Christine Robinson is the winner of 2017 MDD’s Los Alamos Unitarian Church’s Award Honoring Dale Arnink, Minister Emeritus, for a Sermon exploring and promoting Humanist Teachings in Unitarian Universalism.
Christine has been the minister of the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque since November 1988. Her undergraduate degree was in music, but after a few years of young adult wandering, she came to see that music was not her strongest interest, discovered that women were welcomed into Unitarian Universalist ministry, and went to seminary.
She is married to William Baker, and they are the parents of Kevin, who was born in 1990. Kevin attends the Albuquerque Academy. William is a freelance computer programmer.
Christine states, “My own faith has evolved from the proud atheism of my early teen years through agnosticism as I came to understand that I didn’t know everything! In seminary I was introduced to definitions of God that I could “buy” (rather abstract, higher power sorts of definitions), and I slowly began to experience, remember, and have words to talk about experiences of grace and spirit that I now identify with a more traditional definition of God.”
“Through it all I have been a humanist, believing that whatever lies beyond this world, in this life, we are called to be present and active here, appreciating our lives, deepening our love, and being of service to others.”
Comments from reviewers
The sermon “Spirituality without God” is drenched in humanism and must have been delivered by a very knowledgeable and competent humanist.
I loved their assertion that “spirituality” works or should work within Unitarian Universalism when used “expansively and inclusively.”
Spirituality Without God was the only title that captured the idea of Humanism. It was well written and spoke about many options of spirituality without god including service, meditation, mysticism and our faith’s absence of dogma. I thought it had some humor and was thought provoking about practicing spirituality without god by quieting our minds and practicing our principles in everyday life.