(Untitled)

[con_girl]

Any CUUP (covenant of unitarian universalist pagan) members on this list? Or any unitarian universalist pagans in Canada (where there would appear to be no CUUP members). For those of you who know nothing about what I am talking about you may find www.cuups.org, http://www.cuc.ca/ and/or Read more... )

Comments

[sistercoyote]

Like any other group, a lot depends on the Fellowship you get in with. So you're probably right that a lot has to do with the history of the congregation. Overall, though, my experience with UUs is that most of them walk the talk.

Be careful, though; although there are Unitarian Universalist churches in Canada, there are also Universalist churches (I'm not so sure about the Unitarians) which are still Christian denominations. I'm sure you know, since you linked to the UUA page up there, but it bears repeating that there is a difference between Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist.

Ask your minister about meeting the other pagans in the group. See if anyone's offering or has recently offered a "Rise Up and Call Her Name" class; if so, they're probably (but not definitely) pagan-aware if not pagan themselves.

[tryst_inn]

In a word, not in our experience. In all fairness, it was a very small UU chapter in a rural area and we only attended a few events. The biggest disadvantage was that the UU wanted CUUPs folks to attend their services but wouldn't attend CUUPs ones, even for the big holidays. When CUUPs folks didn't attend UU events, they were essentially told they weren't supporting the UU and things sort of disolved from there.

I'm sure there was more to the story, but that's the gist of what we were told when we asked what happened to the CUUPs chapter.

[perfect_beaker]

That's the issue we have here with ours. The numbers have steadily dropped since our inaugural ritual.

[tryst_inn]

If you're willing to do so, maybe planning a bit divination night would help? I saw a group do that - they had all sorts of tarot, dice, bibliomancers, intro classes, methodology workshops, aeromancy, divining rods, etc. it was great and got a bunch of the UU folks over!

[perfect_beaker]

That is a fantastic idea! I'll have to suggest that at the next meeting!

[con_girl]

It can get very confusing because many UU (unitarian universalist) congregations kept their earlier names (in Canada, at least, most were unitarian) so the place I have attended is UU but the name didn't change (my guess is that this has to do with registering for tax purposes and for tradition).

Re: A niggling detail that's niggling at me.

[con_girl]

Depsite my own concerns, I do not think that it is fair to take that principle, out of context - note immediately below the Christian/Jewish one to the Humanist and the Earth traditions

[lilisonna]

The UU church that I attend is pretty welcoming to the entire spectrum of religious possibilities, but like anything, it's going to vary from congregation to congregation.

[edwarddain]

It depends upon the particular Fellowship/congregation, but the overall organization is very Pagan friendly. The UUs are one of the few "mainstream" organizations where openly NeoPagan clergy can get religious training (at the Master's and Doctoral level) and eventual ordination as ministers (an important legal distinction in some parts of the country as I understand it) - and even find congregations to then minister to. The church where I am still technically a member has an openly Pagan (and Gay if that matters to you) junior minister who was just called there last year and the Senior minister is very Pagan-friendly.

In general, UU congregations are Pagan-friendly just as they are Jewish-friendly or First Nation-friendly, the amount by which other, non-Christian traditions are carried on or observed is really up to the minister and the congregation as a whole - so the more of a particular specific faith group there is the more it will likely be integrated if they are active in working to get it.