https://websites.umich.edu/~jrcole/bahai/1999/jssr/bhjssr.htm

[Part one]

Despite the large literature on American religious bodies, some groups remain curiously off-limits to careful investigation. In many instances, these largely unstudied contemporary faiths carefully cultivate public images that hide important facets of their outlook and internal workings. Thus, the collapse of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s Oregon commune surprised many observers. Some of these groups have developed control mechanisms that discourage adherents and often even apostates from writing about these workings. Scientology, for instance, employs techniques of harassment against critics. Others employ shunning which can be an extremely powerful deterrent, endangering a lifetime of friendships and even family relationships. The problem with strict internal controls for missionary religions, however, is that they are most often incompatible in Western societies with significant growth. One solution to this difficulty is to attempt to control what are thought of as key pressure points—vocal intellectuals, media, prominent institutions—and to give greater leeway to ordinary believers. This solution has the further advantage of making charges of repression less plausible to the rank and file, who have not personally experienced such constraints.

Here I wish to examine social control mechanisms in the American Baha’i community. These include mandatory pre-publication censorship of everything Baha'is publish about their religion, administrative expulsion, blackballing, shunning and threats of shunning. What are the ideological bases of these control mechanisms? How is power attained and managed in a lay community without a clergy? I wish to stress here that this article is not concerned with the essence or scriptures or theology of the religion, but with the actualities of its day-to-day technologies of control. Many of my remarks cannot be generalized to other national communities, and concern mainly the U.S.

Anyone familiar with the public relations literature produced by the movement will be surprised at the description of control mechanisms given above, since Baha’is are often grouped in the media with Unitarian-Universalists. Why should the Baha’i authorities wish to project an image more liberal than the reality? First, the movement’s scriptures are liberal in their orientation, and as a result even administratively conservative Baha'i leaders support the U.N. and race unity, and pay lip service to the rule of law. But when it comes to the internal governance of the religion, the same leaders wield these control mechanisms to enforce on prominent believers what might be thought of as “party discipline” in the Marxist sense. Second, Baha’i leaders are aware that if the U.S. press understood how their administration actually operates, journalists might be far less favorable to them than is now the case. Third, the Baha'i leadership and intellectual class includes some powerful liberals, and some of the contradictions between self-presentation and policy derive from conflicts among the leadership. Fourth, since the 1960s this non-Christian Iranian religion has not attracted many white evangelicals or working-class Catholics, whereas more pluralist college-educated persons have been much more open to it. Thus, an open insistence on a fundamentalist orthodoxy and a clear condemnation of human rights principles might deprive the religion of an important recruiting ground. Although antiliberals have captured the key posts, they shape the community’s ideology subtly, by controlling media and silencing liberals who begin to become prominent. Because of these techniques of dissimulation, power can remain in the hands of conservatives, while liberals can continue to be recruited at the local level, and often remain unaware of how marginalized they really are.

In the past, the paucity of anything but official literature formed a difficulty in studying the approximately 60,000 adult American Baha’is, but the emergence of Baha’i electronic mail forums in the 1990s has led to the airing of Baha’i individual opinions in public. I will outline some key control mechanisms employed in the U.S., based on published literature, following email debates, and participant observation. The author has been studying the Baha’i religion for a quarter of a century, and spent much of that time as an adherent. This movement originated as a messianic offshoot of Twelver Shi`ite Islam in nineteenth-century Iran. By the time it came to the United States, in the 1890s, it was already an established religion in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East (Smith 1987). It is now among the more widely-spread religious bodies in the world, and since the mid-1980s has officially claimed about five million adherents (Smith and Momen 1989)--a number that has remained stagnant since then and which was probably somewhat exaggerated even at the time. Let us begin with a brief historical overview.

Historical Background of the American Baha’i Community

The religion was founded in the Middle East in 1863 by the Iranian prophet Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), who taught the unity of the world religions and the unity of humankind from his place of exile in Palestine (Cole 1998). It came to the U.S. in the early 1890s, and was nurtured by the religion's second leader, `Abdu'l-Baha (d. 1921) (Stockman 1985-1995). From 1921 to 1957, the world community was headed by Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, Baha'u'llah's great-grandson, who died childless and without a successor as "Guardian" or interpreter of the religion. After a hiatus, the Universal House of Justice, consisting of nine men, was elected by the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the world in Haifa, Israel, in 1963, in the wake of a Baha’i world congress held in London (Smith 1987). This legislative body, which had been called for by Baha'u'llah but was now elected for the first time, quickly confirmed that no further Guardians could be appointed (Universal House of Justice 1973:11). The Universal House of Justice created a new appointive institution, the Continental Boards of Counselors, to carry out the functions of propagation and protection—that is, of encouraging proselytizing and imposing orthodoxy (they are assisted by regional “auxiliary board members” and their “assistants”). Some members of the Universal House of Justice were drawn from the ranks of Americans who had served on the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly, and for a time vacancies on the UHJ tended to be filled by former secretaries-general of the U.S. body. More recently vacancies have been filled by counselors appointed by the UHJ. The Universal House of Justice presided over a vast expansion of Baha’i numbers among peasants in the global South, especially India (Smith and Momen 1989). Growth remained slight in Europe.

In 1963, the American Baha’i community had about 10,000 adherents. Here, the religion felt the impact of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the youth counterculture, and Watergate. The late 1960s and the 1970s were for many Americans a period of profound disillusionment with their social norms and government institutions (Bellah 1976; Wuthnow 1976). This dissatisfaction significantly raised the number of potential converts to less well known religious bodies. Suddenly, the Baha’is' proselytizing ("teaching") efforts, which had had only desultory results previously, reaped tens of thousands of converts. "From 13,000 in 1969, the U.S. Baha’i community grew to 18,000 in 1970; to 31,000 in 1971; 40,000 in 1972; and 60,000 by 1974" (Stockman 1994:18). (Note, however, that Stockman is reporting all the persons who ever registered as members without formally withdrawing, whereas Baha’i authorities soon lost track of about half of them; these persons are unlikely still to be Baha’is.). There were relatively few Baha’i youth (ages 15-21) in the community in 1968, but by the early 1970s there were some 19,000. The influx of youth created frictions with the older Baha’is. Some large proportion of the converts from the youth culture subsequently withdrew (cf. Caton in Hollinger 1992:264-271). Some of those who remained went on to obtain higher degrees, giving the community for the first time a significant number of intellectuals, though these remained poorly integrated into the Baha’i milieu. The Baha’i administration was to have increasing problems with these intellectuals’ “culture of critical discourse” (Gouldner, 1979) in subsequent years. By 1978, the Baha’i administration claimed 77,396 members, though it had confirmed addresses for only 48,357 of these, and the number of youth had fallen to only about 3,500 (National Spiritual Assembly of the U.S. 1979).

