The short answer is: absolutely not. The Universal Life Church (ULC) is the world’s largest and most active online religious organization. To date, we have ordained over 20 million people around the world, and our ministers perform thousands of successful ceremonies each year – including many legally-binding wedding ceremonies.
ULC ordinations are legally recognized for the purposes of performing weddings across the United States, and we have even gone to court to defend our ministers' rights in the few areas where they have been challenged. So far, we have won every single one of those cases.
Is Ordination Via the Universal Life Church Legitimate?
Yes, it is legitimate! The Universal Life Church is a religious organization just like any other (albeit much more technologically advanced), and ministers who were ordained online by the Universal Life Church have the same rights and powers as ministers who were ordained into any other Church.
The Universal Life Church, in different forms and fashions, has been around since the late 1950s and has always maintained that anyone who feels so-called should have the ability to seek ordination and religious education by tearing down many of the institutional barriers that often prevented members of marginalized communities from accessing them.
How Is Online Ordination Legal?
We made a deliberate, considered decision to move our ordination process and many of the rest of our religious services online as we entered into the digital age. We’re extremely proud of all the work we’ve done to increase access to our Church and its resources by pioneering the intersection between faith and the internet.
In the United States, our Constitution protects the freedom of individuals to practice their own religion and the freedom of those religions to govern their own ceremonies and traditions.
We celebrate and embrace our unconventional history and our unconventional position among the pantheon of religions – but we don’t agree that being unconventional makes us illegitimate! We encourage you to explore the rest of this site to learn more about the ULC and what we believe.
Why Is ULC Ordination Free?
Becoming a professional minister through traditional avenues often requires years of study at a theological college, but not everyone has the time or resources to pursue such a path.
The result of this system, which has persisted for centuries, overwhelmingly places wealthy men (often white ones) into positions of power within faith communities while women and minorities are largely kept out of the club.
We believe that the path to becoming a minister should be an option open to everyone, regardless of their financial resources, gender, or race.
Faith is ultimately, regardless of the particulars, a deeply personal relationship, and our view is that anyone who feels so-called has the right to seek ordination and take charge of their own spiritual journey.
Can ULC Ministers Legally Officiate Weddings?
Yes! Ministers who were ordained online by the Universal Life Church are the same as ministers from any other church. The ULC has ordained more than 20 million ministers, so chances are that you’ve been to at least one wedding performed by a ULC minister in your lifetime, if not several!
Not only can ULC ministers legally officiate weddings… but we think they should.
Marriage is a sacred and spiritual bond between two connected hearts, and as such we believe it's all the more fitting that somebody who intimately knows and loves the couple, with whom they are spiritually entwined, is given the opportunity to solemnize the ceremony.
An individual like this is likely far better suited to perform the wedding than another minister charging an exorbitant fee with whom the couple is barely acquainted.
That covers the spiritual portion… but marriage also has a legal component!
We always recommend that prior to performing any ceremony with a legal component – like a wedding ceremony – that ordained ministers reach out to the office that will be issuing the marriage license (typically the county clerk of the area where the ceremony is being held) to ask what documents they will be required to present to validate their ordination.
"But Someone Said it Was Illegal Where I'm From?"
Ministers of the Universal Life Church are able to legally perform weddings throughout the vast majority of the United States, and increasingly in places overseas. However, there have historically been a few areas where the validity of a minister’s ordination with the ULC was called into question.
Over the decades, we’ve fought numerous lawsuits to re-establish and defend the ordination of our ministers across the U.S. and have been successful in every single one of those.
There are still some areas where it can be more difficult than others to operate as a ULC minister – and we always ask that if you do hear anything from any government official that leads you to believe that you are not a legally ordained minister or that you do not have a right to solemnize a marriage ceremony that you please contact our office immediately so that we can investigate on your behalf. We take your constitutional rights seriously, and will not rest until your rights are respected everywhere.
DO ULC Ministers Only Perform Weddings?
