Rev. Arthur Foote used to call newcomers to Unitarian Universalist congregations \u201cshedders,\u201d the term used by lobstermen in Maine to describe that tender moment in a lobster\u2019s life between shedding its first shell and acquiring its mature one.\u00a0 That\u2019s a vulnerable time, a period of transition from one way of life to the next, whether it\u2019s chosen it (as in our case) or not (as in the lobster\u2019s).<\/p>\n
Many of us experience an uncertain, liminal time, when we leave behind a social world, or a way of thinking, although we\u2019re not sure yet where we belong, what kind of faith, what kind of politics, what way of seeing will fit us better.<\/p>\n
Unitarian Universalist history includes many stories of rebels and truth-seekers who pushed the boundaries of convention.\u00a0 Some self-identified as exiles, or at least as emigrants, either from another religious tradition or from an utterly un-churched secular life, because they could not with integrity abide imposed beliefs or practices.<\/p>\n
Often sung at UU services are the beautiful words of Rumi\u2019s poem,\u00a0\u201cCome, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0They remind congregants of forced or willful departures, of going where they need to go, even if it takes them far from their first home.<\/p>\n But they know that in many places around the world, as well as in Sedona, nearly everyone is a refugee, a migrant, a nomad, who has moved here from another part of our country, or across a national border.\u00a0 We\u2019re a community of shedders.\u00a0 In fact, movement and change now seem inherent in the modern human condition.<\/p>\n Moreover, we\u2019ve been strengthened by our shedding — as we stretched and grew and chose ever more deliberately and bravely the manner of person we are and want to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rev. Arthur Foote used to call newcomers to Unitarian Universalist congregations \u201cshedders,\u201d the term used by lobstermen in Maine to describe that tender moment in a lobster\u2019s life between shedding its first shell and acquiring its mature one.\u00a0 That\u2019s a vulnerable time, a period of transition from one way of life to the next, whether … Continue reading SUUF and Shedders [#61]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7211"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8849,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7211\/revisions\/8849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}