Our Mission
We come together from diverse traditions as a welcoming, religious community with shared values, seeking spiritual growth, lifelong religious education, and fellowship. We strive to promote justice, acceptance, and compassion in