"Big Questions, Big Answers" Series for
Covenant Groups
The Rev. Michael McGee
Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA
This past year our church in Arlington, Virginia sponsored a series
of monthly sermons called "The Big Questions." They were delivered
by our team minister, Rev. Joan Gelbein, and myself, with our other
team minister, Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, leading the children in a monthly
service on the big questions as well.
We also organized 15 covenant groups with an average of about 8 people
per group, that met monthly to discuss each of these questions (we also
had 10 other covenant groups focused on other issues). Other groups
in the church also entered into the discussion, including the youth
group, the Buddhist group, and the humanist group.
I was thrilled that we involved the entire congregation, all ages and
philosophies, in conversing with each other about some of the most significant
questions in our lives. Those questions were:
What is the meaning of life?
Why do we need religion?
Why evil?
How do I know what I know?
How do we face death?
Why do we suffer?
What does it mean to be human?
How can we survive?
I must tell you that we had planned this program long before September
11th, but I can think of no better way for us to minister to each other
than to have these sermons and covenant groups available to our members
and friends. They gave people the chance not only to ask the big questions
that were so prominent in everyone's minds, but to have others to listen,
to respond, and to share feelings and ideas.
You might be interested to know that this year our theme will be "The
Challenge of Religious Pluralism: Searching for the Big Answers."
The monthly sermons by the team ministers will focus on the answers
proclaimed by the religions of the world. The participants of the covenant
groups will discuss those answers to see which are relevant and useful
and which are not.
The premise of this series was that we find deeper meaning in our lives
when we have the courage to ask the big questions of life and then to
faithfully seek to answer those questions.
