Personal Credos
Credo is a Latin word that means “a set of fundamental beliefs or a guiding principle.” As a non-creedal religion, we don’t ask or expect everyone who calls themselves a Unitarian Universalist to believe the same thing. The absence of a denominational creed makes it difficult to be brief when trying to summarize what it is that UUs believe.
However, UUs do have personal creeds they live by, and some have formulated them in words to share with others. Here are a collection of personal statements from members of UUFF and other Unitarian Universalists both living and dead. Some answer the question, “What do I believe?” while others address the question, “What is Unitarian Universalism?” If you recognize yourself in many of these statements, you may be a Unitarian Universalist without knowing it.
While obedience, love, and even submission each play a vital role in the life of faith, my current conviction is that our defining discipline should be gratitude. In the same way that Judaism is defined by obedience, Christianity by love, and Islam by submission, I believe that Unitarian Universalism should be defined by gratitude.
— Galen Guengerich
The Rev. Dr. Galen J. Guengerich is co-minister at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, where he has served since 1993.
The task of Humanism is to unfold the personality of men and women, to fit and qualify them for the best use of their natural powers, and the fullest enjoyment of the natural world and the human society around them. It conceives of religion as spiritual enthusiasm directed toward the enrichment of the individual life and the improvement of the social order.
— John H. Dietrich
Defrocked for heresy by the Presbyterian Church in 1911, the Rev. John H. Dietrich (1878–1957) became a Unitarian minister. With the Rev. Curtis Reese, Dietrich introduced the notion of “Humanism” to the American Unitarian Association in 1917. He was minister of First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis from 1916 to his retirement in 1938.
The Unitarian side tells us that there is only one God, one spirit of life, one power of love. The Universalist side tells us that God is a loving God, condemning none of us, valuing the spark of divinity that is in every human being. So my version of what Unitarian Universalism stands for is, ‘One God, no one left behind.’
— William G. Sinkford
Rev. William G. Sinkford is a UU minister who served as president of the Unitarian Universalist Association from 2001 to 2009.
Unitarian Universalists share many scriptures, not just one, and a belief in the here and now, not just the hereafter. We value freedom, reason, tolerance and love as overarching values. We honor deeds, not creeds, as we try to live our faith. We believe everyone should be forthright about religious living by using that old ethic from high school math class, “show your work.” Ours is an evolutionary theology, understanding that language changes wit h time and growing awareness. In the final analysis, we believe we are saved by love and made holy by character.
— Daniel O’Connell
Daniel O'Connell is a UU parish minister.
I believe it is our connections—the “ties of love that bind us” to each other and to other living things—that make life meaningful. As humans we have a deep spiritual need for connection. I believe it is from this sense of connection that compassion arises. It is the source of an innate morality and the essence of human spirituality.
— Jana Peirce
Jana Peirce is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fairbanks.
We need not think alike to love alike.
— Francis David
Francis David (1510-1579) was a Unitarian preacher and the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania.
Are you a UU? Use the comment form below to share your statement of belief.
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