This isn't an aggressive or defensive document, it's just that these days everything seems to need "fine print". This is an explanation of my own calling after much prayerful reflection this year, and I respectfully submit it this one time only in hopes of avoiding future extraordinary "diagnosis" thereof. The within is not intended to endorse or oppose any political candidate or party of any nature(s), nor should it be assumed any official(s) or candidate(s) even know of or endorse NPULC.
 
The official creed of Universal Life Church is: "Do the right thing". New Pathway Universal Life Church (NPULC) is moved to organize around the concept that temptations to arrive at what is right via dialectical, or philosophical, debates for or against This isn't an aggressive or defensive document, it's just that these days everything seems or between any religion(s) should be avoided to not diminish the purpose of celebrating worship together.
 
To start, most people (religious, agnostic, or atheist) attending NPULC will likely have one or more of the following interests: belief in a supernatural intelligent being or beings; belief in a superior intelligent being or beings; complex world view interpreting the significance of human life; belief in experience after death; moral code; belief that the moral code is sanctioned by a superior intelligent being or beings; an account of the nature of, origin of, and cure for evil; theodicy; prayer and ritual; sacred objects and places; revealed truths or interpretations of revelatory events; religious experience such as awe, mystical experience, revelations; deep, intense concern; institutionalized social sharing of one or more of the foregoing interests.
 
Some still hold that it is pedestrian, self-serving, and wholly impossible for an eclectic group of individual beliefs on religion to plausibly worship the same Creator; some say only a patent charlatan or illiterate could even speculate such a thing.
 
Yet, consider a man named Harvey G. Cox, known as an ordained Baptist minister, noted author, and Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity at Harvard University. In a 1993 treatise on Christianity for the book 'Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced By Preeminent Scholars From Each Tradition" (HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-067264-1), Mr. Cox asserted:
 
         "As Christians begin to recognize that God made a special covenant with
           the Jews at Sinai and that the same God also revealed himself in Jesus 
           Christ without annulling the earlier bond, it seems consistent to believe this
           same God could also reveal himself to Buddhists, Hindus, and others. What
           seems required of Christians is a measure of humility and a sharp awareness
           of the magnitude and mystery of God".
 
Upon such citation, it seems neither that NPULC invented a concept that a Creator accords diversity in same's perception by humanity, nor that NPULC must be laboring under a "dodge" or misconception, nor that NPULC is far-fringed or marginalized in believing diverse persons…including atheists…are sometimes drawn together for good in ways part of a single Creator's mysterious plan.
 
Universal Life Church of Modesto, California (ULC) ordains reverends into its actual own Church, as unpaid and self-sufficient clergy, each to the free limits of one's own lawful personal gifts, to preach and teach for the purposes by which one felt called to such  service, including but not limited to preaching the Gospels of Jesus Christ and a variety of rites, and including sacraments of baptism and marriage not limited to Christian tradition (but certainly as is lawful). ULC ministers may build their own congregations and do not tithe to the main or other ULC Churches, and ULC does not provide funds or share in other congregations' assets or holdings.
 
In relation to ULC ordination, and its value to the Creator, first there is the First Amendment to the USA Constitution; some insist government can nonetheless prescribe an ordination standard for all faiths and still not be establishing a State license. NPULC otherwise offers what the Vatican Catechism and Martin Luther opined as requisites in re ordination, they being among those seeing Jesus Christ as one form of the Creator and which have "passed official muster".
 
The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, adopted 1992 by Pope John Paul II, and appearing at the Vatican public website, states: "The laity can also feel called, or be in fact called, to cooperate with their pastors in the service of the ecclesial community, for the sake of its growth and life. This can be done through the exercise of different kinds of ministries according to the grace and charisms which the Lord has been pleased to bestow on them"(910); "…When the necessity of the Church warrants it and when ministers are lacking, lay persons, even if they are not lectors or acolytes, can also supply for certain of their offices, namely, to exercise the ministry of the word, to preside over liturgical prayers, to confer Baptism, and to distribute Holy Communion…"(903); "…The sacrament of Holy Orders communicates a "sacred power" which is none other than that of Christ. The exercise of this authority must therefore be measured against the model of Christ, who by love made himself the least and and the servant of all. The Lord said clearly that concern for his flock was proof of love for him"(1551); "No one has a right to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. Indeed no one claims this office for himself; he is called to it by God. Anyone who thinks he recognizes the signs of God's call to the ordained ministry must humbly submit his desire to the authority of the Church, who has the responsibility and right to call someone to receive orders. Like every grace this sacrament can be received only as an unmerited gift"(1578); and "Since it is ultimately Christ who acts and effects salvation through the ordained minister, the unworthiness of the latter does not prevent Christ from acting."(1584).
 
Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk whose Catholic-based belief system is today known as Lutheranism, in his 1520 'An Appeal to the Ruling Class of German Nationality as to the Amelioration of the State of Christendom', put all that this simpler way: "Every one who has been baptized may claim that he has already been consecrated priest, bishop, or pope, even though it is not seemly for any particular person to exercise the office. Just because we are all priests of equal standing, no one must push himself forward and, without the consent and choice of the rest, presume to do that for which we all have equal authority".
 
Any NPULC minister began with a concern for the universal Creator's entire global population, then approached ULC sincerely as a faith…ala Lutheranism, founded by a non-Bishopric baptized Christian in 1959…for ordination in response to the Creator's will known or unknown, and later ACCEPTED ordination given for being part of the Creator's plan as ULC authority discerned. Since a ULC minister must convoke all NPULC  services yet congregants bring their own peaceful catechisms or philosophies in support of universal worship, and NPULC has no agenda beyond simple worship and fellowship for humanitarian purposes, would a more complex hierarchy be needed to validate belief in transcendant universality of a Creator; is a more wordy catechism for handing on ULC faith even possible; do older faiths get to splinter beliefs and still be called valid unified faiths; are narrowly focused liberation theologies in older faiths more valid than one focused on a universal Creator?
 
The mission of NPULC therefore is to publicize its existence as a way for interested persons not to come and debate wherein they are different or similar as religious people, or as agnostics, but to offer whatever prayers as each sees fit for each other's and the world's spiritual well-being under a single Creator with a number of mysterious faces…as people similarly do during public moments of silence, only with the added dimension of belief we are all actually parts of the same Creator. NPULC does not require agnostics to adopt any faith in particular, and will permit atheists to speak provided…like religious congregants not allowed to compare themselves…atheists do not attack religion(s) or attempt explanatory reduction  thereof, but enjoying equal courtesy of religious atheists opine in the nature of what existed before the very first Big Bang anywhere, or what causes matter to generate from a void with no discernible beginning, if not a Creator; atheists and others may also freely offer any non-polemic philosophy they may have in regard to the purpose of existence.
 
NPULC will not endorse any religion or philosophy other than the universality of a Creator together with worship formats suggested by or through ULC. NPULC does not require a member or attendee to cease practicing a peaceful outside religion. NPULC will encourage attendees and  members to form committees as other traditional faiths have done, for customary attainment and upkeep of worship and meeting places, and for goodwill social events and humanitarianism in accordance with law. When in final organization, NPULC will have a Sole Director (as USA PATRIOT or similar contact) capable of appointing officers in lieu of meetings, and congregants will select amongst themselves as to any humanitarian lay committee(s).
 
As to birth control, abortion, and same-sex civil unions, NPULC recognizes that some faiths view such things as sins on grounds such acts per se "mock God"; NPULC for its part urges competent counseling in re anyone contemplating birth control or abortion , as well as marriage (to understand all aspects thereof); NPULC  believes that like divorce or incarceration, it is not the incidental spiritual sin that mocks creation, but the comprehensive intents of the inner heart or soul which defines what is spiritually intended…such things, and judgment thereon, are the province of the Creator alone. Thus, NPULC will not protest or obstruct laws on birth control, abortion, or civil unions, nor hold participants thereof in unforgiveable sin; NPULC also knows such issues are emotional and is prayerful for those of other faiths, agnostics and atheists…and said topics are common to ALL concerns.
 
Lastly, NPULC is not medieval…just as absolutely no exorcism would be done without both request AND the opinion of at least a dozen licensed psychiatrists unanimous no medical cause for something existed or a person would not be harmed, neither will NPULC permit unlawful conduct(s) known to it. Also, liberation theologies of every origin are out of bounds, insofar as same tend to demand, rather than cogently articulate, benefits in ways prejudicing rights of agnostics, atheists, and others to choose or failing to provide for them; and some are outright homicidal, as 9/11 and bombings of abortion clinics, as but two examples, have painfully demonstrated.
 
These then are the principles by which NPULC and heads of any committees shall abide. NPULC is an opportunity for people of goodwill to pray or speak before the universal Creator minus any intrigues or politics, as well as to identify and charitably assist with humanitarian issues in fellowship…in other words, to "do the right thing".
 
New Pathway Universal Life Church is dedicated first and foremost to the universal Creator, and also to the memory of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.