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Good Morning!
My name is Kalvin Drake, and I've been asked this morning to give a
testimony as part of the Dare to Dream initiative – by
sharing with you my responses to the Dare to Dream
questionnaire that, hopefully, each of you have had a chance to
complete in one of the workshops. If you haven't, I understand that
there's another workshop during the 2nd service and next week.
Failing that, you can complete the form on our website.
Of the three
questions we are asked to answer, I found the third the most
enticing: "If I had a magic wand and had three wishes to heighten
the health and vitality of our congregation, what would they be?"
I found that in
answering this question, I ended up answering the other two
questions about what I valued most about this congregation. I also
found that my responses reflected not only my aspirations for this
congregation, but also for the Canadian movement as a whole.
My three
wishes? Well, actually, all my three wishes are related. They're
all about getting us noticed and increasing the role that Unitarian
Universalism plays in people's lives and in Canadian society at
large. And they all stem from one playful notion…
If we want to
get noticed, what if we became religious fundamentalists...
Hey, why not? Everyone else seems to be doing it!
UU
fundamentalists! Isn't that a bit of - or rather a lot of - an
oxymoron? After all, we associate religious fundamentalism with
bigotry, intolerance and a divinely guided conviction that there is
only one way to salvation.
Yet I believe
that, ironically, by unabashedly proclaiming the fundamentals of
Unitarianism and Universalism, we offer the world a loving, tolerant
and inclusive alternative to those other fundamentalisms we read
about every day in our newspapers.
So my first
wish is that we entertain the notion of proclaiming ourselves as
Unitarian fundamentalists.
As Unitarians,
we are invited to focus on Unity – to identify those values and
aspirations we hold in common. If we are to present a strong and
united liberal alternative to the world, we must find a way to
communicate a clear and concise definition of who we are and what we
offer.
It means each
of us voluntarily walking our individual religious and philosophical
paths under one Unitarian banner. To achieve this, we must each be
sufficiently confident in our individual search for truth and
meaning that we don't always feel the need to have to defend our
individuality. As proud Canadians we do not feel threatened by
raising the flag of the United Nations or the Olympics above our
national flag. May we then, as free-thinking individualists, not
feel threatened by raising our Unitarian flag high and letting it
fly boldly in the winds that ravage this world.
If my first
wish is to entertain the notion of being Unitarian
fundamentalists, my second wish is, of course, to entertain the
notion of being Universalist fundamentalists.
I'm sure most
if not all of you know that Universalism started as a Christian
denomination characterized by its belief in the universal salvation
of all souls. As Universalists in the 21st century, we might look
towards a post-Christian reinterpretation of salvation that
testifies that every single human being can enter into communion
with that underlying unity of all of existence – that we may call
God, Goddess, Tao or Cosmos.
This is not
just a lofty philosophical notion. A fundamentalist Universalist
congregation takes on the responsibility for helping each and every
member of its community – and the wider world community – to attain
a profound depth of spiritual insight and experience. This is not a
congregation where people simply come to meet on a Sunday morning.
This is a congregation where the deepest yearnings of our hearts are
opened and shouted from the rooftop! This is a congregation where
our deepest fears, our losses, our wounds are exposed… a
congregation in which each one of us is emotionally naked and
vulnerable. It is a congregation of supreme honesty and
unconditional acceptance.
Our
congregation is currently going through a period of intense
self-questioning. I hope this doesn't become self-doubt. My third
wish is that we come to believe that, to get where we want to get to
as a Congregation, we don't need three wishes! We don't need more
members, a new Minister or anything else! Sure things could be
easier, perhaps better. But do we need them to feel like
we're "OK"? For if we say we need something else – something
more - then are we not saying that what we have today isn't
quite "good enough"? I beg to differ…
Perhaps we have
an opportunity to pause and reflect on the abundance we already have
within this congregation. For to answer the questions about what I
value most – I find the answer is right here in this room. On so
many occasions I have witnessed the overwhelming wisdom and
generosity of this congregation. We have the skills - the people
and the financial resources to make miracles happen. In fact, we
already do.
Thank you for
being my three wishes!
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