In the fall of 1954, Nat and Carol Sherman
moved their family to Waynesboro from New Jersey. After discovering
no Unitarian congregation in the area, they placed an ad in the
newspaper inviting interested persons to contact them. They also
visited Henry Cheetham, minister of the Unitarian church in Charlottesville,
who offered his advice and assistance. A group of ten people began
meeting every other week at the Hotel General Wayne on West Main
Street. By June 1955, the group had been formally recognized by
the American Unitarian Association.
The tiny Fellowship continued to meet
every other week for services led by Rev. Cheetham or a member
of his Charlottesville congregation, David McKeith. It established
a presence in the community by hosting public lectures on current
topics. The first years were difficult, but the group persevered
despite coming to the brink of disbanding more than once. By 1964,
the fellowship was holding lay-led services every Sunday; it had
a children's religious education program; and it had decided to
purchase the Hall property at 565 Pine Avenue to serve as its
future home.
At the time of its 30th anniversary
celebration in 1985, the Fellowship had 54 members. It had successfully
met challenges to its survival and was ready to focus on growing.
The next turning point came in the late 1980's when attendance
at Sunday services had clearly outgrown the meeting room. The
congregation struggled over whether to invest in a new facility
or in a minister. Thanks to the leadership and talent of Bill
Berry, the current Fellowship Hall was completed in 1990. Members
mostly built it themselves. It is adjacent to the original facility,
which now houses religious education programs and offices.
By 1993, the Fellowship was able to
hire its first part-time minister, Rev. David McPherson. Under
his leadership, membership surpassed 60 adults for the first time.
It was Rev. McPherson who challenged the congregation to seek
a full-time minister in order to realize its potential as a focal
point of liberal religion in the central Shenandoah Valley. With
assistance from the UUA Extension Ministry program, Rev. Dr. Ed
Piper became the first full-time minister of the Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship of Waynesboro in 1997.
Through his outstanding leadership,
Ed Piper has strengthened the sense of community among Fellowship
members while reaching out to newcomers seeking a spiritual home.
Adult membership has more than doubled during the past eight years,
earning the Fellowship a place among an elite group of about two
dozen UU congregations in North America that have grown six percent
or more per year for five or more years. And once again, the membership
is looking at expanding.
Having reached the half-century mark,
the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Waynesboro is reflecting
on its history with deep appreciation for all those who worked
for its survival and growth. And it confidently looks forward
to a future in which more and more people will discover this faith
community devoted to the principles of freedom, responsibility,
inclusiveness, social justice and individual spiritual development.
Original
officers and Sunday service leaders of the Waynesboro Unitarian
Fellowship in November 1955. From left to right, Fred Millhiser,
vice president; Stanley Eaton, vice president; Dr. David McKeith,
Nathaniel Sherman, president; Rev. Henry Cheetam; Alvin Berry,
secretary; and Arthur Highland, treasurer.
565 Pine Avenue
