 | History: 1955–2017
Blacksburg’s Unitarian Fellowship |
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Fall 1955 |
Virginia Tech professors W.E.C. Moore and Herschel & Wilhelmina Elarth contact the UUA about establishing a UU fellowship in Blacksburg. |
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October 1956 |
UUA grants charter for Blacksburg Unitarian fellowship |
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1956–1962 |
Blacksburg’s Unitarian Fellowship meets weekly in the YMCA Reading Room on the Tech campus for lecture/discussion format services. The original founders and Tech professor Perry Holt provide consensus leadership. |
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1962 |
With dwindling membership, the group considers disbanding but moves, instead, to monthly meetings. |
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1962 |
New leadership at Tech brings new emphasis on growth and academic breadth, attracting younger, more liberal faculty, brings new members to the Fellowship. |
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1966 |
Leadership of the Fellowship shifts to new, younger families, and meetings move to the basement of the Wesley Foundation building. Jewell Field, Marcia Bruhn, and Mary Ann Mattus initiate the children’s religious education program. |
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November 1966 |
Fellowship reorganizes to allow itself to own property and elects its first Trustees: Herschel Elarth, W.E.C. Moore, and Charles Burchard, Dean of Architecture at Tech. |
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April 1967 |
Members vote $25,000 to buy land and build a house for meetings. Community members, including Virginia Tech Chaplain, Baptist Al Payne, assist the Fellowship members with contributions. |
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Dec. 1967 |
The Fellowship begins to meet in its new Meeting House on Gladewood Drive, and starts what is still the custom: a pot-luck picnic to begin the new program year each September. |
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1966–1967 |
As president of the congregation, Paul Field, Virginia Tech professor, guides the Fellowship service format from the lecture/discussion to a religious service with guest speakers, and he introduces the annual Christmas Eve Moravian Love Feast. |
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1967 |
The Fellowship has its first Dedication ceremony and initiates Circle Suppers. |
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1968 |
Continuing the strong presence of UUs in social action in the area, Fellowship member Bill Williams leads the formation of a local chapter of the ACLU which, as one of its first projects, convinces Montgomery County to end the practice of daily Bible lessons in its public schools. |
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1970s |
The membership grows and begins to outgrow its Meeting House. |
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1977 |
The Fellowship purchases vacant lot next door to the Meeting House. |
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1978 |
The addition to the Meeting House, designed by Fellowship member Bernard Sabaroff, on the faculty of Tech’s College of Architecture, augments meeting space. |
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1981–1983 |
The Rev. David Kibby, retired Unitarian minister from Pennsylvania (and the father of a member), leads occasional services, initiating hymn singing and readings and rekindling interest in social action. |
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1982 |
Fellowship hires the Rev. Timothy Ashton, of the Roanoke Unitarian Church, as a one-quarter-time consulting minister. |
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1986 |
Congregation establishes search party to hire part-time minister, changes its name to Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of the New River Valley, and hires the first administrative assistant, Mary Ratliff. Russell Gregory, Baptist minister and professor of religion at Radford University, begins to lead occasional services and workshops for the congregation; he would do so until 1999. |
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Spring, 1987 |
The Rev. William David Main is hired as the half-time minister of the UUFNRV, and the Fellowship begins consideration of buying nearly three acres of land adjacent to the Meeting House. |
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October 1988 |
The Congregation’s first choir is organized by Bob Underhill and directed by Arlene Herndon. |
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April 1989 |
Rev. Main leaves Blacksburg for a fellowship in Texas, and the Congregation hires the Reverend Catherine Snyder, a Presbyterian, as part-time interim minister for the 1989–1990 academic year. Snyder served as interim for two years. |
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March 1990 |
The Congregation votes to retain James William Ritter, church architect from Alexandria, to design a new building, and Michael O’Brien, professor of architecture at Virginia Tech, assists him. |
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Fall 1991 |
Construction begins on the new Meeting House, funded by the membership, the Thomas Jefferson District Chalice Lighters, congregational savings and the proceeds from the sale of the old building. |
