is there any kind like prosses you have to do to become a uu or is it more just showing up to a local group

I'm considering UU since you can believe in any god you want or none at all, but I did some googling and found the gadfly controversy. I know UU is progressive, if I'm center-left (resoundingly for a lot more police accountability but not ACAB or for public option health care but skeptical of a government monopoly on it especially post-Roe, but strongly against Republicans (even sane ones if post-2016 they're still choosing to associate with the GOP)) is that gadfly? Would those politics welcome? Am I worrying too much?

Every other month, we have a Family Fellowship Sunday where we host lunch for the congregation. Today we'll be doing Stone Soup, an appropriate way to wrap up our pledge drive.

We're quite a small congregation and I would love ideas to facilitate more of these events, but during evenings and weekends.

What Family-focused activities does your Fellowship offer?

I am a worship tech and occasional worship leader at my congregation. I often feel disconnected when I'm being the tech and even sometimes while leading worship.

Does anyone have techniques for being more present and having a spiritual experience while working the service? (I'm an apatheist humanist, so spontaneous prayer to divinity is unlikely to be helpful, but mantras are something I can try, regardless if they reference deity.)

Hi all - I am a millenial woman looking for my community within UU. As background, I was raised Catholic and was heavily involved in my church’s youth group and I’m no longer part of the Catholic Church but really missed the community. I found that UU really aligns with my values and was hoping it would fill that want for community.

The folks at the congregation are extremely welcoming but a majority of them are 60+ and retired and many of the events they hold are during the week during normal working hours. For example, they started a craft group to make things to sell at fundraisers - they meet at 1:30 on the first Tuesday of the month. Their “ladies lunch” is held at noon on the first Thursday of the month. I do not have the ability to attend these, or any other group, meetings.

There is a group within the congregation that consists of folks under the age of 40. But there isn’t presently any specific thing bringing us together with any regularity, beyond coffee hour after services - which not everyone can always stay for.

I’ve been considering reaching out to our minister about starting a group for younger members of this UU congregation. Before I propose this group I was hoping to see if anyone else’s congregation had a group like this and if so, do people actually come? And if they do, what topics do you discuss?

Tl;dr I’m considering if anyone else’s congregation has a group for younger congregants (gen x/millennial/gen z) that they could provide some insight into how that group functions and what topics it explores.

Hi all! Wanted to note that SUUSI, the Southeastern Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute, is coming up this summer. We have moved back to Radford University, in Radford, VA, July 21-27. Would love to answer any questions you may have!

SUUSI is an LGBTQIA+ friendly week-long summer camp for UUs and UU adjacents for all ages, races, families, singles, nerds, outdoors enthusiasts and more. Our catalog is now live, so please check out the catalog here: https://www.suusi.org/suusi_events, and registration begins Monday, April 15.

You can also find out a little more on our website: www.suusi.org and sign up for immediate updates here: https://bit.ly/49QVJGy.

SUUSI will have some of your favorite people you will ever meet!

What kind of swag/giveaway items would be good to have at our table at a Pride event to promote our Welcoming Congregation? Anyone have good results with any items in bringing in new members to visit?

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Folks:

Some conversations I hear in my fellowship is the problem of absentee investors buying up lots of our housing stock.

I am asking this question here considering that we are mostly like minded and I am a bit afraid of going onto r/investing, which has over 1 million people and that I would be flamed to a crisp.

I wonder if it's okay for us to consider that absentee investors buying up local housing and preventing local ownership is unethical.

Would you agree?

Thank you

Mark Allyn

Bellingham, Washington

I’m new to the faith still and would love book recommendations! I am aware that there’s a wide variety of topics but if any of you have read something that really resonated and helped you along this journey I’d love to give it a try :)

I’m new to the UU faith and don’t have a community or congregation anywhere near me.

I’m just wanting to see if there’s anyone who would want to be friends :)

A little about me

• 24 y/o F
• practices Celtic and pagan spirituality paths
• from BC Canada !!
• 🍃🍃friendly

I'm Brazilian and got out of religion (ex-christian). Nothing against the minister of the church I were member but I became oversaturated with religion. Born and raised in a Christian family sometimes make it a one choice and others.... You know the rest.

My mom is a member of a Assembly of God church but when I was young I preferred the baptists because I considered (and kinda consider them in some ways as Moderates).

But as various protestants and neo-pentecostals churches do the thing like: The other religion follow the devil and yadda yadda. They will go to hell if they don't convert. I think you all know the rest. And when I begun to think more outside of the box even if I was on a slow pace or thinking outside but not much I still get annoyed because of some hypocrite behaviors and like: "We are good and the other religion is bad and worship the devil" but when you look the "devil worshiping people" you see them doing more to help people than "us".

