History: 1955–2011

Blacksburg’s Unitarian Fellowship
UU Fellowship of the NRV
Unitarian Universalist Congregation

Fall 1955

Virginia Tech professors W.E.C. Moore and Herschel & Wilhelmina Elarth contact the UUA about establishing a UU fellowship in Blacksburg.

October 1956

UUA grants charter for Blacksburg Unitarian fellowship

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.

1962

With dwindling membership, the group considers disbanding but moves, instead, to monthly meetings.

1962

New leadership at Tech brings new emphasis on growth and academic breadth, attracting younger, more liberal faculty, brings new members to the Fellowship.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1967

The Fellowship has its first Dedication ceremony and initiates Circle Suppers.

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.

1970s

The membership grows and begins to outgrow its Meeting House.

1977

The Fellowship purchases vacant lot next door to the Meeting House.

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.

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.

1982

Fellowship hires the Rev. Timothy Ashton, of the Roanoke Unitarian Church, as a one-quarter-time consulting minister.

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.

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.

October 1988

The Congregation’s first choir is organized by Bob Underhill and directed by Arlene Herndon.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Summer 1994

Arthur and Judy Snoke initiate the summer program of services.

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.

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.

Spring 1996

Arthur Snoke initiates the Congregation’s Web site and the e-mail listserv.

Summer 1997

The summer service program expands to include music, well-known Unitarian guest ministers, and a children’s program.

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.

Summer 1999

The Reverend Christine Brownlie becomes the Congregation’s first full-time minister.

2003

The Congregation votes to change its name to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

2004

The Congregation votes to become recognized officially as a Welcoming Congregation.

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.

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.

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.

2008

Goldie Terrell became our first Music Director,

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…

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.

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.

July 2011

Rev. Alex Richardson begins his term as Interim Minister