A Beginner's Guide to Online Resources for Unitarians, Universalists and Friends

Last revised 31 May 2004

The

Unitarianism as "a theological doctrine which asserts that the singleness and simplicity of God are contradicted by the doctrine of the Trinity, and therefore rejects the doctrine of the Trinity." Wikipedia goes on to explore the origins and development of Unitarianism, beginning with the early Christian church and continuing later through Poland, Transylvania and Hungary, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Wikipedia defines

Universalism as "the doctrine that all people will eventually be saved and go to heaven when they die." A Columbia Encyclopedia article on the

Universalist Church of America explains that Universalism (as an organized religious group as opposed to simply a doctrine) began in 18th century England, but has never developed much outside of the U.S.A.

Unitarian Universalism was born in the U.S. in 1961 when the Unitarian and Universalist denominations joined forces to form the

Unitarian Universalist Association. The Wikipedia notes that while the predecessor organizations were Christian denominations, the Unitarian Universalist Association

is an association as opposed to a denomination, and is a pluralistic group that includes Christians, Humanists, Buddhists and Pagans, as well as other orientations.

Today people call themselves "Unitarians", "Universalists" or "Unitarian Universalists" depending on whether they identify primarily with one or both of the two religious traditions. Outside the U.S., the term "Unitarian" is usually used.In the United States, the biggest association of Unitarians and Universalists is the

Unitarian Universalist Association (U.U.A.). Their web site is the largest source of Unitarian and Universalist information on the Web, and includes

news items, links,

email lists, and many other

general interest items including a

What is a Unitarian Universalist? web page and the magazine

UU World.

The

American Unitarian Conference, another American association of Unitarians, was created in the year 2000. This organization dedicates itself to a specifically God-centered set of religious principles in contrast to the Unitarian Universalist Association where paganist, humanist, Buddhist and other orientations can also be found.

In Canada, Unitarians are represented by the

Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC).In the United Kingdom, Unitarians are represented by the

General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

Web pages for associations of Unitarians and Universalists in many other parts of the world can be found by visiting the

European Unitarian Universalists as well as the

International Council of Unitarians and Universalists web pages.

Both Unitarianism and Universalism began as Protestant Christian denominations, but beginning in the 19th century other religious and philosophical traditions have had an increasingly greater influence.Various associations exist to help explain and represent these traditions:

The

Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship exists "to serve Christian Unitarians and Universalists according to their expressed religious needs; to uphold and promote the Christian witness within the Unitarian Universalist Association; and to uphold and promote the historic Unitarian and Universalist witness and conscience within the church universal".

The recently formed

American Unitarian Conference also has a specifically Christian orientation.

Since the early 20th century,

humanism has had a major influence on Unitarian Universalism.

The American Humanist Association is an organization that "promotes naturalistic humanism, a scientific philosophy that rejects all supernaturalism and relies primarily upon reason and science, democracy and human compassion". Their web page contains links to many sites of interest to humanists, rationalists, atheists and freethinkers, and includes both the

The Humanist Manifesto 1, written in 1933, and

The Humanist Manifesto 2, written in 1973. Both manifestos were signed by a number of prominent Unitarians.

HUUmanists is another organization, founded in 1962 (and formerly known as Friends of Religious Humanism), whose purpose is "to advance humanism within the Unitarian-Universalist denomination and to promote religious humanism in general.

More recently, paganism has become popular in certain Unitarian Universalist circles. The

Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans "exists for the purposes of promoting the practice and understanding of Pagan and Earth-centered spirituality within the Unitarian Universalist Association ...". Buddhism has also had an influence on Unitarian Universalism. Buddhists who are also Unitarian Universalists are represented by the

Unitarian-Universalist Buddhist Fellowship .

Some famous Unitarians and Universalists include:

Ralph Waldo Emerson - 19th century American poet and trancedentalist philosopher, whose 200th birthday is being celebrated in 2003.
Robert Fulghum - American writer, author of the bestseller "All I Ever Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten".
Frances Moore Lappé - Activist, author of "Diet for a Small Planet" and "Hope's Edge".
Theodore Parker - 19th century American minister and theologian.
Pete Seeger - American Folk singer and songwriter (1912 - )

More famous Unitarians and Universalists can be found by visiting Harvard University's

Notable American Unitarians web page, as well as the

Famous UUs web site.

Women have of course played an important role in the life and development of Unitarianism and Universalism. The

Unitarian Universalist Women's Heritage Society "seeks to recover and preserve the stories of UU women's lives so that future generations can be inspired by their wisdom and courage, celebrating the valuable gifts we have received from our Universalist and Unitarian foremothers".

The

Rec Room is web site which includes resources to help plan and teach programs using Unitarian Universalist Lifespan Religious Education curricula. As well, some ideas for chalice cookie-cutter related arts and crafts can be found at

chalicecraft.com.

The

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and

Amnesty International are two organizations which support human rights, and which are widely supported in Unitarian Universalist circles.

The

UU Net Heads web site lists the personal web pages of individual Unitarian Universalists. If you are a Unitarian or Universalist, and have your own personal web, you may want to add it here. (This web site seems to have disappeared recently. Please email me if you know why, or where it is now.)

The USENET newsgroup for Unitarians and Universalists is

soc.religion.unitarian-univ.

A few other interesting resources I've come across, but which don't fit in elsewhere, include:

Contact information

Email may be sent to the author at: 96f5l602@sneakemail.com.
Links from this site are not necessarily meant to be an endorsement of the contents, political viewpoints, services or products offered on the pages being linked to.

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A Beginner's Guide to Online Resources for Unitarians, Universalists and Friends

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