Why We Offer a Non Denominational Ordination
The primary mantra of the Universal Life Church Monastery is "We are all children of the same universe." This means that our online church holds all faith systems in equal standing; in our book, people who adhere to "alternative" creeds like Paganism or Wicca are just as deserving of our online ordinations as Christians, Jews or Muslims.
- With a ULC non denominational ordination, you are able to conduct yourself as a Protestant Christian minister, Muslim imam, both, or something else entirely!*
Why does the Universal Life Church Monastery have this policy? While some branches of the ULC strictly associate themselves with Christianity and refuse to issue an ordination to anyone who does not adhere to that faith, the Monastery believes that everyone is fundamentally equal, regardless of what they believe in. We serve as many religious communities as possible so as to fulfill the aforementioned mantra. It costs us nothing to offer a non denominational ordination, as opposed to offering one that can only be given to people of a certain faith, and in return we are able to incorporate a wealth of diverse religious perspectives into our online church that serve to enrich our entire organization spiritually.
The other ULCs' policy of rejecting non-Christians, on the other hand, is to effectively assert that non-Christians are spiritually inferior; this exclusive policy amounts to religious elitism.
In short, offering non denominational ordinations allows the Universal Life Church Monastery to be spiritually enriched through its diversity and avoid the odious policies of exclusion adopted by other branches of the ULC.
Non Denominational Ordinations Are Identical to Conventional Ordinations
Despite what some might think, the ULC Monastery's non denominational ordination gives someone the exact same spiritual and legal privileges as the ordinations given to those who graduate from Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, etc. seminaries and theological colleges. The 48 U.S. states that accept our ordination do not hold it in any lesser standing than those issued by other churches because of its non denominational nature; failure to treat the ULC equally would be a violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and thus highly illegal. This means that people holding a Universal Life Church ordination are able to perform wedding ceremonies, funerals, baptisms and chaplain work in exactly the same way that a Lutheran, Evangelical or Anglican minister would.
Benefits of Non Denominational Ordinations
There are additional, non-legal or spiritual benefits to possessing a non denominational ordination. These are listed below.
Perform a Non Denominational Wedding
- Henna and dancing and tandoori oh my! Who could resist performing a Hindu-style wedding with a non denominational ordination for a beautiful couple like this?*
Of the stories our ministers have told us about performing weddings for friends, family and strangers, by far the most interesting are those about weddings performed in ways that no conventional wedding officiant would do. These stories include: a traditional Hindu wedding attended by hundreds followed by a feast of tandoori food and much Bollywood-style dancing, a "spooky" themed wedding held in a natural history museum where the couple tied the knot under a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, and a Pagan-style wedding held in the depths of the Midwestern woods during the Spring Solstice that was followed by a bonfire, casks of mead (no joke), and much singing and dancing.
We are willing to concede that you might not think some or all of the above weddings sound as fun as we do, but you must admit that the virtue of the ULC's non denominational ordination vis-a-vis weddings is apparent within them; Universal Life Church ministers can officiate weddings that denomination ministers simply cannot.
Work as a Chaplain
In a melting pot like America, prisons and hospitals have religiously diverse populations. If you are truly interested in bringing solace and comfort to all those who are incarcerated or ill, it is necessary to have the open religious mind that goes with a non denominational ordination. It would be cold and heartless two qualities that ordained ministers should not display to refrain from performing chaplain services for all but a select group of people who happen to belong to the faith you were ordained in.
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