The Largest Congregation in the UUA is NOT! All Souls-Tulsa
I know this is nit-picky, but I’ve read it too many times for me to ignore it.
The largest congregation in the UUA is NOT….I repeat NOT!……All Souls-Tulsa. The largest congregation in the UUA is the CLF.
Why am I talking about this when there are other issues rattling around in my brain right now? Simple. Because I think that for all the wonderful and groundbreaking work that is happening at All Souls right now, I think there needs to be some celebration of the groundbreaking work of the CLF just by its very existence.
That’s it for this email. Back to UU identity questions later.
The CLF is in a class all by itself, and not just because of the number of members. It simply isn’t a “congregation” in the way that other UU congregations are, lacking the communal worship, parish life, and sense of local engagement that characterize other congregations—even if the UUA bylaws have set up special rules by which CLF qualifies as a member congregation—and I say that as a CLF member and as a member of its nominating committee. CLF is great, but it doesn’t and probably can’t meet all the needs that a local congregation can, even as it reaches religious liberals that aren’t served by local congregations.
I have to agree with Chris. I understand that the CLF is technically a congregation (I’m a former member), but it is actually mainly a mail ministry, which is a very different sort of animal than a true congregation. It’s like insisting that the tomato is a fruit–yes, it can be classified that way, but that designation is not in fact helpful because it does not meet what regular people consider to be the standards for a fruit.