• What is Unitarian Universalism about?
• What do Unitarian Universalists believe?
• What are the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism?
• What values do Unitarian Universalists share?
• Have there been any famous Unitarian Universalists?
• What is the history of Unitarian Universalism?
• How do I arrange a visit to UUCW?
• How can I become a member of UUCW?
• What is UUCW's position on same-sex marriage and other equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people?

What is Unitarian Universalism about?

Central to the Unitarian Universalist religion is respect for each person's quest for truth, value and religious understanding. We hold our beliefs as individuals, coming together in communities of faith to learn, to celebrate, to work for justice, to comfort and be comforted, and to ensure the religious education of our children. We own no central dogma, doctrine or Scriptures, but rather, seek our truths with the help of many sources—Jewish and Christian traditions, other world religious traditions, the sciences, literature, humanist teachings, and the words and deeds of prophetic women and men of all eras. We do not promote a specific creed, rather, a set of principles for ethical living and an awareness of the world as an interdependent community. Our heritage comes from the liberal American Protestant tradition. The American Unitarian Association, which historically emphasized the unity of God and the goodness of human nature, and the Universalist Church of America, which emphasized the goodness of God and a belief in salvation for all persons, merged in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.

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What do Unitarian Universalists believe?

Because Unitarian Universalism places value in the individual religious quest, the question of what we believe has many answers. Rather than teaching a particular set of beliefs, we seek to nurture an inquiring mind, a tolerant spirit, and a loving and compassionate heart. In our congregation you will find people with a wide spectrum of beliefs. Some might be theists, who hold a faith in God or the creative life-force, often defined as "that which is greater than each, yet present in all." Some may be humanists, who focus their faith in human abilities and ideals. You'll also find Liberal Christians, who find a unique spiritual power in the ministry of Jesus, and are committed to following him, while reappraising the Christian scriptures through the insights of modern culture and scholarship. Some of us affirm a mystical spirituality, believing that direct experience of a sacred oneness or reality is achieved through spiritual practices or awakening. Many of us find joy and spiritual experiences when we are in the natural world, a kind of mystical experience available to all, regardless of belief. Atheists are welcome in our congregation (atheism is the belief that there is no God, or gods; no Divine Mystery or sacred center). There also are agnostics among us, who believe it is not possible to know anything for certain about God, and therefore do not commit to such a belief.

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What are the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism?

We covenant to affirm and promote:

1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
5. The rights of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregation and in society at large;
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part.

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What values do Unitarian Universalists share?

It is not necessary to adopt a "theological label" to be a Unitarian Universalist; however, there are certain central values that unite us:

• We keep our minds open to the religious questions people have struggled with throughout time.
• We believe that personal experience and conscience should be the final authorities in religion.
• We put religious insights to the test of our hearts and minds.
• We uphold the free search for truth, and believe that religious wisdom is ever-changing and growing. Human understanding of life and death, the world and its mysteries, is never final—revelation is marvelous and continuous, not sealed.
• We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all women and men and children.
• We believe in honoring our differences, and working for justice.
• We believe that religious community is vitally important.
• We covenant to come together in a loving spirit to encourage and support one another in spiritual growth and to work for justice.
• We seek to act as a moral force in the world, believing that ethical living is the supreme witness of religion.
• We believe in the toleration of religious ideas—all religions, in every age and culture possess intrinsic merit and have value for those who are open and discerning.
• We encourage respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part—working to live our lives in harmony with the planet.

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Have there been any famous Unitarian Universalists?

Where to start! History is rich with Unitarian Universalists who have been influential figures in the arts and sciences, social justice, and much more. Here is a partial list, taken from the book 100 Questions That Non-Members Ask About Unitarian Universalism by John Sias.