In the early 1970s, as a result of proselytizing by young people, thousands of rural African-Americans in South Carolina and northern Georgia adopted the Baha’i faith, attracted by its emphasis on the elimination of prejudice, though most of these converts did not give up their identification with their Christian churches (Hardesty 1993). The members of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly (based in Wilmette, Ill.) had for the most part become adults in the 1940s and 1950s when the Baha’is numbered only five thousand or so and constituted a relatively closed club. They appear to have worried that the previously-existing community might be swamped by the newcomers. The rolls were becoming cluttered with many declarations of faith based on misunderstandings, and newcomers often had no conception of the rules of Baha'i administration. According to one eyewitness Firuz Kazemzadeh, a longstanding member of the N.S.A. and then a professor of Russian history at Yale, was worried that the community did not have the resources, financial or human, to manage a further influx of poor southern Blacks, and felt that resources should be put into absorbing the thousands that had already come in (personal communication, 16 May 1997). Other, less conservative N.S.A. members strongly argued for allowing the chain conversion to take its course, but these lost the debate. The N.S.A. then deliberately halted the teaching campaign in the South. This is corroborated by a number of sources, including a message posted to the Talisman listserv discussion group (which was run 1994-1996 by John Walbridge, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Indiana University), in which a correspondent reported that he was told by an older African-American Baha'i who had been prominent in teaching the South Carolinian converts more about their religion that

his study of 25 years of national elections led him to think that there would be very little variability in the ethnic makeup of the N.S.A. membership, that a specific ratio of racial diversity was carefully being maintained (sort of an enhanced tokenism?), and that there were lots of fears by the powers that be that if the mass teaching in the south had been allowed to go forward at full steam that a black N.S.A. majority would probably have been elected, so the mass teaching was stopped. (Talisman, April 1996)

Of course, this is only one opinion, and may be incorrect, but the quote shows that some African-American Baha’is entertained these doubts. It does seem clear that the U.S. Baha'i authorities (unlike their Indian counterparts) chose to impose the sort of controls that might risk stagnation rather than take a chance on vast but uncontrolled growth. An eyewitness told me that House of Justice member Ali Nakhjavani deplored the decision as having set back the U.S. Baha’i community “by a generation.” On the other hand, the N.S.A. did show concern to socialize the new Southern African-American converts to Baha'i values; admitted a representative of that community to the N.S.A.; and has done community service work, including setting up a radio station in South Carolina.

The next large-scale event involved the immigration to the U.S. from 1978 through the mid-1980s of some 12,000 Iranian Baha’is fleeing persecution at the hands of the Khomeinist government in Iran. The American rank and file responded to these events with active campaigns on behalf of their beleaguered Iranian co-religionists and enhanced monetary offerings. The House of Justice in Haifa, however, took a different approach. At first it was reluctant to abandon its quietism in order to protest the persecutions. Moreover, it offered no support to Iranian Baha’is attempting to flee, and even punished many who succeeded, on the grounds that they could only have gotten out by denying their faith. In many instances it refused to certify such Baha’is as members, preventing them from being granted asylum and thereby putting them in severe difficulty and sometimes even danger. The U.S. N.S.A. also took this hard line, refusing to welcome large numbers of the escapees into the U.S. community. House of Justice member Ali Nakhjavani vocally and sternly defended these policies on trips to the U.S. The House of Justice did come to support the U.S. N.S.A. in its policy of putting pressure on the Iranian government through cooperation with human rights organizations, though it sometimes continued to balk at certifying escapees as Baha’is.

The period after 1979 was a time of big changes in the U.S. The influx of Iranians, some of whom eventually were accepted into the community, was sufficiently geographically dispersed to require Baha’i communities to come to terms with a more multi-cultural ethos, and most Baha’i communities now included white, Iranian and African-American members. South Carolina and California are the two biggest population centers, but Baha’is have made strenuous efforts to build communities in every state, having by the mid-1990s some 1300 local spiritual assemblies throughout the country and a national annual budget of around $20 million (though contributions to the national fund in 1996 were only $11 million and were not keeping up with inflation). The N.S.A. claims 130,000 Baha’is in the late 1990s, but this is a vast exaggeration, even if one counts the children. The N.S.A.’s own survey of 300 communities showed that only a third of members regularly attended the nineteen-day feast (National Spiritual Assembly of U.S., 1997). Wilmette insiders give a figure closer to 60,000 for adults in good standing for whom the authorities still have a confirmed address, and probably only half of these could be considered “active” or committed. After all, converts can only be removed from the rolls by writing a formal letter to the National Spiritual Assembly explicitly renouncing belief in Baha’u’llah. Most of those who leave the religion do not bother to do so. One Baha'i tells the story of how an attempt was made in the 1980s to contact the Baha’is in Compton, California. Official records showed 22 Baha’is there for which the N.S.A. had addresses. But an exhaustive search turned up only two who still considered themselves Baha’is (personal communication, May, 1997). This case cannot be typical, but it is suggestive. It is sometimes argued that those converts of whom the authorities have lost track may not have entirely given up their allegiance to the religion. In 1990 CUNY conducted a poll of 110,000 U.S. households with regard to religion, and, only finding 24 adults who reported themselves as Baha’is, estimated the size of the community as 28,000 adults. These findings, while perhaps on the low side, confirm that there are not large numbers of lost Baha’is floating about in the general population (Kosmin and Lachman 1992:17, 151, 287).

[to be continued]

Are there any UU congregations in Iceland? We're planning a vow renewal there and I'm wondering if I can reach out to them for an officiant.

So I spent my early years in a UU church, left before reaching double digits, remained church-free for most of my life, but have recently felt drawn back to religion in some capacity. I have always been at least a little spiritual, but I'd love to join a space and community where I can actually do something with that spirituality.

A friend and I went to a UU service yesterday at a local parish, and we're planning on going to more to get a feel for it. We enjoyed the sermon — the pastor got into Martin Buber's "I-Thou" concept, something we had familiarity with and find incredibly fascinating! But we were curious if there might be a better fit for us elsewhere and if anybody has info on other congregations.

