From Fellowship to Church

A brief history of our organization

 On the evening of September 19, 1946, a group of approximately eight families came together at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Sherwood. Almost all of these people, at one time or another, had been exposed to the Unitarian Church, and most had belonged to a church group somewhere else. They exchanged ideas, organized, formulated by-laws, and elected the following officers:

President, Guy Lackey

Secretary, Marguerite Baumgartner

Treasurer, Charles Sherwood

This was the first organizational meeting of Unitarians in Stillwater. A year later, a Founders' Meeting organized the official fellowship. A list of those members appears on the opposite page. The Stillwater Fellowship and a similar fellowship in Boulder, Colorado, were accepted by the American Unitarian Association in Boston within a few days of each other, becoming the first Unitarian Fellowships in America.

During the early years, meetings were held in members' homes. Several meetings took place in the Prairie Play House, the YMCA, and Old Central. The Episcopal Church obliged the group for about two years and for almost eight years the Short Course Center at 6th and Walnut functioned as a meeting place.

Finally, by May 28, 1959, the Fellowship had accumulated enough of a building fund to allow the purchase of a residence at 505 S. Duck Street. It was modified into a chapel and church school and dedicated in September 1959.

Fewer than ten years later, on June 15, 1966, the Duck Street house was sold and land on Stallard Street was purchased. By 1968, the building fund had grown enough to permit work to begin on the present building. Architects for the church were Frank Ehrenthal and Ray Means. David Lambert was contracted to construct the building shell, and dreams of a Fellowship slowly began to materialize.

During construction, Ehrenthal left OSU, so successful completion and finish work on the new building was due almost entirely to the skill, hard work and patience of Ray Means and the volunteer labor of the Fellowship under his guidance. While major construction went on (2 years), the Wesley Foundation served as a regular meeting place. By the fall of 1969, meetings were held in the half-completed building. The official dedication service was held in April, 1973.

In 1984, at a congregational meeting, it was voted to change the status of our organization from Fellowship to "Church."

The church has had a good deal of professional assistance over the years. Many ministers from other Oklahoma U.U. Churches have contributed their time and talents to nurture our group, including the Rev. Frank 0. Holmes, the Rev. Ray Baughn, and the Rev. Richard Allen (OKC First), the Rev. G. F. Patterson, the Rev. Robert W. Sonen and the Rev. John Wolf (Tulsa All Souls), and the Rev. Bill Gold (Tulsa Hope).

Over the years we have also received assistance from one of our members, the Rev. Harry Brobst (ret.). Two "winter ministries" of the Rev. John S. MacPhee (1982-83), and the Rev. Robert Holmes (1983-84) led to the calling of a half-time extension minister, the Rev. Michael Nelson, in 1984. Reverend Nelson served our church and Oklahoma City Channing jointly from 1984 to 1987. The Rev. Carol Fincher became our full-time extension minister in 1988 and was installed October 14,1990, as our called minister. She served the church until 1994. In 1995, Rev. Bob Hill was called as our part time minister. After Rev. Hill's departure in December, 1997, Rev. Mary McAnally was hired in the summer of 1999 as our Minister with a two year contract.  Felicia Urbanski, M.A., M.Div., was our full-time called minister from October 2002 through August 2005.  After Rev. Felicia's departure in 2005, our congregation has moved to a more varied method of ministry.

Rev. Carol Fincher ministers to the pastoral care needs of the congregation. We have diversified our Sunday services by contracting with Rev. Valerie Mapstone Ackerman and Rev. Scot Harvey, both ordained UU ministers, Rev. Catherine Shearer, an ordained UCC minister, and Anna Holloway, a UU ministerial candidate. Each of these ministers presents a service once a month. This allows our congregation to have a rich variety of sermon styles and content.