are interfaith religious services feasible?

[cellio]

The latest issue of Moment reproduces part of a catalogue page listing "communion wafers (kosher)". It makes me wonder who the target market is, but sadly, that information is absent.
But that's not what I'm here to write about...
My rabbi does a lot of interfaith work locally, mostly

Comments

Unitarians

[cellio]

Hmm, I hadn't thought about that, but you may be right in saying that Unitarians have already invented a lot of this. I wonder if they have any Unitarians in their group.

Unitarians do have a set of beliefs that they expect their members to agree to. I expect they are things we would not have a problem with, though I no longer remember the list. At the time I encountered them, I objected to one on a technicality and had no problems with the other six. I hadn't yet encountered secular humanists, but I suspect they have a lot in common.

Any group (or individual, for that matter) can infuse ritual with meaning. So the things the Unitarians do have meaning for them; presumably, as with any religion, there's an education process that has to happen. (If you take some secular Jew off the street and teach him how to lay t'fillin, he's probably not going to see the meaning right off either.) I've only been to a few Unitarian services and they were neither recent nor mainstream, so I don't have a lot to share on this point. (For those who are wondering: CUUPs, the pagan subgroup. I was a hired musician, not a worshipper. This was more than ten years ago.)

One challenge for this interfaith group will be to infuse a "consensus" set of rituals with broad meaning. That sounds about as hard as making up a new religion would be.

7 principles

[cellio]

Ah, here we go:

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote

* The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
* Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
* Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
* A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
* The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
* The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
* Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

(from UUA)

Re: 7 principles

[gregbo]

My chorus rehearses (and sometimes performs) at a Unitarian Church
in Palo Alto. I don't know much about what is taught, as far as
membership or worship goes, but one thing I have seen is an attempt
to educate people on the many religions of the world.

At one service I thought was pretty interesting, the minister
gave a sermon on having and raising children. She made a lot of
points that made sense to me (it's not for everyone, it requires
a serious commitment, etc.). However, some people in my chorus
didn't like it.

Re: 7 principles

[cellio]

They didn't like it because they don't like the message that kids aren't for everyone? Or for other reasons? It sounds like a sane sermon to me.

And education about other religions is a good thing, IMO.

Re: 7 principles

[gregbo]

Unfortunately, I don't remember what they didn't like about it. I
thought it was an appropriate choice for a sermon, considering kids
from the congregation performed some of the service on that day.