First Unitarian Church of Honolulu

You know that incredibly sweet and loving great Auntie who’s just so wise and kind… and always loved you and had a big hug and welcome for you no matter what? She’s here. You know that smart young couple that drifted away from your church and you don’t see them at your sunday service any more? They’re here.
I just attended a second service here, and you know what, they’re just such good people trying to be even «gooder» people I’ve got to put them up to 5 stars (see previous review).
If you’ve been disillusioned by hypocrisy and outright stubborn dumbness at other religious denominations, then you need to check out the First Unitarian. These people walk the walk, they don’t just talk the talk. I was seated next to a friendly young couple who are former Catholics. I was given a warm greeting at the door by a woman who reminded me so strongly of my sweet departed Aunt Betsy… that I was almost in tears then and there. I loved this woman instantly… her kind wisdom just shone right through.
Not that i think everything here is perfect. For example now they’ve got two big screens up in the front of the meeting house playing announcements etc… you know, a Sunday service is where I go to get away from electronic screens in my face and have a truly human experience once a week… so I would love to see them banish those screens. I think they could do without them.
And I’m really starting to despise the dumbed down «praise music» I’m hearing more and more at churches… so simple anyone can sing it without even seeing the words or the music… because each song sounds exactly like the one before it and you can just guess what comes next because it’s all so similar. So I was disappointed to hear some of this «praise music» creeping into their service. And I was waiting for the likable young minister to go just a little deeper with his sermon. (He seems pretty awesome overall though.)
Their bulletin advertises some totally cool hiking trips once a month to visit wild native Hawaiian sacred places on Oahu together with a native Hawaiian spiritual group. I’d love to do those hikes.
On the plus side of modernity apparently they started videotaping their sunday services and uploading them to Vimeo
… and they’re getting some serious page views ! So technology is working some good news!
Unitarian Universalism is very smart. As I understand it, the Universalists were one of the first Christian denominations over a 150 years ago to say, «you know what, everybody is eventually going to go to Heaven and is loved by God, no matter what religion they practice. Not just a select few white Christians.» So UU today welcomes non-​Christian members to their Meeting Houses to worship and you may find the congregations include Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, etc in addition to Christians. It makes for a pretty smart mix. Worship services may include elements from many different world religions.
And this smartness shows in the fact that they are WAY ahead of the curve on civil rights for the LGBT community. In 50 years all the others will be apologizing and saying «oh gee we’re sorry for the things we said how could we have done that…» … the UU have that clarity of understanding to see what’s RIGHT and see it NOW … which is always the hardest part of a civil rights struggle… getting involved before it’s EASY to get involved… doing the hard work when the movement is just starting out. UU is there doing the hard work NOW so they TOTALLY have my respect.

If you’re looking for a cult of like-​minded Bible-​thumpers who refuse to consider another point of view, well, SORRY, you’ve come to the wrong place.
If, however, you’re looking for an open-​minded community ranging from spirtualists to Catholics to Buddhists to atheists and everything in between, WELCOME!
What sets this UU church apart from any place I’ve ever been may be the fact that at least some portion of the congregation even takes issue with the word «church» in the name.
I, myself, being a pretty liberal non-​religious person searching for «something,» was delighted to find this place. It’s welcoming to all faiths, all people, all creeds, all backgrounds, all ideas. They want to hear your opinion; just be prepared for heady debate, as nothing is common ground here.
It’s certainly not for everyone, but ironically for me, this unstructured format has provided the most spiritual enlightenment I could have hoped for. Great religious exploration program for children too.