Social values

Social responsibility

Social responsibility

Unitarians think 'deeds speak louder than words' - they believe religion should make a difference to the world, so they are often active in social justice and community work.

Unitarianism may attract people with a strong interest in social change. Such people may well be drawn to the church because they regard fixed creeds as having been used throughout history as an oppressive way of maintaining an institution or society's existing power structure, and so are more comfortable in a church that doesn't have a creed.

Unitarians welcome gays and lesbians in their ministry and support equal rights for gay people within the Church and in society at large.

Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage

2004 court case in USA

The first two ministers to be prosecuted in the United States for performing same sex marriages were Unitarian Universalists.

Unitarian Universalist ministers Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey appeared in court in 2004, charged with multiple counts of solemnising a marriage without a licence. All charges against the two ministers were dropped in July.

If they had been convicted, though, they would have faced a fine of between $25 and $500, or up to a year in jail.

2008 anti-discrimination protest in UK

The Unitarian movement in the UK is also strongly in favour of equal treatment for gay couples.

In 2008 the Newington Green Unitarian Church in London suspended all weddings in protest at the "unjust" banning of religious content in same-sex marriage ceremonies.

The church committee decided only to conduct a ceremonial blessings for couples who had married in a civil ceremony - whether they were heterosexual or same-sex couples.

The church's minister, Andrew Pakula, commented "We are standing on the side of love here and that is our stance."

Find out more

• The implications of a Unitarian outlook