Unitarian Christian Church of America
We warmly welcome you to the UCCA. We believe we are a “faith whose time has come, indeed a faith for today.” Our aim is not to impose a specific belief but to unite with others to promote, educate, and improve a “way of living” in harmony and peace with everyone.
The world we live in is not what God intended for it to be. The old ways no longer work, nor are they relevant; it is time for an “awakening.” Our spiritual needs are unmet as we have evolved, creating a growing spiritual and moral void that must be addressed.
We invite you to join us in becoming the revival that awakens humanity into the next century and beyond. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. The time is right, the need is clear, and the answer is waiting.
"First, liberty, freedom of the individual to think, think as he will or think as he must; but not liberty for the sake of itself. Liberty for the sake of finding the truth"
- Minot J. Savage, Our Unitarian Gospel (p. 9).
A FAITH WHOSE TIME HAS COME
A FAITH FOR TODAY
A Message for Today's World
We sincerely hope you'll find a comfortable and welcoming environment and new home here with us. When we come together, our goal is not to impose personal faith or judge honest individual differences. Instead, we strive to unite through our love for God and to live in truth, peace, and love for all humankind and all of God’s creation.
As our Platform may be unfamiliar to you, we invite you to take this opportunity to learn more about who we are and what we believe. The UCCA is genuinely committed to a “faith whose time has come, indeed, a faith for today.”
We welcome everyone who chooses to participate in living our Platform. Those who actively practice our Universal Principle embodied within our Foundational Beliefs and to the best of their abilities, live the faith we share as a way of life, not just a statement made when convenient or appropriate.
The Pastor's Weekly Sermon
REFLECTION
April 26, 2026
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” – Edith Wharton
Light is one of those ideas that appears simple when you first think about it, until you dig deeper and ponder it more carefully. We tend to associate light with clarity, goodness, or truth, but rarely stop to consider how it actually moves.
This quote suggests two roles for someone looking to spread light: to be the source of light, or to reflect it. At first glance, it might seem like being the candle is the higher calling. To generate light, to originate something good or pure, to be the one who illuminates. But most of life really doesn’t work that way.
Very few people are able to be constant sources. Even the brightest among us depend on something beyond themselves. Energy fades, clarity and focus waver, perspective narrows. If everything depended on us producing light at all times, most of us would find ourselves exhausted really quickly.
The alternative is quieter, but is not less important and is really the way God intends this whole light relationship to work. To reflect light is to recognize it, receive it, and orient yourself in such a way that the light can be seen by others in and through you. This does not require perfection or constant strength. It requires attention, openness, and a willingness to not be the center of everything. Most of all, it requires the ability to reorient yourself from time to time when you recognize you aren’t shining as much as perhaps you have before.
There is a line attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas: “If they ask you, ‘Where do you come from?’ tell them, ‘We’ve come from the light.’” There are many ways to understand that statement, but however one does, I think it suggests that light is not something we create ex nihilo, from nothing. It’s something not that we create, but that we participate in. It’s something we are connected to.
Maybe the distinction between the candle and the mirror is softer than it originally appears. A person who reflects light well may very well become, in a way, a source of light to someone else. Likewise, a person who appears to be a source of light, in reality, is always drawing from something they have first received.
We can say the same thing about our lives walking with God.
If we orient ourselves toward what is clear, steady, and life-giving, then over time, that will begin to show in how we speak, how we act, and how we respond to others. It doesn’t have to be dramatic or even constant. It can be in small, consistent ways that accumulate. If we orient ourselves elsewhere, toward darker things, the opposite can also be true.
When Jesus preached on becoming new and reborn, he was using a common literary device meant to show us the importance of our alignment, the importance of paying attention to what we are facing, what we are absorbing, and indeed what we are passing along, whether consciously or not.
In that sense, light is not something we have to chase. It is not something we must exude effort to manufacture. It is something that is already around us. We can learn to notice it, then to carry it, then to reflect it via our lives.
“It is You who light my lamp; the LORD, my God, lights up my darkness.” – Psalm 18:28
Rev. Dr. Brian J. Kelley
Executive Pastor, Unitarian Christian Church of America (UCCA)
A Layman's Perspective
The Bible - Article IX in a Series
April 15, 2026
Is the Bible the “Infallible word of God?” I don’t think so:
The Bible was not written by God but by Man, who by definition is imperfect, fallible. We also know that the Bishops who compiled the Biblical Canon in the Fourth Century C.E. were human and that they had political and theological bias—they needed to include gospel accounts which indicated Jesus’ divinity. The Bible has excluded other gospels such as those of Thomas and Mary, which do not indicate his divinity.
The Creation narratives (Genesis, ch 1-3) certainly aren’t the infallible word of God: With modern scientific knowledge, it is believed that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, the Earth 4.5 billion, and they weren’t created in seven days. Fossil evidence has indicated the existence of simple life forms on Earth 3.6 billion years ago, and we know that humans evolved in Africa from earlier hominids 300 thousand years ago. God knows these facts—He is the Creator; the writers of Genesis 3,000 years ago did not.
The Bible contains at least 100 notable contradictions including questions of faith v. works (Romans 3:28 v. Matthew 19:17 v. James 2:26); seeing God (Genesis 32:30 v. John 1:18); and the stone at the tomb (Mark 16:4, Luke 24:2, John 20:1 v. Matthew 28: 2)--(All RSV). With so many contradictory verses, it is difficult to defend the Bible as “the infallible word of God”—If we view Him to be omniscient, we expect that His word would be consistent.
I believe that the Bible is a sacred but fallible text, full of spiritual inspiration, particularly the teachings of Jesus found in the New Testament which lead us to a Godly way of life and to being “put right with God.”
