May 4, 2011 -- 2:35AM, RevDorris wrote:

What would happen if everyone who would like to protect this change stated carrying the Jefferson Bible to each church service and meeting?  Better yet maybe insist that a verse be read from it at each service.

I've been wondering if the Jefferson Bible has been banished as well.

Aside to RevD:  Did you notice your Freudian slip was showing with this posting? Somehow, I doubt you meant to type "proTECT this change." Gave me a grin, though.

Thank you Dot,

I went back and made three corrections.

May 4, 2011 -- 5:42PM, Jupiter6208 wrote:

May 3, 2011 -- 8:12AM, RevDorris wrote:

The UUA in always trying to be 'Politically Correct' has lost its flavor and its uniqueness.  Until it regains a path of its own, it has no path but follows in the wake of many others.  Where are the radicals and heretics who were the leaders and pushed man's awareness to new highs?

Maybe they want to become mainstream.

Statistically speaking, it isn't working if that was the intent.

For about a decade after the merger of the Unitarians and Universalists in 1961, adult membership and RE enrollment increased to the largest numbers of each since the merger.

They've since declined or stayed fairly stable. The greatest concern for the denomination's continuance lies in the fact that religious ed enrollment stats show a pretty steady decline over the past twenty years. That does not bode well for a denomination that desperately needs not only to retain those dedicated in childhood once they start their own families but needs to attract more young adults. Part of the reason, too, for fewer kids in RE may also be that people are having fewer children than they did in the early 1960's.

www.uua.org/documents/info/uua_membershi...

Adult membership seems to show an increase recently, but I have to wonder what was reported on the annual surveys. If it was adult members, then I know from church experience that that doesn't reflect how many adults attend services at all regularly and maintain any meaningful level of involvement with their church. Most striking among these was one woman at the UU church I went to most recently whom I ran across at Barnes & Noble after a summer service last year. When I mentioned how much I was enjoying the open forum discussions that constituted summer services, she said she only attends from June until mid-August when the minister returns to the pulpit. The regular services bore her, she explained, whereas she finds the discussions interesting and stimulating.

So when the UUA lauds the fact that adult membership is increasing, it's not by much statistically speaking and in actuality it may not be any at all.

May 5, 2011 -- 9:28AM, RevDorris wrote:

May 4, 2011 -- 8:52PM, Jupiter6208 wrote:

Rev Dorris are you still  a UU?

Let's see:  I believe in One God above all others -- That makes me a Unitarian.

I believe that all people are God's children.  We are told that the 'One' will not allow a single soul to be lost..  and I agree with this statement --- That would make me a Universalist.

You can say I am a 'UU' but not a member of the UUA although I do like the Principles but not the way or the lack of the way they are put into practice.

I definitely see myself subscribing to the same ideas but I'm debating what would the benefit be for me   by   signing the Book and becoming a actual member, a free subscription of UUWORLD? I already subscribe to it. lol  besides when the Rev is gone during the Summer it's rather boring..

It seems very sad to hear from former/ unchurched UU's  I hope things get better for  the UU'S I like them and alot of what they stand for.