In resume, got out and I feel better. Taking care of my mental and physical health. And I want to join something with the same ideals like mine so I chose UU. How can I learn more and how can I join?

Tl;dr: Ex-christian (Baptist / Brazilian Baptist Convention) who got oversaturated by religion because of being raised in a Christian family who wants to know more and thinks joining UU.

Sorry for the long text. And also, my English sometimes get broken. Also, writing this question inside a bus.

My church (close to Boston hint) has a problem with social media.

An instagram account never used and a facebook that posts the live transmission each Sunday. Need some advices friends of this fellowship of Reddit.

I have been thinking church is this two way street that getting to know each other makes people to know us as a church community. I need ideas but it feels the congregation faces melancholy of a past splendor or a past minister... I think getting to know each other is the first step of any outreach idea. An ongoing to know each other that keeps the theology of fellowship and unity alive. But, in my case, many of the church members say hi the first weeks and then go back to their groups of friends... I wish I could have more tools to sort dialogue and conversation with Congregations where most of its members are old beyond the age of Jesus Christ.

So, the youth group at my church is doing a sermon based on stress and procrastinating. They asked me to help them with the chalice lighting because they couldn't think of anything, and as it turns out, neither can I.

Collectively, we came up with this:

"Be mindful that with life comes stress and anxiety, We light this chalice in hopes of warding off all the negativity, if only for this day"

We're unsure what we think of it. Is there anything better or is this good enough?

https://uutheconversation.org/

The topic is the upcoming GA vote to replace the Seven Principles with the Six Values (+ Love). The first planned town hall web meeting is March 27.

https://uutheconversation.org/index.php/town-hall-meetings/

(Note that there was a Fifth Principle Project announcement about this. I am unsure of how coordinated this effort is with the "Save the Seven Principles" website and Facebook group.)

What Unitarian Universalism loses as it becomes politically narrow

Two quotes from the online piece:

"The narrowing of political perspectives within the Unitarian Universalist community poses significant harm to the church and its members. This trend towards ideological homogeneity often transforms UU spaces into monoliths, fostering echo chambers characterized by groupthink and intellectual laziness. Such insular environments exacerbate extremism and 'us versus them' tribalism, not just within UU but in greater society." 

"In many respects, the national church has transformed into a partisan political organization rather than a religion. Even many UU laity who are politically left and social justice activists have expressed discomfort with the idea of the church functioning as a political platform. They come to a church for spiritual growth and an oasis from the toxicity they get from the news and social media in their daily life."

My husband and I have recently moved to a new town, and the people at our local UU are really un -welcoming. It’s not a bad church, we’re just introverts and have felt pretty awkward and not welcome at the church. There also isn’t a coffee hour, or any kind of mingling time, which there was at our old UU, and that allowed us to get to know people. Also, we’re probably 20-40 years younger than her than most congregants.

We are wondering if there are any similar churches that anyone knows of that we can try. It’s a mid-size town, about 40,000 people, so there won’t be a ton of options. Does anyone have any ideas?

Hi friends,

I go to a church in the greater Boston area and have an observation about the committees that I am part of. It seems as though every committee has a pretty heavy lift and does many activities with a fairly large time commitment involved. This is fine, and I am glad to help, but I wish people would chill a little. Has anyone else had similar experiences with committees and committee work at their church?

Also, just an observation in general: I wish that there was more time devoted to getting to know each other at said church. I understand the point of outreach and getting new members, but I wish the faith as a whole worked at cultivating its current members more. (Maybe that's a generalization.)

Thoughts? Thanks for reading.

Do any of you have any policies in place at your congregations for both staff and members regarding social media policies and online codes of conduct? Curious about what that would look like.

Whenever sex education is brought up in a reddit discussion, there is mention of the OWL program. I have kids and I'm looking for a supplementary sex education program for them. Are these programs just for UU members? Or can non church goers attend? How do I find a program? We are in Oregon, near Portland.

Two example from the below post:

The large majority of blacks and Latinos polled said that they did not find offensive so-called microaggressions such as, "America is a land of opportunity," "Where are you from?," "I don't notice people's race," and "Everyone can succeed in this society if they work hard enough." Commenting on the poll, Columbia University sociologist Musa Al-Gharbi wrote, "(M)any whites, in their eagerness to present themselves as advocates for people of color and the cause of antiracism, neglect to actually listen to ordinary black or brown folk about what they find offensive, or what their racial priorities are.

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In 2020, Minneapolis activists vigorously pushed for defunding the police, leading to the city council to endorse the idea. However, when they later surveyed the black community, a large majority did not support this cause. As a result, a ballot proposal to defund the police was overwhelmingly rejected, with 75% of black voters opposing it. National polls consistently indicate that the majority of black Americans want an equal or increased police presence in their neighborhoods.

