Unitarians

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Does anyone know anything about Unitarian churches? My friend is joining one after being a nominal Catholic for twenty years. Could someone give me advice on what these churches are all about and how licit it is for them to get married here. (The future husband is not a practicing Catholic but was baptized as one)
 
BEattitude said:
Does anyone know anything about Unitarian churches? My friend is joining one after being a nominal Catholic for twenty years. Could someone give me advice on what these churches are all about and how licit it is for them to get married here. (The future husband is not a practicing Catholic but was baptized as one)
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Unitarian Universalists used to be nontrinitarian denomination but are now mainly agnostics, atheists, a few theists, a smattering of Buddhists and Wiccans, and a touch of very liberal Christians.
 
I visited a Unitarian Universalist church several times while my ex was on his journey from Catholic to Atheism. I affectionately called it the “happy club”. Each week there would be “hymns”(?) about being happy followed by a “sermon”(?) that was more what one would expect in a lecture from a college class on various religions. One week would be about Jesus and the next about Allah or Budda. The general premise seemed to be “Believe what you like so long as you are happy, nice, and respectful to everyone and take care of the environment for future generations.”
 
BEattitude said:
Does anyone know anything about Unitarian churches? My friend is joining one after being a nominal Catholic for twenty years. Could someone give me advice on what these churches are all about and how licit it is for them to get married here. (The future husband is not a practicing Catholic but was baptized as one)
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www.uua.org
 
BEattitude said:
Are all “unitarian” churches “universalist”? This seems so extreme its hard to believe that they are all this way!
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It is the Unitarian Universalist Association. Yes, the two sects merged in the 60s.

There is another splinter group called the American Unitarian Conference americanunitarian.org/
which split off.
 
BEattitude said:
Are all “unitarian” churches “universalist”? This seems so extreme its hard to believe that they are all this way!
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I have never seen any others besides the universalist. They are extreme (that is why I called them a “club” and not a “church”). Wikipedia mentions 3 other versions but has no citation for that part.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian
 
Syele said:
… I affectionately called it the “happy club”. Each week there would be “hymns”(?) about being happy followed by a “sermon”(?) that was more what one would expect in a lecture from a college class on various religions. One week would be about Jesus and the next about Allah or Budda. The general premise seemed to be “Believe what you like so long as you are happy, …”
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I see they have not changed 😦 About 20 years ago a friend pestered me to go with him to his church. So finally I broke down, went to Saturday evening Mass, then got up & joined him Sunday morning. It was a joke :mad: A total waste of time.

When it was time to go he asked me what I thought. I said “You know what you get when you cross a JW with a Unitarian? Somebody that knocks on your door for no real reason.”
 
BEattitude said:
Are all “unitarian” churches “universalist”? This seems so extreme its hard to believe that they are all this way!
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I have heard the UU churches up in the northeast are a little more Christian than the others but that is anecdotal.
BH
 
BEattitude said:
Does anyone know anything about Unitarian churches? My friend is joining one after being a nominal Catholic for twenty years. Could someone give me advice on what these churches are all about and how licit it is for them to get married here. (The future husband is not a practicing Catholic but was baptized as one)
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I have a friend in the Unitarian church who was raised Catholic and has tried all sorts of religions. I think I understand that they teach all people will eventually reach “heaven”. They seem to be a catchall of folks who believe all sorts of different things and weren’t comfortable anyplace else. My friend jokes that we should not bring up politics around them unless we want a debate. In general I guess they’re very liberal and pretty secular.
 
cecilia97 said:
They seem to be a catchall of folks who believe all sorts of different things and weren’t comfortable anyplace else.
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My aunt is Unitarian … I see it as a lazy religion.
Whatever you think spirituality is, that’s what it is.
It requires nothing from the individual.

michel
 
Uintarianism grew in penal times and when it was not popular to be anything but orthodox protestant.

Some towns did not allow Unitarian churches to be built. Some were built miles away from town centres and their worshippers had to walk many miles to worship
 
cecilia97 said:
I have a friend in the Unitarian church who was raised Catholic and has tried all sorts of religions. I think I understand that they teach all people will eventually reach “heaven”. They seem to be a catchall of folks who believe all sorts of different things and weren’t comfortable anyplace else. My friend jokes that we should not bring up politics around them unless we want a debate. In general I guess they’re very liberal and pretty secular.
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No, they don’t teach that all people will eventually reach heaven…there are many UUs who profess no belief in heaven.

Yes, you will usually get a lot of debate on politics (totally unlike this board ?😃 ). Most are ready to debate pretty much anything at the drop of a hat.

Yes, very liberal, but not secular in the meaning of being uninterested in matters related to religion or spirituality. Most of the UUs I have met have been pretty deeply interested, but they don’t all share the creed. I will admit that a non-creedal religious organization is a very hard idea for many folks to wrap their brains around 🙂 .

The uniting force in a UU church is a passion for social justice and a desire for community as one pursues one’s spiritual journey.
 
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