• Horatio Alger (1832-1899), writer of rags-to-riches books for boys.
• Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), author of Little Women and other books.
• Tom Andrews, U.S. Representative from Maine.
• Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), organizer of the women's suffrage movement.
• George Bancroft (1800-1891), founder of the U.S. Naval Academy.
• Adin Ballou (1803-1890), critic of the injustices of capitalism.
• P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), owner of the Barnum and Bailey Circus, and a founder of Tufts University.
• Béla Bartók (1881-1945), Hungarian composer.
• Clara Barton (1821-1912), founder of the American Red Cross.
• Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), inventor of the telephone, founder of Bell Telephone Company.
• Henry Bergh (1811-1888), a founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
• Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838), mathematician, navigator, astronomer.
• Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer.
• William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), author and newspaper editor.
• Charles Bulfinch (1763-1844), architect of the United States Capitol building.
• Luther Burbank (1849-1926), American botanist of the early 20th century.
• Robert Burns (1759-1796), Scottish poet and song writer.
• William Ellerly Channing (1780-1842), abolitionist, founder of Unitarianism in America.
• William Cohen, U.S. Senator from Maine.
• Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888), lithographer, partner of James Merritt Ives.
• e.e. cummings (1894-1962), 20th century American poet.
• Charles Darwin (1809-1882), scientist and evolutionist, author of Origin of the Species.
• Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist.
• Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), crusader for the reform of institutions for the mentally ill.
• Don Edwards, U.S. Representative from California since 1965.
• Charles William Eliot (1834-1926), president of Harvard, editor of the Harvard Classics.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Unitarian minister, philosopher, essayist.
• Edward Everett (1794-1865), president of Harvard, governor of Massachusetts, UU minister.
• Fannie Farmer (1857-1915), cooking expert.
• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), scientist, writer, printer.
• Maragert Fuller (1810-1850), a feminist before her time. Leading figure in the Transcendentalist movement and an editor of The Dial, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
• William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), abolitionist, editor of The Liberator.
• Horace Greeley (1811-1872), journalist, politician, editor and owner of the New York Tribune, champion of labor unions and cooperatives.
• Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), Unitarian minister and author of The Man Without a Country.
• Andrew Hallidie (1836-1900), inventor of the cable car.
• Bret Harte (1836-1902), writer, author of The Luck of Roaring Camp.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), 19th century American novelist, author of The Scarlet Letter.
• James Haynes Holmes (1879-1964), co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), lawyer and member of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1902-32.
• Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), composer of Battle Hymn of the Republic.
• Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), pioneer in working with the hearing- and sight-impaired.
• Abner Kneeland (1774-1844), advocate of land reform, public education, and reproductive freedom.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), poet, author of Paul Revere's Ride.
• James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), noted 19th century poet, anti-slavery leader, and Unitarian minister.
• Horace Mann (1796-1859), leader in the public school movement, founder of the first public school in America (Lexington, Massachusetts), President of Antioch College, U.S. Congressperson.
• John Marshall (1755-1835), Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
• Thomas Masaryk (1850-1937), the first president of Czechoslovakia (1920), proponent of democracy and social justice.
• Herman Melville (1819-1891), writer, author of Moby Dick.
• Samuel Morse (1791-1872), inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code.
• Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), British nurse and hospital reformer.
• Thomas Paine (1737-1809), editor and publisher of Common Sense.
• Theodore Parker (1810-1860), a renegade Unitarian minister of the mid-19th century and a leading figure of the Abolitionist movement in the Boston area.
• Linus Pauling, chemist, Nobel Peace Prize winner (1962).
• Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), author of Peter Rabbit and other children's stories.
• Joseph Priestly (1733-1804), discoverer of oxygen, Unitarian minister.
• Elliot Richardson, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and Attorney General (1973).
• Paul Revere (1735-1818), silversmith and patriot.
• Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), signer of the Declaration of Independence, influential early American psychiatrist.
• Carl Sandberg (1878-1967), American poet, Pulitzer Prize winner for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.
• Ted Sorenson, speechwriter and aide to John F. Kennedy.
• Charles Steinmetz (1865-1923), electrical engineer, holder of 200 patents, known for his theoretical studies of alternating current.
• Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965), Governor of Illinois, candidate for President, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
• George Stephenson (1781-1848), English engineer, invented the first locomotive.
• Gilbert Charles Stuart (1755-1828), artist, best known for his portrait of George Washington.
• Sylvanus Thayer (1785-1872), engineer, founded U.S. Military Academy.
• Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), essayist and naturalist, author of Walden Pond.
• Hendrik Wilhem Van Loon (1882-1944), historian and author.
• Kurt Vonnegut, writer, author of Slaugherhouse Five.
• Daniel Webster (1782-1852), orator, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, presidential candidate.
• Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), English potter, founder of Wedgwood Pottery.
• Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959), architect.
• Owen D. Young (1874-1962), Chairman of General Electric Company.
• Whitney Young (1921-1971), head of the Urban League.

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What is the history of Unitarian Universalism?

Unlike many Protestant faiths, we do not trace our roots to a single founder. Ideas about the "unity of God" (Unitarian) and "salvation for all" (Universalist) have been around since the earliest days of Christianity.

Perhaps the greatest scholar among the early fathers of the Christian Church was Origen, who lived from 185 to 245 CE. He has been called "the first Universalist," for he rejected the concept of Hell, believed in the benevolence of God who would offer salvation to all humankind, and emphasized the humanity of Jesus. He had wide influence in his day, though by the seventh century he was declared a heretic.

The first consolidation of Christianity into an orthodox religion came under Constantine the Great, who had chosen Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the hopes of unifying it.

Unfortunately, at that time, Christianity was not a unified faith, but a loose conglomeration of churches ruled by local bishops -- there were competing gospels, different versions of the nature of Christ, and different understandings of the messianic hope. Constantine called all the bishops of the church together at a council in Nicaea in 325 CE to resolve these problems, but found there was a central division between those who followed the Bishop Arius, who believed Jesus was a created being, and therefore not God; and the followers of the presbyter Athanasius, who defended the idea that Jesus was of the same substance as God.

