Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion centered on an open-ended quest for meaning in life and shared effort to put our best values into practice in our daily affairs. It has its roots in two distinct liberal religious movements that shared a philosophy of religious tolerance and questioning. Unitarian Universalists search for truth along many paths. Instead of centering our religion on specific beliefs, we gather around shared moral values that include the inherent worth and dignity of every person. The most succinct yet comprehensive statement of our common beliefs is contained in the Principles and Purposes of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).
The Unitarian faith is a product of the Reformation, and it was introduced into Transylvania by Francis David (Dávid Ferenc in Hungarian). Upon studying the writings of the religious scholars Faustus Socinius and Michael Servetus, both of whom had challenged the theological concept of the Trinity, Dávid began to spread the Unitarian "heresy" in Transylvania—with so much success that even the Prince, John Sigismund, became a Unitarian.
Transylvanian Unitarianism underwent a significant evolution in England and was transplanted to the United States at the end of the 18th Century by liberal dissenters from the Church of England, most notably Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen. Universalism developed in the United States in at least three distinct geographical locations.
The earliest preachers of the gospel of universal salvation appeared in what were later the Mid-Atlantic and Southern states. By 1781, Elhanan Winchester had organized a Philadelphia congregation of Universal Baptists. Among its members was Benjamin Rush, the famous physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence. At about the same time, in the rural, interior sections of New England, a small number of itinerant preachers, among them Caleb Rich, began to disbelieve the strict Calvinist doctrines of eternal punishment. They discovered from their biblical studies the new revelation of God’s loving redemption of all. John Murray, an English preacher who immigrated in 1770, helped lead the first Universalist church in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the battle to separate church and state.
The two movements were merged and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations was formed in 1961 through the consolidation of the Universalist Church of America and the American Unitarian Association. Today the UUA is a faith community of more than 1,000 congregations that support each other and bring to the world a vision of religious freedom, tolerance, and social justice.
