For decades the movement's shared commitments were expressed in the Seven Principles, adopted into the UUA bylaws in the 1980s, which affirmed among other things the inherent worth and dignity of every person, justice and compassion in human relations, the free and responsible search for truth, and respect for the interdependent web of existence. In 2024, after several years of study and debate, the General Assembly revised Article II of the bylaws, replacing the Seven Principles as the formal statement with a set of six shared values (equity, generosity, interdependence, justice, pluralism and transformation), arranged around a central commitment to love. The change was significant and internally contested, and many congregations continue to cherish the older Principles alongside the new statement.
Unitarian Universalism is a comparatively small religion, with a few hundred thousand members concentrated in the United States, together with related liberal-religious bodies in Canada and, through the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists, historic Unitarian churches in Transylvania and Britain and partner groups worldwide. Scholars classify it as the principal institutional expression of liberal religion in North America, defined less by a body of belief than by a method, free, reasoned and covenanted searching, held in common.