First Parish Church, Ashby, MA

January 22, 2012 (Sunday 4)
First Parish Church
Rev. Eric Hausman
831 Main Street
Ashby, MA 01431
978.386.5660

Church History: The First Parish Church in Ashby was originally constructed as the Ashby Town hall in 1809, based on a pattern by influential American architect Asher Benjamin.   The structure still possesses its original siding, as well as its bell, which was cast by Paul Revere’s Bronze Works. The town of Ashby retains ownership of the clock, which is wound once a week by a town employee.

Affiliation: Unitarian Universalist (217,000 members)

The theological swing between the Cornerstone Church that I visited last week, and this week’s visit to the First Parish Church in Ashby, may well end up being the largest one-week theological swing I encounter this year. This marks the first time I’ve ever attended service at a Unitarian Universalist Church, although I have played at many open mikes that are hosted by area UU churches.

Sunday’s Service: The 10:00 am service began with a welcome and announcements, followed by an instrumental prelude and call to worship. After that, the lighting of the chalice was performed. The flaming chalice is the symbol of Unitarian Universalist faith. After this brief ceremony the congregation sang a selection from the hymnal and then recited their congregational affirmation, followed by the singing of the doxology and then a responsive reading (again from the hymnal). Next was an offering of joys and concerns followed by prayer and silent meditation.

After the offertory and another song from the hymnal, Rev. Eric Hausman began his sermon, titled Heroes and Us. He began by making the observation that it is human nature to build up our heroes and tear them down, observing that heroes are not perfect, nor perhaps would we want them to be. Noting that particular temptations (such as pride) were perhaps particularly tempting to heroes, Rev. Hausman then pointed out some of our own challenges to maintaining our humility, ranging from the ironic (taking pride in our own humility) to the hubristic (believing that the things we believe, whatever they might be, are by our beliefs elevated to the status of infinite objective truth). He referenced seventeenth century mathematician Blaise Pascal, who said that man is  “… trapped between two infinities of unknowing.”

Rev. Hausman pointed out that freedom from dogma can open up new possibilities for us, in a sense (like Icarus) making us feel as if we can fly. Shifting to highlight the importance of being a meaningful part of the world we desire, he indicated that we must both commit ourselves to those things which we believe, but at the same time avoid being caught up in our own frailties, for example having plenty of tolerance for ideas we find agreeable, but not extending that same tolerance to ideas that may oppose our own.

Returning to the metaphor of Icarus, Rev. Hausman asserted that in flying, humans are both at their best and their most foolish, using foolish in the best possible sense of the term. He then mentioned Superman (the superhero), and segued to the life story of actor Christopher Reeve that played Superman in the movies, and who adopted the Unitarian faith after the accident that rendered him a quadraplegic.

This brought us to the primary focus of his sermon, to point out that at our worst, only the supermen are welcome, and the fallen are not. He pointed out that his congregation welcomed the fallen and the flying alike, and that they are a place where people have the freedom to be truly religious, in the sense that our freedom allows us to be ourselves, and to never stop the pursuit of flight, but nevertheless keeping in mind that pride has its consequences.

The service concluded with another hymn from the hymnal, a benediction, the extinguishing of the chalice, and an instrumental postlude.

My Thoughts: Unitarian Universalists draw from a variety of religious traditions, and may or may not self identify as Christians. So on the one hand, attending this service may have expanded slightly my blog’s original intent (visiting 52 different Christian Churches), but here, I think, Christianity is in the eye of the beholder. In any case, this is one of the rare instances where the appearance of an atheist in the midst of a congregation is not going to result in some sort of conversion attempt. I highly doubt I was the only atheist there.

During the announcments at the top of the service, I learned that the congregation has a tradition of visiting other churches periodically on some of the Sundays when Rev. Hausman, a part-time minister, is not present. Last year they visited other UU congregations; this year they are considering visiting houses of worship of other denominations and faiths. This is not unlike my own journey, so it is possible, therefore, that we’ll meet up again at some point along the way.

I enjoyed the sermon Rev. Hausman gave. It possessed (and advocated) a real spirit of humility. There was no figurative (nor literal) smiting going on. I am guessing that hearing a sermon where Blaise Pascal is mentioned beyond the stupidity of Pascal’s Wager, and where particle physics is mentioned in a positive light, are things I will experience rarely over the course of this journey. I admire how decentralized the Unitarian Universalists seem to be in the structure and trappings of their faith, and in the freedom individual congregations exercise in shaping and  coloring their services in order to reflect their own particular needs and sensibilities.

The small congregation truly seemed to be to be a gathering of close friends, and I very much enjoyed chatting with many of them after the service.