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Bisbee's Why I Am A Universalist, part two

These great scriptural principles which were taught me in that good old Methodist Sunday school set my soul on fire with a divine optimism which thrilled me with the joy and gladness and glory of it. But I presently discovered that my enthusiasm. For the complete success of the Gospel did not meet with response from the brethren in the Church, and my own father and mother were pained at my lapse into “the dangerous heresy of Universalism.” But there was where the Gospel of Jesus Christ took me. I could not resist. I must go and tell the glad tidings to others.

This belief in the final outcome of good founded on the revelation of the Holy Scriptures, found confirmation in the desire of my affections and demand of my reason. This great creation coming from a Being of infinite goodness, its purpose must be good; coming from a Being of infinite wisdom, its plan must be wise; and the execution of that plan, being in the hands of infinite power, must be successful and insure the “one far-off divine event to which the whole creation moves.”

Perhaps the one element which most contributed to shaping and perpetuating my Universalism was this conception of a successful creation, a victorious Christ, a triumphant God. Anything less than this seemed a contradiction of divine revelation and a violation of the holiest aspiration of the human soul. While the vision of such a consummation ? “when every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” ? seemed alone to being harmony into a discordant universe, and solve alike the problems of the present and the future.

emember, I am to tell you why I am a Universalist, describe as best I can, the experience of my own soul, trace, if possible, before you the peculiar pathway which leads me to my God, not to ask you to follow in my footsteps; only, it may be, to win you to see that when you have come up through your path to your God, we may be found at last kneeling side by side at the feet of our common Heavenly Father.

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Bisbee's Why I Am A Universalist, part one

It has been so long since I added anything four-square Universalist that some of you might be wondering what I’m up to. I hope this helps. I found this pamphlet in my papers, and though it isn’t dated it has to be from before 1935, or else the profession within would be the Washington Avowal. Thus I hope it is out of copyright, and if it isn’t I hope the UUA (which would probably own the copyright) will forgive me. At least they don’t need to send out free copies this way.

Thus, the first installment of

Why I Am a Universalist

Frederick A. Bisbee

An address delivered at the South Congregational Society of Concord, N. H., in a symposium of all the Protestant ministers of the city on the general theme, �Why I Am What I Am.� This sermon, edited by Dean Lee S. McCollester, is reprinted, for free distribution, in response to a demand. Copies may be obtained by addressing Universalist Headquarters, 176 Newbury Street, Boston, Mass.

I come to you not with the desire or intention of making you Universalists, but to show you as best I may that the Church it is my honor to represent is trying to, in its own way, exactly the same work as every other Christian Church in saving men from sin and into righteousness, and it appears to me that with our common purpose, our different methods are to our credit rather than to our blame, in that they enable us to reach some whom other Churches do not, and thus increase the aggregate of the great army of the Lord.

My message is not of necessity largely personal. I am asked to tell why I am a Universalist. And yet I think it safe to say that I shall truly represent the Universalist Church in the statement and grounds of my belief.

It was not my fortune to come into Universalism through inheritance. I was born a Methodist, and my childhood and youth were spent in the bosom of that great Church, and I here gladly pay the tribute of my gratitude to it for its divine service to me as an individual and the glorious service it has rendered to the world. But in the early maturity of my life I left that Church and became a Universalist, and I am here to tell you why.

Primarily I am a Universalist because I am a Christian and believe in the ultimate complete success of Christianity − that Christ �shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied� that God �will have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.� (1 Tim. 2:4), and �having made known to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth� (Eph. 1:9, 10). And to this end �God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through him, might be saved� (St. John 3:17) �Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father� (Phil 2:9, 10, 11).

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Summer reading I

My temp job allows me about thirty-five minutes of reading time on the bus, each way. Since thn, I’ve finished Bob Sitze’s Not Trying Too Hard: New Basics for Sustainable Congregations from the Alban Institute, on which I’ll comment later. Now, I’m skimming though colleauge Dan Hotchkiss’s Ministry and Money, also Alban, and reading more closely A. Katherine Greib’s The Story of Romans: A Narrative Defense of God’s Righteousness. Grieb is a member of the faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary, over the river in Alexandria.

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Vespers with the Easterners

Enjoyed a lovely evening of vespers and potluck dinner with Axios, the GLBT Eastern Christian affinity group. Chanting, incense, and this lovely salad made of watermelon, Bermuda onion, and arugula. I highly recommend it.

I also recommend the ethos of the group. Though we were eight, all but two were first-timers: recruited a tthe Pride festival the week before. And we were put to work. Setting up a makeship iconostasis, swining the thurible (I can’t recall its Slavonic name) and – this is the part that gets me, and encourages me – the role of reader floated to whomever had a willingness to chant. (It was clear all of us had been exposed to the concept, to a greater or lesser degree.) We found our own key and rhythm as a group, and we moved around as needed.

I think because there wasa common form, and since the action was focused on God, the worship lacked the affect of performance and so went (or reduced) the fear of getting something wrong.

I am very impressed, and will go to vespers next month. All I need to consider is what to bring for dinner.

Note: answering Jim, yes, Axios meets the third Friday of the month (execpt August, I gather, when it moves to fourth Friday) at St. Thomas, Dupont Circle.

Axios Washington
Axios Los Angeles

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Beginning a daily practice with the red hymnal

Perhaps you want to start a daily prayer, or at least regular prayer discipline and you don’t know where to start. (This also applys to small groups, say UUCF chapters.) The available Anglican and Catholic books are written with a certain amount of in-knowledge that is difficult to acquire. And perhaps, if you are a Universalist or Unitarian (or Unitarian Universalist) want to start with something homegrown and handy. I can help. Go to a certain hymnal.

