Looking back over the last six months of UUA Board of Trustees minutes, I’ve found one congregational admission (45 members) and one merger (24 members), meaning no net change. That’s not good news for the association, but best wishes to the congregations in Ohio and Oklahoma.
from the General Assembly-timed June 21-27, 2011 minutes:
VOTED: To accept the following congregation as a member of the Unitarian
Universalist Association:
Harmony Unitarian Universalist Church
Morrow, OHAdditionally, it was reported that the UU Community Church of Norman OK had voted to dissolve and that the UU Fellowship of Norman, Norman OK, has voted to change it’s name to the West Wind Unitarian Congregation as of July 1, 2011, resulting in the two congregations of Norman, OK becoming one congregation
Harmony is an interesting case. It consists of a lay-led, self-starting group in a northern Cincinnati suburb best known for being the home of the Kings Island Amusement Park. They also quickly purchased the church building that had been used by the Universalist Church of Mason (I believe the Mason Universalists went dormant in the Great Depression and then became defunct durring World War 2). Harmony Church appears to have healthy and creative lay-leadership.
I found the name Harmony Unitarian Universalist Church to be an interesting choice. Both Harmony and Church. When was the last time a Church joined the UUA?
What is even more interesting about Harmony is that they are pretty clear that they do NOT want professional ministry. And they seem to be very successful in their model of how they are doing church. Very family/children focussed; they used to have services twice a month; now they have an AA bb pattern so that teachers can attend services and they can accomodate their growth. Great group.