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It's a question I'm sure we all get often. Many people have never even heard of Unitarian Universalism.

When having conversations with people and I mention I'm Unitarian Universalist, I often get "what is Unitarian Universalism?"

I feel like we suddenly have to grasp the whole scope of the greatness of our faith in just a few words. To which they'll compare what we say to the other faith's they already know well.

I sometimes wonder how someone of a more well-known faith tradition would respond to a similar question.

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The political ideology of today's UU's is as as dogmatic and evangelical as the ideology of the Right. Do not dare to question or disagree with the 'tolerant and inclusive' ideology lest you become a defacto racist/homophobe/etc.

So currently I live in the Madison, Wisconsin area but will be moving to Baraboo later this month. I know there are UU churches in Madison, but I don't think there are any in Baraboo. What should I do?

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I know the faith has been working on diversity for a long ass time. But is there the slightest chance you guys might know of any black lead UU congregations with live streamed services? I am thrilled that as always, the faith has been preaching about justice, especially Black Lives Matter. I just want to hear more black voices in the services.

Title says it, basically.

According to uua.org, “Only Starr King School for the Ministry, and Meadville Lombard Theological School, are affiliated with the UUA.”

Does anyone have experience with or know of any other divinity / ministerial schools that have coursework a bit more specific to Unitarian Universalism, or interfaith practices?

Thanks!

Welcome to /r/UUReddit's Weekend Coffee Hour. Let's get to know each other. Chat about current events (global, national or local), something going on in your personal life, or whatever you feel like discussing. Are you working on a cool community service or activism project? Have you written or created something online that you want to share? Tell us about it. Topics do not have to be strictly related to Unitarian Universalism.

Hi! I'm agnostic (family is not religious and I've never been to any kind of church in my life) and I've been interested in exploring different churches lately.

I think what I'm mainly looking for is a community that shares my values. I'm getting married soon, so my partner and I have been thinking about potential kids in the future. I sort of have belief that it's good to regularly have open and thoughtful conversations about love, morality, and other things with your kids, so in a sense I'm interested in looking for a "Sunday school" without a strongly religious element where these types of conversations are facilitated in a diverse and welcoming community.

While I'm not religious, I believe strongly in love, kindness, empathy, acceptance, diversity, forgiveness, etc. I'd also like to be able to provide a loving community for any future children I have (...my partner and I are strongly introverted and we don't have many friends or participate in other social communities).

Unitarian Universalism sounded like a really good fit, but I heard from some friends/colleagues that their impression of UU was that it was strongly political and grounded in activism.

I think all of those things are great (I'm left-leaning), but from a parenting perspective, I sort of want my children to arrive at their own political beliefs without anyone telling them what to believe. Ideally, I would like to keep politics separated from love/kindness/empathy/etc, and hope that they are able to come to their own conclusions about various political issues themselves as they grow up.

I was wondering if anyone could provide some insight on this subject, and I'd love to hear your thoughts, recommendations, and opinions! Thank you!

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Hey UU Sub,

I think there is an answer out there but have not had to deal with this before. This is not a new issue for me but I continue, increasingly, to feel that I'm going to be moving on from my current UU church in the near future. It has never been a friendly place (even when we first attended 15+ years ago then then-minister used to talk about how ignoring "new" people at coffee hour - sometimes for years - was self-sabotaging for a congregation) and there is a more promising UU church in driving distance, and also a very liberal Episcopal church that I feel much more affinity with (though I'm not religious) - they actually DO things for others instead of arguing and talking about what they might do, later. Life is short, I'm moving on.

I cannot pledge much, every, but I do pledge and make my payments out of responsibility. What do we do when we move churches or denominations? I have never heard this addressed. I know that my present UU church is totally cash strapped (and was before the pandemic for systemic reasons) but if I make a formal change I'd like to support the new place.

Thanks!

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You may have seen our Discord server linked in messages or on the sidebar before. In the past couple weeks, a lot of big things have happened and we'd love to invite you back if you've previously visited us and left or haven't heard of us before. We're now the First Unitarian Universalist Discord Community and we've recently passed our own bylaws and are currently forming a Programming Committee and Ministry Council. We're planning a book club, shared prayer/meditation and organizing a support circle among other things. We hope to see you soon! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions regarding Discord or our server in particular. Hope to see you there!

OK UUs. I have been a UU forever and I am a member of a Fellowship for 8 years since I moved to Cali. I notice my heart not in it anymore (even before COVID) The local Methodist church and the UCC do so much more in social justice, community and world outreach, LGBT outreach and love. Our youth have fundraisers for themselves (Camp and GA) Those are important, yes. But so is helping others! I am an agnostic so going to other denominations is not a great fit. But I want more social justice. Being on the board for years, I got nowhere. Any thoughts? I feel like pulling my pledge and giving it to others... I do like the people though.

