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.
The UCCA teaches that life should be lived with love, humility, compassion, spiritual openness, and a commitment to personal and communal flourishing.
"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
OUR PART
May 3, 2026
“Duty is ours; results are God’s.” – John Quincy Adams, founding member of All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, DC
“Duty is ours; results are God’s.” It’s a simple statement, but like many simple statements that last, it runs against how most of us instinctively live.
Many of us, I think, measure our lives by results. It’s just the society in which we live. Did this work? Did this succeed? Did it make a tangible difference? When the answer is yes, we tend to feel justified. When the answer is no, we question the effort, the purpose, or even our very selves. Over time, this way of thinking can become exhausting. It ties our sense of worth to outcomes that are often outside of our control.
The difficulty is that results are rarely as predictable as we would like. The hard reality is that effort does not always lead to success. Good intentions are not always received well. Care, patience, and integrity do not always produce visible or immediate returns. If we insist on trying to control results, we take on a burden that reality simply does not allow us to carry.
The question that follows, then, is where responsibility actually lies.
There is a parable attributed to Jesus that offers a useful picture, though it is often cited and interpreted in other contexts than this. A farmer goes out to sow seed, scattering it broadly. Some falls on hard ground and does not take root. Some falls among obstacles and is choked out. Some falls on good soil and grows. While one interpretation is offered in the Biblical text, but there is another angle that is not always considered.
The farmer in the story does not appear to adjust his method based on the terrain. He sows everywhere. The emphasis is not on controlling where the seed will grow, but on the act of sowing itself.
If we look at the story in this way, it suggests that the work of a life is not to guarantee outcomes, but to act well across the full range of circumstances we encounter. To live with integrity not only when it is likely to be rewarded (such as when seed is sown on good soil), but also when it is not. To be steady in character, even when the environment is not steady in return.
I’m not suggesting that outcomes are completely irrelevant. They matter, and they absolutely can inform how we act going forward. The point is that they are not entirely ours. They depend on conditions that we do not control: timing, context, other people, and even chance. Confusing influence with control leads to frustration.
A more grounded approach is to focus on what is actually within reach: how we act, how we speak, and the care we bring to what is in front of us. These are not small things. Over time, they define the shape of one’s life.
The “duty” that Adams spoke of is not a rigid obligation. It’s an orientation. It’s the decision to act well, regardless of whether the result is visible or immediate. It’s the willingness to continue sowing the seeds of a godly life even when much of the ground with which we interact is unresponsive.
A godly life is not detached; it is not indifferent. It is fully engaged in doing what is good. It’s simply not dependent on other people or additional external factors. It allows a person to continue to contribute without being consumed by whether every effort succeeds. The hard truth is that most of us will never see the full results of what we do. Some things take root long after we have moved on. Some will never take root at all. But the work remains the same. And we can trust that, by the providence of God, some of what we sow will take root.
“Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act.” – Psalm 37:5
Rev. Dr. Brian J. Kelley
Executive Pastor, Unitarian Christian Church of America (UCCA)
A Layman's Perspective
IS JESUS GOD? - Article IX in a Series
May 1, 2026
The question is controversial, but I don’t believe that Jesus is God: Belief in Jesus as God like belief in God Himself is a matter of faith which can neither be proven nor disproven. While Jesus’ divinity is supported by 1700 years of Christian orthodoxy, we all need to decide what we believe.
I believe that God created the universe, life and nature. Jesus is not the Creator. God is universal, eternal; Jesus has the eternal spirit of God, but he is known on Earth, not to living beings elsewhere in the universe.
“God is spirit” (John, 4:24, RSV); while Jesus had the spirit of God, in his life, we can see that he was not spirit but demonstrably human--that he was born a human, walked, talked and taught as a human, suffered and died as a human.
“For thine is the power.” I believe that God, the Creator, not Jesus, is the Ruler of the universe and “of all nature.”
I believe that the mystery of God is somehow immersed in the mystery of eternal time and space—neither time nor space has beginning or end. Only God understands this incomprehensible mystery.
I believe that Jesus is a Godsend to humanity, sent to teach God’s will and to lead humanity to a Godly way of life; that, in the Christian tradition, he is the closest human representative of God, a manifestation of God. As a human being, Jesus enables us to feel closer to God.
Having answered my questions about Jesus and the Bible, I didn’t think that I was Trinitarian anymore! But what was I?
Carroll “Chip” Fossett
UCCA General Council
