Celebrating 55 Years of UUs in Muskegon!
Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation had its inception in 1954 when four couples in the Muskegon area agreed to form the Unitarian Fellowship of Greater Muskegon. They met initially at the YWCA to discuss their common values, as well as topics for intellectual and spiritual growth, and to form an organized structure for imparting ethical principles and religious teachings to their children.
In 1961, our name changed to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Greater Muskegon to reflect the union of Unitarians and Universalists. By 1962 we had grown enough to purchase an old church building, which housed us until early 1967 when it was destroyed by fire. The following month in March 1967 we moved into an older brick church building where we continue to congregate.
In the early years, most of the Sunday programs were generated by the members and supplemented by visiting speakers and ministers from the Fountain Street Church in nearby Grand Rapids and other churches around the state.
By the early 1990’s we were able to hire a quarter-time minister who had worked as a street minister and had a summer internship at the UU Social Concerns Office in Boston; it was an “experimental year” or so for both of us. We continued to receive the services of a minister from FSC once a month. In 1994 we were able to hire a full-time minister through the extension service, who subsequently became our called minister. With the new minister came the name change to Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation as we are currently known.
Our full-time minister retired in 2007 and we have been served by an interim minister since then. He became part-time in 2008 and gives two sermons each month; members and, less often, outside speakers provide the remainder of the services.