A Faithful Conversation Defined

This Sunday, I facilitated part two of a series of conversations on our faith, Unitarian Universalism.

This conversation followed the service with the dialogue sermon entitled "A Faithful Conversation About Evil".
(I was honored and greatly pleased to share the pulpit with Lori Hlaban. She is a wonderful colleague to collaborate with and the congregation seemed to enjoy her part of the dialogue. Lori also joined me for the class/conversation.)

What exactly is a Faithful Conversation?

Here is the definition I was working with...

1. It is about Faith
It is about our beliefs. It is about meaning. It has a spiritual depth to it.

2. It is in good faith
It is about learning about another person's beliefs, not converting them to yours.
It is about connecting, not challenging.
It is conducted with honesty and curiosity, not with duplicity and agendas.

3. It is a conversation
It is not a debate. It is not a lecture. It is a dialogue.
It is a mutual sharing that leads, if fortunate, to mutual learning-- and a deeper, more defined faith.

What does a Faithful Conversation look like?

This is the format I proposed for the session.

1. Pick a question to discuss. (What are your views on Evil?)
2. Person A answers the question while Person B listens.
3. When (A) is finished, (B) asks a question or two to invite (A) to go deeper or to further develop their answer.
4. (A) answers the questions as best they can (perhaps with a "I don't know-- I have to think about that.)
5. Trade places and repeat 1-4
6. After both parties have shared, questioned, and answered, ask and answer this question,
"How does this belief inform/affect how you live your life?" (or as my theology professor used to say, "So what?"


One of the class participants asked if "Faithful Conversation" was a phrase I had coined or if they would find it on Google.
I answered, honestly though erroneously, that I had coined it independently.

Turns out if you google it-- this blog shows up (if you put it in quotes), but there are plenty of other "Faithful Conversations" out there.

• The biggest presence is the book "Faithful Conversation: Christian Perspectives on Homosexuality."
While I haven't read it, the book seems to take on the topic in a way that fits my definition. A faithful conversation on that topic would be most welcome these days.

• A more relevant hit was the sermon "A Faithful Conversation" presented at the Thursday morning worship service of the 2007 General Assembly by Rob Eller-Isaacs. (If you are going to steal/copy/rip-off, might as well do it from the best, no?) Having not attended that service, I only have the summary to base my understanding on. It does seem as if he was calling for the same thing I am: more of us having these sort of conversations.

I think they are a part of our heritage that we've moved away from, abandoned even. I believe the world needs these kind of conversations. And I believe Unitarian Universalists are ideally suited to leading the way-- if we would start having the conversations with one another, we could then start having the conversations with those outside our faith tradition.