1976-2023 QUUF Timeline – Staff History – Minister History

RE Timeline – Steinway Piano Timeline – History of Memorial Circle And Columbarium

History of Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

(Prepared by the History Team: Betty Oppenheimer, Sarah Walker, Joanna England, Diane Bommer, David Bommer, Shary Irwin, Kathy Stevenson, Leone Smith, David Smith)

Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (QUUF) began in February 1976 with a classified ad in the local newspaper, The Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader, stating “Unitarians? Come for coffee and conversation Sunday, February 8th For location call….” Fifteen people showed up in Jeannette Earhart’s living room in Port Hadlock, and thus began monthly Sunday afternoon meetings. They used recorded sermons, book reviews, talks on Unitarian history, and current interests as subjects for discussion. The average participant’s age was late 60s to early 70s. Their goal was to create a community of like-minded people who could engage in lively discussion on philosophical topics.

In 1977-78, a Pacific Northwest District representative came to explain the advantages of affiliating with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). After a spirited discussion with decidedly different views, the matter was set aside until there was more support.

The group joined the Church of the Larger Fellowship in 1979-80 and used the CLF newsletter articles and sermons for discussion topics. Each June they sent their membership dues, as well as contributions to the UUA and UU Service Committee (UUSC).

In 1982 the group began a tradition of ending the year with a clam and oyster potluck at Jim and Ruth Humphrey’s waterside home.  Soon after this began, the group realized that if they wanted to attract more people they would need to move to a public meeting place. In 1984 they began meeting at the Tri-Area Community Center in Chimacum, two afternoons per month.

They became more organized in 1985, naming themselves Quimper Unitarians to indicate that members came not just from Port Townsend but from all over the Quimper Peninsula. They elected the first Board of Trustees, began to form committees, developed a budget, and began using an Order of Service. Again they discussed affiliating with the UUA. A Bylaws Committee was formed and Articles of Incorporation were filed. In the summer of 1986, Lars Watson, the first President of the Board, went to Boston with his wife Lucille to pick up the QUUF charter. There were 22 members and an annual budget of $2400.

By this time services had become more formal: a chalice was lit and an offering was taken. Music, initially provided by a portable tape player, was replaced by singing accompanied by piano playing. Karen Page created a banner to cover the Tri-Area menu displayed at the front of the meeting room. This marked the beginning of our Aesthetics Committee. Maitland Hardyman designed the cover for the Order of Service. To promote fellowship, which was always a high priority, members began meeting for monthly Circle Suppers.

Religious Education for Children

Realizing that as an aging group, QUUF could not survive, the small congregation was interested in becoming more welcoming to families and was convinced that an afternoon service was not convenient for people with small children.

During these early years there was just one young couple, David and Nancy Gurnee, who came with their baby Marin (born in 1985). In 1987, a group was formed to begin a Religious Education Program. Services were moved to Sunday mornings. Kathy Walker (now Kathy Stevenson) and an RE Committee formed two age groups and began presenting curricula developed by the UUA. Kathy was hired as RE Coordinator and mentored by Kitsap Unitarian Fellowship. The annual budget grew to $4000, $1500 of which was dedicated to the RE program.

Beginnings of Growth

With the children meeting in the smaller room, the adults moved to the larger meeting room at the Tri-Area Center. The group was still meeting 2 times per month. Their plan to become more intergenerational promoted growth.

In 1990, three members (Peggy Albers, Everett Whealdon and Karen Frank) were trained in lay ministry to perform marriage and memorial ceremonies. At the annual meeting that year, a vote of the congregation approved them to officiate at weddings and memorial services. The fellowship grew to 53 members and about 25 children, and our first choir was formed.

Increased organization and the affiliation with the UUA increased the formal ritual and spiritual aspects of the Sunday services. In 1993, dissatisfaction with those aspects brought about the institution of a monthly Forum Sunday, which was an informal program more focused on secular issues.

