I moved recently to an area that isn’t particularly close to a UU church. My old congregation does livestream, but frankly they aren’t the most tech savvy group of people so there are often some frustrating audio issues. I’m hoping to find more congregations that record their services so that I can still feel like an attendee each week
According to the UU website here in Nashville, they welcome people of all beliefs or none. I'm an atheist and likely will never believe in a god. However, I'm pretty isolated after years of alcoholism, and I need to connect to people and this looks like it could be a good option.
How are atheists received in the Unitarian Universalist Church? Am I likely to hear things that I strongly disagree with as an atheist?
Edit: Thanks for the responses. One person gave me a link to a sermon by the woman who is minister here, and I found it intriguing and not at all woo-woo magic and threats like the church I was raised in. I plan to go this Sunday. Looks like they have some stuff during the week, too, like potlucks and such.
If you are a boomer who raised children attending the UU church, what are your children doing now? Or if you ARE an adult who was raised in the church how would you compare and contrast your life as an adult with your parents?
For context, I am not a UU member, but I do move around a lot and over the years I’ve noticed that “my people” are usually the children of parents who raised them in the UU church.
I’m not a spiritual orphan looking for a place to land, just trying to satisfy a fleeting curiosity about who I tend to attract and be attracted to.
Is my personal experience of gravitating toward UU “kids” (now approaching or in middle age) anecdotal or something I should actually seek out since I’m preparing to move again this month.
What do you think about human nurture? Is homo sapiens essentially good or bad? When left to their own devices will human beings exalt one another or subjugate and oppress one another?
J.G. Ballard’s novel High-Rise answers this question with a dystopian description of the collapse of civilized behavior.
Plot summary from Gemini AI:
J.G. Ballard's High-Rise chronicles the rapid descent into savagery of the residents of a luxurious, state-of-the-art skyscraper in London. Designed as a self-sufficient vertical city, the tower initially promises an idyllic, insulated existence for its affluent inhabitants. However, minor inconveniences and class tensions between floors quickly escalate into open warfare, with power outages, dog fights, and structural sabotage becoming commonplace. As the building's infrastructure collapses and its residents become increasingly isolated from the outside world, they abandon all societal norms, succumbing to primal urges, violence, and a perverse tribalism, transforming their once-aspirational home into a brutal, self-contained dystopia.
How accurate is Ballard’s view of human nature as depicted in this novel? If you were in this vertical city do you think you would behave in the ways the characters behave? As the social dynamics became more dysfunctional most people didn’t leave but stayed. How do you account for this? Would you have left?
Who should read this book and reflect on its lessons? Probably people with a sociological and philosophical interest and who are mature and somewhat spiritually intelligent. The fundamental question is what is the basic nature of human nature?
(If anyone wants my copy free of charge send your shipping address to davidgmarkham@gmail.com)
I’ve been deeply involved in my Unitarian Universalist congregation over the years — serving on the board, finance committee, lay pastoral care, and ushering. Our family has loved the community and the people, and we didn’t come to this decision lightly. But we’ve recently made the choice to step away from our UU church.
While the relationships have been meaningful, we’ve increasingly found the spiritual side of the services lacking. The sermons often feel dry and without the kind of depth or guidance I need to carry with me into the week. Maybe that expectation — of a spiritual or transformative core — doesn’t align well with the UU tradition, but I’ve realized that in these challenging times, I need something more.
To be clear, I’m not looking for evangelical dogma or rigid theology. But I do long for messages that go beyond “Trump is bad,” “the world is burning,” and what feels like a constant focus on identity politics. Those are real and important issues, but I also want to hear how we can ground ourselves, grow, and take meaningful steps in our daily lives. Present the problem, yes — but offer some tools, some hope, some deeper spiritual reflection too.
The final turning point for me came during a recent service led by a visiting minister. They made a point to set up a mask display in the lobby, and masks were required for that particular service. Their sermon centered almost entirely around masking as a symbol of radical inclusion. While I respect anyone’s choice to wear a mask and understand the intent, devoting an entire service to that topic felt, frankly, excessive — especially when so many people are searching for grounding, clarity, and spiritual renewal. To be fair this is maybe a congregation related issue, I’m not sure. There have been other members that have brought up similar concerns only to be rebuffed.
UUs are good, compassionate people. But in my view, it seems the movement has drifted. Instead of just telling us it’s raining, I’m looking for a community that hands out umbrellas — or better yet, teaches us how to build our own.
Hi folks, I'm moving to Toronto in a few weeks from my small city in Eastern Canada. I have occasionally gone to my local small UU fellowship though life and a slight aversion to waking up early on sundays (especially if I'm out late the night before) kept me away from going every sunday. Chatting with a UU friend from my fellowship, she noticed that there were about four or five different UU churches/groups in the GTA. For the Torontonians lurking in the group, what're they like?
About me:
I'm in my late 20s moving to Toronto for work reasons. I identify more as an Atheist with good-vibes that are in my heart and mind but not in how I express myself (I'm not very hippie-granola). I haven't determined yet where I'll be living in the GTA but I'd like to go to a UU fellowship/church that leans a bit younger, I find it a bit easier to connect with people around my age.
I did notice that one of them do their services in French, though I got the impression they were online only, is there a francophone UU community in Toronto?
I'm 19 years old and have discovered UU very recently while trying to figure myself out religiously. I feel like it strongly fits me and my worldviews, and I'm interested in trying to get involved with the community and find out if that's really for me or not after all. However, I am not from USA and there's zero possibility of visiting a UU church. I would like to find an online group or something that it's not on Facebook (please). Do you guys have any recommendations?
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