Ministerial Musings, Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford

One of the joys that I have as the minister at UUCVH is the opportunity to write a weekly response in the newspaper to a question relating to a current issue. While some from our congregation see them in the Glendale News Press or on-line, I am aware that not everyone has that opportunity. So I would like to share my September 28^th column with you below. I hope you find it interesting.

“I admit I was not surprised that Americans over the last twenty years have been moving away from specific religious denominations and traditions and modifying their beliefs to suit their own individual preferences. However, I do not believe we can characterize such shifts as “cherry-picking.” The world is a very different place than it was twenty years ago, and people are reacting in ways that make sense to them in light of new, and sometimes frightening, changes.

What some people have discovered is that the restrictive dogmas of many traditional Christian denominations or other faith traditions no longer fit the situations they face today. What I hear from many young couples who ask me to officiate at their weddings is that they consider themselves “spiritual” but not “religious.” They want to find their own spiritual paths – paths that inspire them to live with integrity in today’s world – outside the strictures of some narrow creed.

To the question about the culpability of the clergy for some of the declines in religious affiliation, I would have to answer, “Yes.” When a religious tradition gets locked in the past, it is no wonder that people turn away from beliefs that are no longer relevant to them. As those who are called to be the bearers of the truths of religion to congregants, the clergy must not simply rely on the same old ways of explaining what life and faith mean in a new age. To quote poet and lyricist James Russell Lowell: “New occasions teach new duties.” If members of the clergy fail to make their messages germane to the realities that people are facing, they and their faith tradition may well be left in the dust.

I feel very fortunate indeed that the religious tradition I have been called to serve encourages its members and clergy to think and deliberate for themselves in light of past experience, present evidence and future spiritual possibilities. UUs may be accused of many things, but we continue to join together in an ongoing search for truth and meaning wherever that my lead. Blessed be!”

Blessings, Rev. Betty