A Vision for the Future of Unitarian Universalism

I believe Unitarian Universalism is at its best when it helps people feel less alone and more alive in a complicated world – when it offers belonging, meaning, and a call to love that extends beyond ourselves.

My hope for the future of UUism is that our congregations continue to be places of real belonging, where people can bring their whole selves: their doubts and convictions, their grief and joy, their questions, identities, contradictions, and longings. I want our churches to be spaces where meaning is made together, not handed down from on high.

I hope we remain a pluralistic faith that takes difference seriously – not as something to tolerate, but as something that deepens and enriches us. Our many theologies, cultures, and lived experiences are gifts that allow us to become wiser and more humane together.

In a culture shaped by urgency, productivity, and individualism, I hope Unitarian Universalism continues to practice countercultural slowing down, tending relationships, and moving at the speed of trust. I believe our future depends on developing nurturance culture, creating communities where people feel safe enough to tell the truth, brave enough to grow, and supported enough to stay.

I also hope we keep doing the hard and necessary work of examining the ways inherited systems, especially white supremacy culture, patriarchy, and extractive capitalism, have shaped our institutions and habits – not from a place of shame or moral superiority, but from humility and accountable love. Repair, accountability, and transformation are spiritual practices, and they require patience, courage, and deep relational investment.

I want UUism to remain relevant and responsive in a rapidly changing world, willing to engage emerging ethical questions, new technologies, ecological realities, and evolving social movements with curiosity and creativity. Our faith has always been adaptive, and I believe that adaptability, rooted in values rather than certainty, is one of our greatest strengths.

Most of all, I hope Unitarian Universalism continues to be a place where people can wrestle with life’s biggest questions while being held in love. Where justice is not just something we advocate for, but something we practice in how we treat one another. Where we remember, again and again, that none of us does this alone, and that together, we really can be greater than the sum of our parts.