Glistening Gauzy Threads: Pluralism –> Renewal

I just can’t help it, y’all: For me, summer starts on June 1. So on this last day of
May, I see us teeter-tottering on the threshold between the seasons. In a moment,
with just one more push up from the ground, we will tilt up and slide over from
spring to summer. Our daily lives may not shift dramatically, but our bodies sense
a change in rhythm. My body thrums with all the old associations: more freedom,
more water, more play, more time to see friends, to read what I want, maybe even
to have an adventure!

Part of the adventure this summer is the way our themes are linked together. Is it
only us ministers and religious educators who would call this an “adventure”? I can
practically see the glistening gauzy threads, like a spider’s weaving, connecting
May’s theme of Pluralism to June’s theme of Renewal. There’s such a lure to use
this time to dive deeper into our faith.

My colleague Constance Goodbread recently published a great summary of this
faith of ours. Here’s what she said, with a few notes of my own:
“Unitarian Universalism is a path with practices/disciplines.” We have a shared
ethic about how we want to live out our faith, even though we don’t hold the exact
same religious beliefs. When we move onto this path, we get to take up these
practices.

“The first is Covenant. A values-based sacred promise we make to ourselves and
one another. Covenant helps us understand how we will be together. What we can
expect from one another and what we hold ourselves accountable to.” Covenant
gives us a structure within which we can relish our differences, where we can agree
and disagree without harming each other or breaking down the very fabric of our
community.

“The second discipline is pluralism. The reality that many things are true at the
same time. That each of us brings a unique experience and perspective to our
community. And we are made richer by being bound to one another in Covenant
and sharing deeply our experiences and understanding of reality.

“If we practice Covenant and pluralism we will, as individuals”—and as a
community!— “be transformed. Unitarian Universalism is a living tradition.
Revelation is not sealed. The holy is alive and evolving. It is inside of us and larger
than us.”
“Individuals [and communities] who have been transformed, transform the
world.…
“Covenantal not creedal.
Pluralistic not fundamentalist.
Transformational—living, evolving, becoming—change is the way of this path.”

This is what excites me: We have signed on to a way of being that asks us
constantly to stretch, to grow our hearts, minds, and spirits larger than they were a
few years, a few weeks, a few days ago. To grow bigger, clearer, more inclusive,
more compassionate, less fearful and closed. It is inspiring, it is energizing, to be in
a community of people who are all growing!

Welcome, then, to this season of spaciousness where we can, privately and
communally, renew our commitment to this path of transformation, enlivened by
our Pluralism and gently contained by our Covenant. Welcome, Spirit of Summer!

~Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones