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The next Selma
How the Black Lives Matter movement challenges Unitarian Universalists.
Letter from a hoped-for future
What Unitarian Universalism looks like, twenty years from now.
The radical Martin Luther King we don't know
Does America have the capacity to heed the radical Martin Luther King Jr., or must America sanitize King in order to evade and avoid his challenge?
Selma's challenge
In the past, our religious forebears had stood on the brink of making a difference in racial justice, and had wavered. Not this time.
Offenders among us
Can we be in community with both sex abuse victims and offenders?
Safe churches need policies and vigilance
Models for congregations that strive to be free of sexual harassment, abuse, and misconduct.
Reforms take aim at clergy misconduct
It is easy to think of clergy misconduct as a Catholic or evangelical problem. It's not.
Challenging the surveillance state
First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles is suing the National Security Agency.
UUA Breakthrough Congregation: Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, Colorado
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, Colorado, needed transformation. What a difference five years has made!
Fired up: General Assembly report, 2014
General Assembly energized Unitarian Universalists with new models of ministry and outreach.
What is developmental ministry?
A new program matches congregations with ministers to solve specific institutional problems.
Seminary 3.0
Meadville Lombard has transformed its approach to theological education.
Results of UU World's 2013 readership survey
UU World's readership survey also offers an updated profile of the UUA's membership.
Spiritual innovators: Into the beyond
Changing how we do church is scary, but not changing means decline and a lost opportunity.
What Haiti taught me
A week with the UU College of Social Justice and the Mouvman Peyizan Papay.
Justice journeys with the UU College of Social Justice
The UU College of Social Justice offers experiential learning and social justice training programs.
War zone sabbatical
I went to Afghanistan and Iraq to learn something about hope.
SUUSI: The other General Assembly
Unitarian Universalists get hooked on SUUSI,
a high-energy, thinking-person's family camp.
Gini Courter's revolution
The UUA's longest serving moderator reflects on a legacy of volunteer leadership.
Our animal contradictions
How Unitarian Universalism can help us sort out our place in the animal world.
General Assembly 2013: Entering a new era
Report from the 2013 UUA General Assembly.
Adaptation and defiance
Climate change requires adaptation, but it also calls for defiance.
Bound in covenant
Congregational covenants are declarations of interdependence.
UUA Breakthrough Congregation: Unitarian Church of Sharon, Massachusetts
How a small church chose to invest in a more ambitious future.
Farewell, 25 Beacon Street?
As the UUA looks for a more modern headquarters, Unitarian Universalists reflect on the symbolic meaning of its perch on Boston’s Beacon Hill.
What is reproductive justice?
Women need more than a right to choose. Unitarian Universalists are joining a broader movement seeking reproductive justice.
The end of iChurch
To build Beloved Community, Unitarian Universalism needs a new narrative.
UUA Breakthrough Congregation: First Parish in Bedford, Massachusetts
At First Parish in Bedford, worship is 'holy theater' and anything but stuffy.
Tim DeChristopher's path
How an undergraduate's activism led him to prison, and to plans to become a UU minister.
Activism is an act of faith
Our interconnectedness makes the powerless powerful.
Primal reverence
Reverence is an organic human experience
that requires no supernatural explanations.
Democracy and empire
Liberal religion can nurture the weakened democratic spirit and push back against the forces of empire.
UUA Breakthrough Congregation: UU Church of Ogden, Utah
Worship is always multigenerational at the UU Church of Ogden, Utah.
Partners in justice
The UUA's immigrant rights partners in Arizona help communities in peril.
For love and justice
Unitarian Universalists mobilize in response to laws
that tear families apart and abuse immigrants.
Congregations as allies in the fight for immigrant rights
How three Unitarian Universalist congregations are pursuing immigration justice.
The threat of fundamentalism
Unitarian Universalists must boldly participate in the religious marketplace of ideas.
Faith in our future: The 2011 Minns Lectures
How can liberal religion speak and act transformatively in a rapidly changing society?
A spirit of fierce unrest
It is time for each congregation to find its greatness.
Faith takes practice
Our religious ancestors recognized each day as a chance to form their spiritual character.
Our shadow side
Unitarian Universalism is a religious movement that no longer takes religion seriously.
'Willing to be changed by what we've started'
Universalism resonates with people of all races, but our churches do not. Yet.
Risk blessing
To avoid decline, Unitarian Universalism must risk offering heart, spirituality, and blessing.
Windows and mirrors
I was watching my son through the dim reflection of myself.
Finca Esperanza Verde: 'What ecotourism should be'
An organic coffee farm and ecotourism lodge
founded by a Unitarian Universalist couple
is a model for just and sustainable tourism.
General Assembly report: At 50, UUA readies for changes
General Assembly endorses major changes on UUA's 50th anniversary.
Before words: The spirituality of Humanism
Spirituality is an awareness of the gap between what you can experience and what you can describe.
The unfulfilled dream
We neglected the Universalist challenge of restating our core convictions in contemporary terms.
The life of the spirit
We are discovering Universalism's theological bounty.
Unitarians and Universalists together: A good and positive venture
Despite difficulties, Unitarians and Universalists have forged a new identity together.
Doors opened to women in UU ministry
As women entered the ministry, language and habits changed.
The UUA at 50: Rooted and growing
The Unitarian Universalist Association
celebrates its golden anniversary.
Key moments in UUA history
Prophetic witness, institutional challenges, and cultural change.
Let mission drive us
Welcoming change requires a strong sense of a congregation's mission.
With diversity comes strength
Our congregations are only starting to embrace what we teach our children.
A faith for the few?
Unitarian Universalists are torn between pride in our elite history and aspirations to be a religion for all.
An abortion hotline that doesn't judge
Activists at a New York church launch an abortion hotline that offers support without judgment.
Dinner with Monsanto
Planting the seeds for a code of ethics for bioengineers.
The Christmas tallis
Celebrating the holidays with my interfaith family.
Heroes and mentors: Reclaiming Krypton
Why a generation that grew up with Buffy and the Power Rangers will demand a different Unitarian Universalism.
Twenty years of the partner church movement
How partnerships between American and Transylvanian Unitarian Universalists transformed both.
The partner church movement today
Almost 200 North American UU congregations have partner churches in other parts of the world.
2010 General Assembly report
General Assembly calls Unitarian Universalists to stand with immigrants.
The spirituality of service
Giving our time to our congregations can be spiritually transformative.
Unitarian Universalist culture needs to embrace spiritual complexity
Our minds are open; our hearts and hands are not.
Unitarian Universalists need a change of vision, not of culture
There are people like us in every community.
I'm proud of Unitarian Universalist culture
That's my culture you have identified as the number-one barrier to diversity.
The welcome table
How the hospitality of progressive churches cultivates forgiveness and justice.
Let's take off the hair shirt
We underestimate the very real obstacles we are up against.
Unitarian Universalism's rarefied culture
I feel comfortable in a Unitarian church only because I am not ethnocentric.
Unitarian Universalism's junior high factor
We were the kids who didn’t quite fit in.
What is Unitarian Universalist culture?
Is Unitarian Universalist congregational culture a barrier to a more diverse faith?
Unitarian Universalism's narrow niche
Six characteristics of Unitarian Universalist culture.
Margaret Fuller's bicentennial legacy
Margaret Fuller, the forgotten heart of the Transcendentalist movement and the first American theorist of women's equality.
Transforming the Jericho Road
The Jericho Road Project links Unitarian Universalist professionals with nonprofits in struggling cities, creating a new avenue for social justice.
Unitarian Universalism must change
We must admit that Unitarian Universalism has a specific, sometimes alienating culture, and we must change it.
Can Unitarian Universalism change?
Our tradition has always been responsive to the needs of its time, but are we ready to adapt to our increasingly multicultural society?
Racial and ethnic diversity of Unitarian Universalists
The United States is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse faster than the UUA.
The religious left
An old tradition for a new day.
Theological rationale for abortion
Defending abortion from a liberal Christian perspective.
A poet's grief
Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno's poetry chronicles her grief after her daughter's murder.
The gospel of inclusion
The Universalism of former Pentecostal bishop Carlton Pearson.
General Assembly report, 2009
The Unitarian Universalist Association elects a president focused on helping congregations adapt to a changing society.
The liberal saints
Andrene Kauffman’s murals in Chicago’s Third Unitarian Church honor heroes of the liberal spirit.
Unitarian Universalism in Africa
Unitarian Universalism is growing rapidly in Africa, uniting people from many tribes to serve the poor.
President Sinkford's public witness
President William G. Sinkford looks back on eight years of leadership.
Imagineers of soul
Our churches should be sorcerer’s apprentices in the art of opening the doors of meaning. Why, then, are we so scared?
True to my lineage
The Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed's quest for spiritual integration.
Our inner ape
How deeply rooted is our Unitarian Universalist
belief in peace and justice for all?
Laying claim to my own blackness
Being an Afro-American is a diverse experience that resists simple characterizations.
