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If you have found yourself in the sanctuary of a Unitarian Universalist congregation over the past thirty years, chances are you’ve picked up Singing the Living Tradition, known by many as “the gray hymnal.”
The title comes from a contemporary phrase that refers to a quintessential characteristic of Unitarian Universalism, and our Universalist and Unitarian lineages before us: our foundational belief that although we are the inheritors of the spiritual, theological, and ecclesiological wisdom of our religious forebears, “revelation is not sealed.” That is, our understandings of the divine, human morality, justice, and religious community will inevitably continue to evolve in response to the world around us.
That is, our understandings of the divine, human morality, justice, and religious community will inevitably continue to evolve in response to the world around us.
We believe the work of both personal and communal religion is to draw upon the spiritual gifts passed down to us by our ancestors while continually interpreting and embodying them through the lens of our own contemporary context and experience. In contrast to religious traditions that hold central the inerrancy of scripture, the absolutism of dogma, or the infallibility of religious authorities, Unitarian Universalists believe that faith and religious practice must continually change and adapt over time. Ours, we are clear, is a living tradition.
Our Universalist, Unitarian, and Unitarian Universalist histories are all full of moments of reckoning—times when the world shifted dramatically, and our religious forebears had to grapple with what the church was supposed to be and do and become. Many of the greatest moments of both controversy and decisive action in our lineages are ones in which our spiritual ancestors grappled with how to respond to great changes in the social, political, or religious context in a way that both remained faithful to the transcendent values of our tradition(s) and allowed for a reinvention of our religious structures, practices, and cultural norms so that those values could flourish in a transformed landscape.
Across time, Unitarian Universalism has consistently (if not always perfectly) offered clarity and moral courage in direct opposition to the death machines of authoritarianism and violence and fear.
Across time, Unitarian Universalism has consistently (if not always perfectly) offered clarity and moral courage in direct opposition to the death machines of authoritarianism and violence and fear. Our faith is as life-giving, life-changing, and lifesaving today as it has been throughout history, so it is no surprise that Unitarian Universalists know we must show up now as powerful agents of liberation and moral imagination, aligning our energy and acting decisively together.
If we’re honest, though, we don’t fully know how to do that yet. Not our members, not our congregational leaders, not the UUA staff. Sure, we have some ideas—we should really do something about ministry with families and kids in this post-acute pandemic terrain, and our religious professionals probably need a whole new set of skills for Ministry in These Times™, right? Also, we gotta figure out the whole financial sustainability thing, and we have some serious organizing to do to counter fascism and fight climate change …
The landscape has shifted immensely from what it was ten years, or five, or even one year ago. It’s inevitable that some of the structures built for embodying Unitarian Universalism in other eras aren’t calibrated for this moment. Our justice organizing against white Christian nationalism in 2025 can’t use the same tactics we did during the Black Lives Matter or Civil Rights or Suffrage movements. Families whose kids are digital natives, shaped by the pandemic and programmed 24/7 with activities, have different faith formation needs than their parents and grandparents did. And the post-World War II church model that depended on massive volunteer labor and pledges from members with stable incomes isn’t able to sustain our congregations anymore.
So once again, Unitarian Universalism is facing a reckoning. We know our values are an antidote to fascism; to extractive capitalism; to xenophobia and anti-trans violence and climate devastation. And, we also know we will have to evolve—to sunset what’s no longer serving us, to deepen into what’s working well, and to innovate new solutions with courage and creativity.
Meet the Moment is a framework to help Unitarian Universalists do this together in the coming months and years.
Meet the Moment is a framework to help Unitarian Universalists do this together in the coming months and years. Piloted by UUA staff in 2024–25, and rolled out to the broader UU ecosystem at General Assembly in Baltimore, Meet the Moment is a set of tools and processes designed to build shared analysis about the terrain we are navigating, identify the most urgent and important needs and opportunities that are arising, discern how our UU values are calling us to respond, and—ultimately—design courageous, impactful strategies that we can try on together.
This fall, the UUA and other partners are offering a variety of opportunities for Unitarian Universalists across the faith to dive into data and hear from a range of thought leaders as a way to develop shared analysis about trends and patterns in congregational life, ministry, justice work, administration, religious education, and more. This fall, and again next spring, some of the most creative, faithful leaders from across the UU ecosystem will be leading topic-oriented Wave Cohorts—praxis groups where people are invited to learn and innovate and practice new ways of embodying our living tradition together in these times. And, the UUA has created a comprehensive toolbox of resources and facilitation guides for leaders to host their own Meet the Moment conversations about the issues that are most pressing in their congregations and communities.
Meet the Moment
Find resources and facilitation guides at uua.org/congregations/meet-the-moment.
We don’t yet know what we are being called to do and be and become, but Unitarian Universalists are already leaning into the possibilities, and every day I hear stories about UUs meeting this moment in bold, creative, faithful ways. I think of the small congregation in Mississippi offering Our Whole Lives to the entire state as a public ministry, or the fellowship in Idaho partnering with a local trans-led organization to host a “Trans Joy Cafe” that’s part support, part practical info (like name-change paperwork), part community fun. I think of the North Carolina congregation that does a campus-wide multigenerational religious education event instead of “traditional” worship on the fourth Sunday, the Colorado congregation that does “4x4” gatherings where four longtime members host four new folks for dinner as part of the path to membership, or the suburban New Jersey church putting big money towards a reparations-rooted micro-loan program for BIPOC-owned businesses and organizations in the urban center they left during white flight.
The threats and challenges are immense—but so are the opportunities. The world, in all its beauty and brokenness, is inviting us to meet this moment with all of the clarity and courage we can muster. Unitarian Universalism is ready to meet this moment courageously, skillfully, and with love at the center. How will you and your UU community join us?