I havent heard much of the shame of leaving the UUCF (cant deny it though), although I admit that I do get extremely tired (and yes cranky) at the UU bashing that I sometimes get with some ex-UU Christians who’ve turned to other denominations. I often feel like I am being chased by rabid cult deprogramers. While I understand that folks want to share their personal joy with others, I wish people would understand that some of us happen to currently like being UUs (although we might like the warts removed). * To be fair I havent heard much of that this year, but 2004-2005 gave me enough to last for years….

As for diminishing the UUCF, I think that the “shame” associated with leaving imposes silence and that’s its own kind of diminishment. Whatever my future with the UCC, I’ll keep my UUCF membership (with plans to attend Revival this Novemeber.) And talk about it publicly all the way.

I’ve also seen the ministers cross over to the UCC. And I’ve seen the looks of dismay from lay folk, the grief of loss among colleagues, and even the rare accusations of betraying the UU Christian Fellowship’s cause. But the transition now makes sense to me at the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual levels; when I think about what it means to follow your spiritual path with a community, where you aren’t constantly apologizing for following Jesus. [Sad when we think it wrong for the GLBT community to have to apologize, but we so seldom think it is wrong for us to require UU Christians to do the same apology dance {and there is significant overlap between the UU Christian and UU GLBT populations).

As CS Lewis once wrote, “Christianity is one of the few things you can not do on your own.”

But in any event, having crossed the Cuyahoga myself, as you know, I have my own sets of ideas about what’s happening now. I think that the UCC is really what’s going on - it is seeming more and more of a viable alternative for UU Christians, given its increasing progressiveness on a number of countsand it seems to be able to provide what feels to many of us to be a more hospitable home for us than the UUA. A colleague of mine said something like (I’m paraphrasing, this is not exact at all) that beloning to a UCC church gave her the opportunity to embrace and explore the mystery of God, without having to deal with doctrine. I really liked that.

One of the things I’m also noticing is that although there are many very progressive UCC congregations, I get the impression that they, for the most part, have not been engaging in developing, as someone put it at one point (I wish I remember who) a “theology of what I don’t like” - that process tjat seems to be endemic in UU congregations (and the UUA at large) of continually reducing what gets said and used in liturgy and worship and conversation because something insults someone (oh. like the word ‘God’ for instance). I don’t know why that is, but I find it intersting. I’m sure there are some congregations somewhere that are going through that, perhaps, but it’s just not a process I’ve at all been aware of in the UCC.

There are at least 4 people I know right now who are seminarians or recently out of seminary that are crossing the Cuyahoga. In fact, a student I know from Starr King said to me “all PSR UUs defect.” I hadn’t thought of it that way, and he is not actually correct (I know of at least three who have no such plans.) But it’s interesting that that perspective is out there.

And unfortunately, the more people that cross the Cuyahoga, the smaller the UU Christian Fellowship will be, which kind of has the effect of accelerating the process.