Unitarian Universalism, or UU for short, is my religion. We are a small yet incredibly strong community that welcomes people of all faiths. Our core beliefs are the Seven Principles, which entail: the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth; 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; and respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. You might have noticed there is nothing about God mentioned, or any other deity for that matter. That is probably one of the most shocking things to non-UUs, we don’t all believe in God. Then what do we talk about on Sundays? How can we possibly hold a worship service without someone to dedicate it to? But the thing is, we do have someone to dedicate it to. It’s just not a deity. We dedicate our prayers and sermons to people around the world and close to home that need help at that time. For example, after recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, we’ve dedicated several services to talking about actions we can take to stop racial profiling and other acts against people of color in our own country. We talked about Haiti after the earthquake a few years ago, and my dad, a survivor of the earthquake, talked about his experience in Haiti before and after the earthquake.
The best part of being a UU, though, is not the open and welcoming environment at church, but the youth empowerment retreats held by the Metro NY District every few months. These conferences, or cons for short, are what I consider to be the single thing that influences me most as a person. I can’t even begin to describe the feeling a person gets when walking into a con. But first of all, what are cons? Cons are meetings held by high school UUs for high school UUs. They take place over a weekend, starting Friday night and continuing all Saturday until Sunday morning. We have workshops for everything from gender discussion to ultimate frisbee to friendship bracelets to meditation. Basically, there’s something for everyone. On Friday and Saturday night, we have a worship. Usually they’re based on something general like stress relieving or happiness or moving forward. They always get very deep and personal, especially when people share stories. The things that are shared at worships are things you thought you’d never tell anyone, like the time that you had to call the police because your best friend was going to attempt suicide, or the time when you laughed so hard you squirted chocolate milk out of your nose. The intense emotions of worship sharing contrasted with the playful hilarity of blob tag provides a surprisingly strong bond between every person there. I’ve made friendships over the course of a day that have been stronger than friendships that took years to form, and I think that is my favorite thing about cons. You meet people already knowing that you’re going to be friends, and you spend so much time having fun and enjoying life that you forget about social conventions and anxieties that prevent you from forming such lasting relationships with people in your daily life.
I can only hope that from my very brief summary, you get some sense of what it’s like to be a Unitarian Universalist teenager, or at least what it’s like to be me.