
Still, we keep trying, because we want it both ways: Oneness and diversity. We want to celebrate a solo God, without getting stuck on one image of God: Old White Man With a Beard, for example. That creative tension is in our United Church of Christ DNA. And as I think about it, maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s helpful to remember that not even God does plain old oneness without a hyphen. Maybe it’s worth remembering, as we talking about being “Together, As One.” Three-conferences-in-one: Three conferences, each with their own personality, their own story. And within each conference, three times three times three times three (and so on) different faith communities, each with their own personality and their own story.
I wonder: How might our union be an occasion to honor those diverse personalities, voices, perspectives, stories, heartbreaks, hopes and gifts? How might we avoid at all costs the kind of oneness that mushes us all together, like three colors of Play Doh turned into one wad of brown? Instead, how might we be like variously colored prayer flags hung side by side on one long line? (Or insert your best metaphor here!)
If one image of God was enough, we wouldn’t need the Trinity. If one conference, one way of doing things, was enough, we wouldn’t need everyone else. But we do. We need us all.
Prayer: Dear God-in-Community, teach us to treasure the hyphens. Amen.
The Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton is Pastor of Saugatuck Congregational Church, UCC, in Westport, CT.

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Alison J. Buttrick Patton
pastor of Saugatuck Congregational Church, UCC in Westport