UU San Mateo

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.

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.

They also believed Jesus was human in addition to being divine, which remains a radical theological stance. They emphasized religious freedom, the use of reason in matters religious, and tolerance of others’ perspectives. In the year 1568, the only Unitarian king in history, King John Sigismund of Transylvania (now Romania) issued the first-ever “Edict of Religious Tolerance and Freedom of Conscience.” Three of the first six American presidents were Unitarian, and our values are engrained in the Constitution: freedom, equality, tolerance.

Universalists were our ancestors who, in bringing their own reason to bear in the reading of biblical scripture, found evidence only for a loving God. They could not believe that a loving God would create all people only to choose some to be saved and others to be damned. The term “Universalism” referred to their belief in universal salvation: the idea that all people are restored to God. While we no longer talk in terms of salvation, we can trace our own first principle of Unitarian Universalism (our affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person) back through history to these early ancestors.

The Unitarians and the Universalists merged in 1961, when they created the Unitarian Universalist Association.