The Consequences of Ignorance and False Assumptions in Activism

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Would it be normal to have small “Jewish” groups for anyone interested at a UU church? Would that be a weird thing to propose? I am Jewish but our local synagogues are brutal with social stuff and not overly welcoming. I love the local UU church and I love the general approaches (religious Ed, atmosphere of welcoming) but I want a little more spirituality than it offers. I’m wondering if any UU groups ever experiment with Shabbat dinners or Rosh Chodesh (Jewish women’s celebration focused on the moon).

Anyone here observing Lent?

As a former Catholic, I have to say I always enjoyed Lent. Forty days of “giving up” something and starting with Ash Wednesday, which is a reminder of our mortality. I always felt Lent was the only mystical or deeply meditative aspect of Catholicism (obviously people may disagree).

Even now as a UU I observe. Anyone else feel similar?

I wouldn't say it's the only factor in me dumping her but I'd say it was the straw that broke the camel's back. She's born and raised Conservative Jewish while I'm born and raised Unitarian.

We get stereotyped as being only nominally religious but that's not the case for me. I spend well over a third of my yearly income and spend on average about 28 hours a week at directly UU-related functions usually as part of an older Northeastern US fellowship but I'm also active in helping support smaller facilities and causes.

Of course I was plenty open to converting to Judaism, even an Orthodox conversion since that's usually what's preferred for marriage even among the most liberal Jews. However I made it clear that I would continue to be active in my community and would expect her to at absolute minimum be respectful of my participation.

I did my best to tell her about how many Jews see zero contradiction between their Jewish faith/identity and UUA.

Yet whenever I took her to services and other events she was disparaging, called it the "most goyish thing" she'd ever seen.

Without getting into too much of a rant, she went out of her way to be disrespectful to myself and others.

It got to a point where she was bringing it up to say that I'm not a real man, which burns extra deep since I'm a trans man.

Long story short I basically told her this was a dealbreaker for me and that we could either come to some sort of compromise or we could go our separate ways. She wouldn't budge so as much as it hurt, I dumped her.

It sucks because out of all the people I've dated she's someone I very deeply fell in love with. We were friends and Krav Maga sparring partners for about a year before we started dating but it looks like we won't be able to be friends, it's too raw and painful.

But there's tittles of pride in that I put up a boundary and stood my ground even when it was torture.

This isn't necessarily a call for advice more of a vent. Share your own insights and experiences if you want.

I heard ~11% of Cohousing residents (in the US) are UUs! Three cohousing communities are participating in events at the end of February. If you’re interested in learning more about San Francisco Bay area cohousing opportunities, consider joining February 24 or February 25 in person event. Details are posted here https://www.cohousing-solutions.com/artofneighboring

I've been deep diving in this subreddit and have found a lot of discussion around the money/tithe/pledge issue. It seems there are a lot of people who ultimately felt unwelcomed, or were outright told they were unwelcome, based on income. There are also a lot of folks saying that it doesn't matter, at least at their local churches.

I am stuck. Ten years ago I attended my local UU Church until it came time for pledging. I was a broke college student and struggled with transportation to the church. I distinctly recall talking to another member about how I couldn't afford even the lowest check box to pledge, and they told me to go without Starbucks once a week... I didn't eat out or drink at all at that point in my life. I didn't even respond because that response was enough for me to feel like these weren't my people, despite otherwise feeling very welcomed and like I belonged.

I am finding myself again in a place with a deep need for community. My family and I went to a service today and during the "offering", the stand in minister said that the offering was just as important as any other involvement in the church, if not more. It was heavy on the guilt. Only after the plate was back up was it stated that if we were joining for the first time, to skip the plate. Somehow, I forgot about this aspect of the church entirely. I was so stressed out the whole time about money. A family member had a donut and a cup of coffee and all I could think about was that we were being judged for what we left in the offering plate vs what we took. Probably paranoia, but I was really overwhelmed at the thought.

The church's website says that we should be giving 5-10% of our income. We are deeply in debt, have several thousand in medical bills alone every month, and are desperately trying to catch up. I'm not hurting like I was as a college student, but I'm still hurting in a way that 5-10% of our income would leave us beyond fucked, if I'm being completely honest.

I don't know exactly what I'm looking for with this post. I'm so lonely but I can't afford to pay for companionship at the level they want. And the church didn't feel like it once did. It was so empty, hardly anyone stayed to chat after service, and the service was awkward and boring. This month is apparently pledge month too, so we picked the worst time to start coming (again?).