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I began attending a Unitarian Universalist church in 1997 in East Lansing, Michigan. I was a single mom and lived with my daughter, my best friend, and her daughter. Our girls had a lot of questions—questions we would answer with, “Well, some people believe …” and “Other people believe …” One day, very frustrated, my friend’s daughter yelled, “I don’t care what some people believe! What do we believe?!” I was so taken aback, but she was so right!
As I was processing, a quote came to mind that is from an unknown source but often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson: “A person will worship something—have no doubt about that… . Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”
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My friend and I decided we needed to find a place where our pluralistic beliefs were supported. And of course, that led us to a UU church. I loved the congregation, engaged in choir and stewardship as a member, and was thrilled with the children’s religious education programming. But I am not sure I really felt it was my faith.
Even so, I kept attending there, and then many other subsequent congregations. I always felt welcome and that I was part of a like-minded community. But I really wanted something more—more worship, more spirituality, more depth of values.
I had attended UU churches regularly over the years, but in 2005 I also started working for one. My faith journey really started to bear fruit once I was serving the faith as my vocation. Some of that was the level to which I became involved, some of that was in the deep professional development offered, and some of that was my own research and discovery.
The first time I stepped onto that stage and looked out at the audience, I wept.
But in 2009, it truly happened. I was attending the UUA General Assembly in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was my first GA ever, and I was most excited to sing in the choir. The first time I stepped onto that stage and looked out at the audience, I wept. Somehow, being from that vantage point and seeing all those people—thousands of UUs, singing together and swaying to the music—brought me to a place I thought I’d never find. Instead of liking it, I felt it. Instead of simply hearing it, I felt the words flow through my entire body.
In that moment, we all believed in something together. We all put our hearts into something. This something, beyond anything I’d experienced before, this was church. This was my faith. And after that, instead of saying, “I go to a UU church,” I started saying, “I am a Unitarian Universalist.”