Preface
Beloved, you are welcome here.
Whether you are just learning about Unitarian Universalism, are deepening your connection to a UU community, or are a long-time member of this living tradition wanting to engage with its central values and commitments, I hope the offerings in this book will be helpful to you. We are a place of particular welcome for the curious. The drive to ask questions and engage lovingly with others who are about the task of meaning making is part of what makes Unitarian Universalism such a valuable communal space to many.
As you will learn in the pages that follow, Unitarian Universalism is a religion full of seeming contradictions that in fact animate the practice of our faith. Unlike many organized religions, we do not lay claim to one clearly delineated theological truth, yet we do have a deep and powerful theology. We do not offer answers, but instead companion each other in exploring life’s deepest questions. Ours is not a community of shared belief, but a community of shared values with a commitment to practicing those values in ways that create a better world. There is no test for belonging here. We are bound together by a covenant of how we will be with one another and the shared values we will promote in the world. We elevate the use of reason and the freedom of belief. Ours is a tradition that is committed to reviewing our shared values periodically, and we did so most recently at our General Assembly in 2024.
The power that holds us together is love. Not an emotional love motivated by affection but the spiritual discipline of love rooted in the non-negotiable sacredness of each and every person and, indeed, of all life. Unitarian Universalist congregations and communities create the opportunity for people with vastly different answers to life’s big questions—where did consciousness come from, what holds the universe together, what happens after death—to be in real, deep relationship with each other, communally caring for one another, and building solidarity across lines of profound difference.
In this way, we practice building a world where difference does not divide us, where people of different backgrounds, religions, nations, and identities live free from violence, hatred, and dehumanization. “How we relate to each other creates the conditions of hell or heaven here on earth,” as Rev. Deanna Vandiver teaches us. “We are all in this together.”
With its commitment to welcome, love, grow, and serve, Unitarian Universalism strives to provide a vital alternative to the growing tide of separation, loneliness, exclusion, and control that is rising around the world. As inheritors of religious teachings that have long been counter-cultural, and longer than long insisted on leading with love, we work both to provide sanctuary—spiritual, emotional, and physical—and to counter the forces of intolerance and hate in our wider world.
On the cover of this pocket guide is a stylized flaming chalice, a primary symbol of Unitarian Universalism and source of inspiration for our faith. It has a history of signifying sanctuary and assistance for those fleeing fascism in Europe under Nazi rule. Today, with fascism on the rise once more, our flaming chalice is a fiery reminder of the commitments of our faith. Commitments that invite each and every one of us to risk what we think we know about the power of love in the world for greater freedoms, greater justice, and ultimately for liberation for all.
Unitarian Universalism places that love at the center of our living tradition. It is a love that sets us free. Not free as in having the power to do whatever we want, but free as in not weighed down or bound by the patterns of hatred and control that get passed from generation to generation. Free as in restless and called to solidarity wherever we witness injustice. Free as in knowing without a doubt that we are worthy and that it is ours to invite others into the same wisdom about themselves. Free. Free to imagine a world where children are not in harm’s way, where the violence and desperation of generations have served as a site of sacred repair, interrupting the cycles of war and dehumanization. Free. Free to express our highest values and what we believe in as many poetic forms as there are people in the room. Free to build communities that love us enough that we are held when we falter and invited back into sacred covenant when we fail.
And we know it is not enough to simply say that love lives at the center of our tradition. We must also ask what it means to live as if love itself matters. If that task of living guided by inclusive, progressive values in a pluralistic community that honors all life is compelling to you, I hope you will find your place among us to share in this sacred journey together.