I'm thinking about becoming a UU, but I am not sure it's the place (religion?) for me. It seems like a lot of people are into social justice, taking it too seriously for my tastes. Do most UUs really believe that they are changing the world - and that it is super important - when they do social justice stuff, or do they just do it as the natural consequence of their values - like it's "no big deal" to them and they just do it to sort of put on a show/for fun?

Or should I, instead, keep trying to convince myself that I can literally and truly believe in the Mormon teachings without literally believing in them and therefore acquire a nice community this way?

Anyone found good ideas for things to do with kids (especially younger ones) when we can't meet in person? Normal RE classes via Zoom have not been terribly successful. Any good curricula for online-only?

Welcome to /r/UUReddit's Weekend Coffee Hour. Let's get to know each other. Chat about current events (global, national or local), something going on in your personal life, or whatever you feel like discussing. Are you working on a cool community service or activism project? Have you written or created something online that you want to share? Tell us about it. Topics do not have to be strictly related to Unitarian Universalism.

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Welcome to /r/UUReddit's Weekend Coffee Hour. Let's get to know each other. Chat about current events (global, national or local), something going on in your personal life, or whatever you feel like discussing. Are you working on a cool community service or activism project? Have you written or created something online that you want to share? Tell us about it. Topics do not have to be strictly related to Unitarian Universalism.

I've seen a lot of folks on here point to our Principles as the biggest defining statement on Unitarian Universalism. What part do our Sources play in your personal UU faith?

Sources: https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/sources

My thoughts:

Our Sources are pretty definitive statements and with the same strong language as the Principles (we affirm and promote). And because we affirm and promote all six, they do serve as a (somewhat) theological grounding for UUism.

Our Principles aren't statements of faith so much as promises to act. Going from the micro to the macro, as well as connected in more intricate ways (the 1st and the 7th reflect each other, the 2nd and the 6th, the 3rd and the 5th, with the fourth as the capstone in the arch of the Principles), the Principles are our covenant with one another. Covenants are expected to be broken and we then we call each other back and recommit.

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Hi there ❤️ I’ve been looking for a new church family for a few years now. I’m focusing more now because I’m recently engaged, but I have a lot of church hurt and trauma from church. My emotional well-being is very much tied to my faith. So I want to focus on faith healing so I can be an all-star partner for my guy, and a better person for myself. My fiancé practices Islam. I was raised southern Baptist, and when I went to college I went to a megachurch in my area that’s very much affiliated with the SBC. I’m open and affirming of all genders/sexes/religions/cultures. I love the study of religion, I minored in the subject in college. As you can imagine I felt very concerned and unwelcome in the SBC environment. Even moreso with my engagement, I’ve been met with so much Islamaphobia, it’s sickening and enraging to me. What should I know about UU that will help me? I’ve just gotten connected with a UU community in my area. I’m attending my first service today (via zoom). Thank you for reading ❤️

SOUL:

The word "soul" or "souls" in Hebrew is "nephesh", which the Bible "The King James Version" also translates into "breath", "life", "lives" "person", "persons", "creature", etc.

The Greek word from which the word "soul" or "souls" is translated is "psuche", which the Bible "The King James Version" also translates into "life", "lives", "heart", etc.

In Genesis 2:7, the creation of man is described, who was given existence when the divine spark of life was injected into a body formed from the dust of the ground. A a new soul comes into existence whenever a living being is born (human or animal), each "soul" being a new unit of life uniquely different, and separate, from other similar units. This quality of individuality in each living being, which constitutes it a unique entity, seems to be the idea emphasized by the Hebrew term "nephesh". When used in this sense nephesh is not a part of the person; it is the person, and in fact, sometimes it is translated as "creature" (Genesis 9:15; Leviticus 11:46; Genesis 1:21 – The King James Version), "person" or "persons" (Numbers 5:6; Numbers 31:19; Genesis 36:6 – The King James Version), or "self" (Isaiah 46:2 – The King James Version). On the other hand, expressions such as "my soul," "your soul," "his soul," etc., are generally idioms for the personal pronouns "I," "me," "you," "he," etc. (Genesis 12:13; Leviticus 11:43; Joshua 23:11; Psalms 3:2; Jeremiah 37:9 – The King James Version). The word "nephesh" is translated into "life" or "lives" (Genesis 9:4; Genesis 9:5; 1 Samuel 19:5; Job 2:4; Psalms 31:13; Joshua 2:13 – The King James Version). Sometimes "nephesh" is translated into "appetite" (Proverbs 23:2; Ecclesiastes 6:7 – The King James Version), and sometimes it refers to the seat of the affections (Genesis 34:3; Song of Solomon 1:7 – The King James Version) . The word "nephesh" is also translated in "dead" (Numbers 5:2 – The King James Version). The dead refers to the corpse.