What I'm looking for might be a tough search, but I guess that's why I figured this subreddit might be a big help!

• As the title says, I live in New England and I'm within an hour's drive of Boston. (An hour is probably the most I'd drive for a congregation, but I'd be open to farther than that if the fit is truly that good.)

• I'm an eco-socialist who is looking for a congregation that is even more left-wing than the average UU base — i.e. more of a transformative/liberation theology outlook that goes beyond tolerant liberalism. Anti-capitalism is baked into my spiritual ontology and I'd love to be a part of a congregation that is both affirming and revolutionary in what it emphasizes in sermons, how it engages with the world, the works it does, etc.

• With that above point in mind, greater diversity in the congregation would also be very much preferred. The service we went to yesterday was at least 95% white and maybe 75% over the age of 60. A variety of different perspectives — beyond just those of predominantly upper-middle-class white boomers — is crucially important, especially when the MO of your church is openness and an embracing of the marginalized. And, I suppose "selfishly", I'd also like to meet people my own age (I'm 31), or at least have that age be a noticeable-enough minority within the wider congregation.

• And finally, I'd ideally like it to really dive into the mystical and the ineffable. I know that UU is expressly non-denominational and thus doesn't stake out clear theological positions. But I was hoping that an emphasis on ritual, mystical experience, and meditations on the eternal (all of which can still very much be experienced by atheists and secular people) could still be common-enough within certain UU congregations that they could be more clearly recommended over others in this regard. This includes the above-mentioned ritual, but it could also include stuff like seasonal festivals and events, seminars on different spiritual/mystical perspectives, smaller "coven-esque" groups that dive more deeply into a specific outlook, etc. I like when metaphysics gets equally immanent-within-the-Earth and transcendent-into-Eternity — and while I realize the value in remaining non-descript to an extent so as not to alienate people, I also firmly believe that those metaphysical views are truly embracing and far-reaching, the stuff that UU aspires towards.

TLDR: I'm looking for a congregation in New England that is diverse, leans eco-socialistic (or at least capitalism-critical) in its sermons and works, and is mystical in its spiritual practices and outlooks. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 🙂

Am I the only one who's been excommunicated, so to speak? I didn't even think that was possible in the UU community. I've tried reaching out to the congregation about their decision and they want nothing to do with me. They won't even explain the decision. I know part of the reasoning, but they won't hear anything I have to say. Feels like they're violating the first principle.

I'm sure I'll meet resistance here, too, but so be it. I guess I'm destined to be a problem. That's not what I want, though, all I ever wanted was community.

How UU Became a Church of Shaming, Bullying and Coercion

Hello! I am a doctoral student exploring the outcomes for adult alumni of the foster care system and how trauma informed care may improve outcomes. Understanding that UU communities are passionate about social justice issues, I am considering the possibility that former foster youth may seek community in this space. If you are 18+ and experienced foster care, will you please take a moment to help me in my research? I appreciate your time! Thank you!

How UU Became a Church of Shaming, Bullying and Coercion (substack.com)

I want to get more involved but there seems to be a serious lack of millennials and gen z. Is this just where I am, or do you all find this issue as well? How can we get more young people involved?

My husband and I just joined a UU congregation late last year. We both grew up Catholic and wanted somewhere that was much more inclusive and in line with our current beliefs.

The church we joined is great - we are very introverted, and the people there have done a great job reaching out and making us feel welcomed.

We just want to feel like we belonged somewhere and have a community to fall back on. Having the UU values instilled in our children is also a big plus.

However, since I joined this sub, people make it seem like UU is nefarious in someway. Obviously every church has it's downfalls, but I'm curious why people here are so negative about UU. Am I missing something??

Or does everyone's experiences just vary wildly from church to church?

Maybe this is a misstated question, but what exactly are we worshiping when the minister says "Come, let us worship."

I know for many UUs, the answer would be God. But for other UUs?

Hi everyone. Any other Chicagoland UU’s around here?

I (23F) grew up attending our local Unitarian-Universalist church. Due to both personal and external reasons, my family stopped attending shortly after I went through Coming of Age at 16. I was ok with this, because at the time, as I believe many teenagers feel, I thought I had better things to do with my Sunday morning than go to church.

However, as I’ve gotten older, and had time to reflect back on my relationship both to UU and Capital R Religion in general, my perspective has changed. I find myself being interested in finding a faith community, and the freedom of belief and identity that exists in UU is still attractive to me.

So I guess I’m just looking for perspective. I’m interested to hear from people that were UU, left, and then came back after a period of time, and what that experience was like. I’d also love to swap stories with other’s that grew up in a UU community.

Either way, I’m excited to explore deeper explore my own relationship with the spiritual, and I hope everyone is having a nice night :)

I just want to attend church at my local UU congregation on Sundays... it's free right? I know it costs to be a "member" but does it cost to just attend? Thanks

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a UU home that fills the following:

1. Online/mixed service between 9 am - 2 pm EST
2. Established trans and/or non-binary congregation (tokenism sucks)
3. Culturally-diverse
4. Age-diverse
5. Strong focus on animism, pantheism, humanism
6. Does not feel like Christian-lite
7. NOT performative; actual critical thinkers

Any suggestions for congregations? Suggestions for other groups that are not UU are also very welcome!

Thanks in advance.

Can anyone explain why the line "We work to be diverse multicultural Beloved Communities where all thrive." is in the Justice subsection and not in the Pluralism subsection?

I have no problem with the line, just wondering why it wasn't in Pluralism.

This has been a troubling trend that I have seen in my UU congregation that I attend at least twice in the 20 years that I have been attending. It feels like our congregation is either not sure or doesn't want to deal with folks that enter our presence that are struggling with mental health and addiction issues.

What brings this up is there has been a young man who started attending service and participating in activities when we reopened post-Covid. I am starting to realize that I am the person in the congregation that has probably bonded with this person the most since they have been there, including socializing with them outside of the church setting. Over time I have noticed some possible mental health and/or addiction concerns that are going on with this person. They recently returned after months-long hiatus and whatever is going on seems to be getting worse. This person has told me that they struggle with some mental health things, but the conversations also lead me to speculate addiction issues as well.

