Ordination and ULC Clergy
As of early 2009, ULC was sending out between 8,500 and 10,000 ordination certificates each month. Between 1962 and 2008, it sent out almost 18 million, worldwide.
The ULC Headquarters holds weekly church services in a historic church building in Modesto. ULC ministers are authorized by the church to officiate weddings and funerals, perform baptisms or verbal baby naming ceremonies, hold services (also called meetings), and other sacraments and rites regularly performed by ordained members of clergy and part of the particular belief system the minister represents. All ministers in the ULC are also authorized and encouraged to ordain others as ministers in the church. The ordaining minister informs the home church of the ordination, and the new minister's information is added to the official church records.
Many charter Universal Life churches have been launched which operate all manner of ministries, and which offer ordination via websites and on eBay, through which small fees for processing ordination certificates are often charged. Such small fees are permitted by the founding church's headquarters in order to to help cover the charter church's advertising and overhead expenses, and to generate revenue for its ministry.
Read more about this topic: Universal Life Church
Famous quotes containing the words ordination and/or clergy:
“Two clergymen disputing whether ordination would be valid without the imposition of both hands, the more formal one said, “Do you think the Holy Dove could fly down with only one wing?””
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“...I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by bribery. They will not need persuasion or bribery, if their hearts are with us; if they are not, we are better without them. It is idle to suppose that the kingdom of heaven cannot come on earth, without their cooperation.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)