In 1994, Louise Nomura received a check from the US government for reparations from the time she, as a Japanese-American, was interned during WW II. She offered QUUF $10,000 to begin a building if that amount could be matched in three months’ time. Three months later $16,000 had been raised with enthusiasm. However, there were also people opposed to building. Some objected to growth, some to a move into Port Townsend) and some to spending money on a building when there were so many social needs within the larger community.

The congregation was actively striving to become a “caring community” of people who took care of and could rely on one another. They had goals for growth, and chairs for every committee. Our first WAVE Food Drive was held in 1994.

As more new people began to come to the Tri-Area Community center, curious about QUUF, we formed our first Membership Committee, with Barbara Jensen as its longtime and passionate chair.

Hiring our First Minister and Building in Port Townsend

At the same time, QUUF was getting ready for its first minister.  For only 54 members to commit to two large projects at the same time was overwhelming to many, and discouraged by the UUA. Months of heated discussion occurred before these tasks were undertaken, with the support of the vast majority.

Rev. Tim Haley became our first minister, quarter time, in September 1995. In order to cover his $8,000 salary, the budget grew to $15,829. A newspaper article that fall alerted the larger community that QUUF had a minister, and new people ventured into the Tri-Area Community Center to see what it was all about. He offered thoughtful sermons, new-member orientation, and the Building Your Own Theology curriculum which was the start of our Adult Learning Programs (ALPS).

The Building Options Committee found property in Port Townsend. On August 18, 1995, 3/4 of an acre was purchased for $55K at 2333 San Juan Avenue in Port Townsend for the building. We held a formal ground breaking, the lot was cleared in June 1996 and work began.

Several architectural drawings were presented to the congregation by Building Committee Chair Maitland Hardyman and finally one of the plans drew substantial agreement. It was agreed that we would build a Religious Education building and a separate sanctuary building with a kitchen, and a small office upstairs. It was around this time that the Board, recognizing the serious nature of being responsible for a much larger budget and a building project, voted not to allow alcohol at Board meetings.

It was believed that with volunteer labor, the building (and land purchase) could be completed for $150,000. In addition to member loans, a capital campaign began, in parallel to the usual annual pledge campaign.

There was a strong desire by many congregants to be actively involved in the construction. A contractor cooperative, Blue Heron Construction, including Malcolm Dorn, Doug Milholland, and Randy Welle did the skilled work and supervised the volunteers. Participation in the sweat equity building project by members, friends, passers-by, and UUs from nearby congregations was phenomenal. Sarah Walker coordinated volunteers, and Lucille Watson was the lunch coordinator. Rather than ask “can you bring lunch?” she would call people and ask, “What day can you provide lunch?” More than 8,000 hours of volunteer labor were recorded before we stopped keeping track. Some members were at the site nearly every day. When we needed extra help, for stucco or painting, we held weekend work parties, when dozens of people showed up to get a large project done quickly. Irv Mortensen led and designed much of the finish trim and the ceiling, and Wendell Stout carved the medallions on either side of each window. Day after day for many months people came and worked or brought food for the workers.

There was a deep feeling of community and of shared accomplishment among the old timers and those who discovered QUUF during the build.

The first Women’s Retreat, planned by Betty Oppenheimer and Joan Isa, took place in April 1997 at Camp David on Lake Crescent, with 14 women in attendance.

The building was finished in May 1997 for under $200K (a combination of member loans, member gifts, and a Chalice Lighter grant). Rev. Tim Haley gave us a gift of the pewter chalice that we still use, just before he left us for a full-time ministry in Portland. David Gurnee sandwiched Louise Nomura’s reparations letter inside the beautiful entry door that he carved. Jeannette Earhart, who had moved away many years earlier, but who was aware of our building, sent the large metal double circle chalice wall hanging that has hung behind the pulpit ever since.