What is bothersome is how I have been dismissed by my congregation when I try to discuss these issues with them. Or am told things like "he is trying to sort things out in life" or repeat the face saving reason he gave when he left the first time (even though I knew more was going on). I am not doing it to gossip, but rather out of concern. It is my hope that the church would build a welcoming sense of community around this young man. We have a number of folks in the congregation who work in mental health, social work and other related professions who could address these concerns. I also am looking for support in responding to our relationship.

The minister has been marginally more supportive of my relationship with this person, but stated that he can't really do much unless this person comes to him with their concerns, or are experiencing suicide ideation, are being disruptive or are a threat. I have another meeting with him next week to discuss this issue. But he did tell me that he has noticed that this young man is "anguished by something" when he sees him in the pew.

I ran into this our congregation 10 or so years back with another person going through similar issues. The church also took kind of a "hands off" approach as well. That person ended up dying by suicide.

Is this something that folks experience in other UU congregations or have answers as to how I could respond to this better?

I’ve looked around and from what it looks like, they’re just to give you more responsibility in the congregation? I would assume if you pay for it, that’s how the congregation is upkept because the Sunday donations go to local causes?

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong; I’m just trying to understand the difference between member and nonmember.

I've been struggling a lot lately and am at a point where I really feel that I need community and something to really touch on the spirituality side of things. However, I have very very little experience with religion in general, and what little I do is tainted.

When younger, around 17, I was dragged to sunday service at a non-denominational mega campus style church, the kind where the church resembles a massive Ampitheater and there's a starbucks. It was, interesting, and you could kinda just wander in, all sorts of people would show up, you could get lost in a crowd. I stopped going and haven't really interacted with religion or spirituality in any serious way since.

Now, I'm a late 20s visibly queer brown woman, and from what I've read, UU congregations tend to skew older and white. I also imagine they are smaller. I'm terrified of showing up. I did find a service I want to attend (UU of Church of Buffalo), but have zero clue what to expect or how to show up.

Questions I have in no particular order:

-Do I need to RSVP before hand, or contact them to let them know I'll be arriving?

-What should I wear (I really only have ragged jeans and a tee)?

-How early should I arrive?

-What's proper etiquette?

Thanks for any help. I really want to show up.

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Hello everyone and thanks for reading this. I feel really alone sometimes. I am asking for prayers and good vibes for the healing of my body and soul.A few years ago I was diagnosed with Neuropathy in my legs. It started out not too bad, but just like the doctor said it progressed and progressed hard. My legs are constantly tingling and they burn so bad I cannot stand it. I now can no longer stand for more than 15 minutes. I am on medication and going to the doctor regularly and since I can't work I am considered poverty and qualified for Medicaid so I am thankful for that, but still it doesn't help the pain much, the doctors or the meds.

This has also left me in a dark depression since I have been off work. I was a construction worker, but I had to quit about 12 months ago. I applied for disablilty immediately. I got denied and called an attorney, and they are going to take the case I think. I filed for an appeal, but it could still take months and I have applied for food stamps but still nothing on that yet either. It's getting hard. I am probably going to be evicted, no food, no money, no truck (kicked the bucket and sold for parts months ago) and just at the end of my rope. Mentally and physically.

I never really had any family, just foster care, so I am used to being alone, it's bad to be hurting and be alone though. It makes you crave human interaction, which I have had none of. I was always ostercized by my foster parents and made to feel like I was not worthy all of my life and was kicked out at 18. But, again, I know there are people out there with it worse than me.

Cherry on top of the cake, I am also just starting to transition into the woman I have became. I hate that I waited this late in life to do it, but I did. I do feel some peace from finally accepting who I am, but as most people already know, transitioning is hard. It's even harder when I am in constant pain and do not even have food. Also, my former foster parents hate my decision to do this, so they will not have anything to do with me. But, I am proud that I am transitioing. Before my first mom got on drugs and we got threw into foster care, she would buy me dolls and I think she always knew I was a little different. I remember one time at a yard sale, I was ashamed to buy a Barbie doll and my mom asked, "would you like me to tell them it's for your sister?" I will never forget that and I would do anything to see her again but shes long gone. I heard she overdosed when I was 15. But I still miss her.

I know one day I will get better. I hope, at least, but my legs hurt constantly and I would do anything to go back 10 years. I am in my early 40's and I would take living to 50 only gladly if I could just get a few years pain free. Life is life though and I know that's not possible. Friends, I do know my God is a healer though, and even though I have never felt further from him in my life I know he can steal heal my body and soul, and I have asked, maybe I haven't humbled myself enough idk, maybe someone needs healing worse than me? I am almost certain they do and i know I am not his only child who needs healing, but this hurts. I know that he will leave the 99 to rescue me, but hurry my shepard, this lamb is lost thirsty and hungry. I look forward to heaven, and crave it like like home, even though I have never been there.

I am not going to give up though. I am going to keep clawing and fighting through this and praying the whole time. Like I said before though, it gets really hard especially when I am flat broke. I have no food or anything and never in a million years did I think I would have to ask, but if anyone could help me with anything I would be forever grateful and pay it back when I get on my feet. I have cashapp if you want to help. I also have paypal if you want to DM me and I will give you my name on there. My name on cashapp is $Lunarsolsticewind If you cant help, thanks for reading this anyways and still pray for me please, anything will help though, I just have no money and no food to my name. I have tried churces and food banks to no avail, as they are all empty. I understand everyone is having it hard right now so I understand if anyone can't give, I just figured I would try this because it's my last resort becasue I have no speakable family and my credit is awful where I have lost everything. I know this looks suspicious and is a new account, but I have never interacted on reddit just always lurked. Like, I said, I am beyone embarrased to ask, so please do not try to belittle me more, because I honestly do not know how much more I can take.

I feel like Job.

I (30F) have recently rediscovered Unitarian Universalism and have been attending a church. I feel like this religion can appeal to vast amounts of people but I feel like no one knows they exist. Is this religion growing or dying and how is the UUA going about attracting new members? I’d be sad to see this religion die. It feels like such a good force for good. Also what are some of the issues the UUA is facing?

For anyone whose board (or congregation) hasn't reviewed amendments to Article II proposed by congregations, several still need a congregation or board to support them to make it. There are only 5 total that have been proposed. You can find two threads at discuss.uua.org. One thread has amendments that have not yet gotten enough support and the other thread has the ones that have. Please, they only need draft minutes from your board with approvals! Emails are provided for the contact people and they should be able to share with you forms to attach your minutes to.

