The core of Unitarian Universalism is the concept that “everything is connected and part of the whole”.

  As UUs, we are individuals freely gathered in community to explore and celebrate the wonder of living on the earth and within the mystery.  We live within the mystery, the divine, the universe, the whole; we belong to it and participate in it.  Each of us is whole, just as we are, and we are always, intrinsically, part of the Whole.

The mystery is all encompassing, nothing exists beyond it.  Developing a sense of being part of this immense mystery helps us to live in the grace of the world. We know we belong, that we are part of something so much greater, we know we are not alone. The spirit and the material elements of life are not separate and distinct, but inter-related. Life is an endless series of dynamic connections; people live in relationship with one another as well as all the other creatures who inhabit the earth. To live as part of the whole is to participate in creating the living balance of the world.

The image of the golden spiral (or the golden ratio or fibonacci’s spiral or the divine proportion) describes the pattern:  an ever increasing spiral, with the self at the centre, surrounded by community, then the earth, then the universe.  This does not imply that the self is the focus of Unitarian Universalism, which is concerned with all aspects of the whole.  Each self is only the beginning, the place where each person starts from and moves out towards the whole. The self is small, and the universe/mystery/divine is infinite.

We belong to the mystery.