“May We Recall in Gratitude All That Has Given Us Birth”



“May We Recall in Gratitude All That Has Given Us Birth”Observations of the Unitarian Universalist Church121 9th Street South, Fargo, ND 58103Sunday, October 30, 2011Tyler AndersonSOC 352 – Qualitative Methods11/7/2011According to Emile Durkheim, “there is something eternal in religion that is destined to outlive the succession of particular symbols in which religious thought has clothed itself.” In his explication, Durkheim describes religion, and religious services in particular, as the primary node for collective consciousness – the shared beliefs which govern a society. In this way, religion can be understood as a method by which society comes together, forming social solidarity and integration. Furthermore, this explication suggests that religion itself is simply a means to the end of this integration and, therefore, the religious practices themselves serve the purpose of providing shared experiences more so than personal salvation. One way in which Durkheim’s understanding of religion can be clarified is in analysis of religious institutions that focus more on the social collective rather than specific creeds, deities, or belief structures. One such institution – the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church – was visited recently in order to observe and analyze the practices performed therein. HistoryThe Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) was founded in 1961 by merging two Christian denominations - the Universalist Church of America and the American Unitarian Association. Traditionally, the Universalist Church held the belief that, since God would not create a human He knew would be destined for eternal damnation, that all people were destined for salvation. Unitarians, meanwhile, dismissed the conventional idea of the Trinity, believing that God is a single entity. With their consolidation in 1961, the two groups formed a congregation that promotes universal understanding and acceptance – beliefs which often run counter to other Christian organizations that dismiss both science and alternative belief structures.According to the official website, Unitarian Universalists avoid a concrete belief structure, opting instead for a list of seven principles promoting: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.In order to maintain these principles, the UUA encourages practices that most churches do not. For instance, the UUA advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, as well as environmental justice, comprehensive sex education, gender equality, and immigrant rights. The UUA also stands apart from other religious institutions with its acceptance of science and reason and humanist teachings which “warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.”Reflexivity StatementI have chosen to include a reflexivity statement with this research so that the reader understands how my own personal views may influence my analysis. As a non-religious person it could be argued that I may have entered this research with a bias. However, it must be said that any negative view I have of religion comes not from religion itself but from individuals who choose to abuse it and use it as justification for oppression. For instance, in my personal life I am often critical of public policy legislation which can be oppressive and prejudiced based solely on religious grounds – the banning of same-sex marriage being one example. In order to avoid this bias, a primary concern when choosing which religious service to visit was to find an alternative faith. Indeed, one of my main motivations for observing the Unitarian Universalists was its emphasis on being a “welcoming congregation” open to all individuals. Furthermore, I viewed this research as a way to better understand how the religious service impacts, and is impacted by, evolving social realities. In this way, I attempted to minimize the influence of any bias by focusing on the religious service – including the various rituals and behaviors – and the ways in which it helps form collective consciousness. InterestsMy interest in Unitarian Universalism began when I was told by my partner that we were to attend a wedding ceremony being held at the church. Before this I had never heard of Unitarian Universalism but became intrigued when I realized the ceremony was a handfasting (a ritual which binds the hands of the individuals involved to symbolize their commitment to each other). Handfasting, a traditionally Gaelic practice, has contemporarily been used by pagans, same-sex, opposite-sex, and ployamorous groups. Naturally, my interest was piqued and I decided to observe the normal rituals of a Sunday service.ObjectivesMy main objective for this research is to adequately and accurately explain the rituals and actions of a typical Sunday service at a Unitarian Universalist church. Furthermore, I hope to explain these actions in the form of a grounded theory which will help promote understanding of these rituals and actions, as well as the social realities and possible social functions of the church.MethodologyThe main method used in this research was that of ethnographic observations from the participant-as-observer perspective. Though I attempted to remain uninvolved in the various rituals there did come times in which I was asked or expected