2. Congregation Histories : Wisconsin

Rice Lake

Blue Hills Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

The idea of Blue Hills UU Fellowship was born one evening at a dinner party where several parents were lamenting over the problem of what to tell their children they believed when their children came home from Sunday school talking about Bible stories. The parents wished there was a “religion” in tune with teaching children to be aware and caring adults in the world. They were interested in a religion that spoke to the issues of the day. One of the women of the group, Karen Manson, did some library research in a small Midwestern rural library and came upon the Unitarian Universalist Association. After more research and correspondence, Karen excitedly told the rest of the group about Unitarian Universalism. The group decided to visit a fellowship to see for themselves what UU was all about. They traveled to the Minnesota Valley UU Fellowship in Bloomington, Minnesota. David Phreaner and Beth Ide encouraged them to pursue their dream of setting up a UU fellowship of their own. Emil Gudmundson of the PSD Extension office helped with the particulars of the bylaws. After several working meetings they came up with the following as their statement of purpose: Relying upon reason as our guide, and upon freedom as our method, we seek to grow in understanding of ourselves and of our world, to promote and serve the Universal human family. The following spring (1981) Blue Hills UU Fellowship was accepted into the UUA with 12 founding members.

Over five years we have grown to include 22 adults and 17 children. Starting out, we met in private homes and now we are meeting in a public union hall. We have been a lay-led society from the beginning and are now considering part-time professional leadership. Our religious education program for all ages continues to provide a focus for the search for personal religious truth.

(Author not noted)

This history has been updated.