KARL M. CHWOROWSKY / Dr. Chworowsky was, at the time of his death, minister emeritus of the First Unitarian Church of Fairfield County, Westport, Connecticut. His father was a Lutheran minister. Dr. Karl Chworowsky studied at Wartburg Seminary in Iowa and the University of Wisconsin. He served as minister in the Evangelical Synod (now part of the United Church of Christ) in Wisconsin and Illinois.
Thirty-one years after his ordination he became a Unitarian. He served churches in Newburgh, Brooklyn, New York, and Westport, Connecticut. He was active in such organizations as the United World Federalists and the American Civil Liberties Union. He was the author of many articles and sermons reprinted in journals throughout the world.
CHRISTOPHER GIST RAIBLE / Christopher Gist Raible, a lifelong Unitarian, is Director of Extension of the Unitarian Universalist Association. He is the son of a Unitarian Universalist minister, brother of another, and brother-in-law of a third.
Dr. Raible was born in New England, later lived in Texas, and was educated at the University of Chicago, the University of Manchester (England), and the King Starr School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California.
As a minister in New York and Wisconsin, he has given leadership to organizations working for mental health, better housing, civil rights, planned parenthood, and welfare reform. He has taught at three colleges and universities and has written numerous articles and pamphlets.
In general, Unitarian Universalists believe in the oneness of reality and think of God as a unity rather than a trinity. They honor the ethical leadership of Jesus without considering him to be their final religious authority. They rely upon their own reason and personal understanding, while they seek the guidance and inspiration of the great pioneers of religious insight of many cultures and various traditions.
Unitarian Universalists believe in the worth of all human beings and recognize their responsibility to help create a just and peaceful social order for all peoples. They believe that significant meaning and value can be discovered in life on earth without necessarily affirming a life after death.
They believe in the principles of freedom, trusting that a free society provides the maximum opportunity for all persons to find and enjoy the good life.
They have organized their churches as free religious communities in which they can unite for the celebration of life, for sharing values, for service, and for comfort-without being required to accept a dogmatic creed.
"Universalist" stood for the teaching that salvation was not for a limited few-the "elect"-but was a gift of God for all. The joys of a final reconciliation with God were ultimately available to all men, regardless of their errors or doubts. No God of love, the Universalists declared, could eternally damn anyone.
Both Unitarians and Universalists, although focusing on different doctrines, were thus affirming the importance of human beings as not separated from God, and their natural ability to know and do what is right.
In their churches are agnostics, humanists, even atheists-as well as nature worshipers, pantheists, and those who affirm a personal God. All recognize, however, the the word "God" is a stumbling block to religious communication for many people because it has so many meanings. All know also that there is no special virtue in being able to declare, "I believe in God."
For Unitarian Universalists, prayer is less a matter of who is listening and more a concern with the aspirations expressed. Whether spoken or silent, prayer is an expression of feelings of gratitude, regret, hope, and rededication. Its purpose is not to influence a God but to discipline the human mind or spirit.
Some Unitarian Universalists prefer to be called "liberal Christians," others simply "religious liberals." All know that morality and decency are not the exclusive possessions of Christians.
The religion of Jesus, so simply and beautifully expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, remains an ethical ideal for most Unitarian Universalists.
For this reason, Unitarian Universalists have not been permitted to join the National Council of Churches of Christ, although they work amicably with the counsel and other religious groups on many common concerns.
Many Unitarian Universalists have a concept of a "loose-leaf" Bible, that is, they find inspiration in many writings-the scriptures of many religions, the philosophers of many times, the literatures of many cultures.
None of these services is required for personal "salvation" or to "wash away" sin.
Nor do Unitarian Universalists feel that God is especially present in such acts or ceremonies. Instead, they see all of life as a sacrament and feel that the fundamental goodness of life is always present.
Formalized as services, in some Unitarian Universalist churches, such observances are symbolic expressions of the importance of community. They also may express appreciation for the continued importance of the life and the teachings of Jesus.
As one Unitarian stated many years ago, "Our task is not to get men into Heaven; it is to get Heaven into men."
However, Unitarian Universalists see no need for the concept of a special divinity in Christ, and they clearly reject any notion of God's requiring the sacrifice of "His Son" to atone for human "sin."
Nor do they see the need for a Messiah of the Jewish hope of the Savior of Christian belief. But they are inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus as an extraordinary fellow human being.
Unitarian Universalists recognize that there are cruel and destructive attributes of human nature, just as there are compassionate and creative attributes. They recognize also that evil is often a twisting or perverting of normal healthy human drives.
Human beings have a responsibility not only for their own personal behavior but to help create a society that does not breed crime, corruption, and brutality.
Unitarian Universalists reject the idea that God sacrificed Jesus, "His Son," to "atone" for human "sin." They believe in the importance of virtue and virtuous living and doing-for its own sake, and not out of some hypothetical "salvation" or "reward" in the future or the "hereafter."
The church school curriculum makes use of the arts and of such sciences as biology, anthropology, and psychology.
Each congregation develops its own services to serve the needs of its own people.
Unitarian Universalists are agreed that sexual activity performed privately by consenting adults should not be subject to legal sanctions.
