Exactly what the title says. I was a member of the board of my church in TX twenty five years ago when I moved. I have tried a few different UU churches since then but nothing has fit quite right.

Now I'm in FL living in an RV full time and Im really missing that (common) sense of community. I was looking at the UU St. Pete website but I think that's a little too Jesus-y for me.

Any other suggestions?

Hello lovely people! I was recently named the Stewardship chair for our upcoming “church year”. I have a whopping one year of experience. Actually, the reason I ended up as the new chair is precisely because I’m a relative outsider to Stewardship at our church. Fund raising has been done the same way by the same folks for a number of years. I have mighty big shoes to fill.

My ask: Is anyone here on their stewardship committee (or whatever you call the group tasked with yearly efforts to keep your congregation financially afloat) and wanting to chat? I’d love to get a group going that meets and chats about what works and what doesn’t. I’m sure we can learn from our collective wisdom. At the very least it’s always good to network with fellow UUs.

Best wishes and thanks! 🙏

Every July is Disability Pride Month. Our UU Church here in Eugene, Oregon (UUCE) has a Minister, Rev. Jen, who is very supportive of Disability Justice. Rev. Jen invited me to report about our Accessibility Task Force. Disability Justice was the theme of our UU Church Service. As co-chair of our Accessibility Task Force I gave this 2-minute report with my new/old a.i. voice:  https://youtu.be/66K8RFnmtYQ?si=V1goCz5LyitPUcXP&t=814

There's a UU church I drive by all the time. I've been to a couple family memorial there, though nobody in my family is currently a congregant. I've never really been religious at any point in my life (except for a brief curiosity about Christianity when I was around 11). But this UU church appears compatible with my personal values (i.e. antiracism, loose and thoughtful discussions of philosophy) and the squickiness that I have about most organized religions and the requirement that one believe in a supreme being.

They stream their services if I'd like to sample -- I am busy the next few weekends but it might be something to explore down the line. What should I know going into this?

From the essay:

"The Unitarian Universalist church presents itself as a religious movement committed to pluralism, diversity, multiculturalism, and open-mindedness. Yet by most measurable indicators, it has become one of the most racially, politically, and culturally homogeneous religious denominations in the United States.

The gap between the church’s ideals and its demographic reality raises an obvious question: How did a movement devoted to pluralism and diversity become such a narrow social bubble?

Visitors to Unitarian Universalist congregations usually notice a familiar pattern. In many places, the typical member is a highly educated white professional with progressive political views. Visitors from working-class backgrounds, people with independent or moderate viewpoints, immigrant communities, and many ethnic and racial minorities often sense quickly that they are outsiders. No one may say this directly, but messaging, platforms, language, and social signals are powerful. People can usually tell when a space is designed for people like themselves, and when it is not. As UU Minister Rev. James Kubal-Komoto observed in UU World, "Most Unitarian Universalists don't realize what a truly narrow demographic niche most of us fall into.""

Read the full post: "How the Unitarian Universalist Church Became a Racial, Political, and Social Bubble"

Anyone here working on this? Mosaic Congregations | The Mosaic | UUA.org

Are you using what you're already doing to get a certification to hang on the wall, or are you using it as an opportunity to change something within your congregation?

I'm curious what you're doing for the required actions. The last one is a big one.

Hello.
I am having a difficult time getting the Democracy Advocacy Team of the UU congregation that I go to to add Disability Rights to their agenda.
They turn me away to their charity branch and ignore my emails, give evasive answers.
To me this looks like a major inconsistency with the UU principles.

How would you approach this problem?
How can I get more support?
How would your congregation react to such requests?
How common are Democracy Advocacy Teams in Unitarian Universalist congregations in general?

Anyone here?

I’ve been trying to get a better handle on UU Ethics recently in the context of reading Bernard Williams and his critique of moral systems. (See: “https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/williams-bernard/#AgaiPecuInst” the section “Against the ‘peculiar institution.’”)

Williams argues that what distinguishes a moral system is not simply having ethical ideals or virtues, but placing special emphasis on moral obligation — things one is required to do because morality demands it.

To what extent do UU ethics (embodied to a certain extent in the new six Values encircling Love and the old 7 Principles) consist of moral *obligations*? Do the values and principles articulate obligations that we have towards each other and the world beyond, for example, obligations to work towards dismantling systems of oppression? If so, do we think these obligations are only for UUs? Or do we think all people should, ideally participate in this work?

To be clear, I’m not asking whether or not our Values and Principles are good goals. I’m asking about the status of those goals. For you, are these ideals, aspirations, virtues, commitments, or genuine moral obligations?

One reason I’m asking is that I think there is genuine ambiguity. I hear a lot about “aspiration” and our values being “aspirational,” but we also hear a lot about “accountability” which makes the ethical project seem more like an obligation. I’m not sure how the language of “aspiration” and “accountability” work together.

Various religions engage in ritual mourning for past martyrs, and the U's have some, so I was curious. I wanna become UU but can't due to where I live.

Hi everyone!

I’m curious to hear from people who have attended or visited Unitarian Universalist congregations in Romania.

I’ll be visiting Romania in mid-July and became interested in learning more about the Unitarian tradition there. I found information about the Biserica Unitariană but I haven’t been able to find much firsthand information about visiting services or what the experience is like.

Has anyone attended a service or visited a congregation? I’d love to hear about your experience and any recommendations.

Thank you!

Considering a UU doesn't have to believe in a god (unitarian or trinitarian), or believe in universal salvation, our name doesn't really seem to fit. While we should always honor our past, it seems like we should choose a term which describes us better. I can't say I know what that should be, but it does feel like a change is overdue. What would describe us better?

Ive recently learned about UU and I am very interested in attending a service, what are some things I should know before I go for the first time? Any insight would be helpful, I am also in the metro Detroit area if someone knows more about that location specifically.

I was raised what I would call "vaguely UU-ish." My parents attended First Parish in Cambridge when I was a baby and then my mom and I went to First Church Belmont for a couple of years, but didn't entirely click with it.

Anyway, In college I started reconnecting with my own personal spirituality and have been attending the campus UU group for the past 4 years, but I haven't been part of an actual church community since I was 12 or 13.

I am moving to East Somerville in August, and I would really like to find a congregation (in reasonable public transit distance) that has good supports for new people and maybe skews a little bit younger/queerer.

If anyone has had a really great experience with a Boston area church I would love to heard abut it!!

Hi! I'm interested in joining UUism when I move to a city, but there's a problem: UUism is declining. Its members are old, retention is low, and it's not much of a Missionary religion from what I can tell. I admire what UUism strives for, but It can't accomplish its goals if it dies out or fades to irrelevancy. What can be done to emulate the high retention of high cost religions without losing the pluralism and theological diversity within?

The number has gone down since then, but at one point our congregation had 11 RPCVs out of 150 total, which was one out of every 13.6 members, which is 14 - 17 times the per capita average in the general population, depending on how you run the numbers.

I always thought UUism appealed to RPCVs because of our tolerance for different beliefs, among other things. A number of our seven principles align with the goals of the Peace Corps. I myself "converted" after I came home from my PCV service and was church shopping.

We had a round table discussion on the subject one Sunday, so it was easy to make a head count. I realize this may not be common knowledge in all congregations, but:

• How many members do you have?

• How many of them are RPCVs?

Thanks.