Finding a Religious Home

The phrase “spiritual but not religious” makes perfect sense to me. This is where I was for most of my life. I had not been raised in any religious tradition. Yet I was drawn over and over to spiritual ideas, places and people.

For a long time, I had accepted that I would never be religious. Spirituality was exciting to me. Religious institutions were not.

This gradually changed. Nearly ten years ago, I decided to give being spiritual and religious another shot. I had become hungry for a religious home. Riding the subway around Boston, I visited many different religious communities, including a Buddhist meditation center, a synagogue, a Muslim students’ group, and several Christian churches. The more I searched, the more I wanted a place of my own. At each place, I got the sense that participants had a strong sense of belonging. But at none of these places did I feel that I belonged.

As I mentioned earlier on this site, I knew I had come home when I finally visited a Unitarian Universalist congregation. “This is it,” my heart whispered.

Belonging to a Unitarian Universalist congregation has been wonderful. If I had never found a religious home, I imagine my life would have been quite different. I would never have preached a sermon. I would have missed out on several life-changing friendships. I probably wouldn’t pray as much. And there are countless spiritual questions I would never have asked, much less started to find the answers to.

That’s why I’m writing all this week about how you can find a religious home too, if you haven’t already. I will describe different kinds of Unitarian Universalist communities that you can visit, and offer tips on finding the community that is right for you. If you are starting to search for a religious home, or have been searching for a long time, I want you to find the place where you are meant to be. This will be a community where you can bring your whole self and know that you belong.