Universal Life Church

Universal Life Church - Rev. Jesse L. Hoog bio:

When I was a little boy I always said I wanted to be a minister. It was always my dream, it seemed to nag at my inner soul and would never completely leave. On Aug. 23, 2007 it hit me that this was my calling and possibly my life's destiny, after all I was 21, no school, or any job I ever had seemed right, so I contacted Amy at the Universal Life Church Seminary and God and I made it happen! My family has a very long line of Ministers and all are/was God fearing people on both side's and all of a very diverse background and a variety of religions. 

Starting on my dad's side, his father Amos Hoog was a ordained Church of God Holiness Minister, I never had the pleasure in hearing him preach or his views, for I was barely 2 when he died, but I do know, he did many good things, the way God would have wanted it. His wife (my grandma) Alice Ledbetter Hoog was an ordained and active Four Square Minister, she even founded the first Four Square Church in the Joplin, Missouri area near Stapleton Village. In her life she had attended L.I.F.E Bible College in Los Angeles, Ca. and Oral Roberts In Tulsa, Ok. 

She never lost her faith in God and she even smiled while dying of cancer and said that God had his reasons for everything, she never blamed God or lost faith! Also on my dad's side of the family, his mom's (Alice) father George W. Ledbetter was an ordained and active Southern Baptist and a police Chaplain for the Wichita, Ks. Police Dept. My dad himself, Robert D. Hoog Sr. is an ordained Non-Denominational, he does not practice as a minister but he has always ministered to people through music for the Lord gave him a powerful voice that even helped him to overcome a speech impairment and to graduate high school. Alot of people have even said that I was gave his musical talents. Let's switch sides now to my mom's family. Her father Jack L. Vinyard was an ordained Non-Denominational Minister, he never lead a congregation of his own, but his love for God was none the less! 

He maintained his faith through the Korean War and even had his shoulder shot off and re-attached and never blamed God!  Instead he told all back home how he and his platoon had saw Jesus save them! He taught all of his grandkids that no matter the sins of your past, that he and God shared the same belief; forgiveness and that he and God loves all his children. When time came for him to live in eternity with his son he missed so badly and God he never shed one tear of pain and talked about the man who was coming to see him in his room. 

The night he left we all saw from across the street a man in his room, we believe that man was Jesus or his son Jackie. Now that's about all the ministers in my family but to be very honest, all my family has a strong devotion for God. My mom is a Pentecostal from the P to the L so to speak and her mom was just a down right bred in the blood Christian. My brother is a Universal Life Church Minister the same as I, he is even the one who made me aware of the church's existence.

I guess to break down what actually I am, is a Pentecostal, Four Square and Nazarene Jesus freak! As of now I am just starting out, so my studies come first, for it says; "Study to show yourself approved unto God." 2 Timothy 2:15. So I haven't really performed any services as of now. When I was younger though before the ministry, my grandma Jennie S. Vinyard had a heart attack on her farm south of Joplin, Mo, she went for some time with no oxygen, while my dad gave her mouth to mouth to keep her alive. When she arrived at the hospital they told us she had brain damage and would probably never wake up, so with my family's urging and my grandma's believing in my power of prayer, I took her hand in the hospital and told her, "Grandma it's Jesse I'm going to pray with you now and when I'm done you wake up, OK?" So all in the room bowed their heads and I prayed to God with all my heart and when I was done I said, "Grandma wake up now, I did my part." Sure enough there was her eyes wide open and that day even the doctor cried. Though she was a bit incoherent we all enjoyed four more wonderful years with her. So I suppose that's my only performance as of now. 

I truly believe that becoming a part of the Universal Life Church has strengthened me and my faith in God. It has also made me better at forgiving and walking away from a conflict rather than using anger! Just as soon as my classes are through the seminary are finished, I plan to become a full time minister, as well as be a police chaplain. Well I guess to close up this page in my life in this book of fine minister's, I will tell you all a story that happened when I was homeless. I was around twelve and homeless in my hometown of Joplin, Missouri. We were hungry and broke so we went to the local Salvation Army when we had no money for food. Outside the building on a super hot July or August day a homeless man had no shirt or shoes on his skinny body, had went there for some help. 