Natural faith
How Darwinian evolution has transformed liberal religion.
Be a dignitarian
We can overcome rankism and build a world that honors the dignity of every person.
Hold on: The wisdom of endurance
Suffering and anxiety are usually just as finite and
time-limited as high passion and unalloyed joy.
Dinner dilemmas
Ethical issues at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
The Tyger and the Lamb
Faith in authority divides the self and endangers the world. But faith in each other, a covenantal faith, can bring personal and global peace.
How to raise a mensch
Cultivating your child's ethical and spiritual growth.
Biggest coffee hour imaginable
First impressions of a first-time General Assembly goer.
General Assembly: 'The threshold of a new era'
UUA General Assembly resounds with calls for liberal leadership.
A bench by the road
The author of 'Beloved' wrote her novel because there was 'no suitable memorial' to slaves.
Early Christians emphasized paradise, not crucifixion
How we can reclaim a theology of earthly paradise.
Three in a thousand identify as Unitarians
A new survey estimates that 0.3 percent of American adults identify as Unitarians.
The story of the 'Sources' cantata
Music celebrating the Six Sources of Unitarian Universalism.
The Sources of Unitarian Universalism
Adopted by the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1984.
The fellowship movement
A look back at the lay-led congregations that transformed Unitarianism.
Home grown Unitarian Universalism
Developing home-based community rituals that root UU adults and children.
Is your congregation talking about peacemaking?
UUA seeks congregational input on peacemaking resolution by March 1.
Prophetic nonviolence
Toward a Unitarian Universalist theology of war and peace.
Sketches of Crete
A sense of humor builds a bridge across cultures.
Spirited defender
Karen Tse's human rights ministry is helping to eradicate torture.
America's original battle over church and state
Competing visions of divine order and sacred liberty.
Carolyn McDade's spirit of life
The story of Unitarian Universalism's most beloved song.
Liberal religion and the working class
Unitarian Universalism has a class problem.
Voices from GA
Selected quotations from the 2007 UUA General Assembly.
Environment and diversity themes of 2007 General Assembly
Report on the Unitarian Universalist Association's 2007 annual meeting.
Open Space process informs UUA goals
General Assembly experiments with new meeting process.
Love the contradictions
The world needs people who can love it in its contradiction and complexity.
Churches take steps toward diverse, multicultural future
Congregations respond to the General Assembly's challenge to examine race and class.
Unitarian Universalists on the Eightfold Path
Buddhism puts down roots in American congregations.
What is Unitarian Universalist Buddhism?
The history of UU engagement with Buddhism and its growing significance.
Buddhist basics
Central concepts in Buddhism.
What you can do about global warming
The global warming problem is too global for a few simple steps to solve it, but there are actions you can take.
John S. Dacey, the anxiety pro
Psychologist John Dacey's own struggle with anxiety inspired a career helping others.
Help for anxious parents
The world is a dangerous place, but many parents are at risk of overprotecting their children.
Eating ethically
Can you clean your plate with a clean
conscience?
Parents' top concerns and what you can do
Advice from 'The Safe Child Handbook.'
A theology of gratitude
Gratitude should be the center of Unitarian Universalist theology.
Golden age of Unitarian growth
One person inspired eight new churches in a dozen years.
Partners in the Gulf
Helping marginalized communities rebuild along the Gulf Coast.
Tyrone Edwards leads his town back to life
A hurricane-battered Louisiana town comes back to life, with Unitarian Universalist help.
What torture has taught me
My twelve years at the helm of Amnesty International.
William F. Schulz, human rights champion
William F. Schulz looks back on twelve years at Amnesty International.
UU songwriters hit a nerve with SUV song
Meet Rozanne Gates and Suzanne Sheridan.
American myths reconsidered
Five years after 9/11.
General Assembly 2006
Environmental issues dominate annual gathering of Unitarian Universalist leaders.
Why Unitarian Universalists need a language of reverence
The language of reverence is the language of humanity.
Heroes' dilemma: How much would you sacrifice?
The complex moral legacy of Martha and Waitstill Sharp.
Music vs. AIDS in Africa
The music of a pandemic.
How the UU Principles and Purposes were adopted
A history of Unitarian Universalism's Principles.
Community investing plants seeds of opportunity
Unitarian Universalist congregations are joining in to help.
Reviving a 227-year-old church
How the oldest Universalist church in America came back to life.
The wonder of evolution
Science and religion stand together.
How to get involved in community investing
The UUA can double many congregations' investments.
