Spiritual Search

In the July/August issue of InterConnections a letter asked what regular UU church activity can be scheduled to satisfy the spiritual needs of the congregation. I'd like to report that a group in our church in Ogden, Utah has been holding monthly meetings for the past year in which we ponder the meaning of spirituality and how to develop it in our own lives. It started when one of our members circulated to several of us a copy of his autobiographical search for religion and his conclusions at age 60.

After discussing his thoughts and sharing our own, we brought in other individuals and couples and explored various topics such as Ken Wilbur's book, The History of Everything, the questionnaire distributed in the October 1997 World magazine, printouts of provocative sermons by UU ministers and appropriate articles in lay magazines.

We have limited our group to no more than a dozen participants so that all get a chance to talk. In addition, I have found other ways that this and my past UU churches have focused on the here and now of relationships. Sunday sermons, discussion groups, our evensong program and the Welcoming Congregation program give ample opportunity for spiritual growth. Last of all I want to confess that I have found opportunity for spiritual communication with members when I have visited people personally in our annual financial pledge drives. Perhaps because we are talking about two of the most personal things in our lives, religion and money, I have learned to know people in a most intimate way in an hour's time. It is a rare opportunity. There is much available, even for the head-driven, to find spiritual stimulation in the UU religion and if you're heart-driven, it's only up to you to seek it out.

Bonnie C. Hansen
Brigham City, UT

Don't leave

It's unfortunate that Margaret T. Patton chose to withdraw from her UU church over the issue of cellular phone antennas being placed on church property (InterConnections September/October 1998). There are good reasons for churches to refrain from connections with large corporations that want to rent space but the alleged danger from "digital microwave radiation" is probably not one of them yet. She says "there is literature which shows immediate harmful effects," but I know of no scientific studies that prove what people have written in such "literature."

I have seen scientific studies that purport to show the opposite. Who's right? I don't know. Often long term side effects are discovered years after apparently safe equipment or chemicals are used on the public. This may prove so with cell phone relay stations but the evidence isn't there now. Argue about it on the facts. Warn people of what you think dangerous. But Margaret, your friends need you back. Don't quit your church over it. My family has been actively Universalist and Unitarian for over 70 years and it would take more than this "danger" to drive us out.

The Rev. Dick Weston-Jones
UU Church of Ventura, CA

Correction

The Rev. Jory Agate was incorrectly referred to as a director of religious education in the November/December issue of InterConnections.  She is minister of religious education at First Parish, Cambridge, MA.