Attendance surges at Unitarian Universalist congregations after Trump’s election

Attendance surges at Unitarian Universalist congregations after Trump’s election

UU World Magazine , published by the Unitarian Universalist Association

Worship

Unitarian Universalist ministers throughout the United States are reporting a surge in attendance at Sunday services after the presidential election on November 8. Some ministers compared the increase in attendance to the period after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

“This time feels comparable but different,” said the Rev. William Sinkford, senior minister of First Unitarian Church of Portland, Oregon. “Then, the sense of shock predominated, shading off into the fear we have all learned to live with,” he said. “Today, the folks in my sanctuary begin with disbelief and now yearn both to be in community and to find something to do.”

The increase in attendance most often represented members of the congregation who had not been active recently and were seeking to reconnect with their faith community. The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Landrum said her small congregation, the Universalist Unitarian Church of East Liberty, in Clarklake, Michigan, typically sees forty-five people in attendance, but on the Sunday after the election, there were sixty. The increase, she says, were “people who remembered what was valuable to them” in times of distress: community and action.

Although Unitarian Universalists hold a range of political views and affiliations, surveys show that they tend overwhelmingly to vote Democratic. The Pew Research Center reported in February that 84 percent of self-identified UUs lean toward or identify with the Democratic Party.

The Rev. Joan Javier-Duval, minister of the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Vermont, said the average attendance at her congregation is 191 children and adults. On the Sunday after the election, there were 309. Javier-Duval says she thinks that people are coming to church “still grieving and processing difficult emotions.”