Rather than helping him with clothes as he obviously needed they wouldn't let him in there for food or clothes but they took him a plate and made him stay in the hot alley. The plate of food looked like they was feeding a dog and it really upset me. My family and I was eating in the car. He went to go in the place to ask for more and they pushed him back out and told him NO! I got so upset at them I could of bit a bullet in two for there was only about five others there for supper and they were about to close so quantity shouldn't have been an issue. I said to the man, "Wait a minute" and I ran in there and asked them for food to take home to my brother. They gave me three buckets of food and I went outside. I gave that guy seconds on food and took off my shirt I was wearing and gave it to him. I told him, "God Loves You!" 

And before leaving he asked my mom for a cigarette and my Mom gave him one and he lit it but he never took one drag of it not once! He rode off and we pulled off to ask him if he needed a ride cause after all he was on a bike and it was very hot. When we turned the corner he wasn't there, he wasn't even a half block away when we took off. He was just totally gone when we got up there where he had turned just seconds before. I think it was a test of God that he was an Angel!  Thank you all for reading my page. I pray it has been pleasing to you all and some how inspired you!

Thanks and God Bless you,
Rev. Jesse L. Hoog

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.  
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Online Ordination

Two Universal Life Church ministers walked into a bar....

Many of my Bunny with a Toolbelt fans know that I'm also an ordained minister who has helped eight of my closest friends legally tie the knot over the past decade and a half. I met local minister Steve Sharp when he and his wife bought one of my pieces at Crafty Wonderland. He has performed ceremonies for many couples in the Portland area for the past few years, and I thought he'd be an excellent subject for an interview......or if you've simply are curious about what Reverends talk about when they're off duty:

BWAT: Hey Steve--thanks for agreeing to do an interview on my blog. My first question for you is: "What led you to become a wedding officiant?"

SS:I've always liked the idea of being part of such a positive celebration, and so I became ordained through the Universal Life Church in 1996. I started to put the word out that I was able to legally marry people, and I got the chance to perform my first ceremony when my daughter recommended me to her best friend. We held the ceremony in a park on the banks of the Columbia River on a beautiful June day, and I found the experience to be immensely rewarding. I was hooked!

My next ceremony was the backyard wedding of one of my wife's co-workers. They initially viewed marriage as "just a piece of paper" that they needed to "make it legal". After the ceremony, however, the groom made a tearful speech describing how his eyes had been opened to the spiritual bond he now felt between him and his wife. Reverend Steve was on his way!

BWAT: Tell me about the Universal Life Church and what you like about
their philosophy.

SS: Although I am a very spiritual person, I do not feel a particularly deep connection with any single organized religion. Rather, there are elements of many different religions which resonate with me. This is what I like about the Universal Life Church philosophy. They want you to pursue your spiritual beliefs - whatever they may be - without interference from any outside agency, including government or church authority. Their mantra (if you will) is "Do only that which is right", and they believe that every person has the natural right - and the responsibility - to peacefully determine what is right.


BWAT: What's your process for working on a ceremony with a couple?

SS: After the initial contact through my website - aBeautifulCeremonyNW.com - or WeddingWire.com, I schedule a time and place for our first meeting. I also email the couple a questionnaire so that I'll have all the basic details (venue, date and time of the wedding, etc.) in front of me. At our meeting, I will go over the details with the couple to make sure we're on the same page and then we'll talk about what kind of ceremony they have in mind. We talk about the tone of the ceremony (religious, spiritual, secular,) and what kind of "inner ceremonies" (roses, sand, candles, etc.) they may desire as well as elements such as parental honoring that they might want me to include.

I then compose a first draft of the ceremony based on our conversation and email that to them for approval. If they have any changes, additions or deletions, I will rewrite the ceremony and submit the revised version to them. This usually becomes the final version of the ceremony.


BWAT: What's the most unusual wedding ceremony you ever officiated?

SS: There have been some strange requests over the years, but I think the most unusual setting would have to be the wedding I performed aboard a moving steam train in the winter of 2009. It was about 14 degrees that day, but the bride still bravely wore a low cut wedding dress. The passenger car we were in lurched from side to side as we made our way down the track, but everybody took it in stride and the ceremony was one of the most upbeat and happy ones I've experienced.