Louise Nomura died in the summer of 1997. The Louise Nomura Memorial Garden, originally designed in the shape of a Mandelbrot Set (suggested by her husband Carl, a mathematician) was dedicated in 1999, with memorial contributions. Our search committee recommended Rev. Nan Geer as our next minister. She organized a more formal building dedication with guest speakers and choirs, and gifted us a framed set of the UU 7 Principles. She came to us quarter time (one long weekend per month) in September 1997 and remained for two, half-time years (two long weekends per month) the second year.

It quickly became clear that owning a building required a new level of organization. The Board had to make decisions about who should have keys; how to schedule building usage, etc. The first Operations Manual was written by board member Jim Tough and approved by the Board in April 1998. In 1998 we hired Lisa Bottomley, a very part-time office manager.

Nan led us in workshops to help us focus on what we wanted QUUF to stand for. Many hours of large and small group meetings and post-it notes pasted on the walls, followed by committees assigned to condense our collective thoughts into cohesive sentences resulted in the creation of our original Mission and Covenant Statements.

The Covenant Statement:

We are travelers. We meet for a moment in this sacred place, to love, to share, to serve. Let us use compassion, curiosity, reverence and respect while seeking our truths. In this way, we will support a just and joyful community, and this moment shall endure.

The 1997 Mission Statement:

We welcome everyone to a sacred space that nurtures spiritual and intellectual growth.  We work together to serve each other, our larger community, and our world with thoughtful acts of compassion, tolerance, and love.

In the late 1990s, we formed a Welcoming Congregation group that educated itself and the congregation on assuring QUUF was welcoming to LGBTQ people. This included a congregational voted to become an official Welcoming Congregation.

Freida Fenn, and Kristen and Otto Smith had led us in singing. In 2000, Marj Iuro was hired as our first Choir Director.

The exposure that QUUF gained by building on a visible corner in Port Townsend, and the kinds of activities we opened to the general public caused membership to grow. In 1998 we had 107 members, in 1999 133 members. Some of the new members had helped build the building and found common ground as Unitarians; others were locals from Port Townsend, who now realized that there was a UU fellowship in town. The number of activities and projects for members grew as well, with an impressive list of interesting ways to express our religion. We were still very much a “family” congregation. Everyone knew everyone; most participated in shared activities; and without a full-time minister, we cared for one another. In 1999, we hired Nancy Graham (now Mann) as our office manager.

We continued our social justice activities at the same time we enriched our congregational connections. In addition to the annual Food Drive (WAVE), and our monthly collection for the Food Bank (HOPE, Helping Our People Eat), we supported a Haines Street Cottage used for transitional housing. We participated in the community AIDS Walk, and supported the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Program. We hosted a Queen for a Day Mother’s Day event where single moms could come and be pampered. The first year of the Winter Shelter began with 4 churches opening our doors for overnight sleeping. One year we raised $75,000 for a Habitat for Humanity house and helped to build it with volunteers. We often engaged with other faith communities for MLK Day recognition and Earth Day.

In January 2000, Rev. Craig Moro began with us half time, driving up from Salem OR twice a month, and the fellowship continued to grow. In 2001 the RE program became so large that space had to be rented at Swan School to make room for the more than 80 children.

In 2001, we successfully paid off the members who had loaned QUUF $150K to build the buildings.

The official seating capacity of the new sanctuary was 70 chairs, which allowed for fire aisles. We had begun exceeding that as soon as we opened our doors in 1997.

The entry area to the sanctuary (in 2010 walled off from the rest of the fellowship hall), had been designed to be an open gathering area behind the seating and adjacent to the kitchen (which is now the Den), had to be filled with rows of chairs in order to accommodate all of the people who came to Sunday services. Then, in order to have any social space, we had to remove the last rows of chairs at the end of the service. Another building project began to seem necessary, just as all the debt was paid off on the original building.

At the same time the congregation voted to call a full-time minister when Craig Moro was due to leave. Once again many members felt overwhelmed by taking on two more large projects – the search for a full time, called minister, and a building expansion Our hopes were high, however, that once again we could achieve our goals.

