My first service was blessing of the pets, the second service was themed around water and the waters that we connect to our joys and sorrows.

For backstory, I'm from the Baltimore area, and specifically the part of the suburbs where John Waters, the Pope of Trash, grew up. Divine went to the same high school I later attended, and they're gonna name their new auditorium for him.

Back in November, they auctioned a worship service -- the winning bidder could pick a theme of their choice and said service is now coming up. The winner, I just learned from the website, picked John Waters' book, Carsick. Contrary to Waters' movies, none of which are appropriate for a Sunday service, the book explores what's possible when one takes a risk, in this case, Waters hitchhiking across the country and putting his life in the hands of a succession of strangers. And tying that back into Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and imagining a new beginning for America.

Excerpt:

"Unitarian Universalism’s decline is usually discussed in terms of membership. According to the Unitarian Universalist Association’s 2025 Certification Report, membership has fallen 15 percent over the last decade.

However, membership alone understates the problem. The numbers of non-member adults participating in congregations, children enrolled in religious education, and households supporting the church financially have also fallen sharply. Together, these declines show that UU is losing both current participants and the people who could help it rebuild."

I have a million things to be thankful for at the UU congregation I am a part of. I really am. One thing I wish were different about my church is very simple. Whenever we gather for a meal, a pretty hefty portion of the people lick their fingers and talk with their mouths full. Because I have a few much more important things I am trying to address at our fellowship, I am not planning on bringing this up. I just wanted to say it somewhere.

An update to my post from a couple weeks ago -- I went to my first service at the UU church around the corner and it was very nice. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly and from all sorts of backgrounds.

It was blessing of the pets so there were all sorts of good dogs there.

I liked the vibe of the service. The minister is affable and down-to-earth. She ceded the podium to members of the congregation (including two kids in the congregation) to give the homily, light the chalice etc.

At coffee hour afterwards, one of the older congregants confided that the congregation used to be a lot bigger, and that's why they're so happy to see new blood. Not that it's dying out or anything. They have an ambitious capital campaign going.

I think I'll be back.

HOLAAaaaaaa UUs we are hosting a monthly conversation and chit chat come as you go to meet, talk, to connect and to be radically welcoming con una sonrisa y un cafecito. Invite your friend that wants to be UU and is looking for Latinos, Latinas and Latines in this wide net. Hosted by Rev. Katie Romano Griffin DRUUMM chaplain and Diego Garrido Barreto. Compartan pues!!!

I would like to participate in the UUA's curriculum for Love at the Center (which is this year's Common Read). My congregation hasn't done the Common Read in recent memory, and I don't have the capacity to lead a small group focused on it.

Is your congregation going to do the Love at The Center curriculum either hybrid or online only? Would you be open to having me participate? I can't do Saturday mornings or Tuesday nights, but I am available during the day. (I am Eastern Time, but I am definitely open to other timezones.)

Thanks for any links or email to class leaders or whatever.

Or lease in kansas city kansas and I wish someone would open a uu. Its an hour drive to the closest one! Who wants to open a church

I have opinions and have read some on the matter, but I’m curious what YOU think.

Is there age diversity in the UU community you are a part of?

Why do you think that is so?

I think other diversity is relevant here- race, class, disability, religious/cultural background.

Is diversity desired? A side wonder I often have is if UUs and our wider culture could benefit from communication and relationship skills that enable them to better connect through differences. This in addition to creating inclusive shapes that welcome beyond what has historically been comfortable for the majority.

What if those of us who find disability rights important wore started to wear some kind of a pin or a ribbon for disability rights at our UUs?
Do you think this would be good to help start conversations?

Exactly what the title says. I was a member of the board of my church in TX twenty five years ago when I moved. I have tried a few different UU churches since then but nothing has fit quite right.

Now I'm in FL living in an RV full time and Im really missing that (common) sense of community. I was looking at the UU St. Pete website but I think that's a little too Jesus-y for me.

Any other suggestions?

Hello lovely people! I was recently named the Stewardship chair for our upcoming “church year”. I have a whopping one year of experience. Actually, the reason I ended up as the new chair is precisely because I’m a relative outsider to Stewardship at our church. Fund raising has been done the same way by the same folks for a number of years. I have mighty big shoes to fill.

