From what I have read, they were all one at one time. There was a falling out and then there were two. I believe there is also a ULCHQ (for headquarters). Here is one explaination from another forum.
http://forum.themonastery.org/index.php?showtopic=7894
"The ULC in Modesto is a separate but similar organization (as the Monastery originated by members that received ordinations from the Modesto church) and shares the same basic tenants of faith but a separate governance board. My understanding is that Modesto is still properly incorporated under California law but I can not speak for them; I am certain they should have similar corporate charter information available on their website or through their headquarters office in Modesto.
The Monastery started in Seattle in the 70's; and as both the ULC parent church (Modesto) and the Monastery both grew in membership substantially the Monastery separated from the parent church to start a second large church dividing the governance responsibility as well as the required recording of the ordinations it makes. Over a few decades the Monastery relocated its headquarters to Arizona and again back in it's original state.
Many ministers are ordained by both Modesto and Seattle. There are other smaller ULC churches that have separated from Modesto though most are very small by comparison and only the Seattle and Modesto groups seem to get much press except when there is scandal and then you hear about some ULC church that is in legal trouble for misconduct or tax fraud. In general those are groups that have used the ULC name (or even may have requested ordination from) but are not operating under direct leadership of either the Modesto or Seattle. "
From what I know there are four. ULCHQ, which is the home or "Mother Church". It was founded by REv. Dr. Kirby Hendricks in 1959, in Modesto Ca. The ULC Seminary, a seperate church orginization closely link and associated to the HQ home church, founded and run by Rev. Amy Long. The is the internet site ULC.net, another independant church, mostly virtual and closely related to the ULCHQ in Modesto. There is this one the ULC Monastery, As stated above, there was a falling out some years ago between the founder of the Monastery and the home church. They agreed to seperate and continue as two churches distinct yet of the same "faith" and structure. Ordination in the Monastery is not reckonized by Modesto Church, however Ordination can be accepted when appliedto Modesto for credntials. Ordination with ULC.net and ULCSeminary are sent through the Modesto Church and are valid in all three.
Greatest Difference is the the Monastery has better marketing and becomes the most known for the instant ordinations. It is the church that celebraties like Conan O'Brien had been ordained threw. Many other celebraties were ordained in the Modesto Church.
The differnat Links are: http://www.ulc.net/, http://*******************/index.php, http://www.ulchq.com/. Check them out and see. The Seminary offers more instructioanl course then all the others and provides a Chaplancy developement ciriculum great for those who seek to be chaplins. It even has an intership for chaplaincy. (Required to be an official chaplain) The degree programs have local accredidation, but are not enough for true Military Chaplaincy. (Masters degree is require by the Military.)
I am adding the Seminary link that explains the difference, THE DIFFERENCE. There is a video with Rev. Long explains it all.https://youtu.be/VLr1OVhT66g
I am ordained by Modesto and the Monastery. Covering all. I use my Modesto Ordination as it is older.
I hope this helps.
Joseph
For some reason the Seminary address would not display in the post. Click here if you'd wish to see it.
[blockquote]Pastor Quinn Golden said: Julia, thank you for the detailed reply. Still a bit disappointed that ULC did not see fit to reply, despite my direct request to their email to do so. Lack of an answer to a relevent question always gives one cause for suspicions. Like I always told my kids, "If you don't tell me what you are doing, I will probably jump to my own conclusions, and they probably won't be in your favor" :-). You gave me enough information to do additional research, In the end I suppose it matters little which Church we are ordained with, what matters is what we do with it. Thank you.[/blockquote]
I have notice the sluggishness to replies as well. I will note the Rev. Long at the Seminary is often quick to reply. same day, even with in a few hours. I have recieved replies from the Modesto church with in a day or two, mostly same day. I have been replied to by the Monastery, sometimes with in the day sometimes a week. Depends. Most of those who are involved with the churches, are volunteers, and often have many emails to reply to, as they have other lives.
The nature of these churches is not anywhere near conventional. If you look carefully these ordaining churches look more like they are selling ordination and really not about developing faith. I honestly think Rev. Amy Long is more on the developing the minister than just giving ordination and selling wedding resources.
[blockquote]Joseph Knopick said:
From what I know there are four. ULCHQ, which is the home or "Mother Church". It was founded by REv. Dr. Kirby Hendricks in 1959, in Modesto Ca. The ULC Seminary, a seperate church orginization closely link and associated to the HQ home church, founded and run by Rev. Amy Long. The is the internet site ULC.net, another independant church, mostly virtual and closely related to the ULCHQ in Modesto. There is this one the ULC Monastery, As stated above, there was a falling out some years ago between the founder of the Monastery and the home church. They agreed to seperate and continue as two churches distinct yet of the same "faith" and structure. Ordination in the Monastery is not reckonized by Modesto Church, however Ordination can be accepted when appliedto Modesto for credntials. Ordination with ULC.net and ULCSeminary are sent through the Modesto Church and are valid in all three.
