Unitarian Universalist Church of Greeley
Our Unitarian Universalist Heritage
Unitarian Universalism is a faith tradition with deep roots in Christianity and Judaism. Merged into one body since 1961, both Unitarians and Universalists can trace foundational beliefs to the first centuries of Christianity. As religious movements whose liberalism separated them from orthodox Christianity, Unitarianism and Universalism also have roots in the Protestant Reformation of 16th century Europe. Today there are Unitarian and Universalist congregations in places as far flung as the mountains of Transylvania and the Khasi Hills of northeastern India, in Japan and the Philippines, as well as in Norway, Canada, and the U. S. Today, Unitarian Universalist traditions and practices vary as much as the locations around the world where our congregations exist and thrive.
In the United States, Unitarianism and Universalism emerged as dissenting theological traditions particularly in New England and Pennsylvania, at the same time as the Revolutionary War-in the late 1770s and 1780s. By 1825, Unitarians and Universalists had formed separate organizations. They departed from their Reformed Puritan ancestors in theology, but kept much of the historic organizational structure of the Congregational Church. Unitarians in particular "inherited" historic church buildings and parish names from their Congregational forebears. Many a white clapboard Congregational meetinghouse on a New England green is now Unitarian Universalist. Many of those parishes trace their membership back to the Pilgrim and Puritan migrations from England in the 1620s and 1630s.
Echoing Judaism and Islam, the traditional Unitarian view of God is that "God is One." God cannot be divided into a "trinity" of persons. The Unity of God was the most common theology in the earliest years of Christianity. In the 4th century, however, Unitarianism was declared a heretical view, but it never disappeared. It resurfaced many times in Europe and North America. The Rev. Mark Harris writes that people who expressed a belief "in free human will and the loving benevolence of God"eventually became Unitarians. ("Unitarian Universalist Origins: Our Historic Faith," Mark Harris.)
Universalism, also declared a "heresy" by the early church, holds that God is eternally loving, and a loving God could not be so cruel as to admit only a select few into Heaven and relegate the rest to Hell. If there is in fact "salvation" and eternal life, then salvation is universal. If salvation is universal, then everyone is a child of God here on earth as well. Universalists believed all should be welcome and accepted. Mark Harris writes, "From its beginnings, Universalism challenged its members to reach out and embrace people whom society often marginalized. The Gloucester church included a freed slave among its charter members, and the Universalists became the first denomination to ordain women to the ministry...." ("Unitarian Universalist Origins: Our Historic Faith," Mark Harris.)
Today Unitarian Universalists are happily "non-creedal"-we do not require acceptance of a specific code of beliefs to be a UU. Instead we emphasize "acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. "Rather than a uniformity of belief and theology, we stress supporting one another in our "free and responsible search for truth and meaning," and a sharing of our individual truths to help us recognize the larger Truth. To create our Living Tradition, we delve into many sources of spiritual wisdom gleaned from all the world's religious traditions and from the depths of human experience. Individual UUs engage in a diversity of spiritual practices drawn from the world's religions.
Historically socially liberal, Unitarian Universalists engage heartily in the world to work for the healing of human suffering, injustice, poverty, inequality, and the denial of human rights. No matter what our background, education, economic status, or ethnic origins, UUs are committed to the "Common Good." UUs are often involved in socially progressive initiatives and campaigns for "world community, with peace, liberty and justice for all,"and conservation of the "Interdependent Web of all existence of which we are a part."
Currently numbering around 200,000 members in the U. S., American UUs are members in over 1,000 congregations that belong to the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. We are also members of regions called districts. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Greeley is a member-congregation of the UUA and part of the Mountain Desert District (MDD) which includes congregations in 8 states in and around the Rocky Mountains.
For more information:
The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)
The Mountain Desert District of the UUA
The Unitarian Universalist Historical Society
The Unitarian Universalist Historical Society Dictionary of UU Biography
Wikipedia