New Garden Community Church

Unitarian Universalist Faith Community

on Chicago's Near West Side

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."    - Rev. Theodore Parker, 1859

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What is Unitarian Universalism?

Who are we?

Unitarian Universalism is a marriage of head and heart.  UUs are people of all religious backgrounds, who have found a home in a liberal religion from the Protestant tradition that stands for freedom of religious thought, tolerance and acceptance of other faiths, and the use of reason; and that believes in equality and compassion.

We are congregational - each church governs itself, democratically.  Churches join together in the Unitarian Universalist Association, which offers services to churches, and hosts an annual General Assembly in different parts of the U.S. and Canada.

We have no creed - we don't ask you to give up your beliefs to join us.  We are an ethically based religion, and have articulated the seven principles [UUA Principles and Purposes] as a statement of our guide for living a spiritually fulfilling and moral life. 

One branch of Unitarianism began in England;  another began in Europe, and Romania and the Czech Republic still are home to many centuries-old, still Christian, Unitarian churches.  There are also scattered congregations around the world, from Brazil to Indonesia.

Where did Unitarian Universalism come from?

Unitarian Universalism is a Protestant offshoot with roots in the Radical Reformation of the 16th century, and precursors in the earliest Christian philosophers.

Unitarianism in the United States split off from the Congregational church of New England in the early 1800s.  Liberals among those churches were accused of being "Unitarian" - considered an insulting name for a movement already in existence in England - and decided to claim the label.  

Unitarian means belief in one God, rather than a trinity:  Jesus of Nazareth came to be thought of as a great prophet and teacher, rather than the Son of God, part of a divine trinity.  Early Unitarians included William Ellery Channing, who helped formulate the theology of the new movement and distinguish it from traditional Christian thinking;  Theodore Parker, a great-hearted Abolitionist preacher;  Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose impatience with pastoral work and the already petrifying theology in the mid-1800s led him out of the ministry and into transcendentalism and a life of writing and speaking engagements.

The Universalist church in America was founded, in perhaps our only "miracle" story, by a discouraged English preacher named John Murray, a follower of an early Universalist thinker in England.  In 1770 on his way to New York his boat was becalmed off the coast of New Jersey, and Murray promised to preach at a little church only if the wind didn't change by Sunday.  The wind refused to blow, and needless to say, he stayed to preach.  Murray took this as a sign from God, and was heartened enough to take up his vocation again and travel the eastern seaboard spreading the good news of God's universal love. 

The Universalist theology developed from an antipathy to the Calvinist idea of predestination - that some people were born to go to heaven, and some to hell, and nothing you did on earth could change that outcome.  Universalist religious leaders were convinced that God loved his creatures too much to send them to suffer in hell forever.  

One interesting aspect of these disparate origins is that the Unitarians were often upper-crust "Boston brahmins" and disdained the often emotional religious revivals of the 18th century, believing in the importance of rational control over religious feelings.  On the other hand, many of the early Universalist ministers came from just that "emotional" branch of Christianity themselves - many from the Methodist and Baptist traditions.

Over time, Unitarianism and Universalism grew closer in point of view, and after a number of decades of discussion, officially merged in 1961as the Unitarian Universalist Association.

UUs were involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s - two were killed in the course of their work - Viola Liuzzo, from Detroit, who was murdered in Mississippi for her help with the voting rights campaign;  and Rev. James Reeb, from Boston, who was beaten to death when he marched in Selma with hundreds of others to support the work of Martin Luther King, Jr.  

The UUA was the first denomination to ordain openly gay and lesbian ministers.

What do Unitarian Universalists believe?

We don't tell people what to believe about those things that are unknowable - what happens after death, for example.  Thus UUs believe in many different things:  in an afterlife like Heaven, in reincarnation, in the spirit rejoining some Universal spirit, or in the cessation of the spirit with the death of the body, for example.

Similarly, some UUs believe in a transcendent God, some in a Universal life force, some in no God.  Some find spiritual sustenance in the natural world.  Some believe in the active participation of unseen spiritual forces in life;  others that human love is the whole extent of spiritual activity.

Because we focus on what happens here, now, on Earth, we are more concerned with ethical, loving behavior, than with salvation of the soul after death.  Salvation takes on a metaphoric cast - it may mean rescuing the self from despair, addiction, a destructive or empty life.

Rev. David O. Rankin wrote a summary of what he felt were essential UU beliefs, a statement often distributed by the UUA:

1.  We believe in the freedom of religious expression.  All individuals should be encouraged to develop their own personal theology, and to present openly their religious opinions without fear of censure or reprisal.

2.  We believe in the toleration of religious ideas.  All religions, in every age and culture, possess not only an intrinsic merit, but also a potential value for those who have learned the art of listening.

3.  We believe in the authority of reason and conscience.  The ultimate arbiter in religion is not a church, or a document, or an official, but the personal choice and decision of the individual.

4.  We believe in the never-ending search for Truth.  If the mind and heart are truly free and open, the revelations which appear to the human spirit are infinitely numerous, eternally fruitful, and wondrously exciting.

5.  We believe in the unity of experience.  There is no fundamental conflict between faith and knowledge, religion and the world, the sacred and the secular, since they all have their own source in the same reality.

6.  We believe in the worth and dignity of each human being.  All people on earth have an equal claim to life, liberty, and justice - and no idea, ideal, or philosophy is superior to a single human life.

7.  We believe in the ethical application of religion.  Good works are the natural product of a good faith, the evidence of an inner grace that finds completion in social and community involvement.

8.  We believe in the motive force of love.  The governing principle in human relationships is the principle of love, which always seeks the welfare of others and never seeks to hurt or destroy.

9.  We believe in the necessity of the democratic process.  Records are open to scrutiny, elections are open to members, and ideas are open to criticism - so that people might govern themselves.

10.  We believe in the importance of a religious community.  The validation of experience requires the confirmation of peers, who provide a critical platform along with a network of mutual support.

Find out more about Unitarian Universalism:  www.uua.org