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Spring 1992 |
The congregation holds its first service in the new Meeting House and then, in the fall, has an official opening with the Reverend David Herndon, minister of the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, presiding. |
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Fall 1992 |
The new meeting house and its landscaping,, created by volunteer labor of the “Beautification Committee,” win the Town Beautification Award, and the Washington DC area chapter of the American Institute of Architects gives the Meeting House an award. |
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1992–1994 |
Membership remains static, and Morton Nadler arranges with the Thomas Jefferson District Executive, Roger Comstock, for a series of services and congregational meetings with five young ministers over the 1994–1995 academic year to clarify congregational expectations and wishes. |
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Summer 1994 |
Arthur and Judy Snoke initiate the summer program of services. |
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Winter 1994–95 |
The congregation hires the Reverend Rudi Gelsey, a retired Unitarian minister, as the full-time minister for three winter months. Halfway through the Congregation voted to have a half-time minister. |
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Winter 1996 |
Rev. Gelsey becomes the half-time minister for the UUFNRV, and in the Fall of 1997, the congregation hired him for three-quarter time. Membership nearly doubles, and the congregation moves to two services each Sunday. |
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Spring 1996 |
Arthur Snoke initiates the Congregation’s Web site and the e-mail listserv. |
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Summer 1997 |
The summer service program expands to include music, well-known Unitarian guest ministers, and a children’s program. |
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Spring 1998 |
On notification of Mr. Gelsey’s plans to retire at the end of the 1999 church year, the Congregation votes to begin the search for a full-time minister, it creates the quarter-time position of Religious Education Director, and hires Kristine Reid to fill the position. |
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Summer 1999 |
The Reverend Christine Brownlie becomes the Congregation’s first full-time minister. |
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2003 |
The Congregation votes to change its name to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation. |
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2004 |
The Congregation votes to become recognized officially as a Welcoming Congregation. |
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2005 |
The UUC acquires the adjacent property of W.B. and Betty Gross, selling the home and duplex on the property, increasing total land available to the congregation to five acres. |
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2006—2008 |
The Congregation hires architect Bob Rodgers to design several alternative expansion plans and initiates a capital campaign to fund expansion. On September 7, 2008, the Sunday service was devoted to the Building-Expansion Dedication. |
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April 16, 2007 |
Our community experienced a great tragedy: a student killed 32 students and faculty before taking his own life. Here is a summary that tragedy from the perspective of the UUC. |
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2008 |
Goldie Terrell became our first Music Director, |
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2010–2011 |
In April 2010, the UUC Memorial Committee was given Board approval to raise $10,000 for construction of a Memorial Garden. The Committee made a presentation at the June 6 Annual Congregational Meeting, and on July 8 the Board approved the Memorial Garden Policies & Procedures. On May 8, 2011 the Memorial Garden was dedicated. Read more… |
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2010 |
In summer, 2010, Kristine Reid retired as the UUC Director of Religious Education — after 11 years of service. Sharon Day served four months as the interim DRE, and Karen Hager started as the UUC DRE on November 1. |
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2010 |
In late 2010, Rev. Christine Brownlie announced that she would retire at the end of June 2011. On May 22, 2011 Rev. Brownlie gave a sermon titled Look What We Did! summarizing the history of the UUFNRV/UUC during her almost 12 years as our minister. The link will take you to a podcast of that sermon. |
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July 2011 |
Rev. Alex Richardson begins his term as Interim Minister |
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September 2012 |
Ella Kromin became the UUC Choir Director |
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July 2013 |
Rev. Dara Olandt begins her term as our Settled Minister |
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August 2016 |
Rev. Don Rollins begins his term as Interim Minister |
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August 2017 |
Rev. Pam Philips begins her term as Settled Minister |