Maybe it’s the high summer temperatures or GA backlash, but the UU blogworld seems awfully negative about our religious association these days! From compassion-fatigue to accusations of UU communities being about “I” not “us”, people seem in a mood to be disgusted about their local congregation/minister/the UUA/the lack of _______ (fill in the blank) in their church — pick one.

As a 20 year veteran clergy spouse, I’ve seen a lot of congregations — the good, the bad and the ugly. And there are certainly times when I am amazed at people’s need to savage each other in service to their own demons. But more than anything else, I have been touched and inspired by the love, compassion and selfless giving of themselves to the greater good that I have witnessed time and again in the 8 congregations my husband has served in one capacity or another.

My experience of UU congregations he has served, and that I have known as a lifelong UU, is that they are filled with an amazing array of sincere, thoughtful, engaged folks who believe in a “works” theology. You are called to live your principles every day as the Spirit moves within you. If your life is about promoting justice, you can’t sit by and watch unjust laws be passed. If your life is about succoring the needy, you must dedicate your hands and money to the service of the poor and excluded.

This calling often brings UUs into the political arena, where some people mistake their engagement and passion for politicizing and left-wing control issues. But simple power-hunger would never bring these courageous souls to put their bodies and resources on the line in the struggle to bring about a finer world. They are on fire with a religious and spiritual conflagration that leaves them no choice but to speak out and confront the world.

I hear over and over again how important it is to them that they have a “home” to call their own when they return from their efforts in the service of their ideals. How important it is to know that they see their passion and beliefs reflected in the faces around them, and know that they are honored for their work in the name of progress for all humanity and the world in which we live. How empowered they are by having a community to support them, challenge them and to nurture their spirits. 

I know that my husband is continually blessed to be invited into these people’s lives, to walk with them as they face their personal struggles and public joys. As far as I can tell, there is nothing unique about the human dysfunction, cultural behaviors and internal conflicts occasionally present in UU congregations — I see and hear the same things in all the organizations with which I have been associated. But I also hear a pride in being part of an organized community whose principles and actions celebrate the best things about being human, and which expresses a hope for our future here on Earth in a world of our own making.

Those are wonderful people to be around, and I treasure them and the amazing communities we call Unitarian Universalist congregations.