Part II of a Series of Three

COVID 19 has changed everything, including our ability to physically travel.  In the fall season of 2019 and the early winter of 2020, I was presenting in Fellowship Hall of UUCUC on the last Friday evening of each month, a slide show travelogue. The first was on working in Antarctica, then a program on driving the Alaska Highway, then a show on cruise ship travel, and finally a talk on Road Scholar programs. The next, not done, would have been on visiting other UU organizations and events including the annual General Assembly of the UUA, Camp Unistar, and observations gained from Sunday visits to other UU churches. Maybe someday we can again gather to talk about travel, but I doubt that we do much travel in this calendar year. Cruise ship travel ended in March of 2020 and may not resume until late in 2021. When will UU churches gather again in person?  I do not know, but almost certainly not before the fall of 2021. But I can offer trip down memory lane.

Claudia and I have over the past two or three decades visited Sunday services and events in maybe 100 UU churches and fellowships. It happened that I visited six, UUCUC and five others, in the five months just before COVID. All welcomed me and all offered good examples.

Salina, Kansas is a lay-led UU Fellowship attracting about 50 members on Sunday. They meet in a one-story, comfortable house-like building in a residential neighborhood. Many of their folks drive in from 50 or 80 miles away and maybe for that reason, their morning is three or more hours, beginning with a discussion group, then the worship service and then a long coffee hour. As a liberal community in a very red state, I sensed a strong bond among the members.

Key West, Florida is another lay led Fellowship that identifies as “One Island Family.”  Claudia and I are there almost every Christmas/New Year season and have nametags on their board. They meet in an old building that was a corner grocery store. They did have for a number of years a minister and back then attracted maybe 60 people on Sunday. Today, they are again lay led and attract only about 20. Ministers do make a difference!

The Abraham Lincoln UU Fellowship in Springfield, IL is an easy day trip from CU. While named as a Fellowship, they enjoy the long-time service of a full-time minister, the Rev. Marty Woulfe who has been a visitor in our UUCUC pulpit. They meet in a relatively new building south of the city, currently holding Sunday services in a large room that ultimately will be their fellowship hall. They are in the design and construction process for a sanctuary addition. They are a champion at retaining members with sight or mobility issues. A visit to Springfield will illustrate the advantages of a one-story building with flexible seating.

The UU church of Atlanta, Georgia, is a large congregation of 600, with (pre pandemic) two Sunday services in RENTED space. They sold their old church building to an adjacent hospital that wanted the land and are now in a two-year process of fund raising, design and construction for the renovation of another older church building. In this interim period they meet in a corporate office park in a space that while not church like, has the best seating, sound system and video system and even parking of any church that I have attended. And during this interim, their membership rolls are expanding. Maybe function can be more important than traditional church architecture.

For a longer but feasible day trip, do visit the UU church of Bloomington, Indiana. Another Big Ten campus. A UU congregation of 600 members in a town a bit smaller than CU. Two services. A new building with the best video system that I have seen in a church, better than even the Vinyard Church in Urbana. You may remember that Rev. Bill Breeden, their emeritus senior minister, served us part time for a couple of months last winter. To experience a large UU church with two services and three ministers, do (when travel is again possible) visit Bloomington. I will organize a caravan for a day trip.

Each of the five mentioned above have three features not present in UUCUC – they are fully accessible, they have high quality video systems and they have flexible seating.