BWAT: How do you choose what to wear when you're "at work?"

SS: I always ask the couple what they prefer, and they almost always opt for a dark suit.


BWAT: My biggest occupational hazard is being sentimental. Do you get
wrapped up in the magnitude of what you're doing and choke up while
officiating?

I've been known to get a little misty, but I never allow myself to really get choked up. After all, I am there to perform the ceremony on their special day and I would never forgive myself if I let my emotions diminish their experience in any way!

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Thanks Steve for letting me into your world! You can find more about Steve's techniques in the FAQ section of his website A Beautiful Ceremony NW.

Posted by Hilary Pfeifer 

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To ordain yourself with the Universal Life Church, for free, for life, right now, click on the Free Online Ordination link.

Rev. Long created the ULC seminary site to help ministers learn and grow their ministries. The Seminary offers a huge catalog of materials for ministers of the Universal Life Church. 

 

Ordained Minister

ULC Nigerian Minister: Danjummai

Universal Life Church

 

My real name is Ahmad. My father’s name is Umar. My grandfather’s name is Abdullahi. I was born Friday, 16^Th, 1965 at Unguwar Shanu a Northern Kaduna suburb in the country Nigeria . I am a Muslim. My father died when I was young. Corporal Umaru Madagali died while receiving medical attention at the 44-Army Reference Hospital Kaduna after the Nigeria ’s Civil War which is known to be the war of the Unity of Nigeria. My mother’s name is Aisha. She hails fro Gora, Kano State . She raised me up, jointly with our guardian, Late Hajiya Ladin Basharu Argungu who was the financier of my early education.

There is nothing special about me. May be that I have a good memory of things spanning from when I was supposed to be a kid – things from when I was three years of age. When my father died late 1972, my family, customary of our tradition, tried to hide the news to me. When I asked why people were crying through out the day and that my mum said nothing about visiting my father at the hospital, my mother said “We’ll go to the hospital together next day.” I knew she was lying. I also knew that my father was no more. The period of the death of my father sharpened my curiosity on the matter of Afterlife. I remember when within that period we were taught letter writing in school and it occurred to me to write my father a letter where he was in what I later understood to be the limbo. Of course I had my frustration with the mailing address I was to use. I also understood how impossible it was to physically communicate with the dead. But I still went ahead to write and post my letter. I remember how silly I felt when I went to post the unaddressed letter which I knew would get stuck at the post office. I remember the body of my letter which reads: “Dear Father, how are you?  I hope you are fine.  I write to ask how you are doing.” That was my first shot on the controversial question of Afterlife, and interestingly, I dreamed of my father the night I posted my letter that he visited and took me out to a nice place and back.

There is nothing much in my adult life either.  I grew knowing that I did all sorts of low-level youthful experimentation. That was during and after my secondary education in 1983. The only credit that could probably be given to my minor-life could be the awareness of the implications of my actions. What I had was a very probing mind and perhaps the reason why I keep craving for new acquaintances or experiences, and probably why I find it easy to adapt to new or challenging situations. I used to be fond of drinking and all sorts of smoking. I remember the New Year eve of 1985. I was in a bar drinking to the approaching year with a close-friend when it occurred to me to stop drinking and engaging in things that hamper spiritual growth. We prayed to God in our drunken state and luckily my prayer was answered and I became straightened. This quite unusual touch of God on sinners made me increased my curiosity about God. I was brought up to think of sinners as the enemies of God who do not deserve His mercy. But as I later became conversant with the Qur'an I came to know that "the mercy of God encompasses all."

