@MarkNeu, @Jewels_Vern - UU congregations are intentionally highly variable. I’m sorry if the congregations you visited weren’t comfortable for you, but that’s kind of a predictable downside of purposefully welcoming nearly everyone. You might not have a UU church/fellowship/association nearby that will work for you.
The first congregation my family joined was a fellowship, very very atheistic (hey, it’s a college town) and people were outspoken about their dislike of “god language” and “new age crystal nonsense”. Our current congregation is a church, much more friendly to theists like me, and invocations of (completely undefined) divinity are commonplace. (I always say we’ve got the coolest atheists ever, because they cheerfully put up with my pantheism and with the mystic types.)
Anyway, it’s not a 100% predictor, but if a group of UUs call themselves a “church” they are probably comfortable with the language of theism (although they will have atheist members). If they call themselves a “fellowship” they most likely do not have a paid minister (although they might have paid child care attendants, musicians, cleaning staff, etc.) and they may not even have a formal weekly “service”. The rest of the (many) names mean even less - if they call themselves a “Society” it’s probably a nod to the Quakers (UUs and Quakers work together well, he said rather understatedly) but that doesn’t necessarily mean they practice radical non-violence or don’t sing on Sundays. They are all unique communities so you kind of have to reach out in order to see what they are like.
@zakbos, welcome and good luck!
