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Unitarians have had a long presence in Tyler
that precedes the 1961 unification of Unitarians and
Universalists. 1954 marked the year that a small group
became an official UU fellowship and shortly thereafter
purchased a house along the Troup Highway in the Green Acres
area. In 1990 that property was sold to the Green Acres
Baptist Church of Tyler to be used as a new parking lot.
The funds raised from the sale were used to
purchase the land and to build the current building at
today’s location on Old Omen Road. Construction began in
October of 1994. |
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Plans developed by the architect and our members
made sure that the building was built on the land in a
manner respectful to the natural environment. The imprint of
the building was carefully sited, and land clearing was
closely monitored, to preserve as much of the surrounding
wooded area as possible.
Even today, it shows.
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From your first entry onto the property you will notice the
respect we give to our natural surroundings. The parking lot
and driveway have been carefully laid out to preserve trees
and vegetation. The immediate effect gives many people the
feeling of arriving at a rural nature retreat. |
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Come through the front door into the
fireside room and you’ll have views of the woods from
several angles. Walk down the hallway and you’ll see
abundant views of the environment from the entirely glassed
northwest wall. Large windows are featured in our Sanctuary
on three of the walls of the building, giving us large,
uninterrupted views of the beautiful greenery. |
| Not surprisingly, the lure of the grounds and the beauty of
the Sanctuary as a setting also leads couples to choose the
Fellowship as the site for wedding ceremonies. There is an
active Women’s group that meets monthly and currently a wide
variety of programming is on the horizon. In addition,
since 1998 the Wildwood Coffeehouse opens
its doors once a month to an array of the very best folk
music from nationally touring artists! Such lasting gifts to the eye and spirit
aren’t just accidents---they were well planned for, and we
have those members who were careful custodians during the
construction phase to thank for it! Even today, many of the
1980’s-era members are still active, and continue to form a
core part of the Fellowship.
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The fellowship today consists of members who might
spiritually identify themselves in a wide variety of ways,
from Liberal Christian, to Jewish Mystic, to Earth-Centered,
Agnostic, Atheist, or Humanist---or they might choose not to
label themselves at all. Some of our influences might
include Celtic, Native American, Hindu, and Buddhist
viewpoints. We cover a lot of spiritual ground!
We are a wide-ranging group of folks, and yet we have one
common vision: that a religion isn’t about adopting somebody
else’s doctrine, it’s about discovering your own!
Maybe there isn’t just one way…maybe there are different
ways for different people, and maybe we’re all different.
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| We like that way of thinking…it’s that thinking that has led
us to make a common spiritual home together.
In part because we are a rather small group, we have no full
time minister. To our great pleasure, we have numerous
clergy from various backgrounds that periodically speak at
our services. Still, eighty percent of our
services are lay-led. |
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