Are you a Unitarian and don’t know it?

This was the question three like-minded couples, who had been meeting informally, sent out to the Kearney area community in the autumn of 1984. By the next September, the group had 12 members and began discussing becoming a more formal group. Membership grew to 22. Formal by-laws were adopted April 27, 1986; incorporating the Unitarian and Universalist traditions of the larger Unitarian Universalist Association. 

What is our purpose?

The bylaws state that the purpose of this fellowship was, and is, to foster liberal religion through individual freedom of belief. We unite in the free quest of high values in religion and in life. In the spirit of ethical love and pledged to service, we seek to live together in peace and to promote human understanding through study, worship, service and fellowship. The word “fellowship” was chosen because it is a gender neutral noun from the verb “to fellow,” which means to represent as equals in a shared participation in the company of friendly people of common interest, activity, feeling, or experience.

We remain strongly opposed to any test of faith or any set of required beliefs or creeds.

What? No building of our own?

We are a lay-led church without walls. Or, to be more precise, we are a congregation with borrowed walls. Through the early years, we met in various locations, including in each other’s homes; always seeking to participate in serving the larger community individually and as a group, and seeking spiritual growth rather than spending time and money on brick and mortar and its upkeep. Like all organizations, we cycle through stages of development and redevelopment as members move away or pass on and new members join to put their values into practice.

In 2010 our Fellowship began meeting in the Chapel of the Campus Lutheran ELCA,, 2715 9th Ave in Kearney, Nebraska. While it is not our own home, we have come to regard this pleasant meeting place with the respect and reverence that is its due. Our members passed countless Sundays sharing inspiration and love within its four walls.

We tend to see the purpose of the church as an embodiment of benevolent concern for others through the forever unfinished work toward true religious freedom, social justice, and care for the environment. We have always had a greater outreach in proportion to the size of our membership. The work comes first. A building structure can come later, if at all.

A Welcoming Congregation? What’s that?

A Welcoming Congregation is a promise to provide a safe place to listen and be listened to, learn about the mysteries of our world, relieve isolation, maintain personal connections and a caring community with each other and with the larger world. 

We invite guest ministers to speak with our group, take turns presenting a program, or members arrange for a guest speaker to present a relevant topic to consider.

Who belongs?

This is a place comfortable with questions many of us have long been told not to ask. It’s a place to explore ideas for living life and making a better world. It is a place where a person who feels unaffiliated to any branch of organized religion, or who feels spiritual but not religious, or who may not feel spiritual or religious at all yet is looking for a place to deepen ethical conscientiousness, can find a sense of belonging.

There is always an empty chair for you if you are a Unitarian Universalist and don’t know it.