One of the church school curriculum units is entitled "About Your Sexuality." It provides opportunities for full and explicit discussion of many aspects of sexuality, so that young people may know the range of choices available to them and can learn to make their own responsible decision for their own lives.
Unitarian Universalists are deeply sympathetic with efforts toward the empowerment of black people and other minority peoples, even though there has been disagreement among members over the tactics and militancy of some groups, both within and without the denomination, who are working for such empowerment.
Unitarian Universalists are strong advocates of responsible parenthood-that is, in conceiving only those children who will enter the world wanted, loved, and cared for. Birth control information and devices ought to be readily accessible to all adults, so that they can make their own responsible decisions about whether and when to have children.
There have been women in their ministry for over 100 years. One of the first American women ordained to the ministry was the Universalist Olympia Brown, in 1863. While less than 5 percent of Unitarian Universalist ministers are women, there is evidence of greater acceptance of women in the ministry in recent years.
The 1970 General Assembly passed a special resolution, which:
By more that a two-thirds vote, the 1968 General Assembly passed a resolution urging "that efforts be made to abolish existing abortion laws, except to prohibit performance of an abortion by a person who is not a duly licensed physician, leaving the decision as to an abortion to the doctor and his patient."
A 1963 resolution had supported the enactment of a uniform statute to make abortion legal in cases where:
They have developed a course, for adolescents and adults, entitled, "The Invisible Minority: The Homosexuals in Our Society," whose emphasis is on understanding and accepting all people as human beings or worth and dignity.
The 1970 General Assembly passed a resolution (VII) concerning homosexual and bisexual persons, which stated that:
Unitarian Universalists have always favored the study of world religions and have been influential in attempts to bring religious leaders together for dialogue and cooperation.
uphold the principle of nonsectarian public education; oppose Bible readings and religious observances in public schools; oppose released time for religious education; refrain, if possible, from holding religious services or classes on public property; refrain from use of public school property for such purposes without payment of a fair rental.
They have been among the leaders in every American movement for social justice-abolition of slavery, education, women's suffrage, peace, civil rights. Although they are members of a religious minority, they have never withdrawn from the larger society; they have identified themselves with it and worked for its betterment.
They do not as a denomination endorse particular candidates or political parties but are often outspoken in the defense of civil liberties and their insistence on racial justice. They have consistently advocated international cooperation and the principles of the United States.
They all agree, however, that was represents a failure to solve international disputes by more moral means.
Michael Servetus was burned at the stake, in 1553, in John Calvin's Geneva for his Unitarian "heresy". A Unitarian king, John Sigismund of Transylvania (now part of Hungary and Rumania), in 1568 issued the first edict of religious freedom-which affirmed the loyalty of citizens without their having to accept the king's religion. Unitarian churches still exist in that region.
Unitarianism as an idea spread to England and later to America, where Joseph Priestley, a refugee from England because of his ideas, formed the first American church specifically called "Unitarian." Already in Borston, historic Kings Chapel had altered its Anglican prayer book and embraced Unitarian ideas as early as 1785.
A trend toward the liberalization of doctrine in many New England congregational churches, begun in the eighteenth century, culminated in the "Unitarian Controversy" early in the nineteenth century. William Ellery Channing voiced the liberal view in his 1819 sermon "Unitarian Christianity," and many old established parish churches became Unitarian by congregational decision.
Meanwhile, outside these established churches the Universalists were challenging some of the main tenets of Calvinism. John Murray formed the first church of that denomination in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1779. Under the influence of Hosea Ballou, the message of Universal Salvation spread throughout New England and other parts of the country.
Rather than taking over existing churches and property (like the Unitarians), Universalists created their own independent congregations in the same democratic congregational tradition as the Unitarians. During the nineteenth century Universalist ideas were carried south and west by circuit-riding preachers who organized churches, helped found colleges, and joined in social reform movements.
From their beginnings in America, both Unitarianism and Universalism were in harmony with the democratic ideals of freedom, individualism, and social progress.
Many great literary figures of the last century-Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Thoreau, Holmes, Bryant, Lowell, Alcott-were Unitarians or Universalists. So were many social reformers, including Horace Mann, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Berg, and Clara Barton.
Today, many prominent persons in science, education, government, and the arts identify themselves with this religious movement.
Of the more than 1,000 congregations in North America, approximately half have ministers. Those which do not (many are called fellowships rather than churches) tend to be smaller and more informal in their services. These congregations are members of a continental organization, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and elect its officers and trustees. They also express their combined views by votes of delegates at the denomination's General Assembly.
The denomination sponsors a publishing arm, Beacon Press, which has produced many notable books, and a Church of the Larger Fellowship, which serves isolated religious liberals.
Formally, you can become a Unitarian Universalist by joining a church or fellowship. Such joining requires no baptism, confirmations, or acceptance of a creed; it requires simply a commitment to follow the group's principles and promote its program.
They know they often miss living up to these ideals, both personally and organizationally. Their hopes are not always fulfilled. Satisfaction is not guaranteed. But they believe they are part of a noble experiment, and they invite all who are in sympathy to join and help to make it work.