Our History
The first organizational meeting for what would become the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia was held January 28, 1951. This meeting was the result of a desire to have a group in which liberal religious ideas could be explored.
Meetings were held at Missouri Bible College in Lowry Hall for 19 years. These were years of growth for our religious community. Early, there was recognition of the need for religious education for children, which continues today.
In 1959, we began a search for our own property. Our present site was selected in 1965 and we had our first ground breaking in 1969. In 1970 we held the first services in our beautifully designed church. Until 1980, when we hired our first minister, all services were lay lead.
Today, we continue to change and develop. In 1989 our current minister, Reverend William Haney, was hired. In 1992 our Music Director, Desi Long, and our Church Administrator, Kathie Bergman, were hired. We hired our first Director of Religious Education in 1996 and our current DRE, Lise Fritsche, was hired in 2004. In 1998 our physical facilities were expaned to nearly double their original size.
Unitarian and Universalist History
In North America, Unitarianism and Universalism developed separately. Universalist congregations began to be established in the 1770s. Other congregations, many established earlier, began to take the Unitarian name in the 1820s. Over the decades the two groups converged in their liberal emphasis and style, and in 1961 they merged to become the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Unitarians and Universalists have always been heretics. We are heretics because we want to choose our faith, not because we desire to be rebellious. "Heresy" in Greek means "choice." During the first three centuries of the Christian church, believers could choose from a variety of tenets about Jesus. Among these was a belief that Jesus was an entity sent by God on a divine mission. Thus the word "Unitarian" developed, meaning the oneness of God. Another religious choice in the first three centuries of the Common Era (CE) was universal salvation. This was the belief that no person would be condemned by God to eternal damnation in a fiery pit. Thus a Universalist believed that all people will be saved. Christianity lost its element of choice in 325 CE when the Nicene Creed established the Trinity as dogma. For centuries thereafter, people who professed Unitarian or Universalist beliefs were persecuted.
Many Unitarians and Universalists hold prominent positions in American history. Such members include John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Clara Barton, Alexander Graham Bell, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Fuller, and many others.
Additional Reading
Unitarian Universalist Association Welcome
Unitarian Universalist Origins: Our Historic Faith
Famous Unitarian Universalists
