Why do unitarian universalist celebrate christmas

First, as UUs we bring to the table the critical eye of our Puritan forbearers. Our analytical skills can be used to pare back what feels overdone and dismiss fluff; to resist the commercial pressure to acquire and do more and more. We hold our pragmatic ancestors in love….

We bring to the table our sense of compassion and the spirit of awareness of the situation of others — values which are amplified during the more modern season of the Holidays. The beauty of seeing one another — and expressing generosity through gifts…. We bring to the table a broad respect for the myriad of religions, and religious expressions, and those who choose no explicit faith tradition.

What is that experience for adults and children? What helps us know of these differences? As UUs we are invited to come to the season with curiosity and respect for the ways the Christian religious story iss brought to life in music, and pageant, and worship. We are invited not so much to the literal story, but to the teaching story. We come to the table in a spirit of festival.

We come with all of the above, and with the understanding that especially on long nights communities have a need to let go of routine.

To come together, with the open hearts of children for fun and letting-go. My hope is that this Holiday season, a season including Christmas, we keep in the forefront a readiness to carry forward a sense of beauty, a sense of connection, a sense of community, and that when in doubt, we lead with kindness and open hearts. Your email address will not be published. At this service with Rev.

Search for: Search. Facebook Twitter. Search Newsletter Directions. Sue Browning Dec. So, they arrive in the colonies a bit dour. Tracy Springberry describes, Christmas, the Unitarians believed, could be a holiday to promote their values of generosity and charity and social good, and would be a wonderful way to build these values, particularly in children.

That is one story. One article from Colonial Williamsburg website noted, The Christmas season is foreshadowed by the four-week season of Advent. Did the Puritans have it right? Should we just not observe Christmas as a national holiday? Christmas has been controversial over the years…From the Puritan protests, to more recent controversies over Nativity scenes in public squares, to battles over the design of Starbucks cups and whether employees can say Merry Christmas, or must say Merry Christmas… Christmas is layered, and its celebrations, and the meanings of the celebration, have shifted, and will shift again.

How do we as UUs understand Christmas? We hold our pragmatic ancestors in love… AND We bring to the table our sense of compassion and the spirit of awareness of the situation of others — values which are amplified during the more modern season of the Holidays. Before that there was no unified tradition of a Christmas visitor bringing gifts to all.

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. Nicholas, a bishop known for acts of charity, into the myth of Santa Claus. Nicholas from a Catholic bishop to a Unitarian. He reminds us of our responsibility to be kind and generous to one another.

Later it was another Unitarian, Thomas Nast, a cartoonist, who placed Santa on the North Pole as message that he existed for all the children of the world. The Unitarians also brought us the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree had become a symbol of the holiday in Germany in the s.

One Christmas Charles Follen, a German immigrant, a Unitarian and the first German professor at Harvard, invited several colleagues to his home where he had put up a tree lit with candles and covered with ornaments as he remembered from his childhood. Unitarians also brought us family gift giving, especially the tradition of children giving to parents. Again the tradition came from Germany. He wrote:. There were eight or nine children, and the eldest daughter and the mother wept aloud for joy and tenderness; and the tears ran down the face of the father, and he clasped his children so tight to his breast it seemed as if he did it to stifle the sob that was rising within him.

I was very much affected. Coleridge loved how this tradition taught children about generosity and unselfishness, and his story about it was published in The Christian Register , the official Unitarian magazine of the time.

This was one of the great answers to the Unitarian question—how do we teach generosity? This gift exchange among parents and children became part of the Christmas tradition, not only in Unitarian homes, but also in homes across the country.

Unitarians also brought us Christmas charity. They believed our responsibility as a religious people was to follow the teachings of Christ, and an important part of those teachings was care for the poor. A Christmas Carol is steeped in the Unitarian theology of the spirit of Jesus and that how we treat each other matters deeply.

Wedding services are a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the love of two individuals who have chosen to come together in marriage. In addition to blessing heterosexual unions, Unitarian Universalist congregations and ministers joyfully bless same-sex marriages. We affirm the inherent worth and dignity of all people and have a long history of promoting equal rights of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer LGBTQ.

Services to honor loved ones who have passed on are often very personal occasions. Yom Kippur is considered the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, a time for reflection and asking for forgiveness.

We honor this High Holy Day by considering how we might offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us the most. We offer a Unitarian Universalist ritual of atonement. In September, we observe our communal Water Ritual, where the blending of waters reminds us of our deep connections to each other.

Congregants are invited to bring photos of deceased loved ones pets too! We call the names of congregants who have died in the past year. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we pause to reflect on and to share our communal abundance, with special appreciation for our founding members. Congregants are encouraged to bring vegetarian soup ingredients for our communal soup, cooked by a volunteer during worship and served after the service. Canned goods for the Interfaith Community Services Food Pantry are also collected during the service.