The History of Our Church
Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville, North Carolina

UUCA Ministers

Our History

1930's
The first concentrated effort to establish a liberal religious presence in Asheville came in the early 1930s when the American Unitarian Association sent ministers to the area for brief preaching missions in the hope of generating interest. That campaign to spread the Unitarian message, chaired by Walter S. Adams, editor of the Asheville Citizen, culminated with a series of radio addresses by Dr. Howard Westwood and Rev. Owen Eames. The area’s bad economic situation, though, deterred their efforts and the campaign to start a congregation in Asheville was postponed.

1950's

The Unitarian Fellowship of Asheville was organized on May 9, 1950 at a gathering held at the George Vanderbilt Hotel by a group of 10 spiritual seekers and free thinkers looking for a religious alternative to the community’s conservative Christian churches. The Rev. Lon Ray Call, minister-at-large of the American Unitarian Association, addressed the group.

The Fellowship clearly met a need. The first issue of their newsletter, dated April 1951, reported a doubling of membership in its first year from 10 to 22 (and a bank balance of $48.96). At the first annual meeting that May, this committed group determined to become a church and voted to establish a Building Fund.

For two years, members conducted services on Sunday evenings in the basement of the First Congregational Church, and in March 1952 established a church school, meeting Sunday mornings at the Leicester home of George and Muriel Cornell.

However families preferred holding adult and youth programs in the same building at the same time so, that December, they moved to one large room and four small ones in the old YMCA building on Grove Street, where they could hold services and church school classes on Sunday mornings.

The fledgling group enticed summer resident Rev. Horace F. Westwood to speak at Sunday services during the summers of 1953 and 1954. The experience strengthened the congregation’s determination to have a full-time minister.

	In June 1955 the Rev. Daniel Welch came out of retirement to become our first pastor.
		Rev. Welch

During these years, members of our church were active in the League of Women Voters, the YWCA, as well as in efforts to integrate Asheville racially and to establish an Asheville chapter of the American Association for the United Nations. Women members of the church were active in efforts to provide clothing and serve breakfasts to African-American children, as well as assisting African-Americans to vote, and in that process discovered voting irregularities. Jack Boyce, the first president of the fellowship, was active in an effort to bring Eleanor Roosevelt to speak in Asheville. Her address on the United Nations on November 27, 1956 filled the auditorium of the YWCA to overflowing.

Church members remained active in desegregation efforts during the late 1950s and early 1960s. One of our first social action awards was presented to an adult advisor to the Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality, who organized to integrate area schools, business and restaurants.

Membership continued to grow, and in December 1956, the congregation bought and converted a large home at 120 Vermont Avenue in West Asheville for services and classes. (It has since been reconverted to a spacious, elegant private residence.) The Fellowship celebrated its first service there January 6, 1957, and soon established a Laymen's League, a Women's Alliance, and a Liberal Religious Youth group.

1960's
In May 1962 the growing congregation, with a membership of 67, was awarded church status by the Unitarian Universalist Association. Its membership extended to Hendersonville, Brevard, and other surrounding towns. Rev. Welch took a second retirement in April 1963, after eight fruitful years. The Rev. Richard Gross succeeded him as minister from July 1963 to March 1967, when he left to take a position with the North Carolina Heart Association. By that time church membership had grown to 140. During the next year and a half, the church was without a minister, and membership and attendance dwindled.

	Rev. Gross		Rev. Dr. Pullman

In September 1968 the church called Rev. Dr. Tracy Pullman, who had recently retired after a 27-year ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit. A month later, in recognition of the 1961 merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, the Asheville Unitarian Church changed its name to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville.

Under Rev. Pullman’s leadership, church membership grew again and it became clear that the church needed a larger building. In early 1969 a committee was appointed to find a site suitable for building a church. In June 1969, the church learned that the Reuben B. Robertson family, through Dr. & Mrs. Logan Robertson, had offered the church property at the corner of Charlotte Street and Edwin Place, consisting of three buildings and vacant property. In August 1969 the church voted to accept the Robertson family’s offer and the property was officially transferred to the church on April 1, 1970.

1970's
Architect and church member William O. Moore designed a sanctuary, activities building and religious education building, although the latter had to be postponed. Ground was broken for the new building in July 1971 and shortly thereafter Lillian Sandburg, widow of the poet Carl Sandburg, announced a gift of $25,000 toward the building. The activities building was named Sandburg Hall, in the family’s honor. Click Plans to view the Site Plan and Floor Plan.

The first service in the new building was held on May 7, 1972 and the building was dedicated October 17. The striking new building and Dr. Pullman's presence attracted many new members to the thriving church. When Dr. Pullman retired in June 1974, he was named Minister Emeritus in tribute to his service.

