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SHARING
OUR THEOLOGIES
7/30/2000
Introduction by Sheri Byrd
This past March, fifteen
or so Davies regulars and a few others from the community  participated
in a course called, “Building Your Own Theology.” We met 2 hours
each Sunday afternoon, for 5 weeks.
The first day, Reverend Don asked all of us to fill out an index card
in the following way:
Upper left corner: Name one religious value you cherish.
Upper right corner: One religious value from your personal history
that you have rejected.
Lower left corner: The religion into which you were born.
Lower right corner: One religious value with which you are now struggling
and would like to explore.
This simple exercise proved to be intimately soul-searching for most of
us. In these simple disclosures, we learned so very much about each other.
We also learned, to our relief, that we were a community of people who
could trust and support each other without judgment or reservation.
In a following session, we explored critical “religious moments”
in our lives, as we each defined that phrase. Another time, we were asked
to draw pictures of our images of God at various points
in our lives. We also explored various morals, which we all assumed were
pretty clear-cut issues, and found that nearly without exception, we could
find circumstances where the moral lines blurred significantly.
We each wrote and shared our personal ten commandments, and found they
were remarkably similar.
Finally, after exploring the required academic areas of ethics, human
nature, and God, plus our personal religious histories, we each wrote
our own credo: a personal statement of “I believe,”
a guideline by which we each live our own lives.
Each credo was intimate and personal, but the amazing commonality among
them was a deep commitment to leaving our credos open-ended, always receptive
to learning, growing and changing with life’s never-ending lessons
of experience.
Today, several of the participants in the course will share their credos
with you. I’d like to thank them ahead of time for sharing these
most personal thoughts.
Sheri
Byrd's Theology
I live by the Golden Rule, because the fabric of the universe is woven
in such a way that I will eventually feel the effects of all of my own
thoughts, words and deeds.
God is both the sentient creator, and continuing designer of the universe,
as well as the essence of all that exists within the universe. The more
we learn and discover through exploration – and introspection –
the more we are able to discern about the essential God.
The soul, the essence of God within each living thing, is timeless, immortal
and may choose to incarnate innumerable times as it nurtures itself toward
the natural pattern of evolution.
Humans are creatures of free will, but if we choose to act with respect
and compassion, and live consciously in harmony with the examples given
us in nature, the essence of God within us grows and creates goodness,
truth and beauty throughout our lives.
[Other speakers have not yet submitted their readings. Note: Ones' beliefs
often change in time. The Building Your Own Theology class is held often
at DMUUC and is open to the public. If you'd like to take this class,
please call DMUUC at 301-449-4308.]
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