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Do UUs celebrate Christmas? Yes, they do.

By Holley Ulbrich

Friday, November 30, 2007

Unitarian Universalists often are asked at this time of year whether we celebrate Christmas —which we do. The next question is always, “Why?”

The answer is found in the origins of both Unitarianism and Universalism, the two faith traditions that merged in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association. Both trace their theological roots to early Christianity and their historical roots to the radical wing of the 16th century reformation, especially in Poland, Transylvania (part of modern Romania) and England.

In the United States, Unitarianism emerged from the liberal wing of Christianity as a separate faith tradition, not only in the northeast but also in the South. The Unitarian church in Charleston was the mother church for many other southern congregations before the Civil War. Universalism also was well represented in the rural South. Scattered small congregations still struggle to survive in places such as Newberry, S.C., and Canon, Ga.

Early Unitarians believed in the unity of God and rejected the trinity, while Universalists believed in universal salvation that did not require accepting Jesus as the only savior. Today’s Unitarian Universalists are invited to undertake a personal and shared search for truth and meaning wherever it might be found, including but not limited to Christianity.

While most Unitarian Universalists do not believe in the divinity, or at least the unique divinity, of Jesus as the Christ, he is still important to our faith tradition. We believe that he was a prophet, like Buddha, Mohammed and other great religious teachers. Muslims share that view of Jesus.

Unitarian Universalists like to claim that they practice the religion of Jesus rather than a religion about Jesus. We count Christianity as one source of our faith, along with Judaism and other world religions, earth-centered spirituality, the teachings of humanism, the words and deeds of prophetic women and men, and the direct experience of mystery and wonder. So we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, because he informs our faith understanding as a person who lived in the presence of the holy, who taught by word and example how to overcome oppression without violence, and who showed and taught how to build and sustain a beloved and inclusive community.

Christmas offers Unitarian Universalists an opportunity to celebrate with customs and meanings derived from many faith traditions. No one knows the actual date of the birth of Jesus, but the time just after the winter solstice was originally chosen to coincide with pagan celebrations of the return of the sun and, with it, the promise of renewal of the days of warmth and light that follow. Earth-centered traditions such as Wicca and American Indian spirituality also honor the solstice, as does the Hindu festival of light and in some respects, the minor Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Of the three Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity, the one Unitarian Universalists primarily celebrate at Christmas is hope — not only hope for the return of warmth and light, but the hope that is embodied in each new birth as a promise of what is to come.

Like many Christians, Unitarian Universalists celebrate this holiday with trees (a northern European pagan custom), gift-giving (part of the Roman Saturnalia celebrating the winter solstice, as well as many other pre-Christian traditions), food and gatherings of friends and family, and of course, worship services. We always sing that well-known Christmas carol, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” written by a 19th century Unitarian minister. Along with the birth of Jesus, this hymn celebrates the focus on social justice and creating the kingdom of God on earth, which are central to Unitarian Universalism.

(We are less likely to include “Jingle Bells” in our worship services, even though that song was written by a minister of music at the Savannah Unitarian Church who was feeling homesick for his native Massachusetts.)

Christmas is a holiday that belongs to all who recognize Jesus as a significant figure in human history and a source of inspiration in their personal lives. As 16th century Unitarian minister Francis David of Transylvania said, “We need not think alike to love alike.” It is also true that we need not find the exact same meaning in the Christmas story in order to join in the celebration.

Holley Hewitt Ulbrich is Alumni Professor of Economics Emerita at Clemson University and earned a Master of Theological Studies from Emory University. She was raised in the Congregational Church (now United Church of Christ) in New England and became a Unitarian Universalist in 1990.

The Text Reference by Rev Joan Sunday Oct 28 in her sermon:

Reading

I would say to your generation what i said to mine.

The church that is to lead the new millennium will not be a church creeping on all fours; mewling and whining, its face turned down, its eyes turned back.

It must be full of the adventurous spirit of the day, but keeping also the good of times past.
The church that did for the fifth century, or the fifteenth, or even the nineteenth century, will not do for the church of the new millennium. The church of the new millennium must have the smell of your own ground, and grow out of the religion of your own soul.

Let us have a church that dares imitate the heroism of jesus; seek inspiration as he sought it; judge the past as he; act on the present like him; pray as he prayed; work as he wrought; live as he lived.

Let us have a church for the whole person – truth for the mind, good works for the hands, love for the heart and for the soul – that embraces the aspiring after perfection, the unfaltering faith in god which, like lightning in the clouds, shines brightest when elsewhere it is most dark.

Let our church for the new millennium fit the human soul as the heavens fit the earth.

Parker by Fewkes
The Transient and Permanent pp 50-51

A Prayer from the Fires of California

This prayer was written on October 24, 2007, by Rev. John Gibb Millspaugh, minister of Tapestry, a Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation in Mission Viejo, California, and Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh, Adult Programs Director for the Unitarian Universalist Association. The Santiago fire, which had burned almost 20,000 acres that night, came within four miles of the Tapestry congregation's building and rained ash upon it. Several families in the congregation (and Rev. John Millspaugh's parents) were evacuated from their homes; many more families opened their homes to the evacuated.
Source: Original

Meditations & Prayers

John and Sarah Gibb Millspaugh

Also appropriate as
In These Days of Fire

Let us pause, and breathe, and be in touch with the sacred presence that permeates all, including this room, now.
Web of All...of life, death, and renewal:
We open our hearts to those who suffer as a result of the California wildfires.
We have seen–on our televisions, in our newspapers, outside our windows–
the pillars of smoke rising by day,
the flames–tall as buildings–illuminating the sky at night.
Landscapes once familiar have turned alien.
The sun has turned red as blood, the earth and the plants turned black,
the air filled with ash that drifts like snow.
We have lost our homes and ecosystems, human and animal life,
And our sense of stability.
We have been reminded that all earth's creatures
must one day succumb to death's patient insistence.
Spirit of Life and Love,
In testing times like these we stand in awe before the mystery.
In these days of fire some of us have fled our houses in great haste, And some of us, as quickly, have opened our homes to the stranger.
We have seen death sweep the landscape,
but we know life will renew itself, that the forests will rise again,
ecosystems will fill with life, and future homes will fill with love. We know life renews itself even now,
as human good springs up in the face of disaster,
and women and men reach out to one another within neighborhoods and across the continent, serving one another across every difference.
Web of all... of life, death, and renewal,
Through all the seasons of our lives,
May we find the courage to reach out in sympathy or need.
May we feel within us
the life force that stirs under the embers, waiting to be reborn.
May the compassion and care we have found amidst the flames
carry us now and remain with us as we move into those times and places
where we might more easily close our hearts.
We pray for strength, and finally we pray for gratitude:
for all that is not lost, and all that we can rebuild.
May we be the rebuilders.
Shalom, Salaam, Namaste, Blessed Be, and Amen.

Copyright: The author has given Unitarian Universalist Association member congregations permission to reprint this piece for use in public worship. Any reprints must acknowledge the name of the author.

Religion is not mere beliefs, but a way of life. Religion is not confined to a book, or a church, or a creed, but is found in nature and in human nature; in things understood and in things not understood-in mystery as well as in fact. Religion is not songs and prayers and lighted candles alone; but worthy thoughts, kind deeds and good examples set. Religion is not a Sunday affair, heaven-blessed and other-worldly, but a Monday through Sunday business of soiled hands, bent backs and tired feet-sympathy, empathy, love.