UUCUV History

During the 1950's, the Unitarian Fellowship of the Norwich - Hanover area initially met two Sundays a month at the home of two members. Sunday School was held in their basement. In 1960, Fellowship members purchased an A-frame building (currently housing a Day Care Center) located near the Ledyard Bridge in Norwich, Vt. for $67,000. With the merger of the Unitarians and Universalists in 1961, the Fellowship became a Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) district congregation.

The building was sold and the congregation formally disbanded in 1972 due to dwindling membership. Reasons given for the substantial drop in participation were the controversy over social issues such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, and the financial burden of carrying a mortgage. After disbanding, smaller groups continued to meet informally in one another's homes, keeping the kernel of UU faith in this region alive.

In May 1984, at the invitation of the District Executive of the NH-VT District, Deane Starr, 27 people from the Upper Valley gathered in Hanover, NH, to discuss the possibility of forming a new Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation. This formational meeting included several members of the earlier UU fellowship. It was decided to try once again to form a UU group in this area. Other meetings followed at the Hanover Friends' Meeting House in Hanover with Rev. Starr as the presiding minister. By the middle of that first year, services were being held at Rollins Chapel on the Dartmouth campus. In January of 1985, we elected our first President.

Services in the early years were held on the second and fourth Sundays of the month, except for the months of July and August when picnic gatherings at the homes of members took place. In addition to Rollins Chapel, services in these early years also took place at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College, at the Chapel of the White Church; Hanover's Howe Library, the Collis Student Center, and the Hanover Community Center.

In the mid 1980's, our Congregation wrote and adopted our first by-laws, started long-range congregational planning, and began a search for a property of our own. It was not until 1995 that an appropriate piece of property, our present Meeting House, was found. Also, in the late 1980's, our choir was born.

By the mid- to late-1980's, there was a growing desire for ministerial leadership. Nancy Jay Crumbine, a professor at nearby Colby-Sawyer College, had begun attending services around this time and decided she would like to become a UU minister. Nancy applied for the UUA MFC program to become a minister in full fellowship and the Congregation called Nancy as their minister in the winter of 1989. In June 1993, the congregation gathered at Norwich's Congregational Church for services marking the ordination of Dr. Crumbine as a Unitarian Universalist minister, called by and to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley (UUCUV). In that same year, the Congregation continued its long-range planning with renewed vigor and created a mission statement.

The Congregation was growing and found a long-term provisional home for Sunday Services at the Marion Cross School on the Norwich town green. Services were now held three Sundays a month with the third Sunday being a guest or lay-led program. On first Sundays, smaller groups met at members homes with discussion and potluck lunches. It was also at this point that we hired our first part-time Director of Religious Education (DRE)

In the early 1990's, we rented a space at a local transportation company for ministerial office space and to hold Board meetings. In 1995, the by-laws were revised to restructure the Board. Previously, all 12 committee chairs served on the Board. The revisions created a Board of seven members, comprised of a President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer along with three at-large positions that serve staggered three-year terms.

In October of 1996, the Building Committee ended a multi-year search when it found a suitable property for sale in Norwich, Vermont. This property included a seven-acre parcel with three structures, one of which could be renovated to serve the office and limited meeting needs of the Congregation. The property's potential to hold an eventual sanctuary, and its resale possibilities should that become necessary, made it an attractive deal.

The Congregation voted overwhelmingly to buy the property if two conditions could be met: no mortgage and the promise of a two-year moratorium on more capital fund raising. UUCUV members and friends raised $165,000 over the course of six weeks and purchased the property outright in December of 1996. An intense period of renovation followed involving the volunteer efforts of about 30 UUCUV members and friends.

In celebration of our new home, a large "tent meeting" was held the first Sunday in June, 1997. Since then, the congregation has held a tent service every year in mid June. In 2001, the annual tent service marked the retirement of Rev. Dr. Crumbine from parish ministry. The next two June tent services marked the end of each of our two interim ministers' tenure with UUCUV. In 2004, the Rev. Bruce Johnson led the tent service for the first time since he was called to be our first full-time settled minister in April, 2003.

During the several years leading up to the purchase of the Meeting House, the Finance Committee began establishing a better financial base for the Congregation. We have been a "full share" congregation to the UUA since 1996.

For a "liberal" congregation that promotes and enjoys diversity, we have developed some traditions that many view almost as sacrosanct. The first service in the fall includes a "water ceremony" in which water is mingled by many persons and from many places. The last service in June has continued to be a "tent meeting" held outdoors on the Meeting House property followed by a potluck. An intergenerational service with a "flower communion" is held in the spring with RE in charge as the climax to the RE year. A Christmas Eve Vespers service has been held at the Meeting House or the Marion Cross School for the past few years. Different fundraisers have also become traditions, i.e. soupathons, the annual apple pie sale and the service auction, etc. There will undoubtedly be others in the years to come as the Congregation continues to be dynamic and innovative.

Although the UUCUV, like many UU churches, had traditionally taken a summer break, since the summer of 1998 we have held a series of summer Sunday programs that have grown increasingly popular. Many of these programs focus on social justice and environmental activism. Our Congregation has become increasingly active with these issues, offering strong support for civil union legislation in Vermont and organizing workshops and events at the district level on ecological issues. In June 2002, the UUCUV was recognized as a founding Green Sanctuary. This summer's series is called "Lives that Speak and Deeds that Beckon," from the Hymn "Rank by Rank We Stand/Reunion" by John Huntley Skrine.