From David Gross

As is our habit when traveling on a Sunday, Claudia and David visited another UU church, this time the Unitarian Universalist Church of Atlanta (UUCA), Georgia, a congregation of 600+ members. They, like Peoria, IL, some years ago, have sold their old Universalist church building to an adjacent growing hospital – an offer too good to refuse. They promptly purchased a nearby, used, larger church building that they will renovate and remodel, but for a two-year interim they are in rented space in a corporate office park. Their rental space is not “churchy” – no cathedral ceiling or pipe organ. But the sound system, video boards, lighting and seating are first class. Most importantly, while in this rental space they are growing with 36 new members in the recent three months.

In a long conversation with a greeter, I asked about the trauma of moving. That wise and kind person responded “I did not want to move as I was married 36 years ago in our old building, but today I love this congregation more than I loved that old building.”

Small world – Their Rev. Taryn Strauss was born in Champaign-Urbana. Instead of asking for cell phones to be silenced, they ask that cell phones be put in their “most reverent mode.”