2. Congregation Histories : Minnesota

St. Cloud

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of St. Cloud

From a religious viewpoint, St. Cloud, Minnesota is known as a city of many Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches, established because of the large German, Polish, and Scandinavian elements in the community’s population. Nevertheless, Unitarians started a church in St. Cloud in the 1880s. This liberal religious church flourished for a time, but by the 1920s the congregation was struggling, and in the 1930s it disbanded and gave its building to the city of St. Cloud. Then for almost thirty years, no organized body of Unitarians existed in the community.

By 1960, the stage was set for the founding of a Unitarian fellowship. Three groups of people, some of who were in more than one of these groups, combined to launch this new venture in Unitarianism in the city. Some of the members of a liberal discussion group, which met occasionally in the late 1950s to converse about political, social, and philosophical topics, constituted one element. A second set of individuals who were involved in this were a few members of the Unitarian Church of the Larger Fellowship who resided in St. Cloud. The third strand of these founders of the fellowship was a small number of Unitarians who had belonged to Unitarian churches elsewhere before moving to St. Cloud. Under the leadership of Munroe Husbands, the field man for the American Unitarian Association at that time, these three groups came together and organized a fellowship in 1960.

The members of the fellowship (subsequently called the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship) met at first in a place called the Mohr Guest Home near the campus of St. Cloud State College (now University). Their meetings, which were essentially adult discussion sessions, occurred one or two times a month on Friday evenings from September through May. Soon people within the group organized a religious education program, meeting in the homes of those who had children. By the mid 1960s, the growth of the group, plus the desire of the RE advocates to have the RE lessons held at the same time as the adult programs, resulted in: renting two rooms in the St. Cloud Labor Home and simultaneous RE and adult sessions on Sunday mornings.

During this time, the fellowship organized in a more formal manner with a governing board, which met every month. It also developed many of its traditions in the mid 1960s such as pledge dinners in members’ homes and an annual picnic in May. By this period a few members of the fellowship were very active in regional UU activities and sometimes attended the national general assembly.

IN 1966, the group, desiring its own building, purchased a former schoolhouse in SE St. Cloud and took possession of it in 1967. At the mid-point of the 1970s, fellowship members determined that they needed a larger building both for the adult meetings and for the RE programs. This new structure was occupied in 1979 and rings with the sounds of RE activities and the varied programs for the adults each Sunday from September through May.

In general the fellowship has increased in membership over the years, although, due to the nature of members’ vocational pursuits, there has been a considerable turnover in membership.

(Author not noted)