The word "nephesh" refers to the soul of God, precisely because even God and the angels are souls. One verse we can consider in the Old Testament is Isaiah 42:1, which says:

"Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations" (Isaiah 42:1).

These are some translations (among others) of "nephesh" in the Old Testament.

The use of the Greek word "psuche" in the New Testament is similar to that of the Hebrew word "nephesh" in the Old Testament. It is used of human life as well as animal life (1 Peter 3:20; Revelation 16:3 – The King James Version). In some instances it is used to mean simply "person" or "persons" (Romans 13:1; Acts 7:14 – The King James Version). Mark 14:34 says that the soul of Jesus was sorrowful; in this case it refers to feelings. Also in the New Testament we can find the verse relative to Isaiah 42:1 which uses the word "psuche" to refer to the soul of God:

"17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 18 "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles" (Matthew 12:17-18).

These are some translations (among others) of "psuche" in the New Testament.

The idea that a "soul" can have sentient existence apart from the body, or that it possesses an immortal essence, is foreign to the Bible. The soul is not a conscious and immortal entity that survives the body after death. In fact, the New Testament teaches that the soul (psuche) is destroyed along with the body in the symbolic Gehenna (Matthew 10:28).

SPIRIT:

The word "spirit" in Hebrew is "ruwach", which the Bible "The King James Version" also translates into "air", "wind", "winds", "breath", "spirits", etc.

The Greek word from which the word "spirit" is translated is "pneuma", which the Bible "The King James Version" also translates into "wind", "winds", "breath", "spirits", etc.

The divine energy, or life principle, that animates living beings. Whereas the Hebrew word nephesh (soul) denotes individuality, or personality "ruwach" (spirit) refers to the energizing spark of life essential to individual existence. It is also used to denote vitality (Judges 15:19), courage (Joshua 2:11) and anger (Judges 8:3). Animals also have the spirit (Ecclesiastes 3:19; Ecclesiastes 3:21). "Ruwach" is frequently used for the Spirit of God (Psalms 51:11; Isaiah 63:10).

These are some translations (among others) of "ruwach" in the Old Testament.

Also in the New Testament the Greek "pneuma" is used to indicate meekness (1 Corinthians 4:21), fear (2 Timothy 1:7) and the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:11; Ephesians 4:30). Note that the Holy Spirit is a member of the Trinity, and is therefore God.

In the Bible the term "spirit" is also used to refer to God and angels (good and bad) in the sense that they themselves are spirits (2 Corinthians 3:17; Hebrews 1:13-14; Mark 1:23-26; Luke 8:26-30).

These are some translations (among others) of "pneuma" in the New Testament.

Never in the Bible, with respect to man, do "ruwach" and "pneuma" denote an intelligent entity capable of sentient existence apart from a physical body. Note that the phrase "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" in Ecclesiastes 12:7 does not mean, as mentioned before, that the spirit is a sentient entity that lives apart from a physical body. This verse denotes the fact that it is in God's power to breathe again the spirit (Genesis 2:7) into the bodies of the resurrected persons in the resurrection of the just and in the resurrection of the unjust.

Okay, lets cut the crap. What if I don't agree with everything I see and hear in the media right now? What is really going on? I have been to a UU church in my area on and off for a few years. And it has increasingly felt...... I don't know. Wrong. At least wrong for me. I just don't connect with most of the people there. In fact I am even scared to try to start a conversation with most of them. Something I say will be wrong, will be a trigger, or be politically incorrect, or a micro aggression or whatever.

And also, many of those people make more money than I do and have a higher education than me. So that is part of why I feel like I don't fit in. And reading what they say and share on social media just makes me feel like I can't truly talk to these people. And if I did would they try to have me fired from my job? Or even harrassed by the police. Okay, maybe I'm getting a little paranoid here.

I believe that all lives matter. However I am starting to understand that this is not always the proper thing to say. I am a straight white male and it seems to me that it is other straight white people that get the most angry and vicious when someone expresses something other than what they have been told by the media to believe.

So are these people insecure? Are they putting up a front? Are they doing it just to make themselves look better? Is it for politcal or economic reasons? I don't know. I went to the UU church because I believe in freedom, justice for all, and respect for each other and the world that we live in.

