Our annual theme for the 2024-2025 year, the theme Rev Mary and I chose to guide our programming choices for this year, is “We’re a counter-cultural congregation focused on love, justice and health. We put our values into practice.”
That statement, that OUUC is a countercultural congregation, may need some explaining. What do we mean by “counter cultural”? I’ll be exploring what it means to be countercultural today (and why we would want to be) in the worship service this Sunday. But the short version for now is this: being countercultural is to form your life, your community, and your own culture based on your values rather than let your values be shaped by the cultural norms of the larger culture around you.
If we take this seriously, that we are shaping our congregational culture to match our intentional values rather than having our values determined by our unexamined culture, then we will have constant culture work to do. I see us doing this, for example:
In the last few years we have shifted our norms and culture around pronouns and gender identity a great deal
In response to Covid we developed new practices and awarenesses of how to keep people safe and still connected
Our cultural norms around food and food labeling have evolved as we become more aware of diverse dietary needs
But to be truly countercultural is to be always adapting and creative in our culture, in response to all that we learn and how we grow as faithful and loving people. That means we still have many ways that we are called to be thoughtful and to change. For instance:
How can we be more truly inclusive of transgender and gender diverse people? How can we further free all of us from gender role rigidity and expectations?
How can we continue to dismantle our own internalized white supremacy culture and our biases? How can we form more genuine relationships across difference? How can we become more diverse?
How can we respond to the needs of new generations and be a truly multigenerational community?
How do we address issues of ableism, accessibility, classism, fat phobia, and other barriers to true welcome for all?
Those are only a few of the critical questions we might ask ourselves as we “put our values into practice”.
So let’s continue to ask these questions, and to be willing to change as we find new answers. Here’s one upcoming opportunity for doing just that:
