(This is a continuation of UU Falmouth’s story. You can find the beginning here.)
Most of these founders were parents of young children. Fellowship records from that time say that”The major but not the exclusive interest was the establishment of a Sunday school.” The Unitarian Fellowship of Falmouth was formally recognized by the Unitarian Association on May 27, 1959.
For two years, lay-led religious services were held on Friday evenings in Falmouth’s Community Center and Sunday school classes were held in members’ homes. In 1961, when the national organizations of Unitarians and Universalists joined together, the congregation adopted its present name, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Falmouth.
In 1962, the Fellowship began to meet at the Quaker Meetinghouse in West Falmouth. Many members and leaders during the early years were scientists, teachers and others involved with the marine sciences. Rev. Kenneth Warren, the pastor for the Unitarian Church of Barnstable, and Reverend William E. Gardner, and others, served as consulting ministers.
During the 1980s services were led by visiting ministers and seminarians and, with active support from the UUA, the congregation grew.
In 1988, members voted to seek a full-time minister and establish a meetinghouse of our own, calling the Rev. David Nash Williams in 1989 as the first full-time spiritual leader. The Fellowship purchased 3.2 acres of land from the Falmouth Jewish Congregation in 1992 and three years later, in December 1995, we held our first service in the new meetinghouse at our current location.