to participate. Furthermore, I use supplemental research to strengthen both the grounded theory as well as the understanding of the history of Unitarian Universalism. TerminologyIntroit: a choral response sung at the beginning of a religious service.Flaming Chalice: the symbol of the Unitarian Universalist faith.Recessional: a hymn or other piece of music played at the end of a service while the congregation is filing out.Collective Consciousness: a term coined by the French sociologist ?mile Durkheim (1858–1917) to refer to the shared beliefs and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society.Collective Effervescence: perceived energy formed by a gathering of people as might be experienced at a sporting event, a carnival, a rave, or a riot. This perception can cause people to act differently than in their everyday anic Solidarity: social cohesiveness that is based on division of labor and interdependence and is characteristic of complex, industrial societies. EnvironmentThe Fargo-Moorhead Unitarian Universalist church is a rather small building, painted tan with purple doors. A sign on the outside of the building advertises times of worship as well as the words “Welcoming Congregation” bordered with rainbows indicating their acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual congregants (see example). The windows around the building are made up of opaque square blocks similar to those found in bathrooms which let light in but are not see-through. After entering the church, individuals find themselves in an atrium with places to hang their coats on the right and bathrooms on the left. Looking straight ahead one would see two sets of stairs – one going up and one going down. I did not venture down the stairs but, as I understand, it consisted of a socializing area for congregants after the service.At the top of the stairs individuals come upon a landing on which congregants welcome them to the church. On the left side of the landing sits an office and what appears to be a Sunday school classroom, with a square table surrounded by chairs. At the far right of this landing, individuals can enter the chapel consisting of a large open room with three sets of chairs – one set in the middle and two on either side angling towards the center for a total of about 60-70 seats. The chapel area is adorned with, what seems to be, random artwork that is a little out of place. For example, the north wall held a motivational poster often found in classrooms or work settings. Figure 1: Photos of the exterior of the Unitarian Universalist churchObservationsSunday, October 30th, 2011 – 11:00am After entering the church I walked up the stairs to the upper landing where I was greeted by an elderly woman who handed me a program for the day’s worship, which also included fliers for a movie night, an evaluation form for the day’s service, as well as a form on which individuals could request information or provide suggestions. A heavyset elderly man showed me through the chapel doors and invited me to take a seat. I took a seat toward the back in the set of chairs on the left side of the room so that I might best observe the goings on. After sitting I noticed two individuals walking around and greeting and/or introducing themselves to different members of the congregation. Though neither introduced themselves to me, I later identified them as Jim Fremstad and Carolyn Monzingo by the parts they played in the day’s program. An organist played music as individuals trickled in and settled into their seats. When services started I noted roughly 40-50 people in the chapel, mostly adults but about 10 children. The congregants looked mostly middle- to lower-middle class, mostly wearing t-shirts or button-up shirts with jeans or slacks. Mostly all of the children in attendance were wearing jeans and t-shirts, though two brothers between the ages of 5 and 10 were dressed as chimney sweeps and one little girl about 5 or 6 years old was dressed as a witch – apparently preparing for Halloween the next day. To begin the day’s program, Mr. Fremstad offered a welcoming address to the congregation, which included an introit entitled Enter, Rejoice, and Come In, as well as an opening covenant and the lighting of a chalice by one of the chimney sweeps to signal the beginning of worship. Following this, the hymn For the Beauty of the Earth was sung and a recitation, labeled a “responsive reading”, named “The Womb of the Stars” was spoken by the congregation. The recitation was the first point that I noticed a distinct difference between Unitarian Universalists and other Christian groups due to the lyrics of the reading. Such lines as “We are of the stars, the dust of explosions cast across space” and “We are of the earth: we breathe and live in the breath of ancient plants and beasts” emphasize the acceptance of scientific reason and communal harmony with nature. After the reading, Mr. Fremstad handed emcee responsibilities over to Carolyn Monzingo, who started by calling the children and any other individuals who wished to come to the front of the chapel where she read them The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein - a story in whic a young boy befriends a tree which it later uses for its resources. Mostly all the children and a few adults walked to the front and sat legs crossed to