Save the Dates

UU Asheville’s 75th Anniversary Weekend: May 9th + 10th
This year we are celebrating 75 years as a UU congregation,
culminating with a celebration event on Saturday, May 9 at 5 PM
and one Anniversary Service on Sunday, May 10 at 10 AM
with an ice cream social to follow the service!

• In the 1890’s a “saddlebag preacher” traveled through Asheville to pass on the Unitarian message?

• The Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville was founded in 1950. It began its services at the YMCA in Asheville with 10 members. In 1955, Rev. Dr. Daniel Welch (pictured at right) became its first permanent minister.  In 1956, the church purchased a building on Vermont Avenue in West Asheville.

• Church membership continued to grow and needed a new home. In 1971, the lot at 1 Edwin Place was donated to the church by Reuben Robertson, a prominent Asheville businessman who was the Chairman of US Plywood-Champion Papers.  Mr. Robertson was also a member of UU Church of Asheville and made a significant donation for the construction of the new sanctuary.

• Mrs. Lilian Sandburg made a cash donation to support construction of the fellowship hall in memory of her late husband, poet Carl Sandburg, thus named “Sandburg Hall.”  She also donated the Carl Sandburg Collection. Mrs. Sandburg and two of her daughters lived in Asheville and were members of the church. The Sandburgs previously lived in Flat Rock, NC where the estate, the Carl Sandburg Home, is now part of the National Park Service and open to the public.

• Our award-winning building was designed by UU Asheville member and architect William (Bill) Moore. Moore was inspired by fellow UU architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s design of the Unity Temple in Oak Park near Chicago (circa 1910). Moore and his firm received a Merit award from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1975 for his design of the building that incorporated native natural wood and stone.

• The first UU Asheville Justice Council was formed in 2006 as a new structure to address social justice issues. The three areas initially addressed were: Economic Justice, Human Rights, and Peace and the Environment. Projects under these social justice areas included building of a Habitat home, fundraising for college scholarships, support of Room at the Inn for homeless women, a jail ministry including restorative justice activities, LGBQT advocacy, anti-racism advocacy, and animal ministry.

• In 2006, UU Asheville minister, Rev. Mark Ward, protested the state stance on same-sex marriages by refusing to perform civil marriages in North Carolina until the state recognized same-sex marriages. In October 2014, NC legalized gay marriage in a ruling on a lawsuit that Rev. Ward (along with other ministers of various denominations) was a plaintiff. (Pictured: Members William Smith and Ryan Williams hold hands as Rev. Mark Ward reads aloud in their wedding ceremony in 2015. Their son Rainier, serving as Best Man, is pictured in the foreground.)

• UU Asheville received the Green Sanctuary certification by the Unitarian Universalist Association in 2008.  It indicates acceptance of a covenant with one another to live more sustainably upon the earth, which includes avoiding toxic chemical use, conserving energy, recycling and composting.

• Unitarian Universalists incorporate and support Paganism in its practices and view it as one of our core sources of inspiration, especially earth-centered traditions. Many congregations have dedicated Pagan groups i.e. CUUPS chapters (Covenant of UU Pagans) that practice nature-based spirituality, including the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville’s Blue Ridge Spirit CUUPS. (You can join in Blue Ridge Spirit CUUPS’ Ostara ritual, the celebration of the Spring Equinox, this Sunday at 5 PM!)

• The first same-sex marriage in Buncombe County after it was legalized in North Carolina was performed by Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Lisa Bovee-Kemper, then on staff at UU Asheville, in October 2014. This was after a federal judge ruled that the North Carolina laws that prohibited same sex marriages were unconstitutional.