I’ve gotten a lot of interesting messages lately and some requests to share the articles that I’ve written. I wish I could say it’s about my reviews of prayer resources or research into Universalist polity. No, it’s almost always about the UUA, the UUMA or their action against Todd Eklof. There’s a lot of anger towards the signers of that letter out there.
Sure, share my articles. I post them in public to be read. (And if I said no, how would I stop you?)
But if the point of sharing the article is to stir up trouble in your church, please consider speaking directly and clearly to whom you have the conflict instead. Use the systems of accountability you have at hand, rather than relying on gossip and back-channel. While sometimes effective in the short run, gossip and back-channel are intensely corrosive to a church and that way nobody wins anything.
Rev Scott:
Finding your blog site is one of the things I am most grateful for from the Gadfly experience. 🙂
UU history, and particularly Universalism, are deeply interesting to me, so your posts on those topics are much appreciated. In addition to the reading group, I also lead a group of Unitarian Theists (U-Theists) at our church and am interested in prayer resources for that group, and, like you, find that much of the contemporary UU sources don’t resonate with me. So the prayer resources you are sharing are equally appreciated.
Also thank you for your observations about the corrosive nature of gossip and triangulation in congregational life, and for your guidance to avoid stirring up trouble.
I am a past president of our church Board, am committed to right relations, and keep our Executive Committee informed of matters which might concern leadership. Most of the EC members are on the distribution list of my reading group which took up The Gadfly Paper in August, including our minister. One member of the EC is a frequent participant in our discussions. And I actually met with EC members prior to The Gadfly Papers discussion for advice on avoiding contention and acrimony.
Keep up the good work, and thank you for being a voice of reason and kindness in Unitarian Universalism.
Fiske
Thank you!
I’ll have to look into the barrel and see if I have any prayer resource from the “Western Unitarians” or “Unity Men” that might be of interest to you.