Hi all,

I've been studying the evidences for the Trinitarian view of God and have good answers, as far as I can tell to many of the common Unitarian objections. For example:

1) "The Trinity is essentially polytheism."

- This seems to be easily dismissed by many Trinitarians by simply saying that the doctrine of the trinity affirms a singular being called God who has the requisite faculties to qualify as three distinct divine Persons.

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2) "The Trinity is incoherent and defies the laws of logic"

- It doesn't seem to me that this argument stands. The only way that the Trinity would defy logic is if it asserted that the Godhead was composed of one person and also three persons. Or, if it asserted that the God was made up of one essence (or substance) and also three substances. I have never heard a trinitarian affirm either of these. This means there is either 1) no argument to be made about this, or 2) the trinitarian is not fully aware of the consequences of their doctrine though it has been studied for centuries.

3) "Jesus did not claim to be God in the New Testament"

- Again, John 1:1 seems to affirm that very early in the history of the church, the disciples of Christ believed he was divine. If Jesus did not teach this (or even outright denied it as many unitarians believe) then why do we have passages that are at the very least ambiguous as to the validity of this fact within the christian scriptures?

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There are more but I was just wondering if there are some good arguments for these before I continue. Thanks for any responses!

Anyone else part of a Soul Matters circle? What do you think of it? The quality of one's experience in a small group format like this greatly depends on the facilitator(s) and other participants and I'm grateful to have good folks. Only recently joined in but so far, so good.

I’ve been feeling a pull towards god for about the last year after spending my whole life as an atheist. I’ve looked into Islam and Christianity but just recently had the Unitarian thing recommended to me. Any info or insights into it would be super helpful.

I’m completely new to UU. I started going to a church less than a year ago and decided to take their adult OWL program so I can know first hand what they teach about sex and what my son would be learning someday. Last week they talked about relationships and for some reason there seemed to be a lot of focus on polyamory. Is that because it’s common in UU communities?

For some reason it makes me uncomfortable and it feels like the first red flag I’ve experienced in a community I otherwise have really enjoyed. I’m waiting a whole year before I decide to join and I’d hate for this to be a deal breaker. I can’t say I’d feel ok with my son learning about or being encouraged to get married to more than one adult and raising a family that way.

Can anyone who has been in UU longer talk about how common polyamory is in their fellowships? Are a lot of people in these communities swingers or have polygamous families? I guess it’s just something I’ve never been around or understand.

I used to go to one when I lived in Westchester County, NY. I first went out of curiosity. I kept going because it was nice enough. At a session for new people, they told me a lot of the members were atheists like me. But that got me thinking - why go to this place every week while being atheist? I can be exactly as atheist in the comfort of my own home AND not have to give money every week. So I stopped going.

So…why go at all? I can be atheist, recycle, and have coffee at home. Why go to this one particular place every week to do all that?

The 1979 book published by UUA’s publishing arm Beacon Press is still used against trans people, particularly trans women, a group UUA allegedly claims to support. I went to a UU church in Westchester County, NY and some trans people brought up the fact that UUA published the book via Beacon Press, but no one made any comment on it.

Have they ever apologized for publishing it and causing harm to the trans community?

More specifically, I'm wondering how many of you are excited about the ideas of Daniel Schmachtenberger, particularly what he has to say about emergence.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a taste: https://civilizationemerging.com/media-old/emergence/

I am interested in starting off pretty light with Christianity, I don’t want anything super “hardcore” but I still want it to be Christian, would a UU church still reference the Bible and Jesus? If not, which church that is “light” but still teaches Jesus and the word of God through the Bible would I be best at? Thanks!

Recently, I was trying to remember the water brother ceremony from Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Stranger in a Strange Land (pub. 1961) and googled ‘Water Communion’ and was interested to see that is a practice in the UUA, started in 1980. Stranger in a Strange Land is a very spiritual book (the central message of which—or at least the message of the protagonist if not the author—is ‘Thou art god’) about which had an enormous influence on new age and ‘hippie’ (meant without pejorative) culture, and one of the central features is the ceremony of sharing the water of life (ie just water) , which establishes brotherhood (a term explicitly glossed in the book as being without gender due to the Martian language—one of the first water brothers of the protagonist is a woman). In other words, it’s plausible that people interested in the UUA would be reading and influenced by this book.

​

However, sharing water is hardly unique to Heinlein, and I don’t know anything about the history of Water Communion in the UUA beyond a cursory googling. Does anyone know if those who created the practice were inspired by Stranger in a Strange Land? Or is it just one of those coincidences, perhaps the two being cousins influenced by the same longer traditions about water?

Hello - Atheist here, 47f married, 2 kids. I zoomed into my local UU church service after reading Reba Riley's Post Traumatic Church Syndrome. It's a funny memoir where the author endeavors to attend 30 churches before she's 30. She experiences everything from a day with the Amish to a Native American sweat lodge. It was fascinating! I ended up tuning in to UU's service out of curiosity.

I didn't grow up religious.

I find the I-love-Jesus-types cringey. I mean, why? He died for our sins and now I'm supposed to owe him? Whatever. I won't get off track. I just wanted to post to say that the UU service was surprisingly un-cringey. I liked it.

All of this has me wondering... should I attend church? If so, why? What do you get out of it?

I could always use more friends, but my life doesn't really lend itself to a lot of free time. If I decide to pursue this, it will be for me. My husband, also an atheist, isn't interested. We have a firm belief that children shouldn't be brainwashed into believing anything until they are capable of choosing for themselves. It's unlikely I will take them. Although I didn't find anything about the service that I objected to with that regard. Still, I'll probably wait on exposing them to a church-like setting.

Is it worth the time/effort to invest in church?

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**EDITED TO ADD: WOW! These responses are amazing. There seems to be a theme of overwhelmingly positive. In my personal life, I recently changed professions from working in dull offices to pursuing a fulfilling job with special needs children. It's been life changing! I've never been a social activist, but I can see how adding that layer to my life could be equally life changing. While I won't be rushing my children off to any services, I can tell by your responses that -- should I gain the confidence and trust to do so -- they would benefit in a way that my atheist* heart would appreciate.

*Side note: I am an atheist first but I do have interest in Paganism because the religion is so simple and some interest in meditation. Maybe I'll discover more about myself than I originally thought?

