C3H+History

=THE COMMUNITY CHURCH STORY = As told by Charlie Kast on February 5, 2006 Why did the Community Church form? Here is a statement taken from our foundational charter:

> //Chapel Hill needs a worshiping and working fellowship of people from varied backgrounds and faiths; a church of open membership; free from denominational limitations; a spiritual home wherein there is unity in the Christian essentials, liberty in the non-essentials and charity in all things; a fellowship dedicated to the worship of God and to outgoing Christian service. There has been a great increase in the number of people who cannot adhere to the old time dogmas, they claim the right to give a new interpretation to the nature of Christianity.//

Our founders claimed the right of heresy when fifty-eight persons signed the statement of purpose which launched the church. Twelve of them remain today as active supporters of our church as members and friends. We also have twenty-eight members still active who have been members for over twenty-five years.

The congregation was purposely non-denominational because denomination came with encumbrances of creed and dogma and with meddling hierarchy. The first minister of this congregation, Charles M. Jones (who died in 1993 and would have been 100 January 8, 2006 if he had lived) got into trouble with his denomination's hierarchy. They pointed out he did not adhere to the dogma and polity of the Presbyterian church. They filed charges of heresy. Joe Straley was on the board of elders of that church and later left to become a founding member here and, until his death recently, served this church in all sorts of leadership capacities and for decades was our church prophet, the leading social conscience of our church.

Joe served as chair of this church in our first year of existence, 1953. He assured me that the charges of heresy were well-founded and that Charlie Jones was indeed guilty as charged: guilty of practicing the Christianity taught by Jesus in which he cared for people more than church politics; guilty of leading a university group of scores of students who attended spaghetti suppers he and Dorcas hosted and the campus group he led but not trying to make them church members or good Presbyterians; guilty of being a unitarian--not a capital-U unitarian but a theological unitarian--one who believed Jesus was fully human.

Guilty, but such charges, and others, would never have been brought against him had he not threatened the social structure of both the town and its churches...the structure of racial segregation. His opposition to segregation began openly in 1943 when he organized and hosted the first-ever racially integrated public meeting in Chapel Hill and he invited blacks to his church for meetings.

His FBI file shows he encouraged socialization of young people across racial barriers: "Jones recently entertained some members of the navy band (Negroes) at his church, along with some (white) coeds of the university. Coeds and Negroes were seen walking side by side on the streets of Chapel Hill that day." The same FBI report noted that his 19-year-old daughter had been seen walking with a Negro man at night on campus.

Charlie Jones resigned his pulpit rather than put his church through a heresy trial and went to western North Carolina to do social work with children in poverty. Fifty people left the church and along with others including people of color founded the Community Church and called Charlie to be their minister. Charlie had to be credentialed in the Congregational Church because he was cut off from the Presbyterians.

Thus we were launched as a congregation: non-denominational, free of imposed creed and dogma, unfettered by hierarchy and church political constraint, a church of open membership seeking to be home for people of varied faiths and backgrounds, the first racially integrated congregation in the Triangle (perhaps in North Carolina).

It began as a Christian church, albeit with the most liberal definition possible: one could join with one's own personal understanding of what “the essentials of Christianity" were. A 1988 survey showed church membership to be 80% ethical Christian from various denominations and 20% who identified as Jewish, unitarian, or humanist/agnostic.

We began as a "worshiping and working fellowship" which meant that those who joined valued being together on Sunday for service and valued equally the work of walking the talk together in service to their wider community.

We were dedicated to "charity in all things," which is to say “love” in all things; the church intended to bring the ethic of love to all its dealings, internal and external to the church.. (To love a person means you care for that person's well-being as much as you care for your own regardless of creed, color, ethnicity, political or sexual orientation, age or gender or physical or mental capacity.)

Here is an excerpt taken from a report to the congregation in 1959 (the 6th year) by a member of the church board:

> //Today our congregation includes 272 adult members and 191 youngsters in the church school. Our members have come from 13 different religious backgrounds, Catholic, Protestant, Hebrew and Hindu. From the first, the members of our congregation have democratically shared the responsibility for the work of the church. Without compulsion, with freedom to choose, they have initiated the policies and the procedures and made the decisions vital to a new enterprise. Thus they have contributed significantly to the character of the church school, to the exquisite music of the choir, and to the molding of our diverse religious interests into a working unity of church purpose and function.//

> //The community church has responded generously to numerous appeals from the community, ranging from assistance to friends in Africa, India and Korea, to the needs of the hospital, the prison camp, school lunches, night classes for adults, racial relations, senior citizens, girl scouts, university students, and victims of disaster in Chapel Hill.//

The following words are taken from a report to the congregation in 1959, by Adelaide Walters:

> //Freedom to develop our own kind of church school resulted in some magnificent failures as well as some successes. (We strove to) teach in a way that would be as meaningful to the children of the church as the church was to adults. __Above all we can be grateful for the privilege of searching for god in the company of children.__//

In 1953 the church's first budget totaled $17,505; today it is nearly $400,000. In 1965 we bought this land, twenty-one acres at the time, for $10,600. (We have since then relinquished seven acres for the Charles M. Jones park and a Residential Services group home.)

We started the first-ever integrated preschool in the South in 1955. It continues today as a separate entity renting our buildings and grounds. What we now call the community building named in honor of Charlie Jones was dedicated in 1959 having cost $78,000. At that time it was our only church building, housing Sunday school, worship services and offices.

