Taking a UU Approach
Unitarian Universalists recognise a life of compassion, gratitude, humility requires effort and mutual support. We continue to experience awe of something greater than ourselves, a sense of connection with all living things, and a continuous duty to act ethically. We appreciate that spirituality complements rationality and emotion in navigating life's hardships.
We recognise the power of coming together in beloved community in our search for truth and meaning. We enrich ourselves by giving and investing our time and skills in the improvement of our world. Unitarian Universalism is this set of values. For us, this is "religion" redefined. UU History • Core ideas stem back to the earliest days of Christianity. • UU stems from the Protestant branch (but now includes all liberal religious ideas). • Unitarians: believed in the oneness “unity” of God or the universe instead of a trinity (Trinitarian). They believed that it was okay to use reason to search for the truth. • Universalists: believed that everyone would be saved “universally” (God or the universe loves everyone equally no matter what.) They believed that God loves all people equally. • In 1961 the Unitarians and Universalists merged in the United States (but not everywhere in the world.) Today, the combination has led to the current Unitarian Universalist belief that truth and spiritual meaning can be found in all faiths. UUs think there are many true paths and that all human belief systems have value. • Community of free thinkers who seek to growing spiritually through learning and action with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love. • UU is open to and learns lessons from many faith traditions. • When you are a Unitarian Universalist you can also be a humanist, agnostic, atheist, Jewish person, Muslim, Christian, Quaker, neopagan, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, spiritual but not religious, and many more. Many UUs consider themselves to defy standard definitions of belief. Some of us identify as humanists, agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Christian, Jewish, Historically, Unitarian Universalism stems from a long progressive faith tradition tracing its roots back to movements in the 1500's which led to the Protestant reformation. Today, Unitarian Universalism has evolved into a non-creedal denomination in which the individual congregations affirm seven common principles summarised below. For more information, visit the links provided on this page. |
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The 7 UU Principles
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The Sources of our "Faith"
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