Composing OUUr World - 2023 NUUF Theme

Why “Composing OUUr World” ?

When looking for a theme for this year, we wanted to honor the introspective work done in the past few years, to create a safer, more respectful and loving community. Now, to build on this momentum, the time has come to look outwards and open up to the world. 

"Composing OUUr World" foregrounds the fact that as UUs, we are called to live our truth and values in the world on a deeper level. 

A well known UU Covenant goes, “Love is the doctrine of this church, the quest for truth is its sacrament and service is its prayer.” And service requires action. But it’s unfortunately all too easy to get stuck on the threshold of knowing without doing. 

So this year we want to ask ourselves: what impact do we want NUUF to have on the wider world?  How do we empower ourselves and each other to turn our values into tangible actions? 

Acting deliberately matters, just like a nuanced word evokes emotion in a poet’s work, a precise note brings harmony in a musician’s composition or the right color of thread draws the eye in a textile worker’s embroidery. Using the word ‘composing’ recognizes that every action we take shapes the world around us, and that doing so intentionally can result in something truly beautiful. 

‘Composing OUUr World’ alludes to the work of the artist. To a search for harmony, balance and correct proportions, but also to the importance of inspiration. In traditions like ours, which give a big place to reason and knowledge, it’s easy to get lost in our heads, leading to dry, somber services and endless navel gazing. What's more, in a world that too often seeks to reduce us to what we can produce - and where we are constantly bombarded with reasons to despair - joy, mutual care, pleasure and playfulness are essential sources of power. So this year, we want to experiment and bring more movement, passion and poetry to our practices, to remind ourselves what a delight it is to be alive in this world, and make our spirituality into a lovely symphony. 

And finally, doing all this together reminds us that we are a part of a bigger whole. We live in a very atomized, individualistic world, and this has only grown worse since the pandemic, leaving many of us stranded in front of our screens.

One of the most beautiful gifts of our spiritual community can be to bring us back together, into the same room and the same moment. Through full presence, we live from the heart, and recognize each other’s full humanity. Which is inseparable from our connections to the rich and layered web of existence around us - the living ecosystems we are a part of, the social and political relations, our local roots in Amsterdam and the Netherlands, our dreams of a better world. How do we make sure these relationships are healthy, reciprocal and thriving? How do we repair the harm done by systems of oppression and the legacies of strict social norms?

This year the members and friends of NUUF will attempt to bring you food for thought, moments of heartfelt connection, and practical strategies - from reckoning with the legacies of white supremacy and slavery in this country to recognizing our role in the interconnectedness of all living things through seasonal rituals ; from a close look at the opportunities that awe and playfulness can open up in ourselves to an honest conversation about climate change.

Our spirituality offers us a fertile ground to make sure that our actions can ripple outwards and change the world for the better, through exploring both the difficult and the joyful, the heavy and the light. Weaving together our beliefs and our actions, our words and our intentions, we can create a tapestry that is better than the sum of its parts.

So this year, we hope that you will join us in ‘Composing OUUr World.’

The Worship Committee (Eva, Casey, Hjalmar, Jill, Ellie)