UUFG History, 1950s
1952 was a banner for religious liberals in Gainesville. That year a small group came together to plan a new fellowship, sparked by a visit to Gainesville of an ambassador from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) headquarters in Boston. Founding member Jack Penrod remembers that a UF graduate student in Philosophy, who later became a UU minister, and one or two others put out the word and got about 12 people to the initial meeting.
Soon the first service brought together 12-15 people, with a visiting minister, who with her husband served the UU church in Orlando. As founding member Glenn Hoffman reported, the group was only "slightly shocked by the black robe of the minister, who explained that she couldn’t talk in public without her robe." The group met on the University of Florida campus in a second floor room of the old Florida Union, now Dauer Hall.
The group was attracted by the idea of an open fellowship committed to a spirit of inquiry. Most were members of the UF Philosophy or Humanities Departments and their spouses, with a mathematician serving as chair for the first two years. Founding member Morris Storer remembers the "dismay of two visitors who arrived in the midst of especially animated discussion" and who turned out to be looking for the Friends Meeting one floor down. Glenn Hoffman and Art Fabrick both remember the blue haze of smoke during discussion in a highly intellectual, if cloudy, atmosphere.
After the first couple of meetings, faculty members and others were called on for talks, and no minister attended. In the late 1950s, "The Roles of Reason and Love in Life," a year-long inquiry put together by Morris Storer and others featured six blocks of Sunday meetings. Another discussion topic remembered by Art Fabrick was whether there is a God, and a newsletter of 1959 advertises the upcoming topic, "Islam Today." Jack Penrod remembers that a local African American physician was invited to speak in order to provide racial diversity.
Meeting in the Florida Union worked well, as the congregation grew to 30 or 40 people. An influx of young families caused the Sunday School to flourish. Jane Penrod, Margaret Pierce, and others carried in cardboard boxes of supplies, and Art Fabrick remembers the children having to sit around huge adult-size tables and chairs in adjoining classrooms. Because the fee for use of the Union space was $25 per year, there was no need for pledge canvasses and budgets — when money was needed, a hat was passed.
By the late 1950s, the congregation was meeting regularly for services consisting of a speaker and discussion and for religious education for the children. Fellowship newsletters for 1959 announce a Sunday evening adult discussion group, meetings of a Liberal Religious Youth (LRY) group, and social gatherings. A music program was in the planning stages. And the coffee hour tradition began then, along with the discussion of where it should be held and what should be served. A business meeting announcement states that an increased budget will be proposed, and "a full discussion of the subject is expected Sunday."
Near the end of the decade, some local UUs brought the local group in touch with the larger movement by attending a Unitarian Conference at Blue Ridge. An article in the Fellowship newsletter speaks about the purpose and conviction of the congregation and makes clear the vision for "a center for liberal religion in the community." The congregation is still working from this firm foundation laid by its founders.
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