	The Rev. William Hammond came to the church that September after ministries in Chicago and Gross Point, Ill., and Minnetonka, Minn. After his arrival, activities increased both within the church and in the community. The Young Adult group, renamed The Unicorns, grew very active, and the Women's Alliance became the Noonlighters, an adult group for both sexes. Other programs included mini-classes, sharing suppers, and Friday night potluck suppers. The Social Concerns Committee (now Social Action) sponsored a Vietnamese family and continues to give support to a wide range of social needs.
		Rev. Hammond

In 1977 a campaign was launched to enlarge Sandburg Hall and add classrooms. Robert Habel chaired the Long-Range Planning Committee, and George Love and Lois Thompson co-chaired the Building Completion Committee. The Unicorns generously matched an anonymous donor’s gift of $10,000, and the addition opened in September 1980, just in time for the church’s thirtieth anniversary. Also, during this time, in 1979, the church hired its first director of religious education, Janet Harvey.

1980's
Upon Rev. Hammond's retirement in August 1983, the congregation named him Minister Emeritus.

		In September 1983, the Rev. James Brewer became the church's fifth minister. Following a long experience in human relations internationally, especially in South Africa, Rev. Brewer returned to the parish ministry in 1980, serving as interim minister to Unitarian Universalist churches in Chicago, Toronto, Portsmouth, N.H., and Westport, Conn., before coming to Asheville.
	Rev. Brewer

The church again saw strong growth in membership and the founding of a choir under church member Bill Frisch. In 1987 a home next door to the church became available and was purchased. Two years later it was dedicated as the Thomas Jefferson House.

1990's
Rev. Brewer retired in August 1990, and the congregation voted him Minister Emeritus the following January.

The Rev. Dr. William Houff was interim minister during the yearlong search for a new settled minister. A former research chemist, Dr. Houff was also a committed social activist, photographer, outdoorsman, carpenter, and author of a well-received book on spiritual growth, Infinity In Your Hand.

	The Rev. M. Maureen Killoran was called as UUCA’s sixth settled minister in May 1991. Reared Roman Catholic in Toronto and first trained in social work, Rev. Killoran became a Unitarian Universalist in 1967. She came to Asheville after having served five years as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, Oregon, her first settlement. During her ministry here she continued her education and received her doctorate in ministry. Under Rev. Killoran’s leadership the congregation grew significantly, eventually exceeding 600 members, and expanded its Sunday worship offerings from one to two services.
		Rev. Dr. Killoran

During this period the size and complexity of the religious education program grew significantly. In November 1991 the church ordained its director of religious education, Janet Harvey, as minister of religious education. Rev. Harvey left later and in 1994 Laurel Amabile of Yarmouth, Maine, was hired as director of religious education. Under Ms. Amabile, the religious education program also grew to nearly 200 children and youth and saw an increase in involvement by families, children and youth in worship and social action projects. These included an all-church partnership with the Helpmate program and the two-year Leadership Ethical Action Program, conducted in partnership with The Mountain’s Milestone Learning Center. That program culminated with a “CommUnity Asheville 2000” festival held in downtown Asheville on June 2, 2000. Ms. Amabile left in July 2000 to become religious education consultant for the Thomas Jefferson and Midsouth districts of the UUA and Rebecca Young was hired as director of religious education.

Under Rev. Killoran’s leadership the church also provided support and advocacy for gays and lesbians in the community, holding one of the area’s first World AIDS Day services, organizing an Interweave group in the church and being recognized by the UUA in 1995 as a Welcoming Congregation. For a period of time, the church provided space for the Metropolitan Community Church of Asheville, a Christian church for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

In the late 1990s the growing church explored options for growth and among these assisted in the founding of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley in Black Mountain.

2000's
Dr. Killoran retired from our church in December 2002 and was named Minister Emerita and chose to focus her work on community ministry as a life coach. The Rev. Dr. Neil Shadle, a retired professor of ministry from Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago, relocated to Asheville and served as our interim minister from January 2003 through June 2004.

	A consultant for many years to Unitarian Universalist churches, Dr. Shadle provided pastoral guidance and support to the congregation as it dealt with issues of transition and preparation for a new era, assisted the Board in reorganizing the church staff, spearheaded the development of an endowment and planned giving program, initiated an all-church Program Council, advised the leadership in defining a more comprehensive mission for the Committee on Ministry, strengthened the effort in membership recruitment and orientation, and introduced a planning process for the exploration of a covenant group program.
		Rev. Dr. Shadle

In this period of transition there were changes in staffing and in staff structure. Marilyn Martin of the office staff was named church administrator, Lenora Thom, director of the Asheville Choral Society, was hired as director of music, and Kirstie Fischer, youth advisor, was named director of religious education.

		The Rev. Mark Ward, a 2004 graduate of Meadville Lombard Theological School, was called as the church’s seventh settled minister in April 2004 and began his ministry in August 2004. A lifelong Unitarian Universalist who had been active as a lay leader, he came with 25 years experience as a newspaper journalist primarily in Milwaukee, Wis. Rev. Ward served his ministerial internship at the First Unitarian Society in Madison, Wis., one of our denomination's largest churches, and was installed and ordained by our church in February 2005.
	Rev. Mark Ward

Under Rev. Ward's leadership the church developed a “Covenant Group” program of small group ministry and with new growth in membership returned to two weekly Sunday worship services in the fall of 2005.