CHARGE FROM THE ANCESTORS
For the Installation of Rev. Laura Bogle at Foothills UU Fellowship on Sept. 30, 2018
A Collaboration between all four East TN UU congregations
ADAM: Our Unitarian and Universalist roots go back at least a couple thousand years, but it wasn’t until the 16th century that the first Unitarian congregations formed in Transylvania. Similarly, UU roots can be found from the beginning of early American history, but organized congregations did not emerge until the 1700s in the United States.
CATHERINE: Our ancestors call us to remember our long history of the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
ELNORA: Likewise, there were surely UU beliefs in East Tennessee from the founding of the city of Knoxville in the late 1700s, but it wasn’t until 1868 that the first Unitarian congregation began meeting in Knoxville. Unfortunately, the congregation stopped meeting after only 8 months.
A couple of decades later in 1891 a Universalist church was planted in Harriman. But the church was faltering within only a few years.
FRED: In February 1895, when the Universalists held their national convention in Knoxville, they appointed Quillen Shinn as missionary to the South, a position he held for the rest of his life, riding on horseback over hill and through valleys.
Soon the Unitarian Church of Knoxville was organized, but the group stopped holding meetings 18 months later because the community was not receptive to UU values. The Universalist Church of Knoxville also organized around this time and met sporadically. In 1917 the Unitarian Society of Knoxville formed, but it did not last very long either.
JEFF: Our ancestors call us to trust what rises up from the people, and to imagine and embrace a Unitarian Universalism that, like a hardy native plant, is indigenous to East Tennessee.
BETH: After World War II, the young adults who stayed to live in Oak Ridge began to create the city’s institutions, among them Fred and Louise Drosten. In the Fall of 1948, people from Oak Ridge and from Knoxville gathered to meet with Lon Ray Call from the American Unitarian Association, and by 1949, a single congregation--with two campuses, one in Knoxville and one in Oak Ridge--began to meet. Rev. Dick Henry would preach in Knoxville in Sunday mornings and Oak Ridge on Sunday afternoons. Within a year, both Knoxville and Oak Ridge had grown enough to stand on their own, and continued on, no longer as twins, but as neighbors.
ADAM: Our ancestors call us to listen to young adults, to spread the good news of a Love that leaves nobody out everywhere it can go, to invest in that mission, and to know that our founding story is that we’re better together.
CATHERINE: TVUUC boldly accepted African American Jim Person as a member during a time when that put the church on the wrong side of the law. The school board met about the matter and called the Unitarians “Communists,” and the church was no longer allowed to meet in the school space.
On the other side of town, the City of Oak Ridge had been established according to Jim Crow laws, and that built-in racism required and still requires work to untangle and dismantle. In the 1950s, Unitarians worked diligently toward integration of schools, businesses, housing, and even the local cemetery.
ELNORA: In 1968, in the wake of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, the Poor People’s Campaign came through Knoxville on its way to DC, and members of TVUUC fed 2000 people in their efforts to support the cause.
FRED: However, following Dr. King’s assassination, there was a general disintegration of the coalition around civil rights, and some African American leaders didn’t feel that they could make a movement or a difference from their positions within UU churches. This schism had a deep impact, especially on the national level.
JEFF: Our ancestors call us to perseverance, courage, and patience, as we work toward the Beloved Community.
BETH: The seeds of a new congregation began in conversations in 1984 between the Oak Ridge and Tennessee Valley UU churches. A couple of years later Westside UU Church in Farragut was formed.
It would be another 24 years until the Foothills UU Fellowship was chartered, but seeds were being planted. In 1988 the Smoky Mountain Unitarian Group -- also known as SMUG -- was a small group that could fit around a table at a diner on 411.
ADAM: Somewhere around the early 2000s Chris Buice, minister of TVUUC and a former member of the Smoky Mountain Unitarian Group, encouraged the creation of a Small Group Ministry in Blount County. The small group soon began to launch larger events and worship services. Once established, the seed of the small group ministry grew very rapidly.
CATHERINE: In March 2006, the congregation now known as Foothills UU Fellowship, began meeting as a satellite ministry of TVUUC, first meeting at Maryville College, then in two other locations before moving to our current space at the Smith Life Event Center. In 2008, the congregation was chartered as a UUA congregation.
ELNORA: Our ancestors call us to prioritize building relationship first, to remember the Fellowship is not a building, and to know that seeds planted may bear fruit many years later.
JEFF: In July 2008 our congregations were deeply affected by a tragic shooting at TVUUC, motivated by hatred and resulting in the loss of two precious lives and injuries to several others. Out of this terrible tragedy came resilience and hope and the Side with Love movement that seeks to harness love’s power to stop oppression.
BETH: Our ancestors call us to resilience, strength, and hope in the face of fear, hate, & oppression.
ADAM: In January 2018, East TN UU ministers and congregations worked together to host the UUA annual Board meeting in Knoxville, where our UUA president Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray reminded us that “This is no time for a casual faith.” Importantly, she added, “This is no time to go it alone or to think that we are in this alone.”
CATHERINE: Our ancestors call us to dream big and to work together in partnership with our sibling congregations and our denomination in order to fulfill our vision of radical love and justice for all people.
ELNORA: In the nearly 70 years since the formation of the Oak Ridge and Tennessee Valley congregations, our four congregations have been served by somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 ministers, each bringing their particular ministry and wisdom and together working to support East Tennessee UUs in living out our values in our congregations and in our communities.
FRED: Our ancestors call us to celebrate the richness and strength of long relationships that take time to deepen and grow.
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