At General Assembly this summer, UUs will vote on expressing our faith with values, rather than just with principles. This is often referred to as Article II, since that is where our principles and purposes are in our UUA bylaws. If you would like to read the proposed revision to Article II, you can find it here.
The values start with a word, then a statement expanding on the value, followed by action. As an example, our theme this month is Interdependence, which is one of the proposed values. Here is the language: Interdependence. We honor the interdependent web of all existence. With reverence for the great web of life and with humility, we acknowledge our place in it. We covenant to protect Earth and all beings from exploitation. We will create and nurture sustainable relationships of care and respect, mutuality and justice. We will work to repair harm and damaged relationships.
To help our children engage in this process and important discussion, UU religious educators around the world have been utilizing an acronym of the values centering on love—JET PIG. JET PIG flies around love sharing the values of Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, and Generosity.
Our JET PIG lives on the lower level in my office. They have an adorable helmet and jet backpack filled with wooden hearts with each of the values written on them, a water bottle and notebook. The children adore JET PIG! What I am most delighted by is that the one-word values have been a marvelous tool for our children to help understand and articulate Unitarian Universalism.
As a seasoned religious educator who has taught the principles to young people for the past 20 years, I find few of our young people know our principles. There have been songs, there have been lessons, there has been much, but overall they remain unknown. I’ve been teaching the values and this potential change for less than a year and many of the children can now list the values and have some understanding of their meaning. This is an unexpected joy and to hear the next generation of UUs be able to articulate their faith using these cornerstones is powerful!
Interdependence is all about understanding how we belong to one another. I am trying to embrace our interdependence with fellow UUs and I encourage you to join me in staying open to whatever outcome we decide on together. I invite you to come meet JET PIG who will be at the RE Table on Sundays this month!
In faith,
Rev. Kimberlee
Rev. Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson, Minister of Religious Education