Author: Scott Wells

Universalist minister in Washington, D.C.
Posted on

A young adult ministry

Here at the office following an amazing experience. Four college-aged persons arrived unannounced at the church door, wanting a tour. They were from the Columbia, Maryland suburb, and one of the four knew about Unitarian Universalism. (Her parents had been married in a San Francisco Bay area UU church.)

They were interested and keen, especially when the talk moved from the architectural to the theological. (We have a John Murray memorial window, and I tell his landing story, with the “Not hell, but hope and courage” ancedote.)

Seems they are part of a collegiate ministry to the city, and they wanted to pray with me for the church, my ministry, “that you Father might send [me] a new word” and the city.

They were positive, affirming, and open for us to participate in the ministry to disadvantaged children in a local park. I liked these people, and they seemed to appreciate an open door.

But there’s another lesson here: connections — and especially the ecumenical contact that so many Unitarian Universalist Christians crave — will follow the same rules as the post-Constantinian church. The connections will be lateral and personal. (Not unlike this blog.)

We don’t have to wait to be welcomed by the ecumenically-assertive denominations (indeed, it may never happen) but contact may be as close as the front door.

Posted on

Open inquiries

So, there are two lines of thought I’ll be following in the next few months, and both have practical sides.

  • What is the purpose and meaning of confirmation?
  • On what basis would a newly constituted Universalist Christian church be founded?

Ideas?

Posted on

Church websites using MT

Following up on some earlier comments: I got the idea for using Movable Type for the church website from Heal Your Church Website � the newest entry is a suggestion on what to do in lieu of an “under construction” church webpage � whose owner does it for his own church, Redland Baptist Church, Rockville, Maryland, in the suburbs.

I’m amazed how few churches use this powerful tool for church website. Indeed, when I made a Google search last week to get ideas back home, I noticed there were more bloggers named Church, or mock churches, or even church camping and youth groups that used Movable Type than churches themselves.

Even funnier, I noticed that many of the few that did use MT were of the “church of Christ” variety, the “Restorationists” who are the Disciples of Christ’s conservative kin. These are the people who won’t use musical instruments in worship because they’re not mentioned in the New Testament, but (as a Disciples seminary classmate pointed out) will definitely use electricity (and Movable Type) without biblical warrant. (“Restorationist” is a term also used within Mormon and Universalist traditions, meaning different things in each case.)

Only two of the other MT using churches have sites worth mentioning, so for your convenience:

  • St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Washington, D.C. (just a couple of miles from UNMC)
  • Higgins Lake Baptist Church, which loses points for not making it obvious where it is. (Higgins Lake, Michigan, it turns out.)

14 October 2003. Since porn sites seem to spam from this entry, I’ve closed the comments

Posted on

Go-slow on blogging

As we re-enter the church year, the blogging will slow down to those posts which help church life, and the occasional quotation. Plus, what time I might use for blogging will be directed to getting the blogs at UUChristian.net humming like a top.

Have you seen Fish Bowl, The Aerie, Prophet Motive yet?

[2009-08-13. Don’t bother. Fish Bowl is long defunct.]

Posted on

Universalist quotation XXIX

“We are children born of God. There are differences of degree — but all are of the same spirit, birthright sons of God. From this affirmation we are to look upon men; according to it we are to direct our conduct.” (Lee S. McCollester)

In “The Practice of Universalism,” the occasional sermon for the Universalist General Convention, October 27, 1907, at the Church of the Restoration, Philadelphia. Forty-second Annual Report of the Board of Trustees [of the Universalist General Convention] (1907), page 120.

Posted on

Universalist quotation XXVIII

“To me it appears reasonable that we shall be together in the after life as we are here — still pupils in one great school; that the wise will continue to instruct the ignorant, the strong to help the weak, the good to reclaim the erring. But however that may be, none of us can be where God is not.” (J. Frank Thompson)

In “The Universal Fatherhood of God”: the first pamphlet in “The Five Points of Universalism” series, presumably between 1899 and 1935.