It saids in the wikipedia that there is a problem of racism within the unitarian church

Internal controversy over the hiring of the UUA's Southern Region Lead (a white man from outside the region was hired rather than a Latina woman who resided within the region) led to resignations and apologies in 2017. UUA President Peter Morales, the denomination's first Latino president, resigned amid criticism of his failure to address the diversity controversies.[122][123] The three co-presidents who took over commissioned a "racism audit" to address white supremacy within the denomination.[124] In April 2018, The Washington Post reported that the UUA "in the past year has been asked to help resolve 15 congregational conflicts involving religious professionals of color".

I just want to know if is true...

Hey, I've become interested in spirituality and UU particularly (due to the pluralism/syncretism, rationalism, and lack of creeds) recently and came across these articles detailing some things that seem problematic to me - was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on them?

The first is at https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2024/01/02/the-uus-go-woke/ which links to https://news.fairforall.org/p/the-ideological-takeover-of-the-church

Hi, I've found I really agree with most of the points of Unitarians after discussions with a denomination that solely focuses on the Bible and Wow is it refreshing. I'm planning to go to my local chapel on Friday to ask a few questions with the pastor but what should I expect from the actual service itself?

Hi, I'm Em/Eli and I'm new here and to Reddit. I came here from a UU discord. I go to UUYO. They/Them please.

Do people have good examples or stories of digital forums to create connection and improve communication within a UU congregation? Any lessons learned to share? Open social media isn't cutting it. The idea is to have a closed, curated membership forum where people will be more open to sharing and discussion.

I'm presently advocating for a Discourse forums, or similar, in my own church. Here is a UUA example https://discuss.uua.org/.

Thanks.

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I, 18M, just started reading the book of mathew today, and i was always leaning towards unitarianism anyways, i just wanted someone to talk to about the beliefs and interpretations of a unitarian, this is coming from someone who is more or less agnostic

I (30F) have known about Unitarian Universalism for years but finally taken the time to look into it and attend a couple services at a local congregation. I love it, it speaks to my values and wish I knew about this religion/association earlier. I’ve also made connections with some congregants and have kept in touch. I’ve never really sought out a spiritual community church before so I’m kind of curious about how it works to become a member. How long do guests attend before they commit to a congregation?

Does anyone know if the CUC holds any summer programs like SUUSI where I could meet more young adult UU followers like myself?

After asking ArguablyCanadian if I could expand on their poll as I have been interested in this question of what our general beliefs are. I have went to Google Forms and have made a form for people to fill out if they so wish. If you have any feedback on things you'd like to see on another poll like this please let me know. But I will post the general results after a week is up.

Here's the form https://forms.gle/tc7HQqLmghuEdUAH8

We've recently been getting a lot of questions about the non-trinitarian aspect of our faith. Someone made a comment about talking about this even though some of us aren't Christian, but I've always been under the impression that Christians make up a minority of UUs, and that most UU christians aren't partcularly concerned about non-trinitarianism. To that end, I'd like to poll you about your beliefs.

I do apologise for lumping in a lot of categories together. I only have six categories, these include the one's I expect to be more common while reflecting the fact I'd like to know about how Christian UUs feel about the trinity. If you feel like your beliefs aren't well-represented in this poll (mine aren't either), choose the closest option and tell me in the comments. I can always make more polls.

View Poll

Hello guys! What are some verse that actually imply God our creator being the only God?

I (25m) have been an agnostic/atheist who has received a Christian upbringing, and after some soul searching I started a spiritual journey of sorts. I tried to convert to Reform Judaism, a very progressive branch of Judaism, but geography and other reasons prevented me from doing so.

I felt a little defeated but that was until I found out about UU. I was in love with the idea of being united by the shared 7 principles, rather than scripture, traditon or religious law. This way I still get to explore my beliefs and such without worrying about whether or not am I violating the core beliefs of my chosen religion, and I still get to celebrate the Christian holidays with my family.

I "attend" UU online as I live in a European village with only a Catholic Church and a fundamentalist Baptist congregation. I love that there are no formal requirements in order to convert to UU, but I also feel that I lack something this way.

So my question would be: is it possible to get certificate that I'm now UU? Like a certificate of conversion? Like not even a physical one, just a pdf or something. Would a UU Rev grant me one if I were to contact one?

Happy New year btw!

I'm a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, sometimes video game developer, and lifelong writer. I think video games are one of the most unique forms of entertainment because they ask for involvement from the consumer in a way most others don't. Recently, I've played a few games that haven't just resonated with me on a ludic level, but on a spiritual level as well. Games that, while not overtly UU to my knowledge, reflect our values, principles, and philosophies. Two in particular stand out: Outer Wilds and Chants of Sennaar. I'll do my best to put spoilers for these games under spoiler tags in case any of you want to play them yourself!

First up: Outer Wilds! It's a very hard game to talk about without spoiling, since player knowledge is the only indicator of progression. It's also my favorite game of all time. (At the moment) I feel it's particularly resonant with the 7th Principle, especially when you realize that all the travelers are playing the same song despite being on completely different planets. At the end of the game, you learn that you exist towards the end of the heat death of the universe, and you have the opportunity to influence the creation of the next universe based on your relationship with your friends. I really love how the first 7 Principles start with the individual and branch out to the whole universe. The same thing happens in Outer Wilds, as the player's knowledge and perspective starts with themselves, grows to encompass their starting village, then their starting planet, then their moon, etc.

Chants of Sennaar looks like a story about the Tower of Babel, but it's actually closer to the parable of the blind men and the elephant. You climb a tower, searching for whatever is on the top. Along the way, you encounter five different civilizations, all with a different, unique language that you need to learn to progress. You also need to translate between each civilization once you've figured them out. Each culture is drastically different, venerating God to the Devotees, Duty to the Warriors, Beauty to the Bards, (Chemical) Transformation to the Alchemists, and Exile to the Anchorites. As you make these connections, a three-dimensional object slowly forms. At the end of the game, you see that same object at the top of the tower. It twists and moves, making the glyphs for God, Duty, Beauty, Transformation, and Exile in each respective language. I cried, and am obviously still thinking about it.

Have any of you played these games? Are there any other games that spoke to you on a spiritual level?

I have had a wild ride in terms of religion. I was born Christian and then somehow my family turned Atheist, though I always maintained I believe in God in prayer. I always turned to God in my darkest moments.

I met my ex who is Muslim and ended up converting because a lot of the things I’ve read about Jesus not being the son of God and Jesus, not being God made a lot of sense to me .

However, there were still some parts of islam that I did not necessarily agree with .

