Opening Reading from Pope Francis, in his ecumenical address, “The Joy of the Gospel.” “The Christian ideal will always be a summons to overcome suspicion, habitual mistrust, fear of losing our privacy, all the defensive attitudes which today’s world imposes on us.

I grew up in a small rural town outside of Boston; the son of an Episcopal minister father and an dedicated and active homemaker mother, the second of 4 children, oldest son.

This I Believe I am very pleased to get the opportunity to participate in our This I Believe series. In recent years, as I have listened to the NPR series of TIB on the radio, I have often reflected about how nice it would be to take the time to articulate my own beliefs (for I have rarely done this systematically, and never in writing).

This I Believe Thank you for this opportunity to share with you today some of my reasons for being a Unitarian Universalist and what it is I am seeking in this pursuit.

Who should not be a Unitarian Universalist? For a UU, a “tradition” is something that was done last year, and a “firmly established tradition” is something that has been done for the past two years. If it has been done for the last three years, it is “the way we’ve always done it.”

This I Believe Defining my beliefs, even to myself, is no trivial task. It used to be a natural thing for me to do, but not anymore.