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ARTS & LIFE
The Clarion | September 23,2005
Unitarian Universalists acquire new cliurch building
by Tom Cowan
Staff Writer
Unitarianism has been around a long
time but it has only recently come to
Brevard. Now with a membership of around
100, the Unitarian Universalists of
Transylvania County have their own build
ing. Several members are former Christian
ministers.
One thing newcomers to Brevard
quickly notice is that we have a lot of
churches. No doubt Brevard is a very reli
gious community. Located in the heart of
the Bible belt, Transylvania County is
home to around 87 Churches. Some of them
sit right across the street from each other
The numerousness of Transylvania
churches is not only the result of the num
ber of people who worship but it is also
due number of divisions within the Chris
tian community. The Southern Baptist and
the Methodist are the largest groups, fol
lowed by the Catholics, the Presbyterians
and the Episcopal. In Brevard we also have
a few much smaller religious groups, con
sisting of a hundred members or less. These
include the Quakers, who congregate in
the Public Child Care Center, the Jews, who
meet in The Sacred Hart Catholic Church,
and the Unitarians Universalists (UU) who
used to meet in the Mclarty-Goodson build
ing on campus, but have since acquired
their own building on the comer of Broad
and Varsity Street.
What do the Unitarian Universalists
teach? UU member, John Waldo is a per
fect example of someone who discovered
the teachings of the UU through his own
life experience. Raised in a strict Catholic
family in southern Louisiana he joined the
priesthood as a young man in 1950 and he
moved to India to do mission work in 1958.
He was forced to leave India for political
reasons in 1965 and he moved to Brazil the
same year. He stayed in Brazil until 1968
and left the priesthood in 1970. He later got
a masters degree in clinical social work and
started a career as a psychotherapist.
In his travels, Waldo said he experi
enced things he never expected. He saw
people of many different religions who were
able to live fulfilling lives despite living in
relative poverty, he saw cohesive families
and communities, and he saw people liv
ing with greater fearlessness’ and accep
tance of life and death.
In descnbing why he left the priest
hood Waldo explained how his experiences
overseas had changed his view of reality
in a way that did not accord with the Catho
lic Church. As part of his life realization
Waldo said “I realized that the people who
had told me right from wrong were really
not at a higher level then me.” He also said
“In my late 30s, the largely repressed re
belliousness that would have been normal
in my teenage years began to catch up with
me. This was to the point where I needed
to give myself the freedom to seek a per
sonal independence which would have
been prohibited had I continued as a Catho
lic priest.”
While no longer a priest Waldo has
remained very spiritual having since had
the belief that one should remain open to
spiritual development through personal life
experience. This is also a major belief of
the Unitarian Universalists who generally
feel that all beliefs should remain open to
questioning and development. In 2001,
shortly after moving to Brevard, Waldo
joined the Unitarian Universalists of
Transylvania County (UUTC). He served
two year’s on the UUTC’s boar of direc
tors helping them acquire their new build
ing in early 2004.
The UUTC started with around 15
people in 1999. They congregated on the
Brevard College campus and their current
reverend, Ernie Mills, was then the Brevard
College Chaplin and a Methodist minister
since 1992. Mills became reverend of the
UUTC in 2002.
Interesting, the origins of Unitarian
ism also go back to a green mountainous
place called Transylvania (now part of Ro
mania). The congregation started in the
1560s when the Protestant reformation had
taken hold in the area and broken the Catho
lic Church into many different Christian
sects that often disputed one another.
Frances David, an influential court
preacher, had converted from Catholicism
to Lutheranism to Calvinism and finally to
his newly discovered faith Unitarianism.
Unitarianism was accepted by his King with
the hope that it would end religious unrest
and bring unity within the diversity of reli
gion. Frances David said “We need not
think alike to love alike.” The congrega
tion continues today with the belief that
there is no one Trinity that fully is repre
sentative of God. They believe in the ne
cessity to follow Jesus but not worship
him.
Unitarians spread through various
parts of Europe and not surprisingly they
suffered a long history of persecution. In
the late eighteenth century before Unitari
anism spread to Amcrica, a very similar re
ligious movement had developed indig
enously in several parts of the north and
southeastern United States. Know as the
Universalists, they were people who aban
doned strict Christian doctrines and be
lieved that God embraced people of all reli
gions, races, and social classes. Univer
salists were very active in Social justice
movements. They embraced the motto
“deeds not creeds.” They often broke the
law to defend fugitive slaves. The Univer
salists denomination became the first to
ordain women to their ministiy beginning
in 1863, with a freed slave Olympia Brown.
In the mid twentieth century the Uni
tarian and Universalists began to fully be
come aware of each other and their com
monalties. It became clear that they could
become greater voice for religious unity if
they them selves merged together. The
Unitarian Universalists Association was
formed in 1961.
Today in Brevard, the UUTC member
ship has grown to around 100 people. They
are recognized by the State as a religious
society and a non-profit organization. They
are privately funded, mainly by annual
pledge drives. Their main serves is on Sun
day mornings, normally during which time
they sing songs and teach basic religious
principles such as their seven bylaws. Other
groups meetings occur throughout the
week, such as men’s groups, women’s
groups, child daycare and religious educa
tion groups. The UUTC also hold discus
sion forums and spiritually related classes
such as meditation classes. Their social
actions committee meets regularly to try to
organize charities and things that benefit
the community and the world. They are re
sponsible for starting TCVIM, a local vol
unteer medical service facility for the poor
More information including an events cal
endar is available at www.uutc.org.
John Rock
continued from page 11
they have been on that particular trail. Keep
these things in mind, always be aware of
your surroundings, be as safe as possible,
and practice “leave no trace” which basi
cally means leave the area better than you
found it. Try this trail out, try any of them
out but plan ahead and make sure you
know what you’re getting into. Have a good
time out there.