This is an important announcement regarding some changes that have been happening at the Universal Life Church.
For additional, independent verification of what's going on, click Monastery.
As some of you are aware, the ulc. org site changed hands in August 2006. Due to a series of unconfirmed circumstances, there was an abrupt change of leadership and ownership of the ulc. org domain name and site. It is currently in the control of George Freeman and his associates, currently signing the site as 'Br. Martin' and using a variety of websites, most notably 'themonastery.org.' The circumstances of this change are in dispute among the parties in the court system. With so many people asking questions, I felt it necessary to add a page to the Seminary site to let people know what's going on.
For many years, the ulc. org site was owned by Daniel Zimmerman. Many of you have had dealings with him and have formed your own opinions as to his honesty and integrity. Until August 2006, the ulc. org site (known as The Monastery) was an authorized site affiliated with headquarters.
As of August 1, 2006, that is no longer the case. From that point on, if you were ordained at the ulc.org site, your ordination was not sent to headquarters, nor were you recorded as being a legal minister with the Universal Life Church. If you have any links on your own website to the ulc.org site, I strongly urge you to change the links to www.ulcseminary.org, or to headquarters, to avoid sending anyone to a site that might confuse people as to its true intentions.
The new site still implies a connection between themselves and ULC Headquarters in Modesto, but no such affiliation exists. We fear this is going to be causing a lot of confusion and misunderstandings among the ministers of the ULC and we hope that, over time, word will spread and those who wish to affiliate with the real and original ULC will steer clear. I believe that Andre Hensley, at headquarters, will be issuing (or may have already issued) a press release, Wikipedia has been changed, and the word is spreading. Also, Michael Cauley is a 'minister' with the monastery and he has made it his mission to smear anyone and everyone who isn't in love with the monastery. He's being mean and telling outright lies and half-truths.
Any products you purchase from that site do not have the sanction of headquarters, nor the blessing of the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, so proceed with that awareness.
ULCNETWORK - Another person I get a lot of questions about is one 'Michael Cauley'. He operates a site by the name of the ulcnetwork. He started appearing sometimes in early 2010, I believe, when the monastery made the unfortunate decision to hire him to run their forum or network or something.
During his time with them, he spent an inordinate amount of time saying unkind and untrue things about the Seminary, the Bookstore (ulc.net), and headquarters in Modesto. He claims he did it because the monastery told him to. After he had been repeatedly accused (justifiably) of harrassing members of the ulc - anyone who disagreed with him in any way shape or form, the monastery decided to fire him. MC then claims he quit, apparently taking with him a huge database he had acquired from the monastery.
He then added the monastery to his hit list of people to bombard with his negativity. He opened his own website, started charging people for ordinations (when ULC ordinations have ALWAYS been free) and claimed that those who were not Christian ministers, following his site, were likely going to burn in hell. He apparently has very little else to do than to flood the internet with his nasty comments about people. He denies that the rap sheet under his name and location is his, then he agrees it is, but it is irrelevent.
We, at the Seminary, do what we can to avoid him at all costs. He has personally sent me numerous toxic emails and has called and ranted and both male and female ministers in the ULC. His actions are being recorded and monitored by several groups until the appropriate time to take action comes about.
Please remember that ordinations with the ULC are free and legal, the Seminary offers many courses in Christianity, as well as spirituality and various Pagan belief systems. MC likes to claim he is the only faith-based ULC in existence. Apparently, with all of his postings, he seems to have missed the hundreds of thousands of ULC faith-based websites all over the internet.
If you are worried in any way that your ordination is in question, please re-ordain yourself on this site or at headquarters directly. Only those ordinations done after Aug. 1st, 2006, on the ulc.org site are in question if your intention is to affiliate yourself with the Universal Life Church. To affiliate yourself with this site, please make sure you are signed up to receive the newsletter so you will be kept abreast of everything happening with the ulc.
We, at the Seminary, are not concerning ourselves with the activities of the monastery or its affiliates. We are interested in creating a community, giving education and support to our ministers and to being genuine with our intentions. If these goals coincide with yours, then I hope you've found a home here. Kevin Andrews, from ulc.net, works with us regularly to achieve that goal.
I hope this answers your questions. If you have any others, please feel free to ask me at amy@ulcseminary.org.
If you have any questions or comments about this that you'd like to add to your FB wall, please post it here.