Our First Full-Time Minister

Our first full-time minister had also been our first part-time minister. Rev Tim Haley was called in the spring of 2002. With 180 members and 100 children in RE, we were so crowded that we made the decision to move to two Sunday services – at 9:15 and 11:15, at the start of the 2002-2003 church year.

It was a difficult year, as the “fit” between minister and congregation was not the same as it had been when Tim had been our part time minister in the mid-90s. After a year, he decided to return to Portland.

We hired an Interim Minister, Rev Rob Moore, for the year of 2003-2004. Rob did an excellent job of helping us get past any doubts caused by our initial false start at full time ministry and preparing us to welcome a new minister. He also made clear to us that we were no longer a “family-sized” church, but rather, a pastoral-sized church that needed a minister to manage all that entailed.

Between 2002 and 2005 our membership increased 26% and our pledge income increased 85%. Another search committee was formed and in the fall of 2004 we welcomed Rev. Bruce Bode. It was obvious that we needed more space, but we were not ready yet to move forward with this daunting project.

In 2005, we were named one of four “Breakthrough Congregations” by the UUA (the first year they did the program), based on our phenomenal member and pledge growth. A group of us (Bruce and Flossie Bode, Kathy Stevenson, Marcia Lewton, Irv Mortensen and Betty Oppenheimer) went to General Assembly in Fort Worth to speak about how we successfully grew in such a small town. You can watch their 2005 GA presentations here:

Bruce Bode
2005 Breakthrough Congregation video – 6 minutes long (allow a few minutes to load)
Irv Mortensen and Marcia Lewton

We were lauded for having the highest per capita population of UUs in the country. We attributed our growth to our willingness to welcome any and all new members to our building project, our committees, and any other aspect of the fellowship. But we were also quite aware that we were a liberal congregation in a liberal town and many residents were finding that they felt a sense of belonging with us. We produced a video for the UUA General Assembly that we continued to show to QUUF new members for a number of years.

Bruce brought a new level of formality to our services and was not afraid to combine religious language with poetry, academics, psychology and mythology. Some members were uncomfortable with the religious and ritualistic nature of his free pulpit. They formed the Atheists, Humanists, Agnostics (AHA) group, which began meeting on Sunday afternoon for discussions and potlucks in 2008.

As our membership and attendance grew, by 2006 we began having meetings to envision a new, larger space. It took several years and many meetings to whittle down everyone’s hopes and dreams to a cohesive idea of what made sense. We hired a capital campaign consultant from the UUA to help us figure out how much money we might be able to raise. Growth was unstoppable, and we hoped that new members would help pay for our expansion.

Although some had doubts about how much we could raise, the consultant convinced us that we should be bold about our “ask.” The “lead givers” were asked to donate a minimum of $12K each. Capital Campaign leads recall the collective “gasp” from the audience when we announced the level of giving required in order to reach our goal. But we all knew we needed to expand the facilities, and people came through with impressive gifts. We raised $685K in the first campaign, $185K in the second campaign (so that we could have a foyer connecting the new sanctuary and offices to our original building), got a $20K Chalice Lighter Grant, and borrowed $400K. Richard Berg was hired as our architect.

Jim Golden and Irv Mortensen chaired the Building Steering Committee, with Jim handling finances and Irv managing the design and construction. We broke ground in 2008 and held our grand opening in Feb. 2010. In 2009, we hired Deborah Carroll as our Office Administrator. Click here to see a video about the building construction.

During the building project we accumulated more than 10,000 hours of volunteer labor.  The volunteers came from all over. We had neighbors who saw us clearing the blackberries and hooked up their trailer to haul the cuttings, people from different UU fellowships (most notably, some members of the Woodinville UU made the trip over, a reciprocal effort mirroring our assistance with their build. Wallyworks, owned by Malcolm Dorn, were our professional builders, as they were invested in seeing the original project (our first build) take the next step in expansion.

