“Articles of Faith” 

My challenge to you this month is to create your own personal Articles of Faith. Articles of Faith usually refers to a religion’s statement of belief or creed, the individual articles of faith being those theological and religious ideas required to claim affiliation with a religion. Unitarian Universalists have no creed and require no profession of faith.  Instead, we ask every Unitarian Universalist to undertake a much more difficult and personal task – creating for yourself a personal philosophy and theology as well as a personal practice of spirituality. 

My challenge to you this month is to create your own articles of faith, a list of things in which you have faith.  If faith is a difficult term for you, understand that in Hebrew and Koine Greek (the language of the Christian Scriptures) the word for faith is actually the word for trust!  In Hebrew, faith is emuna and trust is emun. In Greek, trust is empistosýni and faith is písti. Theologically we can think of faith as trust, so that having “faith” is actually trusting in something or someone.  In what (or who) do you place your deep and secure faith?  What and who do you ultimately and abidingly trust?  You might think of our Unitarian Universalist values outlined in the new Article Two of the UUA bylaws as things in which you put “faith” or trust. 

I have faith in the power of love. I trust the power of love to conquer fear, hate, anxiety, isolation. I trust the power of love to inspire and motivate. I trust that justice is truly what love looks like in action.  I also trust that there is no such thing as a lesser person and that dehumanizing other people is evil. I trust that it’s more important to be kind than nice. I trust that it’s imperative to love my enemies, but not to like them. I trust that in the end there will prove to be enough divine, human, and natural resources to justify taking on an attitude of ultimate if not immediate optimism and therefore although the arc of the moral universe is long, I trust that it will bend toward justice. I trust that it is required of me to help create a just, equitable, and inclusive human society.  I trust my wife, my son, my mom, my friends, my colleagues, and you. What and who do you trust? Reflect and make a list or write a statement, or create some art to express it. 

As always, I would love to hear what your experience of engaging this challenge was like.