ABOUT
We are a liberal, progressive, religious community. We come together to support one another in building the Beloved Community. We help each other live lives of integrity, service, and love by offering; thoughtful and engaging worship that combines both head and heart, engaging workshops, interesting book groups, leadership roundtables, social opportunities for learning and sharing, and opportunities to give back to the larger community and to be in service with others.
OUR COMMUNITY
We are committed to caring for each other, the city of New Bedford, and our global community. Our worship services are a place for people to come and reflect on their own needs as well as the needs of others. This church is engaged in many social justice projects in the community, and we understand that spirituality must be lived in the world, not just talked about in church on Sunday mornings.
OUR MISSION
Our Mission is to encourage diversity and mutual acceptance and to work for positive change in ourselves and our community.
"We envision a congregation in which we practice the principles of our faith. We seek to enjoy peaceful reflection and inspiration in intellectually and spiritually satisfying church services. We aim to embrace the people and efforts of our church community by supporting our children and their programs, our committees and their goals, our staff and their efforts on our behalf, and each other."
OUR PURPOSE
Our purpose is to encourage persons to strive toward high ethical and moral standards in their personal life and in the community. All members shall be free to formulate their religious beliefs according to their individual needs, conscience, and degree of maturity.
COVENANT
We come together as a religious community upholding freedom of conscience, right relationship, and the inherent worth of all people. We value diversity and pledge to care for one another in the spirit of compassion, to speak and listen to each other with respect, and to promote justice and kindness in the world.
VISION
We aim to help address the larger community’s challenges in racial, social, and economic justice; ecological sustainability; education; and support of the arts. We endeavor to reflect in our own growing numbers the cultural and ethnic diversity of our area. We commit to enhancing our understanding and acceptance of the diverse religious expression present in our greater community, including reaching out to other faiths in mutual respect and with shared goals.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Our Social Justice Committee is a vibrant and passionate community of people dedicated to the pursuit of social justice and who are driven by compassion and a commitment to a better world for all people.
The SJC meets every Wednesday (September - June) via Zoom. You do not have to be a member of UUNB to join the SJC. Email Tonianne, the SJC Chair, to learn more!
Tonianne
We Are a Welcoming
Congregation
We know that religious spaces haven’t always been welcoming places for all people, especially when it comes to gender and sexuality. We are out to change that.
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For 25 years we have worked hard to make sure lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people are full members of our faith communities. Being welcoming means striving for radical inclusion, and creating spaces that honor every part of our identities, backgrounds, and experiences.
Our Commitment to the LGBTQ+ Community
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We are inclusive and expressive of the concerns of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer at every level of congregational life—in worship, in program, and in social occasions—welcoming not only their presence but the unique gifts and particularities of their lives as well.
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We do not assume anyone’s affectional/sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Vocabulary of worship reflects this perception; worship celebrates diversity by inclusivity of language and content.
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An understanding of the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons is fully incorporated by a Welcoming Congregation throughout all programs, including religious education.
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Official documents include an affirmation and nondiscrimination clause affecting all dimensions of congregational life, including membership, hiring practices, and the calling of religious professionals.
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We engage in outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities, both through its advertising and by actively supporting other lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer affirmative groups.
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We offer congregational and ministerial support for services of union and memorial services for persons who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer, and celebrations of evolving definitions of family.
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We celebrate the lives of all people and welcomes same-gender couples, recognizing their committed relationships, and equally affirms displays of caring and affection without regard for sexual orientation.
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We seek to nurture ongoing dialogue between people of different affectional/sexual orientations and gender identities, and to create deeper trust and sharing.
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We affirm and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer issues and history during the church year.
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We advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, attend to legislative developments and works to promote justice, freedom, and equality in the larger society. We speak out when the rights and dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people are at stake.
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We celebrate the lives of all people and their ways of expressing their love for each other.
GROUNDED IN UU VALUES
From our work for marriage equality, women’s suffrage, the abolition of slavery, for civil and voting rights, to advocating for a path to citizenship for immigrants, to taking on the ‘New Jim Crow’ and white supremacy today.
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Unitarian Universalists have a legacy to carry onward.
All our work is grounded in racial justice, and we build relationships with and center the leadership of those most impacted by forms of oppression and injustice. UU Mass Action is also proud to be one of the many UU entities to have adopted the 8th principle. We stand with many of our fellow Unitarian Universalists and congregations to "covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse, multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”