Recently, the Rev. Tom Owen-Towle and Ken Brown, the PSWD District Executive lead UUFSD in a workshop on engaging our theological diversity. Held at UUFSD, and including members from many nearby fellowships, the lively workshop developed a spirited discussion about the many beliefs and traditions we bring to UU, pluralism, and encouraging openness, exploration, and support.

As part of the ministerial search process, we continued the conversation by including a survey question about the belief systems that each member held:

Many UU’s religious/spiritual beliefs are derived from various belief systems. How do the following statements describe yours?

One of the interesting findings: we have a lot of hyphens in our beliefs!

First of all, the most common response was that none of the 16 belief systems listed described one’s belief system perfectly. This was from 44% of the Fellowship.

The next largest response – 39% of the Fellowship have their own unique hyphenated combination of belief systems shared by nobody else in the Fellowship. (see the full list below)

The remaining one-sixth of the Fellowship share some single or hyphenated belief system with at least one other member. These are:

Eclectic (5%)
Ethical religion-Eclectic (2%)
Buddhism (2%)
Non-Theism-Skepticism-Agnosticism (2%)
Atheism (2%)
Atheism-Non-Theism (2%)
Judaism (2%)
Humanism (2%)

Here’s the list of one-to-a-person hyphenated combinations:

Humanism-Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-Naturalistic Theism-Earth-centered spirituality-Pantheism-Eclectic
Non-Theism-Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-I am learning aspects of Buddhism
Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-Naturalistic Theism-Pantheism-Eclectic
Ethical Christianity-Naturalistic Theism-Earth-centered spirituality-Eclectic-Intellectualism
Atheism-Non-Theism-Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-Naturalistic Theism-Earth-centered spirituality-Buddhism
Ethical Christianity-Buddhism-Humanism-Non-Theism-Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-Naturalistic Theism-Earth-centered spirituality-Pantheism-Eclectic
Ethical Christianity-Humanism-Naturalistic Theism-MysticismEarth-centered spirituality-Pantheism-Eclectic
Humanism-Atheism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-Naturalistic Theism
Humanism-Non-Theism-Naturalistic Theism-Eclectic
Non-Theism-Ethical religion-Earth-centered spirituality-Buddhist Meditation
Skepticism-Agnosticism-Eclectic
Naturalistic Theism-Mysticism-Eclectic
Humanism-Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-Naturalistic Theism-Earth-centered spirituality-Eclectic-Christian-Buddhism-Earth-Centered
Agnosticism-Pantheism-Eclectic
Buddhism-Agnosticism
Ethical Christianity-Humanism-Atheism-Non-Theism-Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion
Ethical Christianity-Non-Theism-Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-Pantheism-Eclectic
Agnosticism-Hope
Mysticism-Eclectic
Naturalistic Theism-MysticismEarth-centered spirituality-Pantheism-Eclectic-spirituality through meditation-
Pantheism-Eclectic-Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga
Buddhism-Non-Theism
Agnosticism
Earth-centered spirituality-Pantheism-Eclectic-Pagan/Goddess ritual
Ethical Christianity
Ethical Christianity-Ethical religion-Naturalistic Theism-Mysticism-Eclectic
Ethical Christianity-Pantheism-United Church of Christ
Buddhism-Eclectic
Buddhism-Pantheism-Eclectic
Ethical Christianity-Agnosticism-Naturalistic Theism-Eclectic
Ethical Christianity-Naturalistic Theism-Pantheism-Eclectic
Humanism-Atheism-Non-Theism-Skepticism-Naturalistic Theism-Earth-centered spirituality
Love and Positive Thinking
Naturalistic Theism-Earth-centered spirituality
Naturalistic Theism-Eclectic
Non-Theism-Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion
Pantheism
Pantheism-Eclectic
Buddhism-Skepticism-Agnosticism
Agnosticism-Ethical religion
Humanism-Atheism-Skepticism
Judaism-Buddhism-Humanism-Atheism-Non-Theism-Skepticism
Non-Theism
Skepticism-Agnosticism
Skepticism-Agnosticism-Ethical religion-Eclectic
Ethical Christianity-Buddhism-Non-Theism-MysticismEclectic-Christianity
Ethical Christianity-Humanism-Atheism-Skepticism-Ethical religion
Ethical religion
Atheism-Non-Theism-Ethical religion
Naturalistic Theism-MysticismEarth-centered spirituality-Eclectic-Pagan
Buddhism-Ethical religion
Atheism-Non-Theism-Skepticism

UUFSD members find many ways to actively participate with other fellowship members, in the details of keeping the fellowship running, and reaching out to the community.

