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In Spartanburg Since 1954 The Unitarian
Universalist Church of Spartanburg was legally founded as
a fellowship on January 6, 1954. This was accomplished through
the efforts of Thomas Ezell Tindall, his wife Edna, and
eight friends, most of whom were members of the Saxon Baptist
Church. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the meetings
were small informal discussion groups held in homes or rented
space.
In 1965 the fellowship purchased a house
on Blue Ridge Street near Converse College and advertised
our presence with a discreet sign on East Main. Sunday school
for the children and a newsletter were successfully started.
However, in 1968 a controversy erupted over the proper role
of the congregation in regard to political and social issues.
This resulted in a loss of half the congregation (twelve
members), which represented more than half the budget. By 1971 the fellowship recovered its losses,
having thirty-one active members and seventeen children
enrolled in RE. By the end of the seventies we had approximately
forty-five members with an annual budget of $5,153. Realizing
the impact of limited parking and physical space on membership
growth, we raised monies and obtained member loans and a
UUA loan to build the original structure of our church building
on Henry Place. The first service in our new home was held
on August 25, 1985. Initially, we contracted with the Rev. W.
D. Hammond, a retired minister from Asheville, North Carolina,
to deliver a sermon once a month. In 1986 our members voted
to become a "church" rather than a fellowship.
We then joined with the Clemson UU Congregation to call
the Rev. Lee Huebert as a part-time minister. When the Clemson
church decided not to renew the contract with Rev. Huebert
for 1987-88, we formed a search committee and charged it
with finding a half-time minister. The church did take a
candidate through the entire candidating process to a final
vote, which failed by a margin of two votes.The church then formed a new search committee
to begin the process again. In 1989, the Rev. Joan Armstrong
from Atlanta served as a monthly interim minister. She was
the first minister to help us strengthen our committee work
and work with volunteers. In July of 1990, we called the
Rev. Gary Hyndman, a local Methodist minister and hospital
chaplain. While with us he entered into the UUA Fellowshipping
program and became a Unitarian Universalist minister. His
half-time ministry became full-time by July 1992. During
his tenure a committee of past presidents modified our Board
of Trustees to a model that includes a Council on Committees,
which is responsible for programming and works with our
Board. We also added two larger Religious Education rooms,
hired a part-time Director of Religious Education, purchased
playground equipment, received a high-quality set of hand
chimes that were donated for the children, and developed
a strong Adult RE program.In the fall of 1993 our average attendance
was about one hundred people, so we tried to implement two
services. Our attempt was unsuccessful, and we returned
to one service by spring of 1994. Many members felt that
our sense of community was lost during this attempt. However,
very little preparation prior to implementing this format
was provided. Also in 1993, we decided to begin the Welcoming
Congregation process. During the first year of implementation,
there was congregational support for completing the education
program and voting on the designation, with Mr. Hyndman
providing firm endorsements. During the second year pockets
of discomfort arose from within several segments in the
congregation about perceived requirements for the designation.
The Board consequently decided, in consultation with the
Gay/Lesbian Concerns Committee, not to pursue voting on
this matter at that time. However, the Board gave written
support for the GLBC Committee to continue educating the
church-wide community to G/L/B issues and to provide programs
that would enhance the feeling of inclusiveness for this
population. Today, even though we opted not to vote on the
official "Welcoming Congregation" designation,
gay and lesbian members are active in the leadership of
the church, teach RE, and have a visible, proud committee
to address their needs.In September 1995 Mr. Hyndman informed us
of his intention to resign. (He left the ministry of our
congregation in January 1996.) Since Gary was our first
called full-time minister, we learned much about how to
define various roles between the minister and the lay leadership
during his tenure.We then called the Rev. Meg Barnhouse, a
Presbyterian minister and local pastoral counselor, as our
two-year interim minister. While with us, Ms. Barnhouse
completed the first phase of the UUA Fellowshipping program
and some training in interim ministry. Our years with Ms.
Barnhouse allowed us to study conflict resolution, to further
define the role of the minister, and to better understand
how the congregation and minister can work toward a common
goal. She worked quite a bit as a facilitator of group processing,
giving us feedback on how to deal with conflict in meetings.
As the result of our search process, we
successfully called in the fall of 1998 the Rev. Chris Buice,
a recent graduate of Earlham School of Religion in Richmond,
Indiana, a Quaker-affiliated seminary. During Chris Buice's
three years with our congregation, we increased our membership
to 111 members, representing a thirty-percent growth rate.
Sunday attendance reached an average of seventy, and our
number of families with children increased. As a result
of this sustained growth, we bought a house with significant
property as well as an adjacent vacant lot. This house is
currently being used by the church for Religious Education
classes and various church meetings. We also began development
of a ten-year plan that includes increasing our physical
space to accommodate sustained growth. Chris actively helped
us to build consensus on some challenging issues related
to land purchasing and some social justice issues. Some
results of these efforts include more confidence in our
ability to deal with conflict and a basic concept for exploring
and acting on social concerns. The Rev. Joan Kahn-Schneider was called
as our interim minister after Rev. Bruice left our congregation.
She helped us in grieving the loss and looking at other
ways to do the work and live the life of a church and congregation.
In August 2002, the Rev. Ms. Meg Barnhouse
accepted the call to become our settled minister and is
still with us today.
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