The Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes in Simplified Language
We, the congregations of the Unitarian
Universalist Association, promise to encourage:
– The importance and value of each person in
the world
– Fairness and understanding for each person
– Acceptance of one another and spiritual
growth in our congregations
– A free and responsible search for truth and
meaning
– The freedom to say "yes" when everyone else
says "no," and the use of voting in our
churches and country
– The hope for one world united, living in
peace, with freedom and fairness for everyone
– The understanding that everything and
everyone in our world depends on one
another for life
This way of thinking and feeling that we
Unitarian Universalists share comes from many
places:
– The wonder that all people experience that
makes us feel good about being a part of the
world, and the force that is part of us all
– People whose lives and the way they lived
them make us feel strong enough to try to be
fair and understanding when something isn’t
right, showing love can make the change
– Important and wise ideas from all religions
– Jewish and Christian teachings that tell us to
love our friends and our enemies as much as
we love ourselves
— Humanist teachings that guide us to listen to
common sense and the results of science, and
remind us to be honest in finding our own
truths
Can UU Kids Pray?
Using prayer beads can help us ‘talk to god’ or think about how our lives are going.
Some Unitarian Universalist kids believe there’s a God in heaven deciding how we live and when we will die. Other UU kids think God is the force of life and nature. Still others don’t believe in any kind of God at all. With all these different ideas about God, what would prayer (a kind of talking to God) be like for UU kids?
The Reverend Christopher Gist Raible, like all UU ministers, thinks that kids need to decide for themselves what their beliefs are about God, but he also thinks we can all benefit from prayer. Kids can use prayer to think about how their lives are going and to make plans for how to become the best people they can.
Reverend Raible says that when kids pray they might think about what they feel thankfu1 for, what they feel sorry for, and what they are hopeful about.
Virginia Steel, a UU Director of Religious Education added one more thing to the list of things Reverend Raible thinks kids can pray about: She thinks kids can also pray about what they want to improve in their lives. She used the word THIS to remember the four things we could pray about: being Thankful, being Hopeful, wanting to Improve, and being Sorry.
In some religions, people use a string of beads to help them count how many times they have said certain prayers. Catholics call these beads "rosary beads."
When Muslirns use beads to help them pray, they call it "tasbih."
