Wisconsin Unitarian Universalist Writes About Pagan Members and CUUPS Membership

A Wisconsin member of a small Unitarian Universalist fellowship, who describes herself as a pagan, a witch and a transwoman, wrote a first-person essay on Patheos about her experience in Unitarian Universalist congregations and in the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS). The essay was prompted by a Patheos article on the United Methodist Church’s position on LGBTQIA+ people, which she said brought back memories of her years as a member of a United Methodist congregation.

She wrote that she came out as transgender first to her minister and then to her wife while in that congregation, in 2004, when it was described as a Welcoming Congregation. She said her former spouse then disclosed her gender identity and her spiritual practice to the congregation without her consent. After the divorce, she moved to a smaller rural village and later joined a Unitarian Universalist fellowship with fewer than 50 members, where she came out as a transwoman and found the community inclusive.

She said the fellowship’s commitment to the seven Unitarian Universalist Principles, including the inherent worth and dignity of every person, justice, equality and compassion in human relations, and a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, was a major reason she joined. She described these Principles as operating without a required dogma or doctrine and as drawing on sources such as science, poetry and members’ personal experience. She also said that many pagans she has met through Circle Sanctuary belong to Unitarian Universalist congregations across the country.

CUUPS, which she described as part of the framework of the Unitarian Universalist Association, is dedicated to networking Pagan-identified Unitarian Universalists, educating people about Paganism, promoting interfaith dialogue, developing Pagan liturgies and theologies, and supporting Pagan-identified religious professionals. She said she first attended a CUUPS gathering in 2017 at the Magickal Mountain Mabon event near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and later attended a CUUPS Samhain ritual at a Unitarian Universalist church in Rio Rancho. She said the only CUUPS group she knows of in Wisconsin is in Racine. She also reported that some Unitarian Universalist Association congregations that are not affiliated with CUUPS hold monthly Full Moon Circles, including one connected to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Joliet, and that, according to members and her own research, individual Unitarian Universalists may also join CUUPS as individual members.

Her essay also recommended the book *Pagan and Earth-Centered Voices in Unitarian Universalism*, co-edited by Jerrie Kishpaugh Hildebrand and Shirley Ann Ranck, which includes contributions from Margo Adler, Selena Fox, John Beckett and David Pollard. She said Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary has spoken at her fellowship’s December third-Sunday program every year since she first introduced her about five years ago, and that she herself introduced Fox and lit the Solstice candle last December. She wrote that she now participates in both Circle Sanctuary and her Unitarian Universalist fellowship and has found acceptance in both, in contrast to her experience in a mainstream church, where her father, a Baptist deacon, had also shaped her early religious life. She concluded that she is a happy witch and owns it (Psalm 133:1).

Source: Read the original report