Huntsville Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

Promoting and accepting diversity is a key aspect of our UU faith. It comes under our principles under many different guises including: “The inherent worth and dignity of every person,” “Justice, equity and compassion in human relations,” and “Acceptance of one another.”

In fact, diversity is much broader than just accepting someone’s gender, race or sexual orientation. Recently I took on a new job at work and I am now responsible for the work products of six fine engineers and technicians. Each of these individuals has years of experience and each is dedicated to doing his or her job. Each however, has his or her own style, and I realize my job is not to make versions of me out of each of them. My job is to allow each of them the flexibility to do his or her job in their own unique ways based on their own knowledge and experience.  My job is also to ensure that the overall job gets done and in accordance with policies and procedures. At the same time, it is also my job to monitor their actions just to make sure that none of them falls off the proverbial cliff related to any of their assignments – in short I must provide guidance from time to time.

This brings me back to the Huntsville UU Fellowship. We don’t have elaborate policies and procedures and if we did, it would be a tedious place to support. What we do have are our own individual styles and talents that we each bring to the various tasks at hand.  One of my jobs as your Intern Minister is to help the Fellowship grow, not to control or dictate how we grow. We each want the Fellowship to grow and we each bring our unique skill sets to the many jobs at hand. Sometimes letting go and letting others do things their way can be difficult, but that is what is expected if we truly believe in diversity and in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. It is also expected if we are to be compassionate and understanding and if we are to accept one another just as we are.

At the same time each of us needs help and assistance from time to time and often others know important things we don't or they have practical experience we don't have. Accepting feedback is just as important and requires the same appreciation of diversity, compassion and understanding, and acceptance of one another. After all, we may do things differently, but in the long run we'd still like to be told that we are headed toward a cliff before we actually get there. Working together is a challenge, but if we will let our guiding principles actually guide us, we will be alright.