A Church of Open Minds and Open Hearts

This Sunday @ UUFR (11:00 am)

Imagining the Future

All-Ages Celebration

All-Ages Celebration

Join us on Wednesday, December 18 at 7:00 pm for an all-ages celebration! We will serve sweets and socialize before UUFR Music Director, Scott McKenzie leads us in singing favorite Christmas songs as well as music from other holiday traditions. He will be joined by many of our favorite instrumentalists and singers. Families with children and youth are encouraged to attend! Childcare for younger children is available. This will be a fun and light-hearted celebration of this holiday season. Scott says if you sing well, there might be extra cookies for you!

Christmas Eve Services

Christmas Eve Services

Come celebrate Christmas with us in story, song, and candlelight! Christmas Eve services will be held on Tuesday, December 24, at 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm. The 5:00 pm service is especially for families with young children. The 8:00 pm service will feature Rev. James sharing a message entitled "I Was a Teenage Mall Santa". Both services will include the singing of "Silent Night" by candlelight.

Message from Your Board: 2020 Vision

Message from Your Board: 2020 Vision

The message we heard this past Sunday from Rev. James — how ‘then’ became ‘now’ — traced the journey of our beloved UUFR community from its origins in 1949 to today. Supported by the deep roots of that history, we find our footing in this present day and ready ourselves to begin the next leg of our journey. Where are we headed, and how do we find the way?

Read More Here

What’s Happening?

News

Our Stories. Our Voices.

Good morning, everyone. Last week, Reverend Hollister spoke about community care, asking us to take seriously our responsibilities to care for others in our communities. I want to share with you a little bit about my experience with how the Living the Pledge to End Racism workshop empowered me to be a more caring member of this community.

Read the full testimonial.

The first time I heard about Unitarianism was while studying for a Master’s degree in English. I was taking a class on Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau – a sort of Unitarian trinity. It was the essays of Emerson that had the most impact on my religious and spiritual life, and eventually led me to the doors of UUFR. Read the full testimonial.

I first came to UUFR in the summer of 1998. I’d just moved to Raleigh, didn’t know anyone here, except Don, my (now) husband. I was raised in a UU church in NY and, after a hiatus, felt ready to re-engage with a spiritual community. Read the full testimonial.

UUFR is the place where I nurture so much of what’s good in my life: my meditation practice at the Monday night mindfulness group, my desire to serve my community at LEAP and at our monthly Interfaith Food Shuttle project, my writing practice at the Wednesday night writing group, my social activism on the UUFR Acts! Facebook page. And last but not least, it’s in this sanctuary that I am often filled up with the knowledge that life can be hard and beautiful at once, and that I am not alone on this journey. Read the full testimonial.

Being a Unitarian Universalist doesn’t work for everyone. There’s no group-wide theology to hold tightly to, no threat of damnation or promise of heaven, only what UU theologian Rebecca Parker calls “freely chosen and life-sustaining interdependence.” Read the full testimonial.