Our faith gets its name from the merger in 1961 of two religious groups, the Unitarians and the Universalists. That’s a long name, so we call ourselves UUs for short. Today across North America there are more than 1,000 UU congregations serving 250,000 adults and children.

Unitarian Universalism evolved out of the Christian and Jewish traditions, and we trace our roots back to the Protestant Reformation.

In the United States we’ve been here since the nation’s founding. We’re proud of our legacy of American Unitarians and Universalists including John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Clara Barton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Susan B. Anthony, Frank Lloyd Wright, and more recently Christopher Reeve, Kurt Vonnegut, Randy Pausch, and Pete Seeger.

In the Capital Region of New York, Unitarian Universalists have been a prophetic liberal religious voice for over 150 years. Our oldest church, First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany, was founded in 1842. Our newest congregation is in Saratoga Springs and began in 1996.

Each congregation is different: Our Schenectady church has over 380 members, while our Glens Falls church feels “more like family” with less than 100.

Some preach a liberal Christian gospel; others embrace a more humanist theology.  Many do both.

You may find folks of many religious backgrounds:  Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Pagans.

You may find folks with different beliefs in god — from theists to agnostics, even atheists.

And we’re all worshipping together.

Sound improbable? Maybe so.

Quite amazing. Definitely delightful.