of time in my journey I explored a Presbyterian church as a youth, and later, in the 1980s, celebrated my marriage in an Episcopal church. In the early 2010s at the invitation of a friend, I attended the Wooddale Church (evangelical Baptist) in Eden Prairie. Try as I might, none of these traditional, organized versions of religion had a connection with me.
I came to the conclusion that I just was not a religious person, or at least not a candidate desiring participation in a traditional church focused on all the stuff I had encountered in church as a youth.
That was until a Saturday in June of 2018. That day at UUCM, I attended a celebration of life service for a fellow Miata Club member. My curiosity was triggered. What was this place about? I decided to come back the next day, Sunday, and find out.
Right away, this turned out to be a great experience. It felt friendly, open, and welcoming. One member I conversed with said, “This is a thinking person’s church.” This, I wanted to hear more about! The rest for me is history, and so I have been attending as friend, member and trustee ever since.
As I learned more about the Unitarian Universalist community, through reading and attending membership classes, I came away with the sense that I had found my spiritual home. UUCM was unlike any previous church, not so much focused on biblical times, rather on the present and how we live in our community, and treat our neighbors with respect, compassion and willingness to listen to those who may have a different life experience.
A key part of that ethic is embedded in the fact that UUCM embraces pluralism. Our pluralism accepts all others, no matter their religious and cultural identities, and does so without judgment. Whenever I share my spiritual belief with others, not familiar with Unitarian Universalism, I always highlight this concept with them.
Mick Cooper, an author, trainer, and consultant in the field of humanistic, existential, and pluralistic therapies says this so well.
“Pluralism isn’t easy. It’s a constant willingness to self-challenge and to look at where we might be wrong, or limited; even with regard to pluralism itself. It requires a capacity to detach ourselves from our agendas, our beliefs, our commitments, and to recognize that there may be other ways. And it also requires us to recognize that we can never wholly achieve that: that we will always have things that we want and that there’s always the possibility of taking a step further back.:”
— Jeff Adrian, UUCM Board of Trustees
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