Our Beliefs

​In Unitarian Universalism, you can bring your whole self to our community: your full identity, your questioning mind, your expansive heart. Together, we create a force more powerful than one person or one belief system. As Unitarian Universalists, we do not have to check our personal background and beliefs at the door: we join together on a journey that honors everywhere we’ve been before.

Copyright Unitarian Universalist Association

Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote seven Principles, which we hold as strong values and moral guides. Our covenant of seven Principles, shared with the approximately 1000 Unitarian Universalist congregations in the Unitarian Universalist Association, supports “the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” As Rev. Barbara Wells ten Hove explains, “The Principles are not dogma or doctrine, but rather a guide for those of us who choose to join and participate in Unitarian Universalist religious communities.”

1. ​The inherent worth and dignity of every person

2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations

3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations

4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning

​5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large

​6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all

​7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

We live out these Principles within a “living tradition” of wisdom and spirituality, drawn from six sources that include science, poetry, scripture, and personal experience:

1. Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
2. Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
3. Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
4. Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
5. Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
6. Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

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These seven Principles and six Sources of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) grew out of the grassroots of our tradition, were affirmed democratically, and are part of who we are. 

What is the nature of God?
What does it mean to be human and alive?
How is the Sacred present in each of us and in our lives?
What is the purpose of Beloved Community?
How do we live in the face of death and loss?

Unitarian Universalists reflect together about important questions. We come to very different conclusions about the answers to these questions, but are united in our broad and inclusive outlook, and in our shared experience of the holy in worship, religious education, rites of passage, our work for social justice, our quest to include the marginalized, and in our expressions of love. Learn more about Unitarian Universalists from a variety of beliefs and backgrounds from the Unitarian Universalist Association: Atheist/Agnostic, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Humanist, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, and more.