ABOUT THE UNIVERSAL LIFE CHURCH

2016 Changes - Starting in the beginning of 2016, Kevin Andrews and I decided to join forces and work our sites together.  Ordination through one is the same as ordination through the other.  All are sent to the real Headquarters of ULC in Modesto.

The Universal Life Church will ordain anyone who asks, regardless of their belief system, age, race, gender or orientation. We believe that ordination is a right and we will assist anyone in exercising that right.

The ULC has two tenets: the absolute right of freedom of religion and to do that which is right. Anything else within the law is allowed.

The Universal Life Church is here to support your relationship with your God, Gods or with your lack of belief in any higher force, and recognizes that each person must walk his or her own path. You are free to walk your path, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others and you have our support here at the Universal Life Church Seminary to do so. Here are a few other areas that might interest you before I move on to the history of the ULC and its Seminary.

A Few Words About The ULC Founder

Rev. Kirby Hensley was raised in North Carolina as a Baptist. He was illiterate, but still found ways to learn about things that interested him, namely religion. He created the Universal Life Church in 1959 and felt that everyone's beliefs should be respected and welcomed. He fought for his convictions in the courts, eventually getting ULC established as its own denomination, and regularly preached his beliefs across the country until his death in 1999. Lida Hensley, his second wife of 46 years, passed away in 2007 leaving Andre Hensley, his son, as the president of the headquarters of the Universal Life Church. They are located in Modesto, CA and are the only legal ordaining body of the Universal Life Church. We send our ordination requests to them to be recorded by hand.

Where We Are Now
We at www.ulcseminary.org are the Quest Ministries of the Universal Life Church and ULC Seminary, Inc. The Seminary is located in Elk Grove, CA, and is managed by Rev. Amy Eileen Long. Amy's personal beliefs lean heavily towards spirituality and the focus of the site is geared towards finding personal truth. Each person has a different truth and a different path. The challenge is to learn about different beliefs and to find the truth in each one for yourself. We welcome people of all beliefs and encourage knowledge and understanding.

A Few Words About The ULC Seminary President

Rev. Amy Long is the current president and founder of the Universal Life Church Seminary. In 1990, she attended a one-year seminary at the Church of Divine Man (graduating in January of 1991) and then had a year and a half of post-graduate studies, immediately following, in the same church.

In 1994, she became ordained through the Universal Life Church, at first, as a way to preserve her ministerial license. In 1995, she began performing weddings as the officiant and has also worked as a wedding DJ since about 1995. In 1997, she wrote and published the book 'The Ultimate Wedding & Ceremony Workbook for the 'Planning-Impaired'. She wrote this book with ULC ministers in mind.

Following that, she published the book, 'Weddings, Funerals and Rites of Passage' with generous contributions from a variety of authors, in addition to her own work, followed by 'More Weddings, Funerals and Rites of Passage' several years later. In 2013, she also created and published a ULC Minister's Manual. To date, she has performed well over 700 weddings, as well as several dozen funerals, which helped her to create many of the ceremonies found in the books. She works as a mobile disc jockey, as well as being a wedding officiant. In her spare time, she is taking tap Dancing.

She became involved with the ULC first with the former ulc.org site, where she created a lot of the materials you see on both this site and the other, and began working to improve that site, as well as the overall perception of the Universal Life Church. It was then that she came up with the idea of the ULC Seminary. She strongly believes in the importance of training and knowledge and values the input and integrity of the ULC ministers. She wanted to help them achieve their goals, wherever possible, and also wanted to share as much information with the ministers as possible.

When it became clear that her views differed sharply with those of that site's owner, Daniel Zimmerman, she branched out on her own and launched the Seminary website.

She was married for 12 years and has two great kids. In an unrelated field, she earned her fourth degree black belt in Kenpo Karate in April of 2014. She has published two books of stories about people who study Kenpo Karate, which she has done for 35yrs .

Over the years, the ULC has gotten a bad reputation with members of some religious organizations because of the appearance of being totally non-religious (and in the case of Rev. Hensley’s teachings, seemingly anti-religious). This is not the case and we are looking to change that misperception. The Seminary is working towards fulfilling the spiritual needs of as many different belief groups as we can, by offering a wide variety of services and information. To this end, we have a variety of guest sermons, multiple FAQs, an expanding seminary and much more.

There is always room for improvement and expansion. If there is anything you would like to see added to the site, which will help you reach your spiritual goals, please send a note to amy@ulcseminary.org and we will see what we can do. Thank you and welcome to the Universal Life Church Seminary.