Should all UU churches have a sign at the front door saying that there is a minimum income requirement, or education level, or political affiliation?

Like I said, I don't feel like I fit in there and now I wonder if I am even safe being there.

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I am a christian of no particular denomination and my (gay) partner is a witch. We both believe that our respective faiths are different ways of reaching the same spirit so don't see any problem with practising together.

We hope to get married soon and in the UK, you can choose to have a religious or civil marriage but if you choose the civil marriage option then you're not allowed to include anything religious in the ceremony. It's important to us that faith plays a part in our marriage, so we are thinking about a UU wedding as it sounds like the church is accepting of all different ways that people express their faith.

Do you have to be a member of the church to get married in it? I think our beliefs align with those of the UU but we don't go to church there, preferring to worship at various different places. I'd love to hear from anyone who can advise on what a UU wedding is like and if it would be right for us

EDIT: Just wanted to clarify my use of the word 'witch'. It has some bad connotations but it doesn't mean 'devil worshipper' - for my girlfriend at least, it means connecting with the life energy to bring about positive change and communing with the natural world

My MIL is a Trump supporter and I am having difficulty holding her with respect and dignity as our values aren’t in alignment. My husband and I have tried to converse with her on many occasions trying to develop some understanding. These conversations never go well and my husband is ready to cut her out of his life. Honestly, this devastates me as I am a mother and at the same time brings me relief because I am tired of trying to rationalize the things she says and believes. Our struggles with her are not just limited to Trump-she has always been hard to set boundaries with find common ground. It is especially concerning seeing her grandmother our children.

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The UU Multiracial Unity Action Council has reportedly been expelled from General Assembly. Their exhibit has been removed from the virtual exhibit hall, and their learning-stage program has been cancelled. Their approach to anti-racism is not in line with the UUA's.

https://www.uumuac.org

This past weekend, the Youth of our church, hosted a two day, online Youth Con. It included Youth from a number of parishes. Obviously, we had never done this before. They planned workshops, worship, a coffee house, and bridging ceremony for the seniors.
I was amazed and proud of how well they created a welcoming and fun experience for themselves and other Youth. It gives me such hope to see young people like this in our denomination. We will be taking the lessons learned from this into future events, even when COVID is no longer a bar to IRL conferences.

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I'm a PoC, and I'm increasingly exhausted by UU.

When I first started attending a UU church, I was excited. I had finally found my religion! Here was a group of people who did not demand dogma or belief in God. Here was a group of people who had a reasonable philosophy on how to live. They seemed committed to social justice and racial justice, as it fed back into the principles they have of a peaceful and just world, that acknowledged the inherent worth of every person. I was excited to find a spiritual home and community.

I was drawn in. But over time, I found myself more and more exhausted. Why?

When I join the DSA, I'm not expecting to work on spiritual growth - I'm expecting to plan on how to make a difference. When I show up to an ACLU regional meeting, I'm not expecting to work on spiritual growth - I'm expecting to learn about what legislative actions are in progress, and which legislators I should reach out to.

When I go to church, I expect to develop a sense of spirituality with a community. First and foremost, that is what I think a church exists to do.

Instead, there seems to be an expectation that everyone in church is (1) white and (2) should be a 24/7 activist. It's pretty alienating when 99% of sermon time is spent just beating white people on how they should be doing more. It's as if people of color either shouldn't be there or shouldn't expect that a sermon should care for our needs at all.

But also, not everyone is an activist. Not everyone can be an activist. I'm the most "activist" type in my (brown) family. Most brown people, like most white people, want to live our day to day lives, not be bombarded with everything that is terrible in the world constantly. We live with significantly less peace than white people (on average). But it doesn't mean we're all activists who want to constantly fixate on the ills of the world. Can you imagine a child living in poverty taking some joy in kicking a ball with other neighborhood kids? Great. Maybe you can imagine me wanting to grow spiritually instead of imagining a loved one getting murdered by the police again. Maybe I want my Sunday mornings to be a time of solace more often than its a time of anger.

This is not to say that churches shouldn't grow activism. They absolutely should - hearing about Scott Warren is why I looked into UU in the first place! But UU seems to put activism first, before spirituality or community. It seems to me that, in UU's quest to become more diverse, UU has only listened to the loudest voices in the rooms. And these voices demand a 24/7 style activism that is not feasible for most people (brown or no).

You are not catering to most PoC.

Want to draw in more PoC?

Then offer us something that activism can't - offer us healing.

I noticed a mention in the discussion of that UUnderstanding subreddit of some UUs who want to be one or the other. This is the larger and more mainstream sub so I'd like to ask - how common is this?

