Responsible
The Tar Heel State
On planning our visit to North Carolina, I chose a community early in its roots yet bursting at the seams of the small meeting house it occupies. What I found was the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fayetteville, eager to grow and ripe with enthusiasm.
A lay led church, this week’s message was presented by UUC Fayetteville member COL (Ret.) Harvest A. Floyd, U.S. Amy, speaking on his personal “Free and Responsible Search for Truth and Meaning.” Within his talk, COL Floyd used a Power Point presentation to trace his logical and well researched history through the advent of “God” (by all names), from Abraham to the First Council of Nicaea and beyond.
In his search, it was ultimately The Jefferson Bible that led COL Floyd to UU’ism. Written by a fellow Unitarian, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the Bible is a counting of the life and morals of Jesus of Nazareth, extracted textually from the Gospels, and void of the additions made by the physical writers of the books of the New Testament.
COL Floyd found, through this search, a strength in morals and in the tests of reason, justice, and compassion with, at the forefront, his own understanding of who Jesus Christ was as man and prophet, and Floyd’s view of God (to all) as one Creator and one in being. With this, he chose the poetry of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273) to illustrate:
“All religions, all this singing, one song. The differences are just illusion and vanity. The sun’s light looks a little different on this wall than it does on that wall, and a lot different on this other one, but it’s still one light.”
Of course, as Unitarian Universalists, it is this ongoing, lifelong personal search that grows and revives our beliefs as individuals in unison with one another. With this freedom, and the knowledge of those around us, we are able to find truth and compassion within ourselves and our world.
For information on attending the UUCF, visit: http://uucfay.org/home.html
traveling tUUsome 