I still have a very strong belief in God, and one God. I believe that praying to God is very important, and I do believe in evil as well, but I believe there’s many methods and ways to protect yourself from that evil, and to connect with God, not necessarily one specific religion .

I also believe in energy and I believe in the soul and I’m learning Reiki and I don’t believe that it’s satanic .

I’ve been rejected by the Christian community for that reason, I also don’t really fit in with the Muslim faith or community. Now that I’m divorced.

But I do want a sense of community for my kids. I went to church with my friend and I couldn’t get over how they kept saying Jesus was God so in my search for answers I came across Unitarianism.

And then I saw that there’s a church near me and I’m really considering bringing my kids there !!!

I don’t know how my ex would feel about that because he wanted the kids raised Muslim. But I guess he doesn’t even have to know?

Anyways, that’s besides the point it seems like they have a great program for kids which teaches them all about religion and different religions .

Anyways, does it sound like I would be a good fit for this ministry or religion ?

Hey everyone 👋🏾

I am a bipoc and would like to find people within the UU community to possibly date.

Does anyone have any advice on how I could find others to connect with?

Hey guys! Since the holidays are almost done, which ones did you celebrate? As someone who has ties to the UU Christian Fellowship, Advent Sunday marked the first day of a new year and the beginning of the holiday season. If you don’t necessarily celebrate them in the traditional sense, how do you? Thanks and have a happy end to 2023

Since my previous post was apparently not clear enough, I'm looking for something closer to the now defunct Fellowship for Secular Humanist Unitarian Universalists (FSHUUN). Since this is no longer an option and my beliefs differ slightly, what are my options? A single fellowship is what I'm looking for, or perhaps two or three, that are more focused on deism and historical (18th ish century Unitarian/Universalism).

Can someone point me to UU congregations that are deist-friendly? I had a list but alas, I lost it. Even if they aren't explicitly Deist, add them! Free-thinking congregations, members of the UU Christian Fellowship, and other fit my rather broad definition of deism. Streaming is important by the way

has it been mailed out yet? I don't have mine. I know they stopped publishing once a season and now just 2x year, right?

Has anyone else undergone a rebalancing of the sources in their lives or a change in faith?

I am recently finding myself transitioning away from a "Pagan" identity and moving on to a more ecclectic practice that retains a lot of the earth centered elements. Previously, I did a similar thing with Buddhism. I was a temple affiliated Buddhist practitioner for a period of time and now I just think of myself as having an ecclectic mindfulness practice. At the same time, I am finding myself drawing more from Abrahamic sources recently but also (opposite that in a sense) a lot of pop science stuff like Carl Sagan. I'm also begining to incorporate acadmic philosophy and social science info more mindfully into my spiritual practice.

Has anyone else undergone a transition in sources like that? I'm optimistic but it feels a little daunting trying to maintain a sense of flexibility in the face of uncertainty and where previous practices feel less satisfying and offer less insight.

Part of it, this time around, is that I feel like I'm having more of a UU awakening both in the sense that I'm framing it more as a transition within my individual path and also because I spent some time learning more about UU's specific history and theology.

I think most other religions would conider this converting to a different faith. It makes me appreciate the value of the UU approach.

I grew up in a community where kids were treated based on how well they met society's standards. Those at the bottom were slapped around and often humiliated and those at top received universal validation. This was promoted as a sort of meritocracy, where cruelty was seen as socially useful, for example fat shaming is seen a public health measure. Also, this hierarchy is defended as being natural/ inherent and criticism of it is derided as whining and pointless. I was often told I was being 'too sensitive' with the implication that if I wanted to be treated better I should simply do better. I began to internalize this harshness in the way I treated myself and I thought it was necessary to keep me a responsible functional adult. But this harsh internal shaming is too much. It actually makes it harder to function and it fills me with self-loathing, despair, and anxiety. I don't like being this way. I want to believe in the inherent worth of every person even though our society certainly does not treat every person as valuable. How can I believe in my own inherent worth while living in a society where worth is very conditional. This is especially hard since I am very precariously employed, facing racism from my manager, and dealing with chronic health issues and cannot afford healthcare. I understand religion plays an important role for many people but I am an irreligious agnostic and I don't see that changing. Could anyone suggest some books or any other means to help me believe in the inherent intrinsic worth of all humans?

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Llike really, two words as the name for this ideology? When someone asks my view on religion I don't wanna say "oh I'm a Unitarian Universalist" it's super long.

Hi there,

My partner (M32 Agnostic) and I (NB31 Pagan) have recently been interested in finding community and the UU church seems to fit our values very well. With that said, we both had a rough time in our Christian churches growing up, and this has made us hesitant to participate. We’re worried about the similarities with the Christian church, like attending service on Sundays, the way the church leaders dress, etc, and how that may be somewhat triggering.

Does anyone have any experience with similar feelings, and/or advice on how to work past these feelings? Or is participation in the UU church not really that similar and shouldn’t be something to worry about?

Thank you for your help.

Final update 12/21: We are married!!! Our minister and honestly the whole congregation was so supportive, we couldn’t have imagined a better way to start our marriage :) I’m so, so grateful we found UU when we did so that we can continue to grow together within this community. Happy solstice!

Update 12/19: thanks so much to everyone who’s read our story and given suggestions! Please keep them coming, we love to grow our UU knowledge :)

Worship Web was a total game changer, what an incredible resource. I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of everything we’re deciding between but my favorite thing we found so far is this poem by Elizabeth Lerner Maclay:

“As drops of rain that find each other and build to become a track, a rivulet, a stream, a river, a sea, so are we drawn together; so are we fortunate to find each other; so are we bound together, on this shared passage toward an unknown ocean and eternity.”

Our minister’s script has a lot of emphasis on preserving individuality within a marriage, which is also very good and important, but we think adding this poem to our covenant helps highlight our interconnectedness as well :)

Original post:

Hello! I’m new to both UU as a whole and this particular sub, so I apologize if I'm breaking any community norms/re-asking something common. I did a quick search and didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I did what any UU would and decided to convene a committee in reddit thread form :)

Long story short(ish): We decided yesterday (12/17/23) that we're getting married in our UU church on Thursday (12/21/23). Our minister wrote a beautiful plan, and we'd like to contribute with ideas or suggestions to personalize it a bit if possible. We're very new to UU though and not super familiar with all the literature/hymns yet. Any advice for music to include, essays/short pieces to read that might inspire some vows, and also any general wisdom on building a successful and happy UU life and marriage are welcome <3

Info that might help:

— We won’t have a live musician but there is a nice sound system, so if there’s a particularly good recording/version of a song we’d love to get a link :)

— My favorite hymn of the ones we've heard so far is My Life Flows on in Endless Song

— All 7 principles resonate with us in different ways, but we've connected most deeply with #7 (respect for the interdependent web of all existence)

Long story longer:

My fiancé and I have been attending our local UU church since early September, so a little over three months. Though that seems like so short a time written out, we've really found a home there and have become quite involved in various ways. We became official members of our congregation at the end of November, and we had already been thinking about how to incorporate our new faith community into our fall/winter '24 wedding.