Asking because I've rejoined my local UU church after going either nowhere, or to an Episcopal Church (gorgeous music and language, good values, too bad they really expect you to believe things I don't believe), for a while. There is a lot that I like about our new minister but there are two things I'm wary about - 1) stridency (a "sit down and shut up, this is what we're doing" attitude maybe too often) and 2) repeated comments about how awful the Unitarians were because they were privileged and white and rational and not favoring emotional and "spiritual" services and...eh....I like a lot of the classical Unitarians. I really liked a past minister at that church who was very "Unitarian" (a brilliant thinker and speaker and not terribly emotional/squishy). Do I get off this train (or maybe they'll push me off later)?

I'm not sure how this church and new minster combo is going to fare long term (especially since the entrenched members all appear to be over 75 or 80...). Wondering if I have noticed an unusual thing or a currently common thing.

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It came up in my suggestions, but after reading some and very briefly trying to engage, it seems pretty toxic.

Just hoping to understand where/why that came from, and wondering how many other UU subs are out there.

There is a Facebook Group called "Unitarian Universalism - "Faith of the Free" and I joined a while ago. I have not been on lately and out of the loop. I see many people on them complaining about the UUA, something about beliefs being "imposed" on them, and other things like how UU is trying to indoctrine people or something like how people have an agenda etc. I don't know how to word it but I'm very confused as I've been involved in non-religious activities as of late so I haven't kept up on news in UU. What is happening?

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I've recently become really interested in UU. Thanks to covid I am able to actually attend services from my local congregation. I've contacted my local congregation twice now, but I haven't really had much luck with connecting I guess.

I wanted some recommendations on books and I was pointed towards the UUA bookstore to read the PDFs of the pamphlets. Perhaps there's great info in them, but I'm not looking for pamphlets, you know??

I'm a married lady with two kiddos, 3yrs old and 4 months old. A lot of my time is absorbed my our newborn right now. I don't really know what I'm looking for but I just want to be able to have conversations with someone about all of this since I'm new and while my husband is interested, this is a path I'm on by myself.

I'm curious about how the UUA works. What does it do? What are its responsibilities? Does the UUA have any authority over UU churches? Do UU churches pay dues?

I've found some good UU introductory resources on the website, but I'm unclear on how it interacts with individual churches. Thanks!

By "your views" I mean your personal views. I know UU doesn't have official views on it

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I've been attending a UU church for a while now, and I'm now considering officially joining. As far as I can tell, this means getting voting rights and a copy of UU World in the mail.

I generally agree with most of the liberal stances of the UU, and I find it a breath of fresh air. That said, I do not agree with much of the dialogue around trans rights. While I'm fine with people rocking whatever look they like, I do not agree with males in women's sports (I can't believe they're starting to allow this without even puberty blockers now??). I don't agree with the idea that sex is irrelevant or doesn't exist (when it's the basis of reproduction?).

In countries where infanticide is common, I don't think anyone asks for an infant's "gender identity" before slamming her (it's almost always a her) head in into the ground. I don't think a girl in Africa can say "Actually, I'm a man" and get out of FGM. I can't identify my way into not being property if I were to visit Saudi Arabia, and there's no "boy mode" I can use to protect me. And it infuriates me that we stand by those who abuse, enslave, murder brown women suffer because "it's their culture" - that's something I can't respect.

Not to mention my own life and experience as a woman, where I've had trans friends pressure me to transition because I have no gender identity and I express myself pretty masculinely. I'm grateful that I'm not a few years younger, because otherwise I think I'd be one of the posters on /r/detrans, unable to undo the harm I'd've done to my body.

So, should I join? I could just keep attending (or maybe just stop). I get a lot out of attending church on Sundays, but I'm finding the questions about pronouns and the proclivity to ignore biology rather grating, in a world that abuses us on the basis of biology.

Is this a church-by-church thing? Are some churches more science-based than others? Maybe I should shop around? Or just walk away?

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Hey there, first time here. I've been on a religious journey for a couple of years now. I started looking into Christianity, as I was raised Catholic. I discovered my ancestors were likely Jewish (and probably assimilated into German society), and I've been exploring Judaism quite a bit. I am very drawn to the traditions and culture of Judaism.

However, I also believe that there is some truth in all religions throughout the world. I think other-izing groups of people is wrong no matter where it comes from. I think all paths lead to God, as I don't believe that an all loving being would only manifest itself to certain cultural groups.

So my question is, do members of a UU Church tend to lean towards different texts and traditions? I am very drawn to Judaism, and have been thinking strongly of converting to Reform Judaism, but I'd like to learn more about UU before taking it off the table.

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