 

By the year 1988, I was a complete devotee with great sympathy to the cause of the late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, plunging myself into the arena of religious or world politics, and was soon to realize afterward, after the demise of the Imam that “God is more than the Heavens and Earth can contain.” I therefore set my search beam inwards again. I devoted time searching God in the Spirit. Islam is a spiritual religion but erroneous interpretations, like in the rest of the Paths, had turned it otherwise. A Muslim must believe in God, All Revealed Books, Prophets, Angels, Jinns (Spirits), Destiny and Afterlife. I had a great fancy for stories about the spirits. Interactions between Spirits and Mankind had begun from time immemorial. A whole Chapter dealing with the idiosyncrasies of the Spirits is featured in the Holy Qur’an. Sufi or Spiritual Scholars had also rendered works on this subject. Such works became my daily companions and before time my eyes began opening to the unusual occurrence around me. I used to come back home from work and find burning incense in my room or the odor of pleasant perfumes. There was a night I came back and felt the presence of a female entity in the room. There was a time I traveled out and when back late at night realized I had forgotten my keys where I visited. I was about breaking the door but something in my mind forbade me and made me stroll outside for a little while. When back I found the keys put at the step of my door. I gradually became used to my hidden friends and worked earnestly towards formalizing our relationship. The harder I worked the faster my eyes and dream sensors were opened, and when I was able to clearly see I was fully enrolled in the Batini (Hidden) School where I did my Masters and PhD - believe it or not.

 I do remember the early days of my studies when I wanted to see the spirits with my physical eyes. I did my supplication and went to sleep. I was awoken by a tap on my shoulder and when I opened my eyes it was unbelievable. I found myself lying in a crowded beach. I sat up and watched the amazing scenario for minutes before going back to sleep. I also remember when I was eager to memorize all the faces I saw and voices I heard and my dream aid told me to just "pay attention". That was how I was taught healing and matters of the Kingdom. If I have work to do I just pop into the small world and come back with solutions – simple.

 

I began my healing career late 2001. Healing is cool, if not for the lonely times. When you are gifted (or ESP) you find you are lonely in the midst of a crowd. I find the Internet accommodating when I am resting. This, interestingly, was how I found online forums such as the University Of Metaphysical Sciences of which I am member and subsequently the Universal Life Church Forums which are invaluable fountains of enlightenment, where we of like minds meet to rub minds.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.  
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Online Ordination

Universal Life Church - Wedding - Judi Ketteler and Allen Raines’ August wedding will not be traditional by any stretch of the imagination.

The Madeira couple’s ceremony will take place at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal rather than a church. They won’t have bridesmaids or groomsmen because they didn’t want to choose among many family members and friends and risk making someone feel left out.

And performing the ceremony will be their friend Tim Linneman, a 35-year-old market researcher from Glendale who recently became an ordained minister through the Modesto, Calif.-based Universal Life Church with little more than a click of a mouse.

“We’re not religious at all, and we didn’t want to do the wedding in a church,” said 32-year-old Ketteler, a freelance writer and editor. “And we didn’t really want to go to a courthouse and have a judge do it. We wanted someone who knows us.”

The Universal Life Church will ordain just about anyone, free of charge, after they fill out a form on any of the church’s Web sites and click “Ordain me.”

It sounds like a joke, but the church is real – and growing fast.

The Universal Life Church has more active, registered ministers in Greater Cincinnati – more than 230 – than any other denomination except the Catholic Church, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. That number is triple what it was in 2003. (Kentucky does not maintain a registry of ministers, but 65 Universal Life Church ministers in Kentucky have asked to be listed on the church’s Web site.) About 70 percent of people who become ordained through the Universal Life Church do so for the same reason Linneman did – to officiate at weddings, said Universal Life Church President Andre Hensley.

Ketteler and Raines asked Linneman, Raines’ friend of 15 years, to do the honors after attending Linneman’s own wedding last year. Linneman and his wife, Erin, used a friend who is a Universal Life Church minister and a friend who was a seminary student to perform their ceremony.

“I thought it went great. I loved having our friends involved,” Tim Linneman said. “My family is mainly Catholic and so are most of my friends, so I’ve been to a lot of very long weddings. I think people appreciated that it was pretty short.”

Ketteler and Raines said their families understand their decision.

“No one freaked out,” Ketteler said. “My family might be happier if we were doing it a little bit differently, but they also respect that this is what we want to do.”

Andre Hensley’s late father, Kirby Hensley, officially incorporated the Universal Life Church with the state of California in 1962, offering free, lifetime ordainments with no questions asked. The Web site launched in 1995, and today there are about 18 million ordained Universal Life Church ministers worldwide, Hensley said.

