TheRectory

The ULCM Chaplain has presided over the Monastery for some decades, continuing in the ULC tradition of fighting for religious freedom and offering shelter, counseling, and food. He has taken part in legal fights for nation-wide marriage equality and for state recognition of ULC-officiated marriages. The Rectory sitting above Lake Union is a full-fledged religious institution that hosts the sacred and joyful moments of the congregation. Celebratory meetings, weddings with Sacramental dinners are all held there.

Religions are living organisms. They go through metamorphosis as the societies they inhabit change and grow. They molt the skin of old customs when new ones are adopted. They cross- pollinate with neighbors and evolve with the passing of time. Christianity, for instance, received its monotheism from its mother – Judaea – but was fertilized by the new ideas of its founder and followers.

Over time, religions have developed into distinct, identifiable sects. But just as all humans share a common ancestor, so too do religions. The DNA of religions lives in their rites, writings and in the spoken traditions shared from generation to generation. Like in humans, this DNA does not live in a vacuum. Belief systems live through war, dissent, natural disasters and plagues. Judaism was criminalized during many centuries. The customary Jewish game ‘Dreidel’ arose among Jews in the Seleucid Empire as a way to practice their faith clandestinely. Amid persecution, the faith found a way.