Changing times -- people are re-evaluating all they hold dear.  Things are not working for the good of all.  It is time to take positive action.  Our whole world is in a state of change.

Intention comes from the mind.  Love from the heart.  Use them in harmony -- this is the key to success.

The UU's need to find this key and welcome all who  wish to worship.  We are in a state of change -- people want to learn and grow and to see harmony and peace.

Apr 19, 2011 -- 1:31PM, RevDorris wrote:

Changing times -- people are re-evaluating all they hold dear.  Things are not working for the good of all.  It is time to take positive action.  Our whole world is in a state of change.

Intention comes from the mind.  Love from the heart.  Use them in harmony -- this is the key to success.

The UU's need to find this key and welcome all who  wish to worship.  We are in a state of change -- people want to learn and grow and to see harmony and peace.

 i thought UU's did welcome all who wish to worship.

As a  Christian UU who is aligned with the UU Christian Fellowship, the  Christian Universalist Association, and the United Church of Christ  (UCC), there is a range of opinion within the larger UUA about the role  of Christian tradition in local parish. There is the Council of  Christian Churches in the UUA that are the explicitly Christian  Universalist or Christian Unitarian churches in the tradition of King's  Chapel in Boston, Universalist National Memorial Church in DC, All Souls  Bethlehem Church in Brooklyn, or Church of the Open Door in Chicago.  There are others like All Souls, Unitarian in Tulsa, New York, or DC  that while pluralistic, keeps the Christian tradition alive. Yet there  are others usually those parishes on the West Coast or the Midwest that  were founded in the Fellowship Movement or after that are religiously  generic or narrowly defined as humanistic.

Here are some hints to indentify the theological direction the parish is leaning in...

Churches that are humanist or religiously generic refer to their   parishes by the names of "society" "congregation" or "fellowship"

Explicitly Christian churches not only have the word church in their   name but references Christian ideas or themes like "Christ", "Bethlehem"   "Epiphany", these churches also include the titles "Federated Church"   or "First Parish", "Community Church, "Independent Christian Church",  or  "Church of the Mediator". There may an occasional All Souls. Many   churches have these titles in addition to the words "Unitarian" or   "Universalist"

Christian friendly churches include names like "All Souls",   "Universalist" in front of the word Unitarian. These Christian friendly   churches can include names like Unity Temple.

You can also tell by looking at a church's website and looking at their "about us page"

May 8, 2011 -- 12:06AM, socaluu wrote:

Churches that are humanist or religiously generic refer to their parishes by the names of "society" "congregation" or "fellowship"

Not in my experience, they didn't. In fact, of the three churches I've gone to regularly and one I visited a few times, three of the four were heavily humanistic to the point of rarely referring to anything Christian other than in a historical context--and all had "church" in their name.

You wouldn't have been able to tell that they leant heavily toward the non-religious by any of their websites either. Those emphasized the "all are welcome" theme, which I've found generally means GBLT and does not necessarily mean in actuality that all beliefs are equally welcome.

Two of the four churches, in fact, were more than somewhat non-theistic even to the point that anti-theistic might have been a more accurate description. In one, an interim minister who referred to and quoted biblical passages too often to suit the non-religious majority was encouraged to leave.  

I can't speak about the atmosphere in churches that include explicitly Christian names or designations in the church's name as I've never attended one of those.

Interestingly, the most explicitly spiritual UU church I ever attended was named Emerson Chapel, and knowing anything about Emerson's somewhat unorthodox beliefs, you wouldn't think a UU church with that name would welcome theists, but theistic references of various sorts were made often in service content.

You can also tell by looking at a church's website and looking at their "about us page"

As I mentioned above, no, you can't necessarily although you may get some idea how welcoming the church is likely to be to a UU Christian. So many UU church websites focus upon emphasizing the Principles & Purposes and promoting the all-inclusiveness that one would expect from a UU church that you won't know until you have direct experience with the church regularly whether or not that is indeed the reality.

As a UU I say that we accept most beliefs. Our kids learn about the Jewish and Christian faiths since those are our roots primarily. If you are liberal then you will fit in easily I think.