The church ordains 8,000-10,000 ministers every month through several different Web sites and the mail, advertising itself largely through word of mouth.

“Couples just want to have it their own way, rather than go to a minister they don’t already know,” Hensley said.

Church staff members have denied ordainment requests, if they believe someone has submitted a false name or has filled out the form on a lark, Hensley said. But they approve most applications.

“We’re like every other church,” Hensley said. “We have to take things on faith.”

People seek ordination through the Universal Life Church for all different reasons. Vicki Whitewolf-Marsh, who recently moved from Cincinnati to Alabama, became a Universal Life Church minister so she could pray with other Native Americans in Cincinnati-area hospitals and perform smudging ceremonies, which involve burning herbs for purification purposes.

Whitewolf-Marsh, 50, said some hospitals told her that she couldn’t perform the ceremony unless she was a clergyperson.

“This way, I can hold my head up and say I’m with a religious community and I’m a minister,” said Whitewolf-Marsh, who also has performed weddings and a funeral.

Some Universal Life Church ministers have turned their new titles into part-time jobs.

Joyce Engelman of Union, Ky., who operates the Big Bone Landing, Marina & Campground, has performed about 40 weddings at the marina since she got ordained about two years ago because she thought it would be fun to officiate at weddings.

“Usually people I marry, they’re older, or they’re younger and pregnant,” said Engelman, 57, who charges $50 per wedding. “And a lot of people been married a couple of times and they’ve already had the frills, so honestly they don’t care.”

Sam Lapin, a speech communication professor at Northern Kentucky University, became ordained five years ago for the same reason.

The 43-year-old Burlington resident markets himself by leaving business cards at county clerks’ offices and popular ceremony locations. Lapin, whose fees start at $100 per ceremony, has performed more than 40 weddings in the past two years for couples who aren’t part of any organized religion or who are planning nontraditional ceremonies.

That’s why 40-year-old Melissa Sibert and 43-year-old Steve Huber of Amelia contacted Lapin. Sibert says they struggled to find a minister for their July 7 wedding on the 18th hole of the golf course at Belterra Casino Resort & Spa, where they’ve celebrated birthdays and other special occasions, until the casino gave them Lapin’s name. It will be the third marriage for each.

“A lot of people won’t give someone a chance if they don’t know you,” Sibert sad. “(Lapin) put together the whole ceremony and e-mailed it to me, and I cried. It was really special.”

Lapin hopes there will be more unique weddings.

“I do have an Elvis outfit,” said Lapin, who also teaches a course on the history of rock ‘n’ roll. “I’m hoping to make use of that some day.”

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free  and lasts for life, so use the button.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. Many have been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and can attest to its ongoing growth and change.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Becoming a Minister

Becoming a ULC Minister

Becoming a Pastor with ULC or anyone else, was not my first desire. Back in the early 90’s when I first started an on-line ministry directed toward the Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered community, I wanted to find a mainline Pastor for the ministry. But even though a couple did join the ministry, they were not willing to become its Pastor. I waited several years searching for a willing Pastor, but since there were none, I began looking into being ordained by some church myself.

You would think that churches would want to do whatever they could to spread the “Good News”, but you soon find that with most, it is their bank account they are looking to spread. If you are willing to pad their account with thousands of dollars, they will hand you a piece of paper saying you are a Pastor. But even then, you must preach according to their doctrine, or they take their worthless paper back!

The last choice I had, though maybe it should have been the first, was to find one of the internet churches who are willing to ordain without attending their seminary, or paying a lot of money. Even with this choice, most insisted you preach and run your church according to their doctrine. One of the few exceptions, was ULC I may not agree with everything ULC teaches, but my church (internet ministry for now) is my own. No one tells me what doctrine I must have, or what I must preach, or even who I can marry. This is one of the very few churches where you can run your church according to what you know to be the Truth.