Greatest Difference is the the Monastery has better marketing and becomes the most known for the instant ordinations. It is the church that celebraties like Conan O'Brien had been ordained threw. Many other celebraties were ordained in the Modesto Church.
The differnat Links are: http://www.ulc.net/, http://*******************/index.php, http://www.ulchq.com/. Check them out and see. The Seminary offers more instructioanl course then all the others and provides a Chaplancy developement ciriculum great for those who seek to be chaplins. It even has an intership for chaplaincy. (Required to be an official chaplain) The degree programs have local accredidation, but are not enough for true Military Chaplaincy. (Masters degree is require by the Military.)
I am adding the Seminary link that explains the difference, THE DIFFERENCE. There is a video with Rev. Long explains it all.https://youtu.be/VLr1OVhT66g
I am ordained by Modesto and the Monastery. Covering all. I use my Modesto Ordination as it is older.
I hope this helps.
Joseph
[/blockquote]
I was also looking up some of this, and came across the ULC entry on Wikipedia, and Universal Life Church Monastery.
Under Legality, it states: "However, the US military chaplain's hand book lists the ULC as one of the churches it recognizes."
This led me to wonder a few things.
Has anyone ordained by ULC ever considered being a US Military Chaplin?
[blockquote]Pastor Quinn Golden said:
Are the two organizations in the subject one in the same? If not, what are the differences? The both use the same tradmark, yet have different websites with the same products. One is in CA and one in WA.
-Confused
Well there is a very good link that explains this at http://www.universal-life-church.com/
I hope this helps.
Well this conversation took place in 2017. But I've been away awhile. I was ordained in 2004. But I resided in CT and for the most part the town clerks & Secretary of State I dealt with required that "ministers" be actively serving in a congregation to officiate weddings. Since I wasn't currently actively serving in any capacity in a church in 2004 I also sought and accepted appointment as a State of CT Justice of the Peace. Covered all the bases, right? At any rate, I was not very active in the web sites or these forums for a long time. Life happens.
Now I am looking to do something more formal with my ordination and required a copy of the certificate as my original is not easily at hand. I have spent several days trying to tackle this. I was horrified to be told by a virtual assistant on the ulc.org site that I was never ordained and that my orders for ordination credentialing (placed in 2006 & 2009) were indeed fulfilled in spite of the fact that I had never been ordained! They explained that a glitch in their web design allowed non-ordained people to order these credentials. I was horrified....my gosh what if any of those couples I married over the years in the capacity of minister ever had an issue?
The assistant at ulc.org stated that I could simply perform another instant ordination and it would update my profile as "ordained". Sure that helps me for now. But what about all those weddings I did perform as minister rather than JP? I went searching and found the ulc.net site. I wrote to them at ulc.one@ulchq.com. Finally relief! Along with confirmation of my original ordination in 2004 and other confirming details this is what I was informed:
....Let me explain. We are the ULC Headquarters here in Modesto CA. We are the original Church and our official website iswww.ulchq.com. The only other ULC Headquarters authorized site is www.ulc.net and operated by Pastor Kevin Andrews in Folsom CA.
The ULC Seminary is a site that is operated by a minister of our church for her ministry. It is not an official ULC Headquarters site, but a known site and we do have a good working relationship. She offers to accept and forward to us ordination requests on her site to be ordained by our church. The only ULC Headquarters item that she offers on her site is to order an original Ministers certificate from us for those that request it. All of the other items are from her.
The former ulc.org site was started in 1995 by one of our ministers Brother Dan Zimmerman for his congregation called Universal Life Church/ULC Monastery, Inc. in Tucson AZ. He requested to be authorized to accept and forward to us ordination requests received on his site to be ordained by our church. We granted that authorization. In 2005 he asked one of his members to assist with operating part of the site from Seattle WA. In 2006 they had an internal management dispute that will take court legal action to resolve.
So Brother Dan did the responsible thing and closed the ulc.org site on 08/01/06. At that time our authorization to them was revoked. Since then the part in Seattle has done a "hostile takeover" of the ulc.org site and changed it to be themonastery.organd are calling themselves Universal Life Church Monastery Storehouse, Inc. They are a separate organization that is NOT AFFILIATED WITH US. They have over 100 variations of the ULC Name on the internet as well has several other religious organization names. They imply that they are in order to confuse people into ordering from them. They have only been in existence since 09/06 and they are back dating credentials to years before they even started. Plus the ministers are receiving incorrect certificates from a church that they were not even ordained by.
If we can be of further assistance please let us know.
Andre Hensley
Universal Life Church
International Headquarters
601 Third St.
Modesto, CA 95351
(209) 527-8111
(209) 527-8116 Fax
I hope this information helps someone in sorting out what organization is what. And if someone has any conflicting information I'd like to know about it. This is a sticky mess IMHO. But hope this helps someone else out too.