The name sounds like a Christian church, but we’re not. Instead, we’re a community of people who are supporting each other in exploring and discovering what each of us believes. We believe in nurturing our spirits and helping to heal the world.

I always describe it as "build your own religion," which was a workshop they used to run at my church.

UU Church is a lot like other church you might be familiar with, except that we do not hold that you have to believe the same things about the divine (or the lack thereof) in order to have a shared experience of sacred space. Instead of any specific shared beliefs we are gathered together over our shared values, love of community, and support of each other's spiritual journeys.

What if the important and powerful part of churches is the community and the people and you could have that without the needing to agree on the religion parts.

I am constantly changing it but something like:

We are a community of people seeking religious truth together in love.

Usually if they want me to elaborate its where I need to be careful not to overwhelm them, ha.

I was raised UU so I’ve spent my whole life having to clarify anytime it’s mentioned in conversation with a new person. I usually say it’s like “church without the religion” and expand on that if they seem interested in knowing more.

Its a nondogmatic church. That means I can be sitting next to an atheist, a pagan. A Christian, a Buddhist.

We all believe in leaving the earth a little better than we found it.

*At this point, I'm usually getting a raised eyebrow. My got to response is this:

"Eh. Its not for everyone, but I found a home there."

Ask two UUs, and get three different opinions. Anyway, here are some of my favorites:

We are free in faith, diverse in thought, united in caring, and committed to action.

Or

I believe in you, You believe in me, We believe together we can heal the world.

Or

We believe Jesus is a man, God is a mystery, and Love is at the center of our shared values (JPEG IT)

”No one is special, and everyone is needed.”

You believe as you need. No dogma to live by.

It's definitely hard to describe. And if you have religious baggage, it's even harder. I just say "it's more like a community than a religion"

Great question. I tend to look at it in two ways.

1. Why did I leave Catholicism?

2. Why did I join a UU church?

For #1, I always jokingly (but half seriously) quote Homer Simpson when he said “I work hard and I love my kids, so why do I have to spend half my weekend hearing about how I’m going to hell?!” I tend to expand that Catholicism and I did match. I wasn’t happy and I had lots of questions that weren’t being answered.

For #2, I tell people that UU is more than a church. It’s a meetinghouse of neighbors who want to face, head on, the issues of our community. Once a week, I meet with good people, get some good advice, and then try to help others. If UU wasn’t a church, but volunteer club, I still would have joined. The benefit of it being a church is that I’ve met people from all forms of worship and have become more accepting

When your ideas about god, god(s) spirituality, sexuality, or gender change:

You don't lose your community.
You don't lose your religion.
You don't get shunned.

That kind of liberation, to explore your own identity, and beliefs, is not available in most faiths. Especially not to the degree that it's possible in a UU congregation.

The “Uni-“ in our name stands for “one.” Some of us believe in an all-encompassing idea of Love at the center. You won’t hear much about the Trinity or divinity of Jesus; we believe Jesus was a great teacher. So we respect diversity and show tolerance. We believe that what matters is what happens in this life, so we try hard to be good and do good. Our church has been around for centuries, and many wonderful, smart people from our past provide us inspiration. UUs as a group make up some of the smartest, wealthiest, friendliest, most liberal people you’ll ever meet.

We are convental, not dogmatic, we care how you live, not what you believe. Every Sunday my congregation says in unison one of our covenants "we are Unitarian Universalists, with minds that think, hearts that love, and hands that are ready to serve. "

"I'm an atheist but I love that the Sunday school talks to my kids about values. And I love that i get to sing folk songs every weekend for a bit".

Not a UU member but have been to services, I think of a couple of words that describe UU could be; church of the "sages", "savants", "luminaries", "polymaths"! All wrapped in a service that may be familiar to most.

Faith practiced in comunity.

I just tell people it's "hippie atheist church." And that I believe our denomination is the only one in our region with a clothing-optional beach at our church camp.

It depends on the venue. I really like centering the contradiction at the center of UUism. So something along the lines of:

We should interpret religious texts and our experiences with God given reason, even if that eliminates the existence of God.

I tell people that essentially we believe that there are many roads to the same place and we celebrate that in our fellowship.

I used to say, "It's an interfaith church that welcomes people of diverse theological beliefs, including Christians, atheists, Buddhists, and agnostics.

While the above is still true, I have also lately described my congregation as "a bubble and emotional safe space for affluent white progressives."

“All of the feasting holidays, none of the fasting holidays.”

I will say "The church for atheists - you can be an atheist and go to church without feeling like a hypocrite. Or you can be any religion and still be a UU".