          So it is here, with the “Universal Life Church” that I came to be ordained. Though I still believe that folks should be ordained to the office which they were called, whether that is Apostle, Prophet, Pastor, Teacher or Evangelist; for now there is still only the one office recognized by the churches and the government, that of Pastor. Maybe one day they will wake up, and a man or woman will be able to be ordained to the office which they were called. 

          For now we will all become Pastors and then continue on with the work we were called to do. For me, that is to reach out to those who are where I once was, and to those who have been rejected by the church for whatever reason. Until such time as I can open a physical church, it will remain an internet ministry. But at all times, it will stay totally separate from the government, even though that means no non profit org. or legal corp. status. A place where the Truth is taught, and God’s word is followed.

Pastor Glory Christensen, (2002)

International Fivefold Ministry &

Sierra Nevada Transgendered Christians.

Jamestown California, U.S.A. 

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.  
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Universal Life Church

Universal Life Church


My Call to Ministry

My call to ministry came thirty years ago when I was still serving in the United States Air Force in Colorado Springs, but my spiritual journey started long before.  I was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and was educated in their school system through college.  I was planning to follow the family tradition by becoming a Seventh-day Adventist minister as my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been.  Fortunately, I entered active military service in 1971 during the Vietnam conflict and volunteered for duty in Southeast Asia.  Naturally, to honor my wishes, I was sent to Alaska.  There, I began reading about Eastern philosophy and studying the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  I also converted to the Catholic Faith, largely because I had been told as a child that Roman Catholics had torture chambers in their churches, preparing to torture Seventh-day Adventists, so I set out to find the torture chambers.  Instead, I made some wonderful friends and discovered an inspirational form of worship.  As the years passed, I continued to study Eastern religion while I attended Mass every Sunday.

In 1975, I was transferred to Colorado Springs to close down Ent Air Force Base and move on to Peterson Air Force Base.  My first summer there, I had a training and was partnered with a Buddhist, who invited me to attend his worship.  I did, they fed me, and I stayed for two years, while continuing to attend Mass every Sunday.  Practicing Buddhism showed me a new path to the experience of God, and though I decided that I needed to explore my own tradition further, I never came all the way back.  I feel that all religions have something to teach us.  During my transition from Buddhism, I returned to a Protestant church, as I never fully accepted the concept of transubstantiation .   I experienced what I considered a call to ministry in 1978 and returned to Northern California to attend Seminary and begin service as a Methodist minister.

I served a church for about eight years, but did not like being told where I would live and what my politics would be.  It almost felt as though I never left the Air Force, so I left active ministry, still filling in as pulpit supply and doing weddings and funerals as requested.  I am currently working as a history teacher and still do pulpit supply for Lutheran and Methodist churches.  I am an active member of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church and serve on the church board.  I teach adult Sunday School and just finished an eleven week series on World Religions using Professor Huston Smith's book as a textbook.  On September 3, 2007, I was formally ordained by the Universal Life Church.  I support religions freedom and believe that the ULC provides an incredible forum for interfaith fellowship.

I am currently enjoying my classes at the ULC Seminary and plan to continue with my ministry as a main stream protestant minister.   I do not intend to return to parish ministry, but certainly enjoy pulpit supply and performing weddings. 

Rev. R Helmerson

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Online Ordination

There is one question following a summer break that can never be avoided. It is asked in both elementary schools and on college campuses. The typical question, "What did you do over summer break," usually gets typical answers. The student maybe took a vacation, went to the beach, worked or sometimes did nothing at all.

One UNCW student, however, did something different with his break. When asked the inevitable question, he was able to respond that he became an ordained minister.

Senior Stephen Honeycutt now holds the title of the Reverend Stephen Honeycutt. Through the Universal Life Church, he is now an ordained minister that can officiate weddings, baptisms, and other ceremonies.

Honeycutt is not the typical minister. Besides being 21 years old and a college student, he is an English major in the Professional Writing program instead of a philosophy and religion major. He also plans on attending law school after graduation.

"I don't think I will be using my ordainment in my career," Honeycutt said.

Honeycutt said he became an ordained minister so he would be able to officiate his brother's wedding. He also stated that he looks forward to his brother being able to do the same for him. Neither Honeycutt nor his brother is currently engaged, however.

