What we believe
There are as many paths through life as there are people. As a church community, we help everyone find the right path for them.
We believe that together, we learn from ancient wisdom, philosophy, science, art and poetry. We pray, meditate and find stillness in nature.
An open-minded approach to spirituality can be quite hard to describe – precisely because we don’t try to streamline everything into a prescriptive list of doctrines. If it’s helpful, here are four common questions we get asked about our beliefs and our answers to them.
Do you believe in God and, if so, who do you think God is?
We believe the experience of God matters more than the words used to describe God.
We see God in the beauty of the natural world, the kindness we show one another, and in the acts of people who have sought truth and worked for justice.
We know that for some people even the word “God” is unhelpful. But that doesn’t mean that they are cut off from the reality the word points to.
Nobody can give a precise definition of God. So, we won’t try to. What we can do is to turn ourselves to the source of our being – to creativeness, to the power and the glory, to the force that draws us to create goodness and loving-kindness.
If church isn’t a place where people share beliefs, what is it?
The purpose of our churches is to worship God and serve humanity.
For Unitarians, a church is a group of people who are all learners, embarking on a shared spiritual journey.
We aim to be a community where people are accepted as themselves, with their weaknesses as well as their strengths, and yet challenged to turn themselves towards truth. We believe this is how we become more fully human.
Unitarian congregations are essentially democratic and self-governing groups. Ministers, who are appointed by the congregation, act as leaders of worship and other church activities, but there is no difference in principle between ministers and other church members. Any task performed by a minister may be undertaken by a church member.
What do you think about the Bible?
We believe that the Bible is a collection of spiritual wisdom and experience. Not everything in it is of equal value and it is a thoroughly human book. We do not see it as infallible or the final word on any issue or situation.
We do read from the Bible during our services. We also read from many other writings, past and present, both Christian and non-Christian.
What do you believe about worship?
As Unitarians, we do not think of worship as a ritual bowing down before some almighty God. For us, it is an expression of our sense of wonder. It is a celebration of those things that are of supreme worth.
Of course, ritual – using set patterns, symbols and structures – can help us focus on this wonder and worth.
Our services are simple in form. They usually consist of hymns, prayers, meditations, readings, music and a spoken address.
“Let the aim be, not to have power over others, but to have power over ourselves; not to make others feel our power, but to make them feel their own.”
William Ellery Channing