Wow! What an interesting day today and I want to thank Anne Schneider and Barbara Face for sharing their message with us today.
While I am certainly one that has no opinion about changing the name of our congregation, I can say with certainty that there are many in our congregation who do. Some are uncomfortable with the language our name suggests and the connotations that it may bring to outsiders. Still others are concern with the expenses required to make such a change and others are strongly holding onto a belief in honoring the traditions that were kindled so long ago in a Tempe pizza parlor.
All of these opinions and beliefs are valid because we all share them. We are a community of individuals who are free to discuss and believe as we want but at the end of the day we must choose only one name that can identify who we are.
To me personally it just doesn't matter. I am not uncomfortable with the word church, nor the message that it may bring to outsiders. Congregation can work but it still is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition that may be uncomfortable for others to embrace. Other words like community or society may suggest we are not a religion at all, but some kind of social group and have no worthy message to bring out or worst uninviting.
I have beliefs about what our name should be and still others have more but we have to agree to work together to solve this. I know that removing or changing the name all together is possible but such a dramatic change will not be accepted by the majority (super majority in this case) of our congregation. We instead should all agree that a very minor change is all that we can realistic achieve at this time.
What make sense to me, and being of zero opinion, would be that we should drop the ending noun “Church” and not replace it with anything. This will at least allow you as individuals to fill in that blank with whatever makes you feel comfortable. I will still call it whatever I call it to whomever I happen to speak it to – as a matter of fact, that often changes with the individual I am speaking with.
Such a minor change will also be much more likely to be acceptable to the greatest number of us. What’s more important with all of this is that we must trust the process. Allow your voices to be heard but those who are most concerned should make the recommendation and I will trust that it is done with the best of intentions and go along with it. No matter what the end result is, know that I have faith in all of us to find something that we can all agree on.
Always in Faith
Ryan Conly
As always, beautifully put! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI agree this is the most practical option. Not only that, but I would say it has all but become the de facto standard. How many of us tell our friends we attend VUUC? VUU is our history and our identity, and I think it would be a shame to lose that. Dropping the "church" at the end would, in my opinion, only bring the actual name into agreement with the current usage by most while fostering an atmosphere of greater inclusion.
ReplyDelete