MEMBERSHIP: IT’S VISITOR SEASON

The Membership committee is revitalized with Beth Letts as chair and the addition of David High.  Naline Lai and Carol Myers remain stalwarts. We meet monthly on the third Sunday and all are welcome. There might even be food. 

Our current focus is on those non-members who are classified “Active Friends.” This is a designation peculiar to our Fellowship and a curiosity to me. It is not that other Unitarian Universalist churches, societies, fellowships do not have active friends. It is that we have a profusion of them. Thirty-five parents of children in our Religious Education programs alone share that appellation. In my opinion, it is time to accept the title “Member” and the responsibilities and privileges that accompany it. 

My focus in February was to hold meetings every week after the service to discuss some aspect of membership. The attendance was spotty, but the questions were good and provided material for future programs and perhaps a full-blown Adult Religious Education program.

The question, “What is liberal theology and what kind/level of participation is required of me?” put me in mind of an old U.U. joke. 

Once upon a time two UU’s were having a theological discussion. One said, “UU’s are so badly educated when it comes to the Bible.”

“We are not.”

“Oh, yeah?” said the first UU “I’ll bet you can’t even recite the Lord’s Prayer.”

Each slammed down five dollars and the second one said,

            “Now I lay me down to sleep.

            I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

            If I should die before I wake,

            I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

And the first one said, “You win!” 

If you need someone to explain the joke, you should have attended the meetings.

Howard Bennett, Membership Coordinator