UU San Mateo

Try this quiz about what you believe.

See How to Join UUSM, or the Becoming a Member section.

We encourage you to come to our monthly Newcomers' Circle as well as our orientation classes (Unitarian Universalism 101 and Finding Yourself at UUSM), which give a grounding in UU History and more about the expectations of membership in our congregation. Our Welcoming Team Coordinator This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it would like to help you find your way within UUSM.

For us, faith is not about what you say you believe, it is about how you live your life. We have long felt that we have a moral obligation to reform society, to help society live up to its highest ideals. Unitarians and Universalists have been central to many social movements, and current-day Unitarian Universalists are extremely civically-engaged. 

We welcome all diversities of age, race, religious and ethnic origin, economic situation, sexual orientation, gender identity and physical ability. Our hearts are as open as our doors. 

Unitarians were our ancestors who, in bringing their own reason to bear in the reading of biblical scripture, found only evidence of the oneness of God, rather than the trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). The word “Unitarian” helped to distinguish our ancestors from those who were Trinitarian.

People wear whatever they are comfortable wearing, from dressy casual to jeans to bike shorts to “Sunday best”.  

Our faith, Unitarian Universalism, has both a long heritage and a progressive orientation to the future. With its historical roots in the Jewish and Christian traditions, Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion that keeps an open mind to the religious questions people have struggled with through the ages.

It often surprises people to discover a faith community which allows – even celebrates – a diversity of beliefs. We are bound together not by a creed, but by a covenant: a promise about how we will live our lives and how we will live together. Our Seven Principles are not a creed, but a covenant that we affirm and actively promote as a people of faith.

The flourishing of New England culture in the 1800’s involved many of our ancestors. The Transcendentalists were a group of well-known thinkers including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, the Alcotts, and more. These friends would gather for salon-type conversations about issues of the day. They had access to writings from Hinduism and Buddhism, which they published for the first time in English in our country, in their Transcendentalist journal, “The Dial.”