COMMUNITY 2 - Sep 2009
I look at the group photo of 20 or so foreign study students with nostalgia. We’re all smiling, but looking closer you can see the nervousness in bodies and faces. It was the beginning of a year of study in Durham, England. By the end of the year we had bonded, friends all the way around. ...
... Our group had expanded to include all the British friends
we’d come to know. We’d had a lot of good cider and
beer, danced and studied really, really hard together. Decades later,
I’m not in touch with any of them.
I have other photos of groups of friends that I’ve bonded with in situational communities; Little Sisters at Phi Kappa Sigma, Peace Corps, seminary, boards and churches. All situational communities, that did not last beyond the events that brought us together.They’ve emerged organically and then dissolved when the events that brought us together have passed. Yet each one has enlarged me as a human being. Each one has left a permanent presence in my life and spirit.
Then there are communities that are sustained through time and massive change. These are intentional communities born of good intent that live on far beyond their creator’s life span. Religious communities are such entities. Judaism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, Falun Gong, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the thousands of others that live on as intentional communities built upon the foundation of religiosity. Without doing a formal study I suspect that most, if not all, come out of tension. They emerge out of a host of conflicting turmoil, oppression, and need. There is a need for order out of chaos, for protection of minorities, or for humans to gather in yet another group offering identification and affiliation.
Christianity was born of such turmoil. It was not smooth or easy. There was infighting alongside the external oppression. “Christians” were gentiles seeking answers and comfort who felt connected to the message(s) of the leaders of the new community. They were Jews who wanted a new life under another monotheistic God, and abandoned their old relationship with Yahweh, with new rules and laws. Something worked, because their community lives on, despite its many manifestations, changes and continued infighting.
Unitarian Universalists also live on born of deep human need: Freedom. We too are an intentional community born out of tension and based upon religiosity. We are not a situational community that will pass when events change. Freedom will always be needed. But we too experience infighting from tensions, conflicts and oppression. We too experience tension from the external culture. But the communities that last through time, do so because they embrace these tensions, conflicts and oppression as forces to build strength against rather than be diminished by them.
I had the fortune of being born and raised UU. Situational? Sure. But its resulted in a life time commitment to a community that enlarges me as a human being, and leaves a mark upon my spirit everyday. I have a whole photo album of smiling faces yet some nervousness can be seen as well. After all, Community is always in some phase of “creation” which means tension is always present. That’s nervous excitement, not fear.
Then there are communities that are sustained through time and massive change. These are intentional communities born of good intent that live on far beyond their creator’s life span. Religious communities are such entities. Judaism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, Falun Gong, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the thousands of others that live on as intentional communities built upon the foundation of religiosity. Without doing a formal study I suspect that most, if not all, come out of tension. They emerge out of a host of conflicting turmoil, oppression, and need. There is a need for order out of chaos, for protection of minorities, or for humans to gather in yet another group offering identification and affiliation.
Christianity was born of such turmoil. It was not smooth or easy. There was infighting alongside the external oppression. “Christians” were gentiles seeking answers and comfort who felt connected to the message(s) of the leaders of the new community. They were Jews who wanted a new life under another monotheistic God, and abandoned their old relationship with Yahweh, with new rules and laws. Something worked, because their community lives on, despite its many manifestations, changes and continued infighting.
Unitarian Universalists also live on born of deep human need: Freedom. We too are an intentional community born out of tension and based upon religiosity. We are not a situational community that will pass when events change. Freedom will always be needed. But we too experience infighting from tensions, conflicts and oppression. We too experience tension from the external culture. But the communities that last through time, do so because they embrace these tensions, conflicts and oppression as forces to build strength against rather than be diminished by them.
I had the fortune of being born and raised UU. Situational? Sure. But its resulted in a life time commitment to a community that enlarges me as a human being, and leaves a mark upon my spirit everyday. I have a whole photo album of smiling faces yet some nervousness can be seen as well. After all, Community is always in some phase of “creation” which means tension is always present. That’s nervous excitement, not fear.
