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| Who We Are |
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Here you will find... |
Our congregation has been a voice for liberal religion in Columbus for six decades. It is a place where people on a variety of spiritual paths come together to grow in religious depth and to learn about and embody their faithfulness in the world. The heart of the various covenants that have bound Unitarian and Universalist congregations together for over 400 years rests on the great words: freedom, reason, tolerance, and unconditional love.
Although we do not subscribe to a common creed, Unitarian Universalists do commonly affirm the worth and dignity of all persons, the call to live a deeper, less superficial life, the practice of working for social justice, and the reasonable discourse between people who see the world through differing theological lenses. First Church, a lay-governed congregation, is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).
We invite you to participate in our Worship Celebrations on Sundays:
- · 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. from the Sunday after Labor Day until June
- · 10:00 a.m. during the summer months
American Sign Language interpretation provided at the 11 am Sunday Celebration (10 am during summer).
Our ceremonies are diverse in their content and style. We solemnize weddings and gay and lesbian union ceremonies, we name and dedicate children, we bless flowers at Easter and bread at Thanksgiving, and we celebrate Christmas with music and candles.
Scheduled Services Specifics about upcoming worship services can be found in our current Newsletter.
Our children join in the early part of the Worship Celebration (11:00), then attend their own age-based classes in our Religious Education program.
For a closer look at our Sunday School program, see our web page: Sunday School
All people of good will are welcome to participate in the worship life as well as the programmatic life of the church. Music making, social justice advocacy, administration, grounds work, and especially religious education are privileges open to members and friends who choose to covenant with this congregation in peace.
Involvement starts with you taking the first step. There are many opportunities for our members, friends, and visitors to be involved in activities that provide social and educational nurturing. Consider greeting and ushering on Sunday mornings or singing in the choir, cooking meals for the homeless at Faith Mission, taking part in the annual service auction or the spring arts show, taking care of bulletin boards or watering plants, participating in various home-based events, or attending-even teaching -a Religious Education class.
Join us for coffee, tea, and conversation in Fellowship Hall after each service so that you can get to know us on a more informal basis.
Our building and the surrounding gardens are very beautiful. Nestled in the heart of Clintonville, the church offers an open and modern facility which is a popular site not only for ceremonies and functions for church members, but for many community activities as well.
The Memorial Garden is our evolving and living tribute to life and to those who have died. The garden will continue to thrive, commemorating those who have influenced the life of the church. The wall surrounding the garden is in memory of our members who died of HIV-related diseases. View the memorial garden here and here.
The Japanese Garden requests the viewer's time-time to look, to reflect, to imagine, and to listen. "Each plant, stone, area, and space has meaning. It is a symbolic representation of all the wildness of nature, all elements balanced in the total effect of quietude and repose." [from Marie Sinsabaugh's "The Japanese Garden"]
Unitarianism has roots in the fourth century in North Africa among the followers of Arius, and came to fruition during the 16th and 17th centuries in Italy, Poland, Ukraine, and Holland, where we were called Socinians (after the reformer F. P. Sozzini), and in Hungary, where the word Unitarian was first used in 1600. Standing for reason in approach to scripture, and preaching the complete humanity of Jesus, the teachings of the early Anabaptist Unitarians were reshaped in subsequent centuries by radical American Puritans and later by the Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson. Many signers of the Humanist Manifesto in the early decades of this century were Unitarian ministers, and this movement, too, reshaped our religious culture.
Universalism, the teaching which calls into question the doctrine of everlasting torment and affirms that all human beings must be included in the circle of ultimate love, also has its origins in North Africa. It was first promulgated by Origenes Adamantius in the third century in Alexandria. John Erigena and others kept the idea of "universal salvation" alive during the Middle Ages. Thriving among some Methodists in England, the idea came to life in the Colonies during the American Revolution. Many 20th century Universalists also stressed more humanistic understandings of Universalism's ancient optimism, preaching human centrality, dignity, and responsibility as we struggled-and will continue to struggle-with wars, pogroms, crises, and the violence of the times.
The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) was born in the early 1960s when the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged. Our congregation is part of that Association, with ties to other liberal religious movements in Europe, India, Africa, and Asia. Rooted in the Jewish and Christian traditions, and enriched by the various humanistic, scientific, and mystical approaches of the West and the East, the UUA reaches out to learn from the wisdom of religious, spiritual, social, and environmental movements around the world.
For more information on the UUA, visit the UUA web page: www.uua.org
and Trustees:
- Ben Blee
- David Carr
- Dan Hornek
- Jim Pinkham
- Kate Power
- Jim Bailey
- David Easter
- Tony Skrabak
For a closer look at a complete lineup of our elected and appointed officers - Moderator, Treasurer, Committee on Church Ministry, and Nominating Committee - see our web page: Elected Officers
- Rev. Dr. Mark Belletini, Senior Parish Minister
- Rev. Wendy Fish, Associate Parish Minister
- Rev. Carol Brody, Minister Emerita
- Michael Brennan, Church Administrator
- Caroline Balderston Parry, Interim Director of Religious Education
- Tony McDonald, Music Director
- Nathan Hamm, Pianist/Accompanist
- Doug O'Neal, 11am Choir Director
- Elizabeth Woodhouse, 9am Choir Director, Youth Choir Director
- Marian Garcia, Administrative Assistant
- Deb McGuire, Staff Secretary
- Stephanie Rottmayer, Director, School for Young Children
- Don Hippensteel, Events Coordinator
- Joe Voltolini, Bookkeeper
- Naoko Kobayashi, Custodian
For a closer look at the members of our staff, see our web page: Meet the Staff
Other UU Congregations
There are three other Central Ohio Unitarian Universalist congregations in the central Ohio area: Delaware, Lewis Center, and Reynoldsburg.
Symbols
The Flaming Chalice (symbol shown at the top of this page) is a 500-year old symbol originating in the land of the Czechs. Due to the controversial life and death of reformer Jan Hus, the Chalice rose as a symbol of both freedom and truthfulness that can never be curtailed. North American Unitarians and Universalists in Europe during World War II brought the symbol back as a sign for the Service Committee. Since the 1960s, the lighting of the Chalice has served as a ceremonial beginning to worship services.
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last update 2008-01-14 1203 [kco]