Sunday, November 20, OLGS and Joe College are speaking in two different Unitarian churches half a continent apart about their experiences in Romania as pilgrims to a Unitarian Transylvanian village in the summer of 2005. Far from being a place where Vlad the Impaler is fondly remembered, the small farming villages of Transylvania exist in a kind of cultural twilight zone.
Hungarian-speaking in a sea of not-quite-hostile Romanians, the Unitarian villagers of Transylvania have an economy that is part subsistence, part modern capitalism. Many of them do not have indoor plumbing or electricity, but have cell phones and satellite dishes. There is a village bakery, as in medieval times, and a village tavern, where Joe College appears to have spent much of his pilgrimage time. There are beautiful high hills, a charming market town, and welcoming people. There appears to be little discussion of the vast economic gap between American Unitarians who visit and support these villages that represent the home of Unitarianism, and the struggle of the agricultural villagers. There also appears to be little analysis of the role of Unitarian churches in 21st century Transylvania--they are populated mainly by senior citizens.
And this is probably just as well. The purpose of the pilgrimage is not to bring people, kicking and screaming, into a market economy with American gender roles. Rather, the pilgrimage is designed to open rich American eyes to the diversity of our faith--and, despite barbs from cultural pundits like Garrison Keilor, it is a faith. Unitarians have a set of core values, and then branch out.
The church where OLGS is speaking this morning is an overtly Christian Unitiarian church, barely distinguishable from Massachusetts Congregationalists except for avoiding any mention of the Trinity. This is similar to the Transylvanian Unitarians. Co-oincidently, this Massachusetts church enjoyed the leadership of a minister from Transylvania for many years. Our St. Paul church, where Joe College will do his thing, is, for a non-Massachusetts UU congregation, pretty theistic, but that's as far as it goes. This is a big tent church, with recovering Catholics, mixed faith Jewish-Christian couples who have found a suitable compromise here, and lots of "cradle" Unitarians. It's all good.
And I'm waiting to see if OLGS tries to go back to Romania in the summer of 2006--there's an announcement of a history pilgrimage. How could he not go?