As with the first build, there was a real sense of shared accomplishment and deeply connected community during the second build. This project was more complex and more costly than the first, and included erecting the giant timber frame arches, onto structural posts, each of which extends below the floor to a concrete footing. Like the first build, we shared several “stucco” weekends, where dozens of members and friends learned to use a hock and trowels to seal the walls. Hundreds of hours were spent developing plans, raising money, researching products, managing the budget, planning for the next stages – acoustics, sounds systems, HVAC, flooring, landscape.

We included a provision for a possible third stage of building, which would add educational and support rooms on the south side of the building should we ever want to expand further.  In 2010, we moved into our new facilities.

The congregation was thriving and growing, with activities throughout every weekday and evening.

Throughout Bruce’s tenure, we grew an institution – a center for religious liberals in Port Townsend, as he liked to call it – that became an important space for meetings, celebrations, classes, and many events. Whether people considered themselves Unitarian or not, they recognized that QUUF was a place where all were welcome, and where education and challenging discussion were encouraged.

Bruce was an amazingly energetic minister. He also believed in working with upcoming ministers and he needed help, so he began QUUF’s ministerial intern program by hiring Dennis Reynolds in 2010, Debra Thorne in 2011, Carol Cissel in 2012, Laurie Stewart in 2013, and Florence Caplow in 2014. All have had successful ministries. Unique to QUUF, we also hired Joseph Bednarik to serve as Assistant in the Pulpit.

Volunteers had done most of the facilities work, but as our programs grew and required room set-up and cleaning throughout the week, we hired our first sexton, Christopher Overman, and began the “facilities host” program so that groups using the buildings had some assistance and direction.

Staff Increases and Changes

Between 2013 and 2015, the workload at the QUUF office reached the point that we had to reduce open office hours by an hour a day and close the office on Monday to avoid overworking the staff. Once again the congregation stepped up financially and we added an Office Manager and Membership Coordinator, and increased hours for the sexton. By now we had a paid Youth Coordinator position, and our Choir Director continued at 1/3 time. Our Director of Religious Education served in the1/4 time role of Assistant for Congregational Life.

In 2016-17 we raised enough money to hire an assistant minister. This position was held for one year by Rev Florence Caplow and then, when Florence accepted a ministerial call in the Midwest, Rev. Kate Lore filled the position.

Bruce Bode retired in June 2018. Deborah Carroll followed into retirement in July, with Kathy Stevenson doing the same in December.  Beau Ohlgren, Youth Coordinator, was promoted to Director of Family Ministry. Robin Moreau was hired as our new Office Administrator.

In August 2018 Rev Helen Carroll was hired as Interim Minister. In mid fall she resigned and our Assistant Minister, Kate, became Acting Lead Minister.

We elected a Search Committee. Many were in favor of calling Rev. Lore immediately, but we were advised by the UUA to spend at least a year detaching from Bruce, evaluating who we were and our ongoing needs and desires for the fellowship, and going through the formal search process. In June 2019, the Search Committee presented Rev. Kate Lore as our candidate for called minister, and she was overwhelmingly approved by the members. She also recommended that rather than having an Assistant Minister immediately, she wanted a Music Director, to increase the importance of music at QUUF. With Marj Iuro’s retirement as Choir Director in June 2019, Bertram Gulhaugen was hired in July 2019. Kate’s called ministry began with the 2019-2020 church year.

At the time of the second building project, some people were interested in having a memorial columbarium on our grounds. About 20 years later it became a reality; it was erected and dedicated in 2019.

Pandemic and Online Services

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic closed down all public spaces, including QUUF. Staff and members pulled together to produce Sunday Service on YouTube, and Kate Lore organized more than 50 Caring Circles in order to keep our 400+ members and friends connected virtually. Unfortunately, our Pledge Campaign fell short due to the uncertainty of the times. Four staff positions had to be eliminated.

We began the 2020-2021 church year adapting to the changes the pandemic required of us. Though changes in staff and the inability to meet in person have saddened us, we sought ways to stay connected via technology, which many people say has made a huge difference in their otherwise isolated lives.

In September of 2022, we reopened fully to in-person meeting.

This page last updated September 30, 2023