Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Wayne
Unitarian Universalism traces its roots back approximately two thousand years to a time when believers could choose from a variety of tenets about Jesus. It was early in this period that the word “Unitarian” developed, meaning the oneness of God, as opposed to the trinity of God that has dominated Christian theology for most of its history. Some of these early Christians also held a belief in universal salvation. This was the belief that no person would be condemned by God to eternal damnation in a fiery pit. Thus a “Universalist” believed in the universal salvation of humanity, that all people will be saved. Both traditions saw Jesus as a great ethical teacher who had reached the fullness of his potential, but they thought him no more divine than other human beings. It was in the 4th and 6th century that it was no longer permissible to hold these beliefs. Christianity lost its element of choice in 325 CE when the Nicene Creed established the Trinity as dogma. For centuries thereafter, people who professed Unitarian or Universalist beliefs were persecuted.
Unitarians and Universalists have always been heretics. “Heresy” in Greek means “choice”. We are heretics because we want to choose our faith, not because we desire to be rebellious. Throughout much of the past two thousand years liberals were persecuted for seeking the freedom to make religious choices, but such freedom has become central to both Unitarianism and Universalism. As early as the 1830s, both groups were studying and promulgating texts from world religions other than Christianity. By the beginning of the twentieth century, humanists within both traditions advocated that people could be religious without believing in God. No one person, no one religion, can embrace all religious truths.
By the middle of the twentieth century it became clear that Unitarians and Universalists could have a stronger liberal religious voice if they merged their efforts, and they did so in 1961, forming the Unitarian Universalist Association. Many Unitarian Universalists became active in the civil rights movement. James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister, was murdered in Selma, Alabama, after he and twenty percent of the denomination's ministers responded to the call from Martin Luther King, Jr. to march for justice.
Today we are determined to continue to work for greater racial and cultural diversity. In 1977, a women and religion resolution was passed by the Association, and since then the denomination has responded to the feminist challenge to change sexist structures and language, especially with the publication of an inclusive hymnal. The denomination has affirmed the rights of bisexuals, gays, lesbians, and transgendered persons, including ordaining and settling gay and lesbian clergy in our congregations, and in 1996, affirmed same-sex marriage.
All these efforts reflect a modern understanding of universal salvation. Unitarian Universalism welcomes all to an expanding circle of understanding and choice in religious faith.
Our history has carried us from liberal Christian views about Jesus and human nature to a rich pluralism that includes theist and atheist, agnostic and humanist, pagan, Christian, Jew, and Buddhist. As our history continues to evolve and unfold, we invite you to join us by choosing our free faith.
