First Parish of Watertown

Most Unitarian Universalists have a solid understanding of the UU principles and strive to live their lives with these ideals in mind. But what about that list of Sources usually found accompanying the list of Principles? When First Parish’s RE committee first contemplated the idea of incorporating the UU Sources into our curriculum about the Principles, we realized many members of our community, children and adults alike, had little understanding of what the Sources are. The UUA introduces the Sources with, “the living tradition which we share draws from many sources”. Our Sources are the rich heritage and traditions that have positively influenced our Unitarian Universalist faith.

The UUA lists 6 Sources that have inspired our growth and development. The direct influence of these 6 Sources is important to understand, particularly for those of us who have negative associations with the creeds of one of the Sources. Let’s be clear that just because the UUA acknowledges these traditions as our Sources does not mean that we adopt all of the beliefs and practices of every Source as our own. We are merely acknowledging some components of the tradition as being worthwhile and valuable to our evolution as a faith. When we read each Source in its entirety, we notice that some of the Sources offer us their own guidelines. For example, we do not blindly accept all of the teachings of the Jewish and Christian Traditions as our own. Instead, we recognize the value and wisdom in the “Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves”. This is open for interpretation and puts some responsibility upon us as individuals and congregations to think carefully about which “Jewish and Christian teachings” affirm and promote the idea of a loving God who inspires us to “love our neighbors as ourselves”.

Some folks are initially concerned when they discover our children may be learning bible stories in our RE program because of memories of the “punishing God” they remember from Christian bible stories. What they must realize is that any and all bible stories taught in our programs are carefully selected to promote this Source as it has positively influenced our UU faith – with a loving God figure. In a similar regard, a great responsibility lies with UU religious educators to highlight the same wise, loving, and accepting spirit that rests somewhere within all 6 of our Sources. We must search for and find the individual components of each Source that affirm and promote the ideals and beliefs we share in our UU faith. That is what we intend to do at First Parish.

First Parish wants to include an introduction to all of the UU Sources within our Religious Education program. That is why our two-year curriculum includes opportunities for using the wisdom, stories, practices, traditions, and celebrations from each of our Sources as we present our Principles. By the end of each two-year period, our children will have gotten to experience each of our 7 Principles with some wise and loving guidance from each of our 6 Sources. Our children will discover how each source might inspire us in activating each of our principles. Here are those Sources …

Source of Wonder and Mystery

Source of Inspiring People

Source of World Religions

Source of Judeo-Christian Traditions

Source of Reason and Science

Source of Our Sacred Earth