Unitarian Universalist Church of Chattanooga

My wife Kate likes to remember the first time she picked up a Unitarian Universalist hymnal. She recognized the music, she says, because she once sang the same hymns in the Methodist church of her youth.

“But the words are different,” she recalls. “In the Unitarian Universalist church, God could be a woman!”

For her, that was the moment she became a Unitarian Universalist. For me, it didn’t happen until I had attended worship services for a few weeks at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Syracuse, NY. During the fellowship hour, I was approached by a woman who had to step down from the finance committee. She asked me to take her place.

I didn’t know nothin’ about church finance. I can’t even balance my checkbook without a computer and an accounting program. But I was asked to contribute. And I began to realize that religion can be as much about building a community as it could be about saving your soul.

I am a Unitarian Universalist because I need community. I need to feel part of something bigger than Jeff Briere. As a minister, I am called to use my head, my heart and my hands to build that community. I am called to speak the truth as I see it and help people make connections.

I like to make connections, because I think God lives in the tiny little space between people in a relationship. I think of God as a homeless person, wandering around all day, panhandling and looking for work. When two people make a connection, then God has a place to sleep that night. So I don’t pray to God. I pray for God.

I am a Unitarian Universalist because of the infinite possibilities offered by a theology that is not closed, but still evolving. This is difficult, because it calls me to live in the gray area all the time. I recall a minister once saying to me, “You’re a Unitarian Universalist. That must be easy. You can believe most anything you want.”

“Actually, it’s not easy,” I replied. “Nothing is given to me. No one tells me the truth, no one tells me the right thing to do, and no one gives me all the answers. I have to discover them for myself. And that’s hard work.”

I didn’t tell him that it was also a lot of fun.

Cyndi Lauper is my favorite theologian. According to her, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” but I think that’s what everyone wants. And I try to bring fun to worship services and other events in the life of the church.

Please join us on Sunday as we build our community. Life is not always a pleasure, but it can always be fun.