Archive for August, 2009

I’ve come across a number of references to people who refer to themselves or others as “Unitarian Universalists” lately, and I wonder how much thought they’ve given that label.

Although Unitarian and Universalist churches created a common association back in 1961, there are such significant differences between the two groups that 48 years of togetherness have not served to create a blend.

As the Reverend Scott Axford recently noted in a letter to the Providence Journal:

“The 1961 consolidation of the Universalists and Unitarians produced an association, not a denomination — with local member congregations free to practice their faith as their consciences dictate.

“We continue to be Trinitarian Christians…. None of this has changed since our founding downtown, in 1821, to proclaim God’s eventual universal salvation (i.e., of all people) in Jesus Christ.”

That doesn’t sound very much like the Unitarian church, which with the name “Unitarian” would, on its face, seem to reject the Trinity. It also doesn’t sound very much like the Unitarian church that counts among its members freethinkers, humanists, agnostics, and atheists. Or the Unitarian church that in the midst of a warm discussion about “God talk.”

Unitarian Universalist? I don’t think so. But I’m just saying.