Dear members and friends of the Fellowship,
We had a small
gathering on January 8, but we set to work on polishing a couple of places in
the Charter of our organization (that had been approved May 2016).
I hope all members approve of the changes.
Please email me with any dissensions or comments. All
suggestions will be considered but not all can be incorporated into the text
(as was the case last Spring).
We will vote to approve the slightly modified Charter
at our March (not February) 2017 regular meeting.
The full text is attached.
Main changes to the Charter are in Point
II and Postscript
Point II now says:
II. In
the Unitarian tradition we have no requirements of doctrine or creed. We
welcome all English speakers who seek intellectually stimulating presentations
(by a broad range of speakers) and interactive discussions on topics about
religion, culture, social justice and world
peace.
We are a small group who share a common search for meaning or truth through the
free and friendly examination of spiritual, moral and existential aspects of
religion, philosophy and cultural traditions. We are all on individual paths of
inquiry and commitment to others (and society), no matter what our starting
points.
We
respect each person who comes to Fellowship and extend hospitality and
friendship to all.
However
we will not tolerate threats of violence, sexual harassment, or malicious
gossip. (The moderator and core members shall meet and take speedy action in
such cases.)
++++++++++++++
And we added to our postscript at the end of the main
points of our Charter.
The modified postscript now reads:
Postscript
We respect
David Rankin’s (Unitarian/Universalist Association of North America) list of
“What do Unitarian Universalists Believe In?”
Freedom of
religious expression and individual conscience.
Toleration of
religious ideas.
Authority of
reason and personal conscience above any institutions.
An ongoing
search for truth.
Unity of
experience [that sees no inherent conflict between secular and sacred].
Worth and
dignity of each and every human being.
Ethical
application of religion/faith in social involvement.
Motive force
of love [and of finding non-violent solutions].
Necessity of
the democratic process and transparent governance.
Importance of
[religious] community.
To which we
add our obligation to preserve and support the interdependent web of existence
of all living beings on the planet.
And we
look to the UU Covenant of Congregations that posits that Unitarians draw from
many sources;: direct experience, words and deeds of prophetic women and men
working for social justice and peace, wisdom from the world’s religions
(including Jewish and Christian teachings and other traditions including
Buddhism), and the Humanist teaching to heed science and reason.
***************
On January 8 we looked at our Charter partially because our
topic for discussion was "Unitarians and Prayer" and we talked a bit
about "Who do we (Unitarians/personally) pray to?" especially the
non-theists or humanists amongst us.
We decided to talk more about the topic at a later
meeting and recommend two essays in the Church of the Larger Fellowship
newsletter.
NEXT MEETING
Sunday, February 12
3:00 to 5:00
International House of Japan (see their website or
call them for directions in English).
Near Roppongi and Azabu Juban subway stations.
Update: We are currently confirming our speaker for February.
Peggy Kanada, moderator
