Who We Are

We are an energetic Unitarian Universalist community in Spokane, Washington, founded on a commitment to fully embrace Unitarian Universalist principles and welcome people of every background, orientation, and identity.

We are brave, curious, and compassionate thinkers and doers. Diverse in faith, ethnicity, history, and spirituality, we are united by a desire to make a difference for good. We have a strong history of standing on the side of love, justice, and peace.

Our Founding and Volunteer Roots

In July 2020, several dozen courageous volunteers came together to found the Inland Northwest Unitarian Universalist Community (INUUC) with a shared vision: to create a spiritually nourishing home that welcomes people of many faiths, backgrounds, histories, and spiritual paths.

From the beginning, INUUC was built, organized, managed, and sustained by volunteers. These founding volunteers not only created a new community; they also created a new way of organizing and sharing leadership. Rather than adopting a traditional hierarchical church structure, they intentionally developed a flat, volunteer-driven system of shared leadership based on self-governing consent circles and a Governing Circle.

This approach, grounded in sociocracy or dynamic governance, distributes authority throughout the community, encourages shared responsibility, and gives members a meaningful voice in decisions that affect the congregation. In doing this, the founders demonstrated that an all-volunteer church can be created and sustained through collaboration, collective commitment, and shared leadership rather than through a traditional top-down model.

Their pioneering work established INUUC as an example of volunteer-led sociocratic governance and offers a possible model for other Unitarian Universalist communities seeking a more participatory and collaborative way to organize themselves.

Our Spiritual Roots

INUUC has radical roots and a tradition of self-directed spiritual exploration. We think for ourselves and recognize that life experience deeply shapes what we believe.

We need not think alike to love alike.

We are a community of many beliefs and backgrounds: people with religious traditions and people with none, people who believe in God and people who do not, and people who embrace mystery. We are Unitarian Universalists and Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Humanists, Jews, Muslims, Pagans, atheists and agnostics, believers in God, and more.

Our diversity is not something we simply acknowledge—it is part of who we are. We come together because we share a desire to learn, grow, support one another, and make a positive difference in the world.

We welcome your whole self—your truths and doubts, your worries and hopes. Join us on this extraordinary journey of faith, community, and spiritual exploration. Get involved!

In April 2021, INUUC officially became a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).

Today, INUUC remains an all-volunteer congregation, carrying forward its founding vision of inclusion, shared responsibility, spiritual exploration, and positive impact in the wider community.

For more than 40 years, Unitarian Universalism has been at the forefront of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer inclusion. We welcome people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

If you have any questions, reach out to us at info@inuuc.org