The CUUPS Revisioning process has reached the next milestone and we need your input. In January we published our report on Who We Are. This is our foundation – we will build our future on who and what we really are, not what we think we’re supposed to be. The next step is deciding what we want to be and – most importantly – what we’re willing to do. It’s good to dream big, but as UUs we understand that our dreams will go nowhere unless we act to make them real. The Revisioning Team has been working these past weeks to create a draft of what we want to be as the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. We looked at what you told us through the surveys, but we also considered what’s possible given our religious, spiritual, and geographic diversity. We think this statement expresses the best of what CUUPS can be. Please read the statement and give us your thoughts in the comments.
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CUUPS is an organization dedicated to supporting UU Pagans, to promoting Paganism within Unitarian Universalism, and to promoting Unitarian Universalism within Paganism. Our surveys have helped us identify who we are and what we value.
- We support UU values, principles, and causes.
- We bring a UU approach to Paganism – we draw from many sources and we oppose any attempt to establish orthodoxy or anything resembling it.
- We value Nature, our experiences of Nature, and our relationships with Nature.
- We have an interest in gods and spirits, but we are uncertain – individually, much less collectively – what they are and what it means to experience them.
- We are a gateway to bring Pagans into Unitarian Universalism.
Who do we serve?
Individual members serve various deities, principles, values, and communities as dictated by their own consciences. CUUPS chapters and CUUPS Continental serve our members, the Pagan community, and the UU community. Just as the UUA is moving to “congregations and beyond” CUUPS will move to “solitaries, chapters, and gatherings.” Gatherings are both formal and informal get-togethers among members and friends. Why are we here? Individual UU Pagans have many reasons for being CUUPS members. The job of CUUPS (at both the Chapter and the Continental levels) is to encourage individuals to be the best UU Pagans they can be and to provide resources to help them do so. How do we do that? We accomplish this by doing the following:
- We give people something to belong to – we create a shared identity and shared commitment. Our mission and vision statements form our foundation, and the CUUPS.org website is our storehouse of information and resources. We support our shared identity and shared commitment through our Facebook page, our newsletter, our podcast, and this blog.
- The CUUPS Board members are our Librarians and Curators. They facilitate dialogue within UU Paganism, they network and dialogue with other Pagan organizations, and they identify and share best practices – they show us what’s possible. They look for ways to encourage deeper spiritual practice, to encourage more social and environmental action, and to facilitate events for participation and growth. They promote and advertise CUUPS – they make sure people who want what we offer know we’re here.
- We cover four main areas of interest.
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- Information for beginners: the basics of Paganism, the basics of Unitarian Universalism, and the basics of CUUPS.
- Recommendations for intermediate practice: regular spiritual practice techniques, rituals for individuals and groups, ideas for experiencing, honoring, and relating to Nature, and ideas for experiencing, honoring, and relating to gods and spirits.
- Guidelines for chapter operations: forming a chapter, right relationships with host congregations and other institutions, and basic leadership skills.
- Social action: supporting UU values and causes, and supporting Pagan values and causes.
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After we get your feedback on who we want to be, the Revisioning Team will draft a mission and vision statement and present it for review.
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