Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of North Bay
Napa, California

Become a Member

When you make the decision to become a member of the Fellowship, you are assigned a mentor and will be invited to participate in a church ceremony called a “New Member Ingathering” where you will be presented to the congregation. During this ceremony, you will be asked to sign the membership book. This is an important step, as it is a visible sign of your desire to deepen your relationship with the congregation and with your own spiritual life.

Unitarian Universalist minister Jack Mendelsohn reminds us that, “Inscribing your name does not transform you into an instant or born-again Unitarian Universalist. Our religious way of life is not so much an arriving as a becoming—an ongoing process of thought and life experience. Joining for you may mean fresh steps along a familiar path. It may mean venturing in uncharted territory. In either case, the initiative is yours. You do not sign on someone else’s dotted line of spiritual development, and there is no fine print. Your signature is your affirming symbol of commitment to an open-minded, inclusive, reasoned, seasoned, compassionate and contemporary approach to life.”

Unitarian Universalist minister A. Powell Davies wrote, “When you find a church which expresses the outlook and values you yourself hold as vital, you are depriving both yourself and those values of needed strength if you fail to identify yourself with that church. Joining a church such as ours means essentially three things:

1. You are in fundamental sympathy with the principles of freedom and reason in religion and life. This is the basis for our creedless church.
2. You commit yourself to the importance of an organized religious fellowship. Ideas and ideals must have a vehicle and embodiment in the world. People who think and work together for the values in which they believe have a better chance of achieving them than people who do not.
3. You accept the responsibilities that go with membership in any human community. Within the limits of your ability and in line with your personal choice, you are ready to give energy, time, money, and best thought to the furthering of the ideas you prize.

Signing the book and joining the Fellowship is your gift to us; the gift of your time, your talent and your presence as a member of our church family.