Feb 15, 2008
By Chuck Flagg

While taking some visiting family members to see San Francisco around Christmas, we saw a billboard in the Muni Metro Powell Street station which caught my attention. It read, "Is God keeping you from going to church?" and was sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association.

This provocative question is part of an unusual advertising campaign from a religious group that isn't noted for its proselytizing. (Similar messages have appeared in such publications as the local Sierra Club newspaper.) Although the group has existed in various guises for centuries, it has a low profile in modern American life. Perhaps it is best known for an oft-repeated joke poking fun at them: "Christians have their cross, Jews the the star of David, Muslims have the crescent and Unitarians have the question mark."

The Unitiarian-Universalist Association is a nationwide body which includes some 1000 congregations with more than 200,000 members, perhaps 3500 of them in the Bay Area. The institution was formed in 1961 by a merger of Unitarians - Congregational Christians who rejected the "Trinitarian" doctrine that God has three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - with Universalists, who taught that salvation is for everyone and no one will be damned for false beliefs.

UUA congregations participate in many efforts for economic justice, such as operating homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and tutoring programs. Through the denomination's Boston headquarters, Unitarians operate the Holdeen India Program which "works with organizations of India's most excluded and oppressed peoples to support their efforts to participate fully in the social, economic and political life of India.

"Unitarians reject all dogmatic tests of membership. They emphasize humanitarian social and ethical values, the goodness and dignity of the human person, and freedom of religious belief. American history is full of famous Unitarians: political figures like John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Adlai Stevenson; a long list of artists and literary figures like Ambrose Bierce and Louisa May Alcott.

Every other Sunday morning a small group of South Valley residents gather to practice this liberal religion born of the Jewish and Christian traditions. Seeking to act as a moral force in the world, they believe that "ethical living is the supreme witness of religion." They treasure a rich pluralism that includes theist and atheist, agnostic and humanist, pagan, Christian, Jew, and Buddhist.

This local expression of Unitarian-Universalism has been meeting at various locations in Gilroy and Morgan Hill for over 15 years. They have no professional minister; members take turns facilitating the biweekly services which meet in members' homes for the time being. As one longtime member explains, "We would rather save the money which would be used for rent to do good in the community," pointing out that the group sponsored three scholarships during the past year.

Each meeting has a theme. It begins with a reading appropriate to its topic, a song, followed by a speaker, often a guest authority. Then participants take part in a spirited discussion of the week's theme. Speakers/discussions have covered a wide range of topics during the past year: things like a member's recent trip to Jordan, conflict resolution, meditation techniques, women's history, evolutionary psychology, the logic of human destiny, fair trade practices and global warming.

Ed Nauss, who has attended the South Valley Unitarian Fellowship for several years, points out that each individual Unitarian Church is autonomous , and customs can differ from place to place. Having attended churches in Poughkeepsie, New York, Aptos and Los Gatos, he mentions that some have ordained ministers, more elaborate rituals, and even feature candle-lighting ceremonies. "What they all share, though, is a non-authoritarianism which encourages people to think for themselves about religious matters."