2. Congregation Histories : Iowa

Ames

Unitarian Fellowship of Ames

The 1946 informal meetings of Unitarians in Ames actually anticipated the nationwide fellowship movement. The original group consisted of people who had been Unitarians outside Ames, together with those interested in learning about Unitarian thought. They met at 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoons, every other week, for discussions with the Unitarian minister from Des Moines, Grant Butler. Dr. Butler would present the main points of the sermon he had given in Des Moines that morning; then he would ask for questions and discussion.

Early in 1948, Dr. Butler was called to Boston to a position with the national Unitarian Association to organize fellowships. On November 7, 1948, Dr. Butler returned to Ames for a visit and gave a rousing talk about the Fellowship concept, its benefits to individuals and local communities and the strength it would add to Unitarianism nationally. That evening we voted to accept the invitation to become one of the first fellowships. Andy McComb was elected to be the first president of the Unitarian Fellowship of Ames.

Our first meetings were held in the Memorial Student Union on the Iowa State campus. Soon we had music and a more formal type of service; Sunday school classes began, as Cleo McComb became our first D.R.E.

After about four years of meeting in the Union we moved to Alumni Hall, renting the YWCA rooms for our Sunday school. This led to an expanded program in Religious Education, which was a drawing card to membership for young orthodox churches. For the next sixteen years we continued meeting at Alumni Hall, renting additional space from the YMCA to supplement that we were already renting from the YWCA.

During these years there were ups and downs. The lowest point came in 1959 when several active families left Ames. We held a meeting to consider disbanding the group; however, the outcome of that meeting was that we decided to put its treasury—about $50—into a building fund. Another ten years passed while money was raised, lots were purchased, an architect drew up plans, more money was raised, and ground was broken at 1015 N. Hyland.

Throughout the history of the fellowship, religious education has been a primary focus of our concern. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s there would often be more children in the Sunday school than there were adults in the adult meeting. The primary motive for building was to get adequate Sunday school space. In fact, the building we dedicated in 1970 was built without the proposed adult meeting room. For fifteen years the adult meetings (and pot luck suppers, and dances, and weddings, and memorial services) have been held in the foyer! Now that we’ve paid off our last mortgage (February, 1986), we can think about expanding again.

The reason that we have maintained our fellowship status so long has not been size (with 135 members, we were larger than many churches) or lack of financial resources. It has been a dedication to the fellowship ideal. A fellowship is qualitatively different from a church, because of the necessity of developing our own resources to meet each other’s spiritual needs. The immanence, the spiritual power, must come from the group, not from any individual leader. In a fellowship with a rapid turnover in membership, there is a constant renewal of discovery and enthusiasm. We did acknowledge that our ability to minister to each other was enhanced by the six-week residence of a couple of ministers on loan (Dave Sammons in 1973 and Rupert Lovely in 1984), who helped us with organization and structure; but we continued to fear that a full-time minister would steal the fire from heaven. From the denomination we would occasionally get questions that implied, “Are you ready to grow up and become a church yet?” The answer, based on extensive goal setting is, “We hope we never will be.” We would like to grow, to meet the needs of more diverse people, and to become a more vital presence in the community, however. In order to do this, we have finally reached the consensus to call a minister. By the time this history is published, he or she should be installed—as minister to a fellowship, not a church.

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