'Great Story' religious education
Science and religion in the Sunday school.
Frederick Lawrence Keefe
A brief biography of the author of The Investigating Officer.
World War II novel connects with today's headlines
A 40-year-old novel asks unnervingly relevant questions about soldiers in the moral chaos of war.
Learning to see more than meets the eye
Look for the divine in the world as it is.
That was I
A poem from U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser's Pulitzer prize-winning book.
Poet laureate Ted Kooser's this-worldly faith
The U.S. poet laureate and winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize in poetry is a Unitarian Universalist.
Acts of kindness in a hurricane's aftermath
Unitarian Universalists work tirelessly to help
the displaced residents of the Gulf Coast states.
The Veatch story
A generous gift has provided millions for Unitarian Universalist and social justice programs.
UU Veatch grants support justice programs
A few modest corrections won't fix the injustice in our society; radical change is needed.
Parents crusade to end the death penalty
A Texas couple's crusade to end capital punishment.
Competing worldviews of fundamentalists and religious liberals
Why fundamentalists fear liberal family values.
General Assembly 2005
Sermons, music, and politics at the Unitarian Universalist annual gathering.
Reforming a criminal justice system in crisis
The General Assembly considers a new Statement of Conscience.
Global warming as a moral issue
Our use of energy makes global warming a moral issue.
Why I go to General Assembly
Denominational diversity in all its splendor.
A Greener General Assembly
General Assembly showing a more eco-friendly face.
The microcredit revolution
How small loans to people in poverty are empowering women and transforming local economies around the world.
A new theology of marriage
Religious liberals are poised to take a new look at marriage.
Joseph Nye, soft-power theorist
An expert on international relations praises the 'soft power' of attraction.
Small group ministry creates sacred time
A time when the stories of our lives are heard.
Meet today's UU abolitionists
Four Unitarian Universalist groups confront modern slavery.
Boycotts don't always help, but you can
How to harness consumer power against modern slavery.
Ric Masten, dancing through life
A poet responds to cancer the way he knows best.
Modern slavery's bitter harvest
Slavery isn't history—and we're reaping its fruit.
What you and your congregation can do about slavery
Steps you can take to end modern slavery.
The fear patrol
Unitarian Universalists offer insights into the cultural and personal sources of fear
Stalwart Leaders
UUA's 2004 Volunteer Service and Distinguished Service Awards
Let's take back our time
We work more hours than medieval peasants did.
Healthy stewardship, declining enrollment
2003 financial reports for UUA
General Assembly Report 2004
Annual event in Long Beach, California
Addictions ministry moves beyond AA
The Rev. Denis Meacham creates new ministry at First Parish Brewster, Mass.
Gay rights timeline
Major social, political, and religious milestones on the road to equality.
Same-sex marriage comes to Massachusetts
Deeper and broader trends make the rest of the country more tolerant, too.
A mother's bond
Grief and recovery transform the author's relationship with her mother.
Reconciliation as a spiritual discipline
In our own souls, between individuals, within groups, and between groups.
The practice of reconciliation
A personal guide.
Visit to the Kasambala Medical Clinic
An American minister visits the African clinic his church supports.
Enduring bond between American church and African clinic
Unity Church-Unitarian and the Nyirongo family.
'Kids as sacred as mine'
Parenting and protesting in an unsaved world.
The fundamentalist agenda
Fundamentalism may be absolutely natural, ancient, and powerful—but the liberal impulse makes us humane.
Resetting the worry alarm
Psychologically and spiritually, we don't have to live in Code Orange.
Jesus and the modern seeker
It may take an act of great will to see past the relics of tradition to something new.
Unitarian Universalism's humanist legacy
Seventy years of religious humanism.
We are all part of God
God is a reality that includes all of us but is bigger than any one of us.
Creating rituals with and for children
Celebrate your family's values with your own traditions.
Rituals for holidays and everyday
Five rituals to try at home.
Unitarian Universalist questions about war
How do you "support the troops" when you oppose the war?
Emerson's shadow
The shadow side to Emerson's influence.
Ward Morehouse, prodemocracy visionary
Ward Morehouse took on Union Carbide after a chemical spill killed 15,000 people in India in 1984. Now he's a leader in the movement to make corporations accountable to the people.
Resources on corporate privilege
Learn more about corporate privilege and ways citizens can work for change.
Fighting City Hall
Who says you can't fight City Hall? Corporations win battles with local governments all the time.
Communities take on corporations
People across the country are finding new ways to set democratic limits to corporate power.
