An Introduction to Our
Unitarian Universalist Beliefs and Sources


Unitarian Universalist congregations together affirm and promote seven Principles. We also share a “living tradition” of wisdom and spirituality, drawn from many sources.

Our Sixth Principle:

The Goal of World Community with Peace, Liberty, and Justice for All

                             Reflection on the Sixth Principle


“The sixth Principle seems extravagant in its hopefulness and improbable in its prospects. Can we continue to say we want ‘world community’? ‘Peace, liberty, and justice for all’? The world is full of genocide, abuse, terror, and war. What have we gotten ourselves into?

“As naïve or impossible as the sixth Principle may seem, I’m not willing to give up on it. In the face of our culture’s apathy and fear, I want to imagine and help create a powerful vision of peace by peaceful means, liberty by liberatory means, justice by just means. I want us to believe—and to live as if we believe—that a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all is possible. There is no guarantee that we will succeed, but I can assure you that we will improve ourselves and improve the world by trying.”

            —Rev. Sean Parker Dennison, Tree of Life Congregation, McHenry, IL

   (read more from Sean in The Seven Principles in Word and Worship, ed. Ellen Brandenburg.)