Welcome to UUHHS’s Congregational History Website! This project has been designed to encourage and assist congregations and other groups in archiving historical records and in documenting their histories. Learn more about this website here and download a poster to hang on bulletin boards to encourage others to get join in creating archives and writing your history poster This project has been made possible through generous support of the Unitarian Universalist Funding Panel.
Introduction
The Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society encourages UU congregations and organizations to get involved in creating new or in revising existing histories of congregational and organizational life. Those histories can be realized in many formats — print, online, sound, visual, and more — and can be created for many purposes. Events that might call for your creating or revising your history could be milestones such as anniversaries of the group’s founding or a change of professional ministry. You might also engage in your history-making as part of local community history projects.
Our Congregational History Project has two goals:
- To make readily available online Library Resources of existing histories of Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist congregations, and histories of other local configurations such as geographical regions and UUA districts. These Library Resources may be used by Unitarian Universalists looking for information about their congregations, and they also provide models for creating new histories. These resources will also assist any researchers, from various disciplines and denominations, in writing of local histories which include a presence of Unitarian Universalism.
- To offer information, guidance, tips, and connections to other resources to create or enhance your own congregational and local histories. This second goal clearly is related to the first: awareness of other histories may inspire your own history writing or updating. We encourage you to examine existing examples of other congregational histories as you create your own, and also to make your own histories available through the Histories Database for others to consult.