Where We've Been
For the past decade, the ULC Monastery has worked tirelessly to secure your rights as a minister. We have lobbied and even threatened litigation against states and clerks of the court that have refused to recognize our legal standing. Because of this, we now enjoy full ministerial rights in most states where we were previously questioned such as New York, Nevada, Ohio, Missouri, and North Carolina. We have even spread our message across the Pacific to New Zealand! The ULC expands across the United States with churches and incorporations in major cities.
We have donated to and partnered with several charitable organizations, raising funds and awareness for worthwhile causes such as autism, domestic abuse, and cancer. You can see a list of these groups here.
Hundreds of thousands of people have signed up for ordination to answer a call to ministry for a variety of reasons. Our ordinations have allowed members to start their own churches, minister to the ill and the incarcerated, and of course perform weddings. We love hearing about weddings our ministers officiate and we have created a gallery here
where you can submit your photos and tell us about your experiences. Several ULC celebrities have even performed ceremonies on television such as Wendy Williams and Conan O'Brien, etc.
We celebrated and fought for minority rights. When state voters elected to bring marriage equality to their states, we hosted a series of free weddings at the Sanctuary in Seattle for couples both straight and gay. It was a treat to meet so many ULC ministers at our December to Remember event!
Where We Are Today
The Universal Life Church Monastery teaches and preaches an inclusionary ecumenical message that regardless of your background and belief, we are all children of the same universe. We defend your faith whether you are a conservative Christian, Shiite Muslim, or liberal Buddhist. We even protect the freedoms of our atheist and agnostic ministers. Yet we condemn religious extremism by members of any religion.
Our world is carved up into separate communities for different groups. Particularly in this last year, races, political groups, and religions still fail to understand one another. We have to remember that black lives matter, and so do the lives of our police. Murderous Muslim radicals and fanatical Christians do not represent all members of their respective faiths. We must join together in the common cause to find the Promised Land.
Too many people dress, eat, and whip their bodies to appease their gods. Their hearts and minds fail to question antiquated realities. Cartoonists in France are massacred for challenging Islamic fundamentalism. Gay and lesbian citizens are jailed and killed in Uganda at the behest of American evangelicals. Police are senselessly gunned down by an untrusting public that has come to fear them for their gross overreach and immunity from legal accountability. It is time for man in the 21st century to revise and edit the religious writings of his ancestors. As ministers, we are leaders. What would you do to address this issues of revision?
Where We Want to Be
In tough times, it is easy to give in to voices of despair. We should carry hope in our hearts and stand up to fear. Great leaders like Jesus, Ghandi, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr. were inspirational, and we should take our cues from them.
A great modern example of how to live is Pope Francis. He walks the streets, washes the poor, denounces discrimination, and sees all creatures as part of creation. He teaches that judgment is not his and has helped to move the Catholic Church centuries forward. The Pope is viewed positively by even agnostics, atheists, and other non-Christians, not to mention by many Catholics. We hope to spread such a message of love and understanding.
We look forward to more challenging and inspiring thoughts and sermons. Our approach will be to see and honor our differences but to stand up against extremism of any faith. While we have yet to find any proof of a hereafter or creator, we will always look for answers to life's big questions. Join us.
-by the ULC Ministers Editorial Board.
10 comments
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centerforcosmicpeace
I hope persons who joing ULC read thus ULC post with sensitivity. The struggle for legitimacy has been long and difficult, and I rejoice in our success. The first time I showed my ULC ID to my daughter's friend, he scoffed, "Oh, that's that tax scam!: For me, it wasn't, and I had registered my ministrywith the Travis Count Clerk of Court responsibly, in Austin, Texas. Yesterday, I saw a relative rehearsing a "funny" routine he planned to use at an upcoming family wedding. I hope he has a change of heart, for people like me who are happy to have ULC credentials do not need to alienate the public after so much sweat and paibn has gone into the struggle for acceptance. God bless the ULC! JPL, spiricual counselor, ULC, with university degrees from 4 regionally accredited colleges and universities including NYU.
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esmeralda cadena
I'm in san Antonio TX. What do you suggest I do to make sure I have no issues.
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Kim
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Brother John
Excellent reminders for us all. Although there is truth in many ancient writings, there are also edits, re-writes and guidance from folks who thought the Earth was flat and it was OK to own slaves. Here are some of my favourite quotes from the remarkable Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that may help us do what is right in the 21st century….
"Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“the time is always right to do the right thing”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
“One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”
"Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
“If we do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we will be a blind and toothless nation.”
“When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact...that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters...”
"There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right....”
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
“I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.”
“A man can't ride your back unless it's bent”
“And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy.”
“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”
“Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method.”
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Kim
Many blessings for the new year!
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Eykob 3
Its 2015....welcome to the new age...im proud of the success
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Kim
I love being part of ULC. I got to marry my best friend and her ,now husband..I am Wiccan and it pleases me to be able to practice my faith. Thank you..Happy New Year.
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rob boyes
Their is a must for new ordained ministers, I myself speak with less fortunate people in many places. It's been Gods grace which has moved myself in such a direction, direction is how those I am able to reach can take their first steps into a new life spreading Love to others.
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Phillip Jeffrey Murray
They are a bunch of thieves. I'll never do business with them again. They stole money from me.
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When I was a young man, my mother asked me to become a priest. I fell in love with God at a very young age. I grew up on a river and watched His art every day. But, I also fell in love with my wife - so priesthood was not possible. For years I attended church during the week before work to start my day.
I have been to just about every denominational church service, studied as much as I could - The Bible, The Tao, Confucianism, etc. i found that what divides us is so, so much much smaller than what we share as common values.
If I could define the precepts of the ULC they are: non-judgment, acceptance and an openness to the exploration of the beauty of the world and the journey we are all on. I realize, looking back that I have always been universal in my beliefs. So much of what I have studied and use in my practice have come from so many sources. It is the challenge for members of ULC to be recognized because there is no single defining governing body or hierarchy that can incorporate all denominations. Yet, it is the single vocalized spiritual wish of the majority for understanding and inclusion around the globe.
I am honored to be an Ordained Minister with ULC. I call it a small church of two. The most important person is in front of me or on the telephone and hopefully I can serve them.
Blessings.
James Moore