If you are searching for a spiritual home that is guided by a quest for truth and meaning — not by a set creed or dogma — we invite you to discover Unitarian Universalism. We are a caring, open-minded religious community that encourages you to seek your own spiritual path. Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations are places where people gather to nurture their spirits and put ethics into action by helping to make our communities — and the world — a better place.

Join us in shaping meaning in our lives while growing a loving community. We are a welcoming congregation, and our facility is accessible to all.

Summit’s Vision Statement

Summit Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is a growing, caring, intergenerational congregation of diverse backgrounds embracing the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We are committed to promoting spiritual and personal growth, social justice, environmental awareness, and participation in the greater community.

Summit’s Mission Statement

“In spiritual community, we commit ourselves to building a compassionate, just and sustainable world.”

Summit Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is dedicated to providing a warm and welcoming community for people from all walks of life. Inspired by the wisdom available through study of the world’s religions, humanistic inquiry, and scientific discovery, we the members and friends of Summit pursue our mission, which is to build “a compassionate, just and sustainable world,” beginning with ourselves. Unitarian Universalism (UU) draws from many sources. While its historic roots lie in Jewish and Christian teachings, our fellowship is also shaped by earth-centered spirituality, Eastern religious traditions, and humanism. Learn more.

We practice and promote:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations
• Respect for the environment and the interdependent web of life
• The right of conscience and use of the democratic process
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all

At Summit:

• You are welcome, wherever you may be on your spiritual journey.
• Children are inspired to explore and learn, not indoctrinated.
• We extend the right to test all claims of truth, and encourage a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
• If you are curious about Unitarian Universalism please visit the pages on left side bar on this page, here you’ll learn more about UUs, what we believe, and more!

Summit Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is located in Santee, California, a small city east of San Diego. The Fellowship is 33 years old, first established in the city of San Diego and moving to Santee in 2006, with the specific intention of providing a “liberal beacon” in the East County area.

In addition to our minister, our current staff includes an Office Administrator, a Director of Religious Exploration and a Property Steward, all of whom are part-time employees.

The membership currently stands at 163 adults and our Religious Exploration programs serve approximately 30 children and youth in addition to this number.

Many of our community members (of all ages) are actively involved in social action, community outreach, and a number of independent projects that benefit the Summit Community and the community beyond Summit. The Fellowship supports several outreach programs, including the Interfaith Council of Churches shelter for people experiencing homelessness. For two weeks every year Summit provides lodging, meals, help with transportation and laundry and a multitude of small tasks that help our shelter guests to look for jobs, get back into housing, to regain their belongings, and in the meantime to spend their evenings with members of the Summit community, telling their stories on occasion, just finding a compassionate audience for the difficulties they experience living homeless.

Summit has a very active Social Justice in Action Committee which facilitates congregation-wide participation in a variety of causes, both short and long term.

The Fellowship sponsors struggling families during the Holiday season, collecting gifts for the children and adults. We collect and sign holiday greeting cards which we send out to a chosen group each year, either in connection with a recent social action focus or to local hospital/rehab centers. The congregation contributes supplies for hygiene packs for those living unsheltered, and backpacks for women being released from jail. We currently contribute to a clothes closet at a local church on a regular basis and have sent several carloads of clothing for women without the resources to buy clothes. We are working to make this clothing available to women who are being released from jail or who are currently homeless. Summit’s jail ministry also includes a regular meditation service for women in the local jail, a program that has grown over the past four years from a very few inmates attending to nearly thirty women at each session.

The Summit UUF congregation has also supported a nonprofit which works to improve conditions in several African villages with everything from new latrines and a new school, to chickens that provide a cash income. A recent book drive resulted in 30,000 schoolbooks being delivered to villages in Liberia, with some of the cost and much of the labor being donated by members of the congregation.

Congregation members share their knowledge and their resources on a regular basis, increasing our awareness of and involvement in a multitude of issues ranging from ethical food choices, to white privilege, to the issues that affect people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, the elderly. We are a Welcoming Congregation under the UUA’s program and we fly our rainbow flag proudly. We have a variety of social, educational, and support groups, among them two men’s spiritual groups, a women’s group, INDY (I’m Not Done Yet) and Freethinkers. Ten Covenant Groups meet monthly to discuss topics created by our minister and facilitators. These groups have been meeting since 2004.

Summit’s Religious Exploration (RE) program is a model for all UUA RE programs. The children and young people experience a creative and thoughtful curriculum that attracts young parents to Summit. It is one of the jewels in our community, largely as a result of the passion our Director of Religious Exploration exercises and the commitment of the many volunteers who give their time to teaching and helping with the preparation of materials, classes and programs.

We have music! Two professional pianists are a part of our community and play on Sundays. Our choir sings twice a month. We have more music in the form of concerts, as well as many talented musicians in the congregation who provide some wonderful musical interludes, even whole programs on occasion.

Summit offers a warm welcome to all seeking a spiritual home where:

Together hand in hand, in fellowship we stand,

Through laughter, tears, through hopes and fears

Together we shall stand

Words & Music: Ed Henry and Bob Moore