Invitation
By Shel Silverstein
If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer.
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire,
For we have some flax golden tales to spin.
Come in! Come in!
Welcome to Crossing Paths with UUCT!
One of the favorite programs in UU Religious Education is always our study of the World's Religions. With the magic of the internet, we don't have to sacrifice this program even this year!
Philosophical background on Crossing Paths
Crossing Paths is rooted in religious pluralism. Instead of claiming that one religion is better than others or that all religions are really different ways to the same end, religious pluralism treats religions as separate systems of belief that address distinct human challenges. Rather than seeing all religions as different paths leading to the same mountaintop, this view sees each religion as its own uniquely beautiful mountain. Crossing Paths is about exploring a new “mountain” each month, thus our tagline “Many Mountains; Many Paths.”
For instance, Buddhism sees the problem in the world as suffering and the solution is Nirvana or enlightenment. Christians see the problem in the world as sin and the solution as salvation. We UUs have our own unique understanding of the problem and solution. Put simply, we have tended to see “separation” as the problem and “reconnection” as the solution. What grabs our attention and breaks our hearts as UUs is seeing how the world separates or disconnects people from their deepest selves, life’s gifts and each other.
How does this reflect UU Values?
This approach is distinctly Unitarian Universalist. One sees it most clearly in the “Six Sources” we covenant to affirm and promote. These are listed in the front of our UU hymnal. From our beginning, we’ve honored the way our sibling faith traditions each notice a different aspect of the human condition and human struggle. There is no single struggle. There are many struggles of the human condition. We see each religion as focusing on a different one of these challenges and then developing spiritual practices or “spiritual technologies” to deal with that. So depending on which struggle you are experiencing, you might turn to that particular tradition (source) for guidance.
And so UUs respond by helping people restore those three sacred connections. Another way to put this is to say we offer people three “lifelines” that help people reconnect to:
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their deepest self (self)
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life’s gifts and joy (life)
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and needs greater than our own (others)
What will it be like?
In general, we will meet on Zoom to watch the watch a religious service from the tradition we are studying. Registered participants will receive an email with the upcoming schedule.
Ready to Register?
Click here:
For more details and the schedule, click here