“We Unitarian Universalists are spiritual beneficiaries and descendents of the Renaissance humanists who insisted that the Bible is human literature about the divine, not divine literature about humans, and therefore requires the same critical approach as any other literature.”
---- John Buehrens, UUWorld, July/August 2003

Copyright Unitarian Universalist Association

The Nora Unitarian Universalist Church was organized in 1881 and is a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association of independent churches and fellowships in the United States and Canada (uua.org) and the MidAmerica Region of the UUA (midamericauua.org).

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We covenant to affirm and promote:

1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
2. Justice, equality and compassion in human relations;
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The living tradition we share draws from many sources:

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of spirit and an openness to the forces which create and sustain life;
• Words and deeds of prophetic men and women which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love;
• Wisdom from the world's religions which inspire us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
• Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

In keeping with the church's commitment to freedom of individual belief, no creedal test is required of those seeking membership.

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SIXTEEN HISTORICAL AFFIRMATIONS
OF OUR UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FAITH

1. that God is a Unity as opposed to a Trinity.
2. that all human beings can hope for salvation.
3. that there is in each human person a spark of the divine.
4. that relevant and meaningful statements of belief are personal statements
5. that truth grows and changes.
6. that people should be free to judge whether or not to accept the pronouncements of the church.
7. that a broadly inclusive tolerance in religion is preferable to an enforced uniformity.
8. that religious assertions must be reasonable if they are to be accepted as valid.
9. that doubt can help to winnow truth from untruth.
10. that a person must develop a trusting reliance on him-herself and his/her own capacity to make sensible life-improving choices.
11. that religion ought to be concerned primarily with this life.
12. that answers to question, solutions to problems and comfort from discomfort - to have any real or lasting effect - must come from within a person not from outside.
13. that God is in the world, not outside the world.
14. that suffering is part of Life, not punishment for a way of living.
15. that religious literature gives symbolic, rather than literal, truth.
16. that religion ought not to involve only ritual, but also reflection and action for goodness.

        - Rev. Roy Phillips, St. Paul, MN.

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Also read The Faith of a Humanist, by our former minister, the Rev. Sarah Oelberg.

For more information about what Unitarian Universalists believe, go to the Visitors Page of the Unitarian Universalists Association web site.