Diverse Beliefs, Shared Values
Our congregation was founded in 1909. We promote a non-dogmatic exploration of spiritual, intellectual, and ethical growth. Our community has served the greater Vancouver area through advocacy for peace, social justice, civil rights, environmental stewardship, education, interfaith dialogue and diversity, and through commitment and support for women’s issues and the LGBTQ+ community.
The Vancouver Unitarian Congregation
The Vancouver Unitarians are a welcoming congregation with shared values and diverse beliefs. Our campus at 49th and Oak is a safe haven for honest reflection and joyful communication. We are governed democratically and abide by a shared covenant to encourage healthy relations.
We offer Sunday services, pastoral care, music and choir, a variety of all-ages programming for spiritual development, a vibrant youth program, and a host of volunteer action groups. Whatever your background and interests, you’ll find community with the Vancouver Unitarians.
Come as you are
The Sanctuary at 49th & Oak
Vancouver Unitarians have been part of Vancouver’s religious and cultural life since 1909, and we’re proud of our role in advocating for pluralism and equal rights for all in civic life. Our Sanctuary at 49th and Oak was one of the first spaces in Canada to host same-sex marriages, and has been a venue for countless social and environmental justice events.
We are a member of the Canadian Unitarian Council. Our members have contributed significantly to the rich and interesting 400-year history of the Unitarian Universalist movement.
As Unitarians, we are dedicated to spiritual growth, social justice, and reverence for nature and all life. We embody these values through worship, ethical action, artistic expression, and religious education for all ages that aim to connect hearts, heads and hands. Our congregation welcomes all ages, orientations, abilities, and identities in our joyous search for meaning.
Our Principles
We, the member congregations of the Canadian Unitarian Council, covenant to affirm and promote:
1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
2. Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
8. Individual and communal action that accountably dismantles racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion in ourselves and our institutions.
Our Sources
Our Sources
The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:
- Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
- Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
- Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
- Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbours as ourselves;
- Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
- Spiritual teachings of Earth-centred traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.