Early History
In early 1983, Glen Schmeising, a member of the UUA-Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) contacted all other UUA-CLF members living in the West Virginia and Western Maryland area. He asked them if they were interested in establishing a congregation in Cumberland, MD. Seven people answered the call and responded yes: George and Carla Feldhamer, Tom and Audrey Edwards, Betty Hadidian, Phyllis Stewart, and Tom Hawk. We then met with the UUA-JPD Development Advisor, Elizabeth Maxwell and formed the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Greater Cumberland. The first UUFGC service was held in May 1983, when the final founding members, Michael and Margaret Chonko, joined the effort.
The Joseph Priestly District assigned a Consulting Minister, Reverend Alice Blair Wesley, for the 1984-1985 fiscal year. She was very influential on the UUFGC’s early development and history. She modeled excellent weekly services for us and developed the financial reporting formats we still use today. Most significantly, she located the building at 211 S Lee St. that has been our home since March 1985.
Over the past 40 years UUFGC has developed a strong self-managing and self-reliant culture built on a diverse set of skills and interests that have worked very well for us. We have relied on guest ministers, congregational members and local lay persons to augment the once-per-month services of our Consulting Ministers. We have been very active in supporting local charities, with over ten percent of our annual budget going to those charities. We have developed the technical capacity for having worship attendees physically and virtually at the same time. We try as UUA puts it “To live our values aloud.”
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Greater Cumberland 