Some thoughts by members, past and
present.
I am a side of a circle, confronted by and confronting other circles' sides. At the same time, I am supported by them. Holding hands, we run and laugh - and share serious moments.
Diane
I've been told that Unitarians are people who rejected the church they grew up in but couldn't get over the feeling that they ought to get out and go somewhere on Sunday morning.
I think for most of us who have joined the Unitarian Fellowship after leaving other churches, the step was more positive. We are trying to get our beliefs and our actions working together again.
Ann
In church, I was supposed to listen and learn from an 'expert'. I've found that I learn and gain more in CUUF by discussing and comparing my philosophy with those of others.
Mardee
FELLOWSHIP:
Anticipation
Creation
Exhilaration
Reflection
Gerry
I see us operating at Fellowship with what I call the paradigm paradigm. This paradigm says that the more paradigms, the more perspectives, you use to look at something, the more you will see. It's not that one point of view is right and another is wrong; it's like looking at a building from one perspective you will see some things but other things will be hidden that will appear when you look from a different perspective.
Annie
. . . every day when we give each other advice (such as when Sarah helped me with baking zuccini bread), when we participate in some way in a program or other occasion, when we share our thoughts with each other, we are giving each other our gifts. These are often things that seem simple to us but are gifts for others. I then realized that not only these areas of specific knowledge are gifts, but also our support, our friendship, the company of each other, our loyalty to the group, the tasks we do, our thoughts.. . . CUUF is Simple Gifts" to me.
Amy
And from some great Unitarian Universalists
For us the most vital faith about man is this; in order to advance, he must be free.
Unintarian Universalism is an ethical rather than a doctrinal religion, with individual freedom as its method and with reason as its guide.
Jack Mendelsohn
The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own. . .
William Ellery Channing
One of the old ones stood up into the morning light and spoke to those who had come back to the river:
"Now we have come again to this place; it is a good thing. My life apart from you is not as strong.
"Yes, I have danced and I have told the stories at my own fire and I have sung to all the six directions.
"But when I am with you, my friends, I know better who it is in me that sings."
Barbara J. Pescan
About Circle Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Sunday Morning Programs
Circle Fellowship gathers for breakfast and fellowship at 10:30 AM on Sunday mornings at the
Fellowship house. The formal program starts at 11:00 and
runs until 12:15 to 12:30. Most people dress casually for
meetings. We do not
meet the Sunday between Christmas and New Years.
Our programs run the gamut from musical recitals to aging, life and death, to various science topics, politics and political science, to Native American issues, drumming, and a series on the beliefs of our members, to name but a few. We ask our presenters to save 15 minutes at the end for questions and discussion, and many presenters encourage discussion throughout their presentations.
We welcome visits to Circle Fellowship—please plan to visit more than once! Because we are lay led, each Sunday is unique, so that no single visit can be representative of the variety of experiences you will have at our services. We are looking forward to your visit!
A Lay Led Congregation
Circle Fellowship is a lay led congregation—we do not have and never have had a minister. We like being lay led, taking responsibility ourselves and for all of our activities; we have been lay led since we were founded in 1973. No blaming the minister if we don't like things here. We simply have to fix them ourselves.
Being lay led makes extra work, but it also creates opportunities to be involved at a level that
may not be available in other congregations. Decisions that are made by the minister and staff at
other congregations are the responsibility of the members at Circle Fellowship.
The members set the tone,
the direction, and determine the content of what happens at Circle Fellowship.
The Experience of Fellowship
The Fellowship is different things to different people. Most members agree that we come together for the community that Fellowship offers, but what that community brings to each person varies. Some come looking to touch base with other people. Some are drawn to an opportunity for meditation, while others look to the content of the programs. Some enjoy our discussions while others experience us as an extended family. One person even defined us as a depression cure.
We are not a congregation where you can slip quietly into a back pew and then slip out at the end of the service. Coming to fellowship means being greeted, welcomed, and invited in. We are sometimes passionate about our ideas and beliefs, but we are able to be passionate, and even to passionately disagree, and still respect one another at the end of the meeting.
One of the
Defining Characteristics of Unitarian Universalists is that we each
have our own truth that we bring with us. We recognize that there is
no one right answer and that one person’s right answer may be wrong
for another. We are not passionate to win the argument, but to share
our ideas and experiences. One of our members operates with what she
calls the paradigm paradigm—which says that the more paradigms that
you can find to use in examining a subject, the better you will
understand that subject. It isn’t about which paradigm is right, but
about what can be understood from this paradigm, this perspective,
which was hidden when looking from another perspective
We often agree to disagree, and that is all right. We
don’t have to come to one right way or belief, or creed. Every
person finds his or her own truth in his or her own heart. We often
offer more questions than answers, and we hope that when we leave we
take with us a bit more thoughtfulness about whatever subject has
been discussed during our coming together.
Projects and activities
Circle Fellowship is an active group, with a variety of activities taking place. We sponsor periodic music performances in our acoustically excellent meeting room. We are also working on becoming a green
sanctuary (where the church and the members reduce their
environmental footprint). Another project is obtaining
Welcoming
Congregation certification from the Unitarian Universalist
Association. Although we have had several gay, lesbian and
transgendered members over the years, and consider ourselves
welcoming, we have found that pursuing this official designation has
brought us new opportunities to learn. We have regular work parties that bring us together in a spirit of camaraderie to keep our Fellowship attractive and in good condition. With the installation of the oak trim around the circumference (a gift from out member and contractor Tom Connerley), our new meeting room is complete, with architecture representing the Unitarian Universalist symbol of the chalice and the flame.
The summer of 1998 saw the creation of our circular deck, and 1997 the remodeling of the Fellowship kitchen. Upcoming projects include widening of halls and installation of a second bathroom, both projects for accessibility, conversion of the side porch into a new entry and coat room, and installation of a gazebo, a gift from Lynn Burton and Quality Hardscapes.
We also have an ongoing project of a meditation trail that will wander through our grounds with various points of meditation along the way, and we are talking about additional landscaping either for backyard habitat certification and/or landscaping to attract a diversity of butterflies and birds.We plan this summer to do the new Unitarian Universalist curriculum, Spirit of Life, 3 Sundays a month for June, July and August. We will also have additional programs and events, including our annual summer retreat this June 6-8.
We also have covenant group meetings on the first and third Wednesday nights at 6:30 pm at the Fellowship House, with the next session starting on the first Wednesday in May.. Covenant Groups provide a more intimate setting for people to get to know each other. Click here for more on covenant groups.