Rev. McKinley L. Sims, M.Div.

So, what’s the deal with that logo? Isn’t it a little, too, you know….Christian?

Yep, it definitely is….too Christian. It’s soooo Christian, in fact, that it’s not even Christian in the way you might think it is. Cue the Princess Bride quotes: “Christian!”

“I think you should stop using that word…I don’t think it means what you think it means.”

Here’s what I mean when I say it’s Christian. That logo is something I dreamt up while working at the UU Congregation of Fairfax doing my Ministerial Internship. I had folks challenge me, both politely and aggressively, about my faith orientation. They assumed I didn’t identify as a Christian because I was working in a UU church. To be honest, it’s not a bad assumption, and I think I am probably a minority in that sense. What I liked to explain was that I’m a Unitarian Universalist precisely because I am a Christian. At least, I’m trying to be a Christian, a follower of the man Jesus of Nazareth, called the Christ. I’m trying to be someone who honors the Jesus tradition and loves the Christ power in each and every living thing in the universe to the best of my ability, to love my neighbor as myself. I’m trying to be, and the best way for me to do that is in a UU community.

When I walked into the Unitarian Society of Germantown in Philadelphia, I thought, “Yeah, this looks like a church. There’s Jesus in the stained glass.”

I quickly found out that most UUs don’t fit into the same mold as the congregation who previously occupied the USG building, a Baptist community. So maybe the church was not as Christian as I thought. But then I heard about their commitment to social justice and democracy and making the world a place of peace and love. I got home and told my partner, “Well, it’s the least Jesus-y place I’ve ever been…and it’s the most Jesus-y place I’ve ever been.”

I was hooked. I still feel the same way now as I did then, even with all of the upheaval and arguments and fake fights and long days and short nights and paperwork and setback and marches. We are the church I want to see in the world. We are the congregational association that lives out the mission I find in the Gospels, the “good news” to be shared in how we live and how we love.

So I went and started thinking about how committed I was to this faith tradition. So committed, I thought, that I might just make it a permanent commitment…with a tattoo to commemorate.

Hence this logo.

But it’s so…..Christian?

Yes! It is, but it’s also more than that. You see, this symbol, the Circle with the Cross offset to the left, is the symbol of the Humiliati, a group of liberal Christian and Universalist ministers from the 1950s who wanted to open the Church with a big C to the rest of the world, to all faiths. They considered themselves Christians, but they knew that God was way bigger and bolder than how some Christians emphasize a God who picks and chooses whom to love.

That’s not how they experienced the Divine, and it’s not how I experience the Holy either. The circle is the breadth and depth of the whole Universe. A Universal love that encompasses everything.

The Cross is small and offset from the center, because it’s important, but it’s not the most important thing. It’s part of the heritage and language and tradition, but it’s encompassed by the larger Love of the big circle.

So what about the scribble in the middle of it? That’s the Hebrew word berith. It means “covenant.” An unbreakable promise that forever connects souls together in a communion of holy mystery. We are forever changed by everyone we meet, and I believe God fills the space between two souls in that encounter, binding their lives together in one way or another. I believe in Covenantal relationships and a Covenantal faith….UUism.

So, I put them together to form a physical reminder of my theology, history, and promise. Here have I come, and here I will stay, for better or worse. For richer or poorer, til death does me part from this wonderful and mysterious ride we call Life. I’m here to be a UU minister. I’m here to be a Christian. I’m here to be a a human. Won’t you join me on that journey?

Maybe we can even swap tattoo stories.