Who We Are as Unitarian Universalists
We are one of 50 communities of Canadian Unitarian Universalists from coast to coast. Learn about us in this short introductory video.
Our Community
About the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough
We are a community for personal and spiritual development that comes together to explore life’s questions and support each other in living with meaning and purpose. We welcome all who enter in friendship.
We offer a wide range of programs, including Sunday services, programs for personal and spiritual exploration for all ages, social justice initiatives, music, social functions and community.
About 200 people are involved in the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough, including many children and youth.
Everyone is Welcome
We are an intentionally diverse spiritual community. We embrace and include theists, humanists, agnostics, atheists, freethinkers, Buddhists, pagans — in other words, persons of many different spiritual paths and traditions. What we share is a desire to grow spiritually and to learn, serve, and celebrate together.
We welcome all who share this desire, regardless of gender, age, race, education, socio-economic status, or sexual orientation.
Our Purpose
Grounded in love, the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough (UFP) strives to be a welcoming community that embraces life with wonder and inquiry.
Dedicated to our Unitarian Universalist principles of peace and love, and inspired by our interconnection with all that is, we foster personal transformation and act for a just and sustainable world.
Find Your Own Meaning and Truth
Unitarian Universalism (UU) provides an enriching spiritual community where each person is encouraged to find their own meaning and truth.
As a community, we explore a different theme for living each month for personal and spiritual development. Recent themes have included vulnerability, delight, generosity, transformation, and interdependence.
We are committed to spiritual and ethical values and to the celebration of life. We seek to empower our members to live their lives with integrity, to work for justice and peace in the world, and to respect the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
We’re United in Covenant
Our community is bound together by a covenant, the promise we make to walk together in love. This means that we do not require affirmation of any particular belief or belief system for membership or participation. Rather, we promote religious freedom and respectful understanding of our differences.
It is our sense that the universe is of such scope — magnificent, vast, and mysterious — that no-one and no one religion can hold the whole truth. We stand in wonder and awe before the beauty of our world, hoping to do justice to this gift of life by learning to think and act well, working for social justice, and sharing with one another the insights and truths of our hearts.
Sundays at the Fellowship
Our Sunday services begin at 10 am and end at approximately 11:15 am from September through mid-June. Services are offered both in-person and online via Zoom. We connect after the service for coffee, snacks, and conversation, or in small breakout groups online. We also offer Children and Youth Programs and activities.
Our summer services (July and August) offer something different, often gathering on Sunday evenings.
Our History
The Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough was founded in 1961 with 14 charter members. We are affiliated with the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC), a voluntary association of 46 Unitarian and Universalist congregations in Canada.
The Fellowship met for 35 years in rented spaces for Sunday services and religious education. In the congregation’s early years, its members founded the Family Enrichment Association and developed a position paper on religion in public schools.
In 1994 the Fellowship called its first minister, Rev. Anne Orfald, and the next year purchased a building on Chamberlain Street. With a growth in membership this beloved space was outgrown and in 2004 the Fellowship made an agreement with the Beth Israel Congregation of Peterborough to share its premises.
Rev. Armida Alexander came as our first interim minister following Anne’s retirement and was followed in 2006 by Rev. Peter Boullata, also in that role.
In 2007, the Fellowship called the Rev. Julie Stoneberg to be its new settled minister. She was formally installed as our second settled minister on April 27, 2008.
In April 2024, the Fellowship called the Rev. Peter Boullata to be its new settled minister.
2SLGBTQI+
We are a “Welcoming Congregation” — which means that our community has voted to actively welcome people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, and has undertaken a number of commitments to support this effort. If you are lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, or if you think you might be, you are welcome here. Come, be who you are.
Our History of Support
Unitarian Universalism is strongly supportive of two spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (2SLGBTQ+) people and their families, and has officially welcomed this community since 1970. We believe that our first principle, respecting “the inherent worth and dignity of every person,” applies equally to people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
Unitarian Universalism is one of the few spiritual communities (or religions) that ordain members of sexual and gender minorities.
In addition to welcoming 2SLGBTQ+ people into our community, we also work to protect the civil and legal rights of 2SLGBTQ+ people and families across the country. Unitarian Universalists have been at the forefront of the movement for marriage equality, advocating for the right for each person to marry the partner of their choice.
We’re International in Scope
Unitarian Universalism is an international spiritual community with centuries of history. Nationally, we are affiliated with the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC), and internationally with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).
Is The Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough right for you?