Universal Life Church

The Universal Life Church was founded in Modesto, California, by Kirby J. Hensley in 1959 with the simple premise that religion should be free to all, rather than tightly controlled by churches and governments.  Basing his new church on the philosophy of true religious freedom, Kirby broke with tradition by ordained all who asked, without price, for life, and without question of faith.

In a nation founded on religious freedom, it should be obvious that religion should be free and that churches can determine, without government oversight, whom to ordain.  However, from the start, this new church came as a shock to bureaucrats, often spurred along by clergy of other churches who felt threatened by the ease with which others could ascend to what they considered to be their exclusive province.

Legal challenges came fast and furious at first.   Kirby Hensley could not read or write, so how could he hope to defend against such an onslaught from passionate statists bent on crushing his new church of religious freedom?    However, Kirby had the law firmly on his side, and he knew it!  

The First Amendment is very clear.  Unlike legislation written by today's politicians, with bills that often stretch into hundreds and even thousands of pages, the First Amendment was concise and to the point, such than anyone should be able to understand it.  Sadly, even today, so many cannot seem to decipher this plainly written statement affirming man's natural right to religious freedom. 

The judges who heard the cases brought by and against the Universal Life Church were able to understand the simple language and were quick to affirm, in strongly worded decisions, that indeed, religious freedom is still the law of the land in the United States of America, and consistently upheld the right of this newly formed church to stand on equal footing with older, more established faiths.

Today more than 22 million ministers have been ordained as ministers of the Universal Life Church.  There are Universal Life Church congregations on every continent.  As Kirby once observed, "The sun never sets on the Universal Life Church.   Minister of the Universal Life Church are legally ordained ministers, and they perform all peaceful rites of the clergy, including solemnizing marriage, baptisms, funerals, counseling, teaching, preaching and more.

If you would like to become a legally ordained minister, you can click here to become ordained.  Ordination is free.  Those wishing to become ordained simply provide their full name and address with their request.  Each request is reviewed by an authorized ordination minister to be sure it includes all the needed information to create an ordination record, and to guard against obvious phony names and such.  The ordinations are done individually, as a deliberate, thoughtful and responsible act (they are not merely spit out by a computer, nor are they "instant" or "online" ordinations). 

You may subscribe to the Universal Life Church newsletter by clicking here.

Important Notice:  The original Universal Life Church of Modesto is in no way connected with another group, calling itself the ULC Monastery, operating out of Seattle, Washington.  That group sprung into existence in the last few years and have been causing a lot of confusion for those who are looking for the real, original Universal Life Church, because their web site includes some very deceptive statements.  They are not affiliated with the Universal Life Church in any way, and their ordinations are not recognized.