Reverend David Robins

Choosing His Religion

by Jonathan Gourlay

David Robins likes to run. It gives him the opportunity to release stress, renew his sense of wonder with nature, and secure a bit of valuable time for paying attention to his own needs. It's a vital practice when your job is ministering to the spiritual needs of other people.

Robins is the new minister at the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church, where he brings almost 30 years of experience to his new position, but his youthful vigor and appearance belie his 57 years. He comes across as significantly younger, especially in his demeanor when interacting with people; his rapport is easy, respectful. And then you notice that he listens, mindfully.

During a three-and-a-half mile jog with Robins along the old railroad trail in late August, I note that these qualities will come in handy while tending to the disparate wants and needs of more than 200 adults and children who attend services at the church. But what surprises me is Reverend Robins' ability to carry on a thoughtful conversation as we leg out the run. I make another mental note to ask him for a workout program.

In the course of an interview in September, I learned that Robins did not start out as a Unitarian Universalist (UU). He actually grew up an Episcopalian in an active church-going family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But halfway through a college career where he was studying journalism at Syracuse University in New York, Robins describes experiencing a spiritual awakening during which he discovered a "personal relationship with God."

That experience led him to change his academic course of study to religion and social work, and he graduated in 1972.

During graduate school at the University of Chicago he joined a UU Church in Urbana-Champaign Illinois in 1973, earned a master's degree in Jainism, and finally earned a doctor of ministry degree from the Meadville/Lombard Theological School in 1978.

After a six-year stint as minister of the Franklin (NH) Unitarian Universalist Church and a subsequent 22-year period at the Bloomington-Normal Unitarian Universalist Church in Illinois, Robins began looking for a new church, preferably one that would allow him to become more of a hands-on pastor than essentially lead a large staff to minister to the needs of a vast community as he did in Bloomington-Normal. It was time for a change.

"We always planned to move back to New Hampshire," Robins says of he and his wife, Jean, who is a first-grade teacher at the Hancock Elementary School. "I've looked at a number of churches over the years, but the Peterborough church and the programs and the people jumped off the page at me. It is a healthy, vibrant church."

For its part, the congregation at the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church voted two years ago to undertake a two-year search for a new minister and chose Robins after an exhaustive process. According to Robins, that's not an easy job for a congregation that's dedicated to a diversity of opinion.

"We're not a cookie-cutter religion," explains Robins. "We offer space for people to explore their own faith development and to arrive at the place where they feel at peace with themselves." It's all part of being a religion that offers spiritual freedom, freedom of conscience, and a healthy respect for each person as a religious individual.

That freedom and respect for individuals is at the core of UU beliefs, and from them stem the acceptance of all religious ideas and the value each has for those willing to listen. That freedom also informs the UU belief that each person is the ultimate arbiter of his or her own religion. Unitarian Universalism is a combination of two sources of a universal standard of love and justice for all people and all life, says Robins. "The Univeralist belief in a loving God who would not condemn anyone to hell for eternity, for all will be saved, and the Unitarian belief in the God-given attribute of reason to solve our problems and make a better world."

One way that Reverend Robins sees Unitarian Universalism as helping to shape a better world is through its promotion of the seventh principle of the religion: "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." That notion has expanded nationwide among Unitarian Universalists in its Green Sanctuary movement that promotes the ideas of reducing energy consumption, recycling, using alternative sources of energy to reduce global warming and climate-change effects, planting trees and native plants, choosing sustainably harvested wood and wood products, and trying - as congregations and individuals - to exist with less impact on the environment.

And Robins is inspired by his new surroundings to bring that message to his new congregation, explaining that while he and Jean arrived in Peterborough in August from an Illinois county where 92 percent of the land is dedicated to agriculture, they immediately discovered a greater variety of fresh vegetables and other farm products than they could ever find back in Illinois. Corporate farms are the order of the day back there, but "here," says Robins, "it feels like living in the Garden of Eden."

Aside from a strong environmental ethic, the new minister also brings an equally firm conviction that our society needs to look to and nurture its youth so that they grow up to be peace-waging, contributing members.

"As a father I needed help when it came to my children's education and I trusted the UU religious education program," he says. "That program helped my children learn about UU values and principles, about the interdependent web of life, about religious-based sexuality, about being fair in our relations with others, about world religions, and the biblical traditions.” Robins says families who are interested in instilling respect in their children while supporting their natural curiosity and ability to value human differences will find the religious education they need in the UU church.

In Robins' estimation, the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church offers meaningful worship, a stellar religious education program for children, a commitment to social justice in the community, and an historic building that is used for many community purposes from the Monadnock Summer Lyceum to 12-step programs. "Essentially it offers a church that is vitally engaged in peoples' lives and in the community."

What the PUUC does not do is attempt to channel people's beliefs into a creed. In fact, part of its mission is quite the opposite. "We're not interested in making minds conform," asserts Robins, "we are interested in freeing human minds and spirits for greater love and justice.

"We've been called heretics and we are if the original meaning of heretic is used, which is 'to choose.' Ours is a chosen faith, not a given faith."

When we wrap up our run, during which we talked about music, health, hiking, faith, cooking and, well, running, it becomes clear that the congregation of the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church has chosen wisely. And so has Robins; in choosing to bring a fresh perspective on Unitarian Universalism to Peterborough.