KUUF History

In 1961, a group of committed people formed a Unitarian Fellowship in the Copper Country to provide a religious education program for their children, as well as to maintain a liberal presence in the community. As their children grew up, however, the group dwindled and ultimately was dissolved in late 1969.

Fast forward to 1984 when Carol Hepokoski, a recent graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry who was serving a Unitarian Universalist fellowship in Minnesota, visited Houghton with her folk-singer husband. She offered to speak about Unitarian Universalism at an open meeting, to be held in the Michigan Technological University Faculty Lounge.

Local radio announcements about Rev. Hepokoski’s talk interested a number of former UU members college faculty, and others seeking a liberal religious viewpoint. About forty-five people attended the presentation, which resulted in a consensus to pursue the re-formation of a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in the Copper Country.

Rev. Hepokoski reported our interest to the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston. The UU directors offered to subsidize quarterly visits by her to assist us in the formation of the new Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Between her visits, the KUUF group met twice monthly with services conducted by local members and other visiting speakers, in a room at the MTU Nursery School, holding Sunday School for the children in one corner of the room. While the location was cramped, membership remained focused, realizing that growth would come along with opportunities for an improved venue.  

A year later, in September 1985, the national organization formally accepted the KUUF as a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association, with forty-one charter members. The next step in our journey was an arrangement with Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, associated with the UUA, to occasionally send senior students to conduct a service in the Copper Country. This was the impetus for Meadville to formally establish a program of nine monthly visits with the same student each year traveling to Houghton for one Sunday a month during the school year. It was a serendipitous match, giving both the students and our congregation a feeling for a more sustained ministry, and exposing us to the wide diversity of religious views shared in our denomination.

As the KUUF outgrew the MTU Nursery site, we moved to the community room of the newly built BHK Child Development Center, in west Houghton, for which we helped to raise the funding. 

The year 2004 was a watershed year for the Fellowship, when we called our first full-time minister, the Reverend Sydney Morris, who had served us part-time for two and a half years. Under her capable leadership, our group grew to more than eighty members. The Religious Education program and other committees provided opportunities for growth and fellowship.

When Rev. Morris departed nine years later for a new position in Eugene, Oregon. the fellowship relied on lay members for services. This lasted for six months until January 2014, when the Reverend Gabrielle Parks arrived as our interim minister. She would prepare us for the work involved in finding a permanent minister.

In May of 2015, a Congregational Meeting of KUUF members elected to call the Reverend Chris Rothbauer as our second settled minister. Reverend Chris moved to Houghton in August and brought an enthusiasm for social justice and shared ministry to our congregation as we celebrated thirty years as a congregation. In December 2017, Reverend Chris announced a departure for a new position in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

The year 2015 was also significant for changes in the music staff, with the hiring of Alex Frazier as pianist and, in May a year later, Sandra Loy as choir director. This particular year also saw a number of ecological initiatives, such as a Green Film Series and a variety of ecology-focused Sunday morning presentations put forth under the leadership of Carol Ekstrom. 

With Rev. Chris gone, the Fellowship sought help again from KUUF lay leaders and visiting ministers from UU communities in lower Michigan and northern Wisconsin. In August of 2018, Rev. Gabi Parks flew back to Houghton from her permanent ministry in Pennsylvania for a reunion and a service. 

August of 2018 was an important month for KUUF when the Fellowship Board met with Paul Mitchell, who had led the group in several Sunday services, to discuss his interest in serving as a continuing lay leader. Initially hired to lead us on two Sundays per month, Paul proved so popular that the Fellowship expanded his contract to three quarter time.  

As KUUF moves towards its fortieth year, the group enjoys a sense of financial and organizational stability. Voting membership remains around eighty, and we have become visible in the community as a representative of liberal religious perspectives.