More than half of the fellowship is involved in supporting other members in some way. Although this isn’t an every day activity, nor is it something formally organized by the Fellowship, it involves more members of hte Fellowship than anything else.

Committees – a mainstay of UU congregational life – also spur involvement by more than half the fellowship. It may come as no surprise that there is a core of members who are more active than others. At present, around one in six members is involved in committee work as often as every week or two. Another one-sixth are involved every 2 to 4 weeks.

Sunday Services also involve involvement by more than half the fellowship. This ranges from participation in the Sunday Services Committee, to periodic lay-led services. These member-guided services, typically held in the summer, include music, dance, and thoughtful “This I believe” formats.

This fellowship has built homes for families across the border in Mexico. Called the Homes for Hope project, each home build has involved a different group of Fellowship members, including some very hands-on JRUU and YRUU members.

A few areas that get narrower participation are leadership, Denominational affairs, and helping in the office.

UUFSD members participate in a wide variety of activities.

Four activities stand out as the ones that more than half of the Fellowship participate in at least some of the time. These are reaching out to fellow members within the Fellowship, fundraising, committee work, and participating in Sunday Services.

At the other end of the spectrum, the activities that the fewest member of the Fellowship participate in are volunteering in the office, and helping to serve coffee after the Sunday service.

More than 85% consider UUFSD important in their lives, a clear sign of how vital UUFSD is among its members.

We asked members to identify the label that best applied to them using several social classification systems. Although some members bristled at the idea of some of these labels, the were willing to choose something that fits best.

Kids have an impact at UUFSD, either among families currently with kids, or those that might remember how it was now that their kids have grown. For family status, families with young kids make up just over 1 in 5 (21%), the same percentage that are families with teens. The largest group, empty nesters, make up nearly four in ten (38%).

Like many other UU Fellowships, most members identify with the Upper Middle Class. This group makes a slight majority at 52%. The next largest group, Middle Class, make up 39% of the Fellowship.

This Fellowship wants a visionary minister, one who will lead the way by helping us clarify our vision, then inspire us to reach for that vision. We asked the survey question with the four categories – prophet, steward, pastor, facilitator - and the descriptions shown in the pie chart.

Above all, this Fellowship does not want an Administrator for its new minister. Instead, this Fellowship prefers an active Manager, who will work together with staff and lay leadership to guide and coordinate.

It isn’t like busy members feel overwhelmed and want a minister to help with the details. Even the most active members, those that spend 10 hours or more each month on Fellowship affairs, would rather have a Manager type over an Administrator. Fully half want the manager while only 4% want an Administrator.

The Fellowship want to hear thoughtful ideas about ethics, values, philosophy, personal growth, and personal beliefs. We want our minister to act as a guiding light toward higher aspirations and noble motives. In addition to reconnecting us with our core values, we want examples of how we can apply these through our ethics. Furthermore, we want to relate these to our UU principles.

We also like variety and a breadth of topics. Themes that help us grow personally are welcomed, as are those that motivate us to support the world at large such as through Social Justice and environmental issues.

Well at the bottom of the list are Judeo-Christian or Earth-centered traditions, or history about UUs.

Most UUFSD members are married or partnered, accounting for 70% of the Fellowship. Just less than one in six (15%) are divorced. Half of that (8%) are widowed, and 8% are single.

UUFSD members are highly educated, with 59% holding advanced degrees. This includes a range of disciplines; science, engineering, law, teaching, medicine, business, among others.