No way! While we’re certainly aware that many people first become acquainted with the Universal Life Church because they personally attended a wedding performed by a ULC minister or because they saw a ULC minister performing a wedding on television or film, ULC ministers are full-fledged ministers just like any other and perform a whole array of services in addition to marriages.
We often find that even those ministers who feel initially called toward ordination because they are asked to solemnize a wedding ceremony end up on a much bigger journey. Once these folks begin to research the ULC as an option for ordination, they begin to realize that being a minister is so much more than facilitating the “I Dos”.
Every day millions of ULC ministers around the world perform baptisms, weddings, funerals, and general church services in addition to studying, providing counseling, and just generally working to do good in their communities. Our Minister Training Center helps educate members on all the different doors that open to them once they become ordained with the ULC.
How Can You Be a Minister Without Going to School?
With our help! In case you haven’t noticed… the world is different now. And that’s a good thing! Like we mentioned, we don’t think it’s right that for the last however-many-centuries, only a certain type of person was able to become a minister because only a certain type of person was able to afford attending an expensive theology school and/or otherwise supporting their lifestyle as a minister.
We were at the forefront of bringing religion into the digital sphere, and we quickly learned that in addition to facilitating our open membership model, the internet also gave us the opportunity to democratize access to knowledge and information.
The ULC provides a tremendous amount of literature and training material for ministers on a variety of faith perspectives and subjects – including information on performing ceremonies like weddings – both online and in our physical catalog.
We strive to ensure that all of our ministers have access to all of the information they need to feel prepared to captain their own spiritual ship on their personal journeys.
Why Do You Charge for Credentials and Other Items?
Well, for one, these things cost us money to produce. We’d also like to be able to keep the lights on so that we can continue to be a resource and source of support for our ministers.
Churches do have expenses that they need to cover: the Universal Life Church has to spend money on rent, utility bills, wages for our team members, producing minister supplies, and so on. We also shoulder significant legal fees to ensure that our ministers’ rights are protected and respected in the United States and around the world. These expenses add up!
It’s important to note that ordination itself is completely free and is good for life. Once an individual completes the application and becomes ordained online, they are entered into our minister rolls at no cost.
Physical copies of our ordination documents are available in our online catalog, and we ask that our ministers help cover the cost of those documents, if they choose to order them. The cost of the supplies we send out reflects the costs of production and shipping, as well as our day-to-day operating costs.
Charging for our minister credentials isn't a choice, it's a necessity. We work hard for our millions of ministers around the world and intend to do so for centuries to come.
Is the Universal Life Church a Non-Profit Organization?
The Universal Life Church is indeed a religious non-profit organization registered and headquartered in the State of Washington. Anyone can verify this information using publicly available records.
We work incredibly hard to keep our overhead and material costs as low as possible while still ensuring we have the systems in place to support our growing ULC family around the globe. We also frequently contribute funds to worthy community causes around the world in the spirit of universal charity
If ULC Is Legitimate, How Come I Can Ordain My Pet?
We’re extremely proud of our innovative online model and the fact that it’s opened the door to so many individuals who feel called toward ordination around the world. That said, we are acutely aware that holding the doors as widely open as we do does have consequences!
As you no doubt have come to know, sincerity and internet culture don’t always go hand-in-hand. Because we have made a deliberate choice to remove so many of the traditional barriers to ordination, we know that occasionally a prankster may see an opportunity to exploit our system and create a novelty account for their favorite pet, their first car, etc.
Completing an ordination application on behalf of a pet, an item, or a human being who isn’t you may elicit a giggle or two on a lonely night – but it’s important to know that these prank ordinations are not legitimate. It is unfortunate that pranks like these do distract from the genuinely good work that our legally ordained real ministers are doing out in the world.
As distracting as it is, though, just because an occasional prankster is able to sneak through the cracks doesn’t mean that a ULC minister’s legitimate ordination or any ceremonies (like weddings) that they perform are any less valid.
Furthermore, our diligent staff does a great job of locating and weeding out any of these fraudulently created accounts.. As is stated frequently on our site, any ordination application made using false or fraudulent information will be deemed invalid and we reserve all rights to revoke any ordination found to have been granted under false pretenses.
