Welcome to the Free Congregation of Sauk County

We are a religious community made up of people from diverse backgrounds and different faith traditions who have chosen to embrace some common principles, among them the freedom to engage in our own personal search for truth and meaning.

We require of no one a profession of theological belief or disbelief; rather, we seek to continually examine and clarify our basic principles and world views.

We view religion as a question to be explored rather than as an answer to be received or revealed.

We believe that ethical behavior and action is the only reasonable course for humans to pursue; consistent with that belief, we are united in our conviction that only by helping others and seeking to improve the world can we realize our full humanity.

Our open approach to religion follows from our unique weaving of two liberal religious traditions.  This weaving is always in process; we are an evolving religious community, and our emphasis and interests change over the years.

We are a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. We belong to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), a liberal religious organization dedicated to a non-dogmatic approach to religion.  Our congregation affirms the seven principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Justice, equality and compassion in human relations
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations
• A free and responsible search for meaning
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Picture courtesy of Reece Donihi.

Our commitment to Unitarian Universalism is reflected in our Second and Fourth Sunday programs. On these Sundays, we follow a UU order of service.

We are a Free Thought congregation with origins in the German Freie Gemeinden (‘free congregations’ or ‘free societies’).  When liberal reform efforts, both political and religious, failed in Germany after 1848, German liberals immigrated to the United States where they founded numerous free thought societies and congregations, most of them in the northeast and upper mid-west.  One such German liberal, Eduard Schroeter, helped to found this congregation in 1852 and became its first Speaker (leader and teacher).  Ours is the last remaining Free Congregation in North America.

Our commitment to the Freie Gemeinde tradition is reflected in our First Sunday (Spiritual Reflection Hour) and Third Sunday (Free Thought Forum) programs.  Our current Speaker, Andrew Kerr, is not a minister but rather a layperson called by the community to lead our exploration of religion.