2. Congregation Histories : South Dakota

Brookings

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Brookings

The Brookings Fellowship was founded in 1960 in one of the late Monroe Husband’s banner years and with the major assistance from Dorothy Grant. No Fellowship is founded without a significant pre-history, and in this instance it traces to the late Gabriel Lundy, a member of CLF, who introduced the late Marge Smythe to the educational materials of Sophia Fahs. Subsequently a chance meeting with Elsie Seymour, a newcomer from Minneapolis with a Unitarian background (and kids) produced such good chemistry that the organization meeting of the Fellowship followed in just three months.

The early years produced a search for identity, a search for housing, and a search for new members. After some initial success, growth stopped. It was later that it was realized that our membership already bore precisely the same relation to local population as the larger denomination bore to national population. This still persists.

The search for housing started with rented quarters ($50 a month for a one room apartment was thought too heavy a burden!). Meeting in rotation in member’s homes was the solution until recently. In 1985 it was urged that meeting regularly in a public place would produce growth. It did not. It now seems that the next experiment will be to meet regularly in a handicapped accessible home which is available.

The search for identity continues less urgently. The problem has been reformulated into the question of how to identify our likenesses without endorsing likeness as a goal.

Religious education has been another chronic problem. It was tried in 1961, but the small number of children and the diversity in ages proved too difficult. Efforts in this area have mostly taken the form of making parents aware of available material and undertaking assist with its procurement and use.

An early perennial source of panic was the problem that is caused in a University town by staff turnover, with important gaps left in the membership each spring. As new prospects appeared each fall the annual debate over whether to disband has been ruled out of order.

One definite trend has been increasing reliance on the membership for program resources. Outside speakers and discussants, while still used, is now the exception.

Over the years Brookings has had a special relation with the Sioux Falls Fellowship, attending each other’s meetings, trading speakers, and sharing the expense of travel for out-of-town speakers. Since Brookings recently went from Saturday night to Sunday meetings, such opportunities have diminished but not ended.

Limen Smythe