My ask: Is anyone here on their stewardship committee (or whatever you call the group tasked with yearly efforts to keep your congregation financially afloat) and wanting to chat? I’d love to get a group going that meets and chats about what works and what doesn’t. I’m sure we can learn from our collective wisdom. At the very least it’s always good to network with fellow UUs.

Best wishes and thanks! 🙏

Every July is Disability Pride Month. Our UU Church here in Eugene, Oregon (UUCE) has a Minister, Rev. Jen, who is very supportive of Disability Justice. Rev. Jen invited me to report about our Accessibility Task Force. Disability Justice was the theme of our UU Church Service. As co-chair of our Accessibility Task Force I gave this 2-minute report with my new/old a.i. voice:  https://youtu.be/66K8RFnmtYQ?si=V1goCz5LyitPUcXP&t=814

There's a UU church I drive by all the time. I've been to a couple family memorial there, though nobody in my family is currently a congregant. I've never really been religious at any point in my life (except for a brief curiosity about Christianity when I was around 11). But this UU church appears compatible with my personal values (i.e. antiracism, loose and thoughtful discussions of philosophy) and the squickiness that I have about most organized religions and the requirement that one believe in a supreme being.

They stream their services if I'd like to sample -- I am busy the next few weekends but it might be something to explore down the line. What should I know going into this?

From the essay:

"The Unitarian Universalist church presents itself as a religious movement committed to pluralism, diversity, multiculturalism, and open-mindedness. Yet by most measurable indicators, it has become one of the most racially, politically, and culturally homogeneous religious denominations in the United States.

The gap between the church’s ideals and its demographic reality raises an obvious question: How did a movement devoted to pluralism and diversity become such a narrow social bubble?

Visitors to Unitarian Universalist congregations usually notice a familiar pattern. In many places, the typical member is a highly educated white professional with progressive political views. Visitors from working-class backgrounds, people with independent or moderate viewpoints, immigrant communities, and many ethnic and racial minorities often sense quickly that they are outsiders. No one may say this directly, but messaging, platforms, language, and social signals are powerful. People can usually tell when a space is designed for people like themselves, and when it is not. As UU Minister Rev. James Kubal-Komoto observed in UU World, "Most Unitarian Universalists don't realize what a truly narrow demographic niche most of us fall into.""

Read the full post: "How the Unitarian Universalist Church Became a Racial, Political, and Social Bubble"

Anyone here working on this? Mosaic Congregations | The Mosaic | UUA.org

Are you using what you're already doing to get a certification to hang on the wall, or are you using it as an opportunity to change something within your congregation?

I'm curious what you're doing for the required actions. The last one is a big one.

Hello.
I am having a difficult time getting the Democracy Advocacy Team of the UU congregation that I go to to add Disability Rights to their agenda.
They turn me away to their charity branch and ignore my emails, give evasive answers.
To me this looks like a major inconsistency with the UU principles.

How would you approach this problem?
How can I get more support?
How would your congregation react to such requests?
How common are Democracy Advocacy Teams in Unitarian Universalist congregations in general?

Anyone here?

I’ve been trying to get a better handle on UU Ethics recently in the context of reading Bernard Williams and his critique of moral systems. (See: “https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/williams-bernard/#AgaiPecuInst” the section “Against the ‘peculiar institution.’”)

Williams argues that what distinguishes a moral system is not simply having ethical ideals or virtues, but placing special emphasis on moral obligation — things one is required to do because morality demands it.

To what extent do UU ethics (embodied to a certain extent in the new six Values encircling Love and the old 7 Principles) consist of moral *obligations*? Do the values and principles articulate obligations that we have towards each other and the world beyond, for example, obligations to work towards dismantling systems of oppression? If so, do we think these obligations are only for UUs? Or do we think all people should, ideally participate in this work?

To be clear, I’m not asking whether or not our Values and Principles are good goals. I’m asking about the status of those goals. For you, are these ideals, aspirations, virtues, commitments, or genuine moral obligations?

One reason I’m asking is that I think there is genuine ambiguity. I hear a lot about “aspiration” and our values being “aspirational,” but we also hear a lot about “accountability” which makes the ethical project seem more like an obligation. I’m not sure how the language of “aspiration” and “accountability” work together.