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this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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Asklemmy
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Hear me out, I go to a Unitarian Universalist church for the music and sense of community. There is no shared theology among UUs, only a set of shared values. UU services vary a lot by the specific congregation. Ours has had services on celebrating gender identities, promoting social justice, mourning global conflicts, and fighting climate change. Sometimes relevant theology from a variety of world religions is incorporated into services, but there is no expectation to be a believer and there are many atheist members in my church. The rest of the time we have potlucks, play board games, do community service projects, etc.
I have casually considered attending a UU church near us. They seem very chill based on their website.
I would have to overcome my dislike of meeting new people and being awake and fully clothed before 11:00am on a Sunday. Those are the main challenges for me, personally.
I'm hoping to attend some public events at the a local nature preserve as a way of easing into social events with strangers. They have programs on bird watching, mushroom cultivation, etc... A year's membership cost $40 and it comes with free parking and free access to their programs. They're also part of a larger network of nature parks, so benefits include free admission to any of those.
~50% of the time I attend virtually, because yeah it's nice to sleep in on Sunday and make breakfast with the service on Zoom and camera off
Looks neat. Nothing outside the US?
(Free ayahuasca? jk!)
Honest and serious question: Do you get any underlying cultish vibes? Specifically, are there sub-groups that may take the overall concepts too far?
Just looking at the literature, it seems healthy. Spirituality can be separate and distinct from religion, so that is cool. My only concern is that of a "gateway". A comparison would be how AA is "not religious" but it actually is with many different AA groups and it's super subtle.
Just curious, s'all. I am sure others have similar questions.
Not OP, but UU is mostly hippies and people who love church but hate religion. I haven't seen any cult-like vibes in the three UU churches I've been to. It's pretty chill and a nice place to meet folks.
It probably depends heavily on the specific congregation. I haven't seen those vibes personally though. In my experience nobody really bothers the people who just show up occasionally, except to be friendly at coffee hour. UU are very much about democracy and so the local make up of the congregation can take it in many directions. Try it out on zoom if they offer a hybrid attendance to see if it's a good fit
I go to a similar church and I've honestly made such close friends there, we just call ourselves spiritual mutts and have a wide spectrum of beliefs. We are VERY loudly welcoming to LGBT folks, and even have one trans lady in our congregation. A local church of a similar demographic recently announced they were not LGBT affirming, and two thirds of the congregation up and left and came to us, absolutely shocked that this has happened, because they are not people who would tolerate that and has no idea the leaders occupied that position (the pastor of that church also resigned because of this stance). Honestly it's one of the best things in my life, we do lots for the community and a ton of creative projects as well, including having summer artists in residence. It really can be so different from the shitty churches.