This is the start of a new practical theology series — the “how of church.”
I have a soft space in my heart for small congregations, a special affection especially non-Christian Unitarian Universalist ones. These have few advocates in this world. A small Unitarian or Universalist Christian church can and often will borrow liberally from the neighboring United Church or Methodist model or what have you. At the practical level, the ecumenical Church can be quite accomodating (especially if you pay with a credit card, but Cokesbury will give you a line of credit.)
Large non-Christian UU congregation have the resources to create their own resources. Shared resources for mundane churchly tasks — in the form of former UUA department or independent affiliate products — have all but vanished, and that has to have left small UU non-Christian churches in a lurch. (The Association of Unitarian Universalist Administrators and Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network keep this tradition going better than most.) How strange this is, if this constituency makes up a strong plurality of Unitarian Universalist congregations as a whole.
Time to lay a hand to the wheel.