"I would love to officiate any of my friends' weddings too, if they asked," Honeycutt added.

To become an ordained minister, all Honeycutt had to do was apply online through the Universal Life Church. It took around 48 hours for his ordainment to become official. There are no special qualifications, and ordainment is free of charge.

"According to the ULC, 'everyone is equal-the same level of greatness is enjoyed by all.' That's why there was nothing special that I had to do," Honeycutt explained.

The Universal Life Church, which is non-denominational, does offer online training courses. They also have ministerial supplies such as wedding certificates and ID cards that are available for purchase through the Web site.

"The whole experience has been excellent! I recommend this to everyone who is interested," Honeycutt said.

by Amber Hughes

 

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free  and lasts for life, so use the button.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. Many have been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and can attest to its ongoing growth and change.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Online Ordination

You can order a dizzying array of goods and services over the Internet today. Books, music, computers, dating services, stocks, automobiles — it’s all a click away. Religion is no different than any other aspect of human life in this respect. 

Everyone — from the largest established churches to the most exotic emergent religions — offers various ministries right over the Internet. But one unique church takes Internet ministry to the most radical extreme. The Universal Life Church will ordain anyone to the ministry for free, for life and with no regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or theological position. And they’ll do it online.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian, Satanist, Kabbalist, Wiccan, atheist, or a creator of your own “homemade” religion. The ULC, from its international headquarters in Modesto, Calif., and its Online Seminary in Elk Grove, CA ., welcomes all.

It’s no joke. ULC ministers have the legal authority to perform weddings and funerals, to start their own congregations, and to take advantage of many of the fringe benefits that priests, rabbis and ministers of other religious organizations enjoy.

The ULC actually pre-dates the cyber-era. This unique denomination was established in 1962 by Kirby J. Hensley, an illiterate former Baptist from North Carolina.

Fed up with the hypocrisy and dogmatism of the mainstream churches, Hensley began ordaining anybody — without question — for free. Full page articles about him in Time (21 Feb. 1969) and Newsweek (5 May 1969) added to his status as the Robin Hood of American religion.

Hensley’s church has spent nearly four decades fighting those who have challenged its legitimacy. Supported by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, however, the ULC has far more victories than defeats under its belt.

The ULC s success has, unfortunately, enticed some unethical individuals to seek ordination. Some have attempted to use their Universal Life Church credentials for such illegal activities as setting up phony tax shelters. But mainstream churches are not immune to such abuses, either.

I think it’s unfair to condemn the ULC as a whole for the misdeeds of a few. In fact, the worldwide community of Universal Life Church ministers and congregations is probably the most diverse and interesting religious body I have ever encountered.

This church includes ministers like Anton de Beer of Universal Life Church of South Africa, whose church is a progressive voice in a country where mainstream religion was once complicit in the horrors of apartheid.

The ULC also includes ministers like Vance Williams of Texas, a committed Christian who lives with lupus and mixed connective tissue disease. The Universal Life Church seems to have opened up a unique ministry opportunity for this disabled man.

This denomination also provides home for Pagans, Wiccans, and other religious minorities who have no home in “mainstream” churches. The Rev. Cristiana Gaudet of the ULC of Putnam, Connecticut offered me the following insight on this aspect of the ULC:

“As a Wiccan/Pagan, our ordinations and initiations are not legal credentials. While it has taken me years to achieve the knowledge I have, I need to be legally recognized as a minister, and therefore need the ULC ordination.”

Other ULC ministers are on the cutting edge of the ongoing fight for First Amendment rights. Consider Charles Oren Anderson, an incarcerated ULC minister at the Southern Desert Correctional Center in Nevada. In 1993, he sued prison director Ron Angelone for the right to lead services.

The ULC even provides a home for college students and others who want to set up their own idiosyncratic or “joke” religions. One of my favorite such churches is “The Church of the Almighty Revealed in Biotechnology,” founded by Ram Samudrala.

Ram is doing research in computational genetics at Stanford University. Since he is a “staunch atheist,” his religion is grounded in computers and science.

The ULC reached a turning point in its colorful history, when founder Hensley died. His passing inspired Wren Walker, of the Wiccan site witchvox.com, to eulogize Bishop Hensley as “a visionary and truly a man ahead of his time.”

