The 8th Principle and Challenges Past, Present, & Future

It’s not easy being a Unitarian Universalist. We don’t pledge to believe a set of beliefs. We affirm and promote ‘a free and responsible search for truth and meaning’.  And we do it for all of our lives.

Years ago, I grew up in the Universalist Church of North Attleboro, MA. The Universalists had freed themselves from the strictures of the Calvinists who wanted to control Massachusetts. Today our challenge is not freedom from the Calvinists but a paradigm shift in the way we view the world at large and our small corner of it. Today we examine our laws and customs, our rules and regulations, for their impact on ALL members of our society.

The 8th Principle: We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions; challenges us to examine our community and chart a path to the future. No easy task, no roadmap, no guideposts. Like those Universalists of Massachusetts, we want a better world, what Martin Luther King called a Beloved Community.