The SITKA UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP was founded by a group interested in establishing a home for religious liberalism in Sitka, Alaska. Ed Nelson, Loel Shuler and Warren Christianson were among the founding members. Ed Nelson's daughter, Florence Schutte, remains a member of the Sitka UU Fellowship to this day.
For many years the Sitka UU Fellowship met in the homes of its members. After outgrowing homes, the Sitka UU Fellowship began holding its services in various public meeting spaces, including the Monastery Apartments commons, the Sitka Women's Club Building and the Swan Lake Senior Center. It was during this period of wandering that the Fellowship's post-Sunday service potluck custom, which survives to present times, originated.

An Easter custom for the Sitka UU Fellowship is a beachside "flower communion" service. The flower communion ceremony originated with Norbert Capek, founder of what is the present day Unitarian Church of the Czech Republic. Those attending are asked to bring a single flower to the service, with each placing his or her flower in a large vase. As explained in the sermon, the flowers symbolized the members, each unique and free, joining together in fellowship and accepting each other regardless of their differences. At the end of the service, each member takes from the vase a different flower "just as it comes”, without distinguishing where it came from or whom it represents. This symbolizes that we, as Fellowship members, accept each other as brothers and sisters without regard to class, race, or other distinction, acknowledging everybody as our friend who is human and wants to be good. At the conclusion of the ceremony, each person is invited to walk to the water's edge and discard their flower onto the waters of the bay in remembrance of those who have preceded us in the transition from this life.

Between 1948 and 1973 many Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowships in the western United States were fostered by visits from Monroe Husbands, initially of the American Unitarian Association and later of the Unitarian Universalist Association. What was to become the Sitka Unitarian Universalist Fellowship was an early 1950s product of visits to the Alaska territory by Mr. Husbands. A strong network of Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowships, in such diverse Alaska locales as Fairbanks, Juneau, Anchorage, Kodiak and Sitka, sprung from the rootstock first nurtured by Mr. Husbands more than 50 years ago now.

Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;

Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;

Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;

Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;

Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.

Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

These principles and sources of faith are the backbone of our religious community.

THERE ARE SEVEN PRINCIPLES WHICH UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST (UU) CONGREGATIONS AFFIRM AND PROMOTE:
1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The parent organization for Unitarian Universalist (UU) fellowships and churches in the United States is the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), which sprang from merger in 1961. It is a denomination headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and is a religion with foundations in two traditions: the Universalists, organized in America in 1793, and the Unitarians, whose origins in America go back well before the 1825 creation of the American Unitarian Association (one of the merged components of UUA). American Universalism and Unitarianism took root in colonial Massachusetts, among the founders of our nation. European Universalists and Unitarians look back to pioneers of their faith found in England, Poland, Italy and Transylvania (a predominantly Hungarian region in modern day Romania). (Learn more)

There are presently more than 1,000 UU congregations around the world. Each are democratic in polity and operation; they govern themselves. They unite through UUA to provide services that individual congregations themselves are unable to provide. There are 20 districts within UUA and each congregation is a member of a particular district. The SITKA UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP is a member of the Pacific Northwest District ("PNWD"), based in Bellevue, Washington. UU fellowships and churches have no creed. However, they do affirm the worth of each human being and advocate freedom of belief and association through exercise of the democratic process. UU fellowships and churches, including the SITKA UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP, attempt to provide a warm, open, supportive community for people who find that an ethical existence is the ultimate expression of religious belief.