better see the pictures as she read to them. After the reading, three children carried baskets filled with apples and gave each congregant an apple and napkin so that they might participate in an apple communion. After the apples were handed out, the children were dismissed for what I assume was Sunday school. When the children had exited Ms. Monzingo asked us all to hold our apples. She began explaining how amazing the apple is, growing from the earth, weathering storms, animals, high winds, and a number of other threats so that we could come along, break its brittle stem, and use it to sustain ourselves. At this point it seemed as if the purpose of the apple communion was to strengthen the congregation's bond with nature, as opposed to the traditional Catholic communion, which hopes to strengthen one's bond with Christ.She emphasized the importance of appreciating the food that we eat, and how doing so allows us to both understand and enjoy it more. In order to show this appreciation, she had us look at the apples, smell them, and rub them on our cheeks so that all of our senses could enjoy them. After a short while she allowed us to eat our apples, which we all did, as she opened the floor for the congregation to discuss anything that may be on its mind, whether pertaining to the apple communion or not. The father of the two chimney sweeps – dressed in a black fleece sweater and jeans – explained how much he appreciated these types of lessons and how much a similar communion by the church taught him to appreciate the food that he put into his body more. Other discussion topics included a congregation member who was in the hospital – the woman explaining the circumstances asked everyone to keep him “in your thoughts” – and where to find an apple orchard that offered homemade apple cider. After the discussion, the congregation recited another reading and listened as a congregation member sing a hymn. When that was over Ms. Monzingo invited worshippers to voice “Joys and Concerns”, which consisted of individuals coming to the front of the chapel, lighting a candle via the chalice, and expressing things that either brought them comfort or trouble. Those speaking during this time included a young boy who expressed happiness that his mother was marrying her boyfriend, a young woman who had described that she had not been to the church for a while but was excited to start coming back more, and a woman again expressing concern for the gentleman in the hospital. At the end, Ms. Monzingo lit one more candle for all the joys and concerns that remained unspoken. Next, the congregation sang another hymn – Oh Come, You Longing Thirsty Souls – followed by the closing words by Ms. Monzingo and the extinguishing of the chalice. Lastly, the congregation sang the recessional Go Now in Peace, after which the congregants filed out of the chapel as the organist played the theme song from the Peanuts cartoons. The congregants were mostly attentive, listening to the program and talking amongst themselves intermittently and addressing each other formally. The children that were in the congregation were also well-behaved and attentive, giggling now and again at various things. However, one individual in particular stood out. She was an African-American woman in her early to late twenties who was sitting fairly close to me, wearing a denim jacket and sporting a respectable afro. She was the only adult to immediately stand up and walk to the front when Ms. Monzingo told the congregation that adults were allowed to come to the front during the reading of The Giving Tree. During the rest of the program, she listened while knitting a yellow scarf, which seemed a little odd for a church service. I thought she was interesting because her behavior during the service runs counter to how one would expect someone to act during worship, and it illustrated the relaxed attitude of the church.LimitationsAs with all ethnographic research performed by full time students, the main limitation for this research was time. It would have been helpful to have attended multiple services and join the congregants after the services to converse and socialize. Unfortunately, the day I performed my observations coincided with a research opportunity for another class, so I was unable to stay after the service. Another limitation was the lack of notes. Out of respect, I refrained from taking any notes until after I returned to my vehicle, where I feverishly tried to jot down whatever I could remember before it disappeared, making my observations that much more incomplete.DiscussionA researcher generally has two main approaches with which to construct grounded theory: positivist and interpretive. Positivist approaches tend to be more empirical and scientific, focusing on theoretical concepts as variables for hypothesis testing which can lead to results that can be tested and duplicated. Alternatively, interpretive approaches emphasize the understanding of the social phenomena that is subject to research and acknowledges the researcher’s interpretation as a single understanding of multiple realities. For the purpose of this analysis I will attempt to form a theory through the interpretive perspective. More specifically, I attempt to form a constructivist ground theory, which Charmaz (2010) describes as “plac[ing] priority on the phenomena