Fundamental Questions

On October 22 and 23, 1999, the Training and Church Management Committee of the Florida DistrictUUA had the pleasure and honor of hosting the Reverend Clark Olsen for the District’s Fall Leadership Conference held at the First Unitarian Church of Orlando. During the conference, entitled “A Home for Every Unitarian Universalist,” Rev. Olsen addressed the necessity of a long-range planning process for UU congregations, and challenged conference participants to identify the “fundamental questions” for UU congregations to consider as part of that process. During Friday evening’s session the fifty conference participants gathered into four smaller working groups for this thoughtful exercise. At the request of many conference participants and Florida District President, Ed Porteus, we are publishing below the “fundamental questions” as identified by those four working groups:

• How can I be more tolerant of others? (views, life styles, values, beliefs) Where do I want to go, spiritually? What do I want from my church? How can I better incorporate the Principles & Purposes in my life? How can we make our diversity a strength, while not losing sight of our common elements? Am I congruent in my belief, thought and action? (congruency/values clarification = belief-thought-act = “values to shape our actions”) Am I open to diversity in my congruency (as noted above)? How do we heal and find time for reflection? (personal growth) How do we tell our UU story? How do we spread the UU word? What difference does my faith make? What commitment do I make to it? Am I the UU I want to be? How much can I hope for? How much hope can I offer? Where do you spend your money? Which of the principles speak loudest to me? Do I experience conflict with any of them? Do you have UU good news? What is your good news? Why are you not sharing the good news? How does your religious life influence your work/ home/school life?

  Are all theological beliefs really welcome here? How pluralistic are we comfortable being? How do my gifts further the ministry/mission of the congregation? Do I know what our ministry/mission is? What is our witness/impact on the larger community? What sustains us in times of grief/stress/conflict? Do you let your non-UU friends know you are a UU? How do you live your UU values? Do you own a truck? (We’re sure there’s a story behind this question....but we don’t know what it is!)” What makes you come here every week? To what do we owe our allegiance? How does being a UU help you get through life’s tough times? What do we do together that improves the World? How does our religion affect our relationship with others?