I agree with Walker, and I have no doubt that the church that Hensley built will continue to grow and prosper as the new millennium approaches. And who knows, maybe I’ll apply for ordination one of these days. When I do, you’re all invited to join my congregation.

Michael Mazza supports your right to freedom of religion, and hopes that you will be so kind as to return the favor.

By Michael Mazza 

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Ordination with the Free Online Ordination button.

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Become ordained for free and for life

Universal Life Church

You can become an ordained minister right now online by going to the Universal Life Church website. All it takes is to fill out a simple form, and you can be taken into a world where you will be a legal minister for life, for free, and without stepping foot into seminary school. All you have to do to become a minister online is head to the online website for Universal Life Church, fill out a very simple form, and you are on your way to performing marriages, officiating funerals, and ministering the gospel according to your soul’s devices. If you have made the decision to become an ordained minister online, the website is http://www.ulcseminary.org, where you can do a lot more than take up the cloth.

To become an ordained minister online through the Universal Life Church of Modesto, California, you first should look into the laws of your state to see if any online ordainment is legal. After all, most people choose to become an ordained minister online so that they can officiate as a minister. Every state law varies slightly on who can perform a marriage ceremony. Some states, like Indiana, have more relaxed rules on marriage stating that any ordained minister can perform a marriage ceremony.

After you have made the decision to become an ordained minister online, you must complete an online form and submit it. Afterward, you must wait for your review by the staff of ULC to be completed, and then they email you with the status of your ordination within a few days. When you become an ordained minister online, you are not ordained by a computer or by the website; a live person ordains you. Once you are ordained on the ULC website, you are ordained for life.

By Scott Baker

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.  
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

 

Becoming a minister

Bio for Universal Life Church

My whole life has been interwoven with the art of healing.  Over 45 years in the comprehensive medical field and now in alternative “energy” medicine as a practitioner and instructor.

Even as a youngster, I would pretend I was a nurse or teacher and dream of working with the sick and the dis-ease process of the body.  My religious background was mixed.  My Roman Catholic grandfather and my Methodist grandmother were very much an influence in my young years.  I married my childhood sweetheart Fred and had two great boys, Fred and Todd.  His career consisted of many corporate transfers resulting in the tasting of many churches and different theological beliefs.  But I always found God wherever I moved.  I learned later, God has always been in my heart and soul and knew me even before I was born.  My healing gifts were given to me and it was my soul’s journey to find my earthly path to use them.

God combined my love for healing and my love for God’s hurting children and gave me a Healing Ministry which I choose to call “Touch of Healing”.  It is the practice of using our hands and heart to do hands-on-healing for family, friends, animals and clients.  It is the same method Jesus used over 2000 years ago.  When I discovered I could get my Bachelor Degree in Energy Medicine, I completed it in Oct. 2007 at age 66. 

I also have a great love for the Native Americans and visit the Navaho and Hopi reservations whenever I can.  We share a love for ceremony and ritual to honor the Great Creator.  To pray the prayers of gratitude for harmony and balance of mother earth and to heal the people and animals who walk the earth.

God’s sense of humor is wonderful.  When I set up my practice, I was told that in Texas we could not “touch” anyone unless we were a massage therapist, a medical professional, or a minister.  I had my degree as a medical professional, but I thought, “I better cover myself against malpractice and become a minister”.  I applied to ULC.  The day…. The very day… that I received my accreditation as a minister…. I had three new clients call.  Guess what?  They all had “spiritual issues” and wanted to see me.  I really had to laugh.  It was as though God said… you got the paper honey, now you will have to step up to the plate and work for it.  I can feel the big smile on God’s face.

I marvel at the framed ULC certification hanging in my office.  How did this all happen?

My dreams as a young child have been fulfilled; I am a missionary for the Lord, and also get to do what I love most.  A Healing practitioner and teacher in Houston, Texas.  What a joy it is to tell my story and to tell how much God loves his children.  Yep, we are God’s kids and Abba loves us.

Rev. Patricia Fleury

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church  and wedding materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar