CUUPS Bulletin - January/February 2010

Dear Unitarian Fellowship,

The CUUPS Podcast is a reality!
Just over a week ago, CUUPS released the first issue of a monthly podcast on iTunes and Libsyn.com In the first week of release it received over 150 downloads and has generally been very well received. If you have an mp3 player, or your computer accepts audio files, please feel free to download and listen. This issue runs just over 45 minutes and is free!
Download from iTunes
Download from LibSyn

CUUPS Continues to Grow on Facebook

Early in January the CUUPS "group" on Facebook passed 1,000 members. If  you are a current CUUPS member who is on and proficient with Facebook and would like to help keep the group active, new folks welcomed, etc. - we are seeking another assistant administrator for the CUUPS group just contact bulletin@cuups.org

CUUPS National Membership Drive in 2010

We have begun the first national membership drive that CUUPS has had in several years. If your membership expired in 2006, 7 or 8 you were sent an email requesting your renewal. Once we've processed the responses to those emails (and also those who respond to this newsletter). We'll send one out to those whose membership expired last year.
However, if you want to preempt us in this you can do it right now!
We've worked out a simple way to renew without having to mail a letter - just go to this link, and copy the text - then you can paste it into an email to membership@cuups.org then fill it out and hit "Send". After that to send us the funds, click the "CUUPS Donor Link" and send us $25 for each one year membership or $60 for each 3 year membership.

Please remember that just because you participate in activities with a chapter, that does NOT automatically make you a member of CUUPS.

Why spend money on national dues? Well, it makes this Bulletin possible. Also it allows us to have a presence at the UUA's General Assembly. We're also doing this membership drive in increase our capacity to bring Earth-Centered religious resources to you. The CUUPS Podcast, we talked about above is one of those. Also the CUUPS Board is busy on working on the plans for an annual  UU-Pagan Sermon contest. Currently we're busy working out rules and prizes, etc. We will provide the official announcment with all the relevant details at General Assembly in Minneapolis in June.

This is issue number 12 of the CUUPS Bulletin where David wonders if Sylvia Plath would be a CUUPS member, if she were still alive, we feature a British article on Pagan tendencies in Unitarianism, announce the release of CUUPS first Podcast, and discover what several different chapters and UU Societies are planninig for Imbolc/Candlemas.

To send something to the CUUPS Bulletin, just email bulletin@cuups.org

 Pagan tendencies in Unitarianism-a short history

Many people think that the Pagan or Earth Spirit element in Unitarianism started around 1980 with the first UU Pagan ritual, or with the foundation of CUUPs (Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) in America in 1986, or the Unitarian Earth Spirit Network in the UK, founded in 1990.  In fact, it has its roots in some much earlier developments.

Michael Servetus (often regarded as the first Unitarian martyr) decided on the unity of God in part because he had been reading Hermetic texts, according to Earl Morse Wilbur, author of a history of Unitarianism in two volumes.  The Hermetic texts were a loose compendium of Platonist and Neo-Platonist texts from late antiquity (the last days of the ancient pagan world).  Certainly some pagan thinkers of antiquity (such as Socrates) insisted on the unity of the Divine.  Another notable pagan thinker of late antiquity was Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, who pleaded for religious tolerance for pagans in the face of Christian intolerance:

"Everything is full of gods. Whatever men worship, it may fairly be called one and the same. We all look up to the same stars; the same heaven is above us all; the same universe surrounds every one of us. What does it matter by what system of knowledge each one of us seeks the truth? It is not by one single path that we attain to so great a secret."  - Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

Paganism is generally tolerant of different viewpoints because most Pagans believe that everyone has their own unique path to walk, and that there is a vast array of deities.  Unitarians are tolerant because they tend to believe that everyone's experience is unique and different religions are different perspectives on the same underlying reality.

When Unitarianism in Britain officially began, it was not long before it attracted the attention of one Iolo Morganwg, who had earlier written a huge collection of material for the nascent Druid movement, and went on to become a Unitarian minister and to write many of the hymns used in the Welsh Unitarian hymnbook.  At that time ancient druidry was thought to have been a debased form of the Hebrew religion, brought to Britain by the Phoenicians, so it is hardly surprising that Morganwg became interested in Unitarianism.  Nevertheless, the Druid movement of which he was one of the founders has evolved into the modern Pagan Druid movement.

The most obvious way in which Unitarianism has influenced contemporary Paganism is through the Transcendentalists (a group of Unitarians from New England).  Ralph Waldo Emerson, who began the Transcendentalist movement, had read the writings of Rammohun Roy, and was deeply influenced by them.  Emerson's own writings were widely read, and he became friends with Walt Whitman, who corresponded with Edward Carpenter, a gay Pagan socialist vegetarian whose writings were influential in the Pagan movement at the beginning of the twentieth century.  It is probably because of the Transcendentalists that Paganism has so often been referred to as a "Nature religion" according to Chas Clifton, an American scholar of Pagan Studies.  Most Pagans and many Unitarians believe that the Divine (or deities) is/are immanent in the world; an important prerequisite for treating the planet with respect.

Esoteric ideas were quite common among late nineteenth century Unitarians.  For instance, Unitarians had dialogue with the Theosophists; and some of the writings of Unitarians (such as Gertrude von Petzold) used similar language and concepts to that of esoteric Christians, occultists and "neo-pagans" of the period, which suggests that they were in contact - reading each other's writings, and perhaps corresponding or meeting. 

When the Unitarian chalice symbol was designed by Hans Deutsch in the 1940s, it was intended to reflect both the altar flames of ancient pagan Greece and the communion chalice of the Hussite movement, a Protestant group founded by Jan Hus, who gave communion in both kinds (bread and wine) to his congregation; previously the laity were only allowed to receive the bread.

So, pagan and pantheist ideas have been in circulation in Unitarianism since it began; they are not a recent introduction, but an integral part of Unitarian engagement with the world, because both Paganism and Unitarianism are world-affirming.

~ Yvonne Aburrow

Unitarian Earth Spirit Network

 CUUPS Podcast is Out!

We sent the following email out to all CUUPS chapter email lists on Jan. 21st:

The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans has just released the first issue of their new CUUPS Podcast. It features an interview with British academic Michael York which was recorded last month at the Parliament of World Religions in Australia. CUUPS is a UU related organization the focused on Earth-centered spirituality and Pagan practices within the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Also included in the podcast is:
* basic information about CUUPS
* and information about a few of the many dozens of Imbolc and Candlemas celebrations that will be happening in UU Congregations across the country in the coming few weeks.

You can download a free copy of the podcast either by going to
http://cuups.libsyn.com or to the religious podcast section of the iTunes store.

 ---
The next issue of the CUUPS Podcast is scheduled to be released the week of Feb. 15-19. If you have information that you'd like included in it either email it to bulletin@cuups.org OR call 330-89-CUUPS (330-892-8877.)

CUUPS Making Plans for a Changing GA

The UU World has recently reported about some significant changes to this year's General Assembly in Minneapolis. For one thing, all GA Program Committee approved workshops have been limited to timeslots on either Thursday or Friday. Secondly, most of the workshop choices will focus on variations of one theme - how to grow congregations. Because of this, CUUPS will not be offering any formal "in program book" workshops at this year's General Assembly.
However, that does NOT mean we won't be offering any programming. CUUPS along with several other of the former theological Independent Affiliates are purchasing a large area in the display hall and will be setting up a mini-classroom there to hold programming when we want to!
As always, we will also strive to have our Annual Meeting and Mid-Summer services on Saturday at a location that is accessible to GA registrants as well as people who don't have $310 to register for General Assembly. Currently, it looks like this will happen early Saturday afternoon at one of the parks new the Convention Center, but we will get back with you on the precise details in the next month or two.

It appears that the changes for the 2010 GA are but a very small taste of what's to come. Last weekend, the 5th Principle Project Report to the UUA Board proposed a total re-working General Assembly starting in a few years. They envision a GA that's a biennial event with a much smaller pool of delegates who expenses are paid for by the UUA. This has (not surprisingly) generated a huge amount of discussion. The CUUPS Board (and hopefully many members) will be keeping a close eye on this issue as it progresses and will keep you informed of what impact this has on our ability to operate at General Assembly.