To achieve his ends, Constantine forced the council to accept the Athanasian position. These issues continued to be debated in the churches for years, however, and it took a second Council, at Constantinople in 381 CE to affirm the position adopted at Nicaea, add the doctrine of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, thus giving birth to the doctrine of the Trinity.

It was a young doctor named Michael Servetus who planted the Reformation roots of Unitarianism in the 16th century, with his treatise, "On the Errors of the Trinity." For his efforts and published works, he was burned at the stake by John Calvin in 1555. Sebastian Castellio condemned this act, and urged tolerance for varying religious views. The ideas of Servetus and Castellio took root in Poland and Transylvania.

Faustus Socinus denied the doctrine of the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, the personality of the devil, the total depravity of humanity, and eternal punishment. He fled from Italy and Switzerland, settling in Poland where his work resulted in the establishment of hundreds of churches in the 16th century.

Francis David carried on the work of Socinus in Transylvania and Hungary, and was responsible for the enactment of the first edict of religious toleration in the history of Europe under the Unitarian King John Sigismund in 1568. Transylvania has had a Unitarian presence continuously for more than 400 years.

A separate Unitarian movement grew up in England in the 17th century with the help of John Robinson, John Biddle, Theophilus Lindsey and Joseph Priestley, and moved to the shores of America. Joseph Priestley helped found the first Unitarian church in Philadelphia in 1796—King's Chapel, in Boston, had become Unitarian in 1785. Some of the early leaders of Unitarianism on this continent were Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Ellery Channing, and Theodore Parker.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Universalism made its first appearance in England. It proclaimed the simple doctrine that to preach a God of Love requires that you also preach universal salvation, that no one would be sentenced to eternal damnation. In 1759 James Relly published "Union," which furthered these ideas. A follower of Relly, John Murray, occupied the pulpit of the Independent Christian Church of Gloucester, Massachusetts, which became the first organized Universalist church in America.

Twenty-six years later, Hosea Ballou articulated and expanded Universalist doctrine in his work, "A Treatise on Atonement," which sought to prove that the doctrine of the trinity was unscriptural, argued against miracles (in which Christians were required to believe at the time) and denounced the view that women and men were depraved creatures who would burn in hell. Murray and Ballou helped build Universalism into one of the strongest influences on American religious life in the 19th century.

The American Unitarian Association was organized in 1825; the General Convention of Universalists was formed in 1866. Both of these groups saw rapid growth and development after the Civil War; both were involved in the dramatic social reform and rebuilding of our nation during that time.

The late 1800s brought the ordination of women to the professional ministry of both faiths, as well as expansion all along the Western frontier. The first Unitarian church in Canada was founded in Montreal in 1842. The Unitarians and Universalists began to talk about merging together as one religious body in 1899, however, there were differences in social, economic and educational backgrounds that made this difficult.

Finally, in 1961, the Unitarians and the Universalists consolidated into the Unitarian Universalist Association. This union made explicit the close similarities between the two movements: devotion to religious freedom—in thought and practice; the use of reason as a fundamental tool in religious discernment, the absence of assent to a creed as a requirement for membership, a loving concern for the wider world, and the conviction that our understanding of the truth is ever-widening.

We are today a movement of more than 150,000 adults and 50,000 children gathered in more than a thousand congregations across the North American continent and scattered around the world. Our faith's headquarters are at 25 Beacon Street, in Boston, Massachusetts. Our regional organization is the Central Midwest District.

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How do I arrange a visit to UUCW?

Just show up at any of our regularly scheduled worship services! Most Sundays we have two services (9:15 A.M. and 11:00 A.M.) with Religious Education for children. During the Summer we have one worship time at 9:15 A.M. Upon entering the building you will be welcomed by one of our friendly greeters who can assist you further. You can find more information about our congregation, including our Religious Education programs for children and youth, at the Visitor's Table in the foyer. There are many brochures about Unitarian Universalism in the foyer as well. Visitors are encouraged to fill out a yellow Visitor's Card for which you will receive our biweekly newsletter The West Wind for an introductory period. Following each service we have a time of fellowship with coffee and conversation in which guests are encouraged to participate. For more information, contact the UUCW office.

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How can I become a member of UUCW?

Are you interested in finding out more about Unitarian Universalism and UUCW? The Rev. Suzelle Lynch periodically leads UU Orientation Classes. This is a chance to find out more about our church and religion and share in fellowship with others who are new or interested in finding out more. Check out the Membership page for more information on upcoming orientation classes.

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What is UUCW's position on same-sex marriage and other equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people?

Unitarian Universalist Church West affirms the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. We strive for social justice and equality for all people. UUCW is a congregation of diverse sexual orientations and affirm same-sex marriage and the equal rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

In the fall of 2004, by a congregational vote UUCW passed a Statement of Conscience regarding same-sex marriage which reads as follows:

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