Expedition

Yesterday I attended the first of two Explorers' Luncheons at AUUF. They're a funny bunch, these Anchorage UUs. I don't have much experience with UUs elsewhere, but I imagine some of the qualities are constant despite geography.

I suspect that the balance tips toward introversion among them. It is, after all, a gathering of exiles, people whose curious minds drove them from their previous communities of faith. This inner complexity is more likely to exist among introverts than extroverts, I believe. Introverts are not crazy about large groups of people, and not crazy about adding more people to their inner circles.

But these UUs, like all UUs, believe in welcome and inclusion. They want to open their hearts and their doors to newcomers--and yet in the case of AUUF, their physical and emotional space is stretched to the limit. There is little to no room left in their building or in their individual and collective psyche for newcomers.

The clincher for me, as a newcomer, is that they are willing to hear this critique. I look forward to being with them over the next months (and maybe years?) as they struggle with this dilemma. I believe that they will meet this problem with creativity, and that the problem will turn out to have been a necessary part their development.

And maybe as I am with them I will become part of them, and will need to hear from other outsiders.