The idea of Blue Hills UU Fellowship was born one evening at a dinner party in 1981 where several parents were lamenting the fact that there was no local church that met their need for the freedom to be together as a family in a setting where their differing beliefs were respected. They were particularly concerned about the religious education of their children. They were interested in a religion that spoke to the issues of the day.
One of the women did some library research and came upon Jack Mendelson’s book Why I Am A Unitarian. After more research, correspondence, and a visit to the Madison Wisconsin UU church, a group of members decided to visit the Bloomington Minnesota Fellowship to see for themselves what Unitarian Universalism was all about. They traveled to the Minnesota Valley UU Fellowship where they met the Rev. David Phreaner and the Rev. Beth Ide who encouraged them to pursue their dream of beginning a UU Fellowship of their own. Emil Gudmundsen of the Prairie Star District Extension office helped with the particulars, and after several working meetings they came up with the following as their statement of purpose:
“Relying upon reason as our guide, and upon freedom as our method,
we seek to grow in understanding of ourselves and of our world, to promote and serve the Universal human family.”
The following spring (1981) the Blue Hills UU Fellowship was accepted in the Unitarian Universalist Association with 12 founding members. Since then, we have grown to include members from a wide geographic area. Our members come from many walks of life and many backgrounds. Some consider themselves Christians, some Humanists, some agnostics, some atheists, and some classify themselves in other ways, but all share a devotion to freedom, a commitment to reason, and a belief in the supreme worth and dignity of every human personality.