OK, the old red hymnal, Hymns of the Spirit is neither perfect nor in print, but if you are in a town with a Unitarian or Universalist church founded before (say) 1950, you might be able to beg or borrow one if you ask nicely. (Don’t steal.) Or perhaps you have one. Or you can go to Ebay. (Don’t pay more than $10 in any case. They’re not that rare.)

“Ideally” daily prayer for non-monastics runs morning and evening. And ideally I would be making a lot more money. In both cases: start with what you have and can manage. For the sake of arguement, try evening prayer. (Which will be more likely for a group.)

The “second order of service” is a good evening prayer service: its themes are lightness in the dark, here, the literal darkness of the (coming) night.

If you’re reading your prayers along, start with a couple of sentences, then the exhortation (in which case the “we” is the Church Universal) , the invocation, skipping to the Lord’s Prayer, and then skipping to the prayers, using at least the first and last one.

If this is an act of pure praise, Bible lessons that make you think and reflect are out of place. (Ain’t ya’ tired by evening?) If you want to study scripture, alone or in a group, do that after your prayers. If you want a small portion of scripture to meditate on, that’s another matter and can be re-inserted at “first lesson.”

Likewise, at “responsive reading” there really should be a psalm or Bible song, which also is a vehicle for praise, prayer, and meditation. I’m not thilled with the responsive reading selection in this hymnal, but selections 5, 23, and 69 include traditional fragments appropriate for evenings. Don’t read them too fast.

You might want some extra prayers after those mentioned above see pp. 136-147 and the “communion prayer” (p. 151) from the shorter Communion service.

As for the matter of gender and language. Yeah, it isn’t gender-inclusive, and I’ve come to the point htat sometimes I want to change something, and other times I’ll let it stand. If you’re praying alone, do what you will, and be generous to feelings about tradition as well as sex equity.

But try the service as-is a few times before makeing any changes. Trust me. After a few times you’ll have a better sence of why things belong where they do, and you’ll make better choices in your alterations, if you make any.

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Sadness in Fort Worth

Today a man and three children drowned in the water garden in downtown Fort Worth. May God receive them in glory. The four were in town for a church convention.

Let this be a serious warning to all Unitarian Universalists, as our General Assembly will be there in a little more than a year. Even though the set of fountains were “immortalized” in the post-apoc flick Logan’s Run as the underwater way into the City (which was somewhere near Washington, D.C., by the way) they’re not safe (obviously) and are right next door to one of the second-tier hotels that some people will surely use.

A sad day today; let’s not repeat it.

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"New Patterns for Worship"

The Church of England related book New Patters for Worship is normally the kind of thing I would recommend you flip through at a library, if you had the chance. It would be hard to justify the cost of an imported book to worship leaders (lay or ordained), except perhaps for Episcopalians for whom the work is best suited on these shores.

Its helpful worship-planning process, including training tips, and the way it occasionally stumbles into a latter-day Puritan “directory of public worship” mode (for the “Service of the Word”) might make it useful for Unitarian Universalists, or at least the Christian ones. Also, few Protestants but the Episcopalians and Lutherans put much effort into explaining the mechanics of worship, so you have to take what you get, and sift, sift, sift.

If I sound cool on this work — first published in 1995 — it is matched with a certain warmth when I say it can be downloaded as three PDF files free of charge from the Church of England Common Worship site.

And free makes it worth a second look.

Scroll down to New Patterns for Worship

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I love a parade!

Hubby and I went and saw the local gay pride parade in Dupont Circle last night. I was quite long (we arrived at 6:30, the opening police retenue arrived before 7:00, and it didn’t end until 8:45) but the weather was cool and dry.

Marriage equality wasn’t highly played up, but the elimination of the current administration was, as was the vile “no marriage, no private arrangements either” Virginian “Marriage Affirmative Action Act” (what crap!) featured at the www.virginiaisforhaters.org site (which is down at the moment).

Now, a few more home truths gathered last night.

  • Among gay men, Miss Clarol Canary Yellow and Goldenrod seem to be top sellers.
  • You know you’re in the right town when the Mayor, and more than half of the city council (including two Republicans) are a proud and conspicuous parts fo the parade.
  • The only way you can tell the “affirming” Presbyterian clergy and the local Bear Club apart is that the former have the ugly habit of wearing Guatemalan-made stoles over street clothes. (Indeed, the religious groups are always the least impressive. Kudos though, to the minister of the local MCC church for riding on a brighlty colored, cute scooter)
  • As long as gay men take to the streets, C&C Music Factory will get royalty checks.
  • Female impersonation can be a wonderful thing, but if you’re going to wear Daisy Dukes, spring for the love-handle lipo first.
  • If go-go boys are to be seen in public, ensure that the clear light of day doesn’t touch them. Kinda gruesome otherwise.

Link: Capital Pride

Also, An editorial on the Virginia law by Jonathan Rauch in today’s Washington Post

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General Assembly

I won’t be at the General Assembly in Long Beach in a couple of weeks. The way that money is I have doubts I’ll be at GA next year, either.

So, gang: why do we do it? what do we gain from General Assembly, apart from the legal business part which takes up proportionally less and less of the proceedings each year?

I like it – a bit of splash, a few good workshops, visiting with friends: all are nice – but what would you say to justify it, if the Great Auditor of Heaven and Earth asked you to make a reckoning?