In 1965 in response to an economic downturn, unemployment and increasing poverty and homelessness our church joined with other congregations to found the interfaith council shelter and kitchen. The IFC has grown to become an independent institution offering social services to the underserved. Our church remains active in its support. Charlie Jones retired in 1967 and went back into the restaurant business which had been a part of his endeavors as a youth. In 1974 the church made him minister emeritus--an honorary position recognizing his fourteen years as beloved minister of our church. We built our meeting house in 1971 for $155,000. Church archival records say we afforded this largely as the result of one "single large bequest to the church."

By 1983 our church had dwindled to 110 members and held meetings to decide whether or not to continue and if to continue, in what form. Consideration was given to possibly affiliating with some denomination. It was felt that non-affiliation cost the church in terms of a larger identity and sources of new members. Resistance came because many remembered that the one reason for founding the church was to be free of denomination and hierarchy.

Discussion continued for about ten years. Several possible affiliations were considered. One active church leader then who is still active in our church told me, "Over that decade we struggled to maintain our membership number and actually saw a slow but steady decline in membership even as the Chapel Hill area was experiencing a growth spurt. A survey of the members found that over one half of the congregation was willing to consider affiliation with some body and of those responding the majority preferred Unitarian Universalist affiliation.

On January 23, 1993, our church voted 103 to 6 to join the Unitarian Universalist association of churches. Today we have close to 400 members and 175 children and youth in our religious education program and a thriving university group, as you witnessed last Sunday when some eight of them conducted our Sunday services with such grace, fervor and intelligence. I think the people who feared affiliation most likely did not fully understand UU polity: each one and every UU congregation is fully and absolutely independent with no outside agency having any control over our affairs. The only requirement for being a UU congregation is that we be non-creedal; a UU congregation cannot require a certain belief as requisite to membership. We own our own church buildings and grounds. We decide our church business by congregational vote--one vote each member.

You and I literally own the church and its process. We did have to remove the statement that joining our church meant one had to live according to Christian essentials as one understood them. That requirement, although liberal, was in fact very much a creed. Today we are a congregation with roots in Jewish and Christian teachings and with branches in all world religions. A 1993 poll in which people could choose more than one category showed us to be 51% ethical religionist, 34% humanist; 30% natural theist; 18% agnostic, 14% skeptic, 12% mystic, 10% theological Christian; 5% atheist, and 7% secular or non-practicing Jews. Today we have Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, humanist, agnostic, atheist, mystic, and theist members.

We remain a church which emphasizes walking the talk and service to the communities and we are committed to peace and justice work and we remain true to Charlie Jones' vision of standing for the human rights of all people regardless of any category or false division. We remain a church of prophesy, which means that we stand in opposition to social and political and cultural realities when we perceive them to be violent or destructive. One change: unlike the past when our board could speak for the congregation, only the congregation by vote of the congregation can now speak for the church. I cannot speak for this church.

Our board cannot speak for this church. When we spoke out against capital punishment it was by vote of the congregation. Minority opinion is honored. One of the main emphases of my ministry has been to strive to make it safe for minority views in this church so that political conservatives and religious conservatives can be heard, encouraged and valued. A church which is religiously non-creedal cannot in turn be politically creedal.

I estimate that a good solid eighty percent of our church members are active in service to their community in some way. Most of you do this as volunteers in non-church organizations, some do it as part of your professional work, some as individuals. Many of you engage in social and political justice work through this church as part of our social concerns and peace and justice groups.

One of the best things that has happened in this church the past few years has been the growth and vitalization of our children's religious education programs. In 1994 we had a total of 12 children and youth in our church. Today we have large and vital middle school and high school programs and a vital university group. They bring energy to us and literally fill this place with energy and gift of presence.

In 1995 we began a process that continues today when people took a good look around at the church facilities and realized they were in woeful physical condition and inadequate in space to meet our needs. We went through an envisioning process and came up with a 10-year vision for our church. The major conclusions were as follows.

> //We will be a congregation centered in Sunday worship which takes place in a beautiful, bright, accessible sanctuary enhanced by all the arts. We will enjoy expanded classroom space and an updated Community Building, and our facilities will adequately accommodate growth while enhancing our shared intimacy. Our buildings and grounds will embody our respect for the interdependent web of all existence. Our corporate life will be grounded in the Spirit of Life as we practice justice, equity and compassion in our relationships.//

> //We will be a welcoming congregation, celebrating the inherent worth and dignity of all people, inclusive and diverse in all ways, intergenerational in worship and programming, embodying the democratic process. We will be accepting of one another and encouraging of each other's spiritual growth, celebrating rites of passage for members of all ages. We will be a community of fellowship and friendship. We will be engaged in cradle-to-grave religious education in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We will be working toward our shared goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.//

> //Our hands-on social concerns will include church-based programs and community outreach; our peace and justice work will embody our values in deeds. We will be connected in meaningful ways with other Unitarian Universalist congregations and associations. We will be a church which is a sanctuary in an oft-troubled world, a place to come for comfort, support, and spiritual nourishment.//

In pursuit of this vision we have conducted two capital campaigns and I am told by reliable inchurch sources we indeed will begin our renovations/expansion this May. [2005]

I close with words from Charlie Jones on the occasion of dedicating this building. > //This house will become for us a church home when in it we share joy and sorrow, hopes and fears, doubts and faiths, achievements and failures of the many kinds and conditions of people that are among us. Life belongs to life, yet life has a way of separating us from one another. This will be a church home when it is filled with love of such quality that there will be creative acceptance and fellowship between the young and old, the good and less good, the evil and less evil, those from the East and West, the North and South, those who are light and those who are dark, those formally educated and those whose education is mainly from life itself. This house will be a church when all these gaps in ages and conditions of men are bridged by an understanding and creative love that can both accept and transform human life.//