We got word yesterday that my fiancé is part of a mass layoff, effective today. We're very privileged to have solid financial footing through my salary and our emergency savings, plus my fiancé was actually already in the process of a career transition and has good prospects to land on his feet soon (knock wood!)

That being said, I work in local government and have excellent benefits. We had already planned to add my fiancé to my health insurance when we got married next year, and had even discussed the possibility of having a courthouse ceremony a few months early if his career change might mean a lapse in coverage. I had done a bit of research on getting a marriage license in our county and even asked our minister if she might be able to officiate a small ceremony, but all on the assumption that we had many months to prepare.

That timeline is no longer feasible since my fiancé's last day of work is today and his benefits end on 12/31. Theoretically we could get married as late as 12/29 and get him on my plan in time, but with the bureaucratic standstill that is the last week of the year we’d rather not risk it. So, these overthinking hyperplanners need to act fast! We called the minister in a panic yesterday afternoon, and she graciously agreed to help us make our pseudo-shotgun wedding special and meaningful despite the circumstances. This Thursday has a nice numerical date (12/21, I like the symmetry) and it's the Winter Solstice, which is both a spiritually resonant day for us and means the sanctuary at Church will be decorated with pretty winter greenery. So, Thursday at 2pm it is!

A few family members are feeling some type of way about the whole situation, but we're trying to make the most of it and I'm excited to have UU play a bigger part in our wedding. We'll still be doing the "traditional" wedding as planned in late '24 to celebrate with all our loved ones, but we had already asked a close family member to officiate that ceremony before we even discovered UU, so I feel like now we get the best of both worlds.

We are so grateful to have found both UU as a whole and our local congregation in particular at the perfect time, and I hope this will be the first of many milestones and celebrations we will share with our beloved community :)

Thanks so anyone who read this far, and to anyone who has suggestions or advice as we catapult into this new chapter!

I would most accurately describe my present beliefs as agnostic pantheism. I believe that everyone and everything is God expressed - that we, as a part of one infinite whole, contain the whole - though, we cannot prove or disprove that as we cannot comprehend the totality of all things, therefore this belief is held primarily for its philosophical utility in a metamodern sense. I've been attending my local UU for a few months now, and the beliefs of the community seem to be at least somewhat aligned with this. Anyone else here have pantheist views or thoughts on the philosophy?

Hello! I found this subreddit literally 15 minutes ago, so I apologize if I'm breaking any community norms/re-asking something common. I tried to do a quick search and didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I did what any UU would and decided to convene a committee in reddit thread form :)

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Long story short(ish): We decided today (12/17/23) that we're getting married in our UU church on Thursday (12/21/23). Our minister is writing up a plan tomorrow, and we'd like to contribute with ideas or suggestions if we can. We're very new to UU though and not super familiar with all the literature/hymns yet. Any advice for music to include, essays/short pieces to read that might inspire some vows, and also any general advice on building a successful and happy UU life and marriage are welcome <3

​

Info that might help:

• My favorite hymn of the ones we've heard so far is My Life Flows on in Endless Song
• All 7 principles resonate with us in different ways, but we've connected most deeply with #7 (respect for the interdependent web of all existence)

​

Long story longer:

My fiancé (29M) and I (24F) have been attending our local UU church since early September, so a little over three months. Though that seems like so short a time written out, we've really found a home there and become quite involved in various ways. We became official members of our congregation at the end of November, and we had already been thinking about how to incorporate our new faith community into our November '24 wedding.

​

We got word today that the company where my fiancé has worked for the last two years is completely shutting down, effective tomorrow. There are definitely some potential labor law violations/general workers' rights issues that remain to be worked out, but that's somewhat besides the point for now. We're very privileged to have solid financial footing through my salary and our emergency savings, plus my fiancé was actually already in the process of a career transition and has good prospects to land on his feet soon (knock wood!)

​

That being said, I work in local government and have excellent benefits. We had already planned to add my fiancé to my insurance when we got married in November of next year, and had even discussed the possibility of having a courthouse ceremony a few months early if his career change might mean a lapse in health coverage. We knew his current employer was somewhat on the rocks, but the management made a big deal this week about how they got new investors who were going to keep the place running at least into January, with a good possibility things might stabilize in the Spring. I had done a bit of research on getting a marriage license and even asked our minister if she might be able to officiate a small ceremony, but all on the assumption that we had at least a month to prepare, if not 3-6 months.

​

That deal with the investors fell through in dramatic fashion this morning, so my fiancé's last day of work is tomorrow and his benefits end on 12/31. Theoretically we could get married as late as 12/29 and get him on my plan in time, but my department has an HR team of 2 who are notorious for slow processing times, so we'd rather not risk it. After having literally just emailed her on Wednesday that we were probably in the clear, we called the minister in a panic this afternoon, and she graciously agreed to help us make our pseudo-shotgun wedding special and meaningful despite the circumstances. This Thursday has a nice numerical date (12/21, I like the symmetry) and it's the Winter Solstice, which is both a spiritually meaningful day for us and means the sanctuary at Church will be decorated with pretty winter greenery. So, Thursday at 2pm it is!

​

A few family members are feeling some type of way about the whole situation, but we're trying to make the most of it and I'm excited to have UU play a bigger part in our wedding. We'll still be doing the "traditional" wedding as planned in November '24 to celebrate with all our loved ones, but we had already asked a close family member to officiate that ceremony before we even discovered UU, so I feel like now we get the best of both worlds. We are so grateful to have found both UU as a whole and our local congregation in particular at the perfect time, and I hope this will be the first of many milestones and celebrations we will share with our beloved community :)

​

Thanks so anyone who read this far, and to anyone who has suggestions or advice as we catapult into this new chapter!