Reply #5: My UU experience

[topherX]

I’ve been attending a UU church for a few months. I have also attended a men’s group at the church for the past year. I’m somewhat green to the experience and I’ll share my thoughts. I’ve enjoyed the UU services and the people that I’ve met there.

I like that the UU services are geared towards personal and spiritual growth. I’ve learned quite a bit about caring for myself, others in my community and around the world. The UU church that I attend pulls from a variety of different authors and books. While they refer to the bible sometimes, they also pull from other religious texts, various poetry and philosophy texts.

Like many Christian churches, the UU church I attended stresses the importance of helping others. I’ve come across many opportunities to help others out. The one difference between helping as a UU is that we don’t help others to convert them to our faith. We do it because it’s the kind and just thing to do.

I respect that the UU church is open to people that have various religious beliefs. I grew up in the Catholic faith and I’m quite familiar with masses. At present, I consider myself to be a non-theist. I feel as welcome at the UU church other members who have other, and seemingly opposing, religious beliefs. We all care about humanity. I haven’t felt like anyone was trying to force me to think or believe any certain way. If there’s one message that I’ve gotten from my experience with the UU is that there isn’t just one path, but many ways to achieve fulfillment and spiritual growth.

The best way to find out about the UU church is by attending a number of services. Get involved in some of the weekly activities.

I found a really neat website that contains UU sermons given at a church in Austin, TX. I got a much better feel for the UU message after reading some of these. Check it out:

http://austinuu.org/sermons/

Good luck! =)