of study and see[ing] both data and analysis as created from shared experiences and relationships with participants and other sources of data.” Mainly, I theorize that the Unitarian Universalist church reinforces Durkheim’s theory of social integration, including his view of the importance of religion in such integration. As mentioned earlier, Durkheim saw religion as important for its role in shaping social morality and promoting collective conscious. Furthermore, as reason and science continues to develop understanding of the natural, the impact and pervasiveness of the supernatural wanes. Even so, Durkheim believed that the solidarity that religion can provide will remain once we have outgrown our “religious cloth.” In this understanding, the role of religion transcends the spiritual by providing the interactions that shape the collective consciousness. Durkheim believed that this formation was important because, due to our emotional ties to it, the collective consciousness eclipses egoism, helping to create and reinforce cultural mores. As society continues to gain knowledge about how the world works, the supernatural role that religion has traditionally played in explaining the unexplainable becomes less and less necessary. At the same time, however, societies grow, making social interaction more organic and social integration more difficult. It makes sense then that individuals searching for shared experience and social solidarity would turn to religion to achieve them, since although religion as an explanation for the unexplainable gradually loses its credibility, no other replacement for religion has been formed to take up its role in forming collective consciousness. My argument that Unitarian Universalism demonstrates this is based just as much on the things I did not observe as the things that I did observe. For example, I noticed that there was no mention of God during the service and few mentions of anything spiritual, such as heaven or hell. Indeed, the rituals were very general, with the majority of the program focusing more on our interactions with nature as human beings and the importance of the mutual beneficence of this relationship. This fact helps elucidate the Unitarian Universalist's acceptance of other faiths as well as their desire not to alienate individuals from their services - Hindus, Buddhists, Catholics, Jews, and agnostics alike can all enjoy the services at the UU church without compromising their theological beliefs.Furthermore, the church’s website describes itself as a “Welcoming Congregation" that seeks to be a spiritual home for people of free faith regardless of race, color, gender, affectional or sexual orientation, age, national origin, socio-economic status, physical or mental ability.” This acceptance of all individuals regardless of faith offers credibility to Durkheim’s belief that the spiritual aspects of religion are superficial and that the primary role of religion is to provide shared experiences. Lastly, the church’s acceptance of science and scientific evidence, which is often inconsistent with most other religions, further relays the message that the Unitarian Universalist church is more concerned with collective effervescence than validating spiritual dogma. ConclusionMy experience at the Unitarian Universalist church in Fargo provided me the fantastic opportunity to experience a small part of the lives of the people who occupy the chapel every Sunday. In my observations I was able to better understand the varying ways in which people worship as well as the societal roles of religious institutions. As mentioned above, as evidence continues to emerge which explains what was once thought to be supernatural, it is my prediction that belief structures like those held by Unitarian Universalism will become more and more appealing as individuals continue to look for forms of social integration. Though Unitarian Universalism is a relatively new faith, it will be interesting to see how it evolves over time, and what other institutions may form as a result. Unfortunately, my ability to observe, converse, and analyze was severely limited by time. In the future, I would enjoy furthering my research by attending more services, as well as social events both in and out of the church to better recognize where my theory is either validated or deflated. I would also like to delve into the religious legitimation crisis that my analysis hints at to see whether or not there is evidence that religious institutions attempt to demonstrate practical functions as science, it would seem, threatens its credibility. Certainly, the information provided in this research cannot fully provide an understanding of belief structure of Unitarian Universalism or its adherents. However, these observations do provide a compelling starting point into the understanding of the deeper role religion plays in social life, as well as its shift from supernatural transcendence to collective consciousness.ReferencesUUA: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. < Universalist Church Fargo Moorhead. Web. 07 Nov. 2011. <, Kathy. "Reconstructing Theory in Grounded Theory Studies."?Constructing Grounded Theory: a Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis. London: SAGE, 2006. 123-50. Print. ................
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