How corporations became 'persons'
The amazing true story of a legal fiction that undermines American democracy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's Unitarian legacy
What do we see in Ralph Waldo Emerson on his 200th birthday?
Ellery Schempp stood up for religious minorities
Ellery Schempp's 1958 lawsuit ended mandatory Bible readings in school.
10 ways to make your religious education program boy-friendly
Are Americans afraid of freedom?
Many Americans see liberty as terrorism's accomplice.
Are boys getting what they need at church?
When Sunday school isn't boy-friendly.
Why Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't a UU
A reflection on race and theology.
The bold experiment of the fellowship movement
The do-it-yourself fellowship movement spread Unitarian congregations far and wide.
Childhood memories of a Unitarian fellowship
The cartwheels, the parade, the presents for poor people.
Liberal evangelists on campus
Young Unitarian Universalists are sharing their faith and building worship groups on college campuses — and the UUA and local congregations are scurrying to support them.
How to be a cultural broker
Things you can to help refugees in your town.
Bob West led the UUA through a stormy period
Bob West is regarded by many as the 'unsung hero of the UUA.'
The middle of everywhere
How Lincoln, Nebraska, came to be the picture of America's multicultural future.
A step toward racial reconciliation
A Cincinnati church reaches out to the family of a black Unitarian minister it rejected many years ago.
'His rightful place'
The Rev. W.H.G. Carter's great-granddaughter shares a family's living tradition.
In praise of the imperfect life
Spring enlivens us, yet from our human vantage not all resurrections are equally welcome.
Interview with Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Parker
What to do when experience challenges tradition.
Suffering does not redeem us
Two feminist theologians say suffering redeems nothing.
Can violence save?
Challenging the theology of redemptive suffering.
Breaking the cycle of violence
Responding to terrorism without promoting more violence.
9-11 postcard from Brooklyn
One minister describes a day of shock and mourning.
Eleven UUs died in 9-11 attacks
In memoriam.
Congregation's wall of remembrance
Sharing the grief of 9/11.
UUs open their hearts in 9-11's aftermath
UU congregations and volunteers respond.
Ministers bring blessing to Ground Zero
'We went into a nightmare.'
UU churches in cities attacked on 9-11
Houses of hope.
Has terrorism shaken our religious principles?
9/11 challenges Unitarian Universalists to think about evil.
Unitarian Universalist responses to 9-11
Congregations near and far respond to 9/11.
Universalism: A theology for the 21st century
To the Universalist, truth in religion is like truth in poetry.
Unfinished houses
Life as a work in progress.
How much do we deserve?
How much inequality can a democracy experience and survive? What is economic justice?
Hut schools for India's child laborers
The UUA Holdeen India Program supports schools for child laborers.
A brief introduction to India's caste system
India's constitution outlawed castes in 1950, but millions are still treated as outcastes.
Goals of the UU Holdeen India Program
Seven principles for a partnership with the oppressed.
Transforming the lives of India's 'broken people'
How the UU Holdeen India Program helps India's outcastes.
Memoir of King's eulogy for James Reeb
A witness's diary captures the torment and magic of James Reeb’s eulogy.
Unfinished journey: Selma 1965
Unitarian Universalists responded to Martin Luther King Jr.'s call to Selma. Two gave their lives.
Timeline of the Selma civil rights campaign
From Selma to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Witness to Reeb's death looks back
A witness to Selma's tragedies revisits the path of tears and learns to dry his own.
Reclaiming the best of fatherhood
Roundtable discussion with Mary Pipher, William Doherty, and Neil Chethik.
Winter mind
Emptiness, like silence, like love, is indeed a gift.
Unitarian Universalists and Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhists
Greeley and Niwano's great friendship transcended national identity, culture, religion.
What do sons really need from their dads?
What losing a father teaches men about fatherhood.
Tips for more confident fathering
Hands-on fathers help children thrive.
The UUA's original Principles (1961)
The UUA's Principles from 1961 to 1985.
Living at the edge
By living in the present moment, we can find ourselves at the gateway to eternity.
The UUA meets black power
BAC vs. BAWA, 1967-1971.
E.J. Graff asks what marriage is for
The author of a history of marriage says the time has come for same-sex marriage.
What's distinctive about UU relationships?
Unitarian Universalist principles for healty relationships.
Stories from Universalist history
Stories of Universalists.
Universalism: 200 years and growing
The spirit of Universalism and the future of Unitarian Universalism.
Claiming and reclaiming Universalism
Reflecting on the Unitarian and Universalist merger.
