Excommunication

== Unitarian Universalism ==
[[Unitarian Universalism]], being a [[liberal religion|liberal religious]] group and a [[Congregationalist polity|congregational]] denomination, has a wide diversity of opinions and sentiments. Nonetheless, Unitarian Universalists have had to deal with disruptive individuals. Congregations which had no policies on disruptive individuals have sometimes found themselves having to create such policies, up to (and including) expulsion.<ref name="uua.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.uua.org/interconnections/21966.shtml|title=Policies for Handling Disruptive People|author=Donald E. Skinner|work=UUA.org|date=15 April 1998}}</ref>

By the late 1990s, several churches were using the West Shore UU Church's policy as a model. If someone is threatening, disruptive, or distracting from the appeal of the church to its membership, a church using this model has three recommended levels of response to the offending individual. While the first level involves dialogue between a committee or clergy member and the offender, the second and third levels involve expulsion, either from the church itself or a church activity.<ref name="uua.org"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.uua.org/sites/live-new.uua.org/files/documents/congservices/safecongs/disruptive_policy.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=24 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224141529/http://www.uua.org/sites/live-new.uua.org/files/documents/congservices/safecongs/disruptive_policy.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uufdekalb.org/member-center/policies-bylaws/safe-congregation-policy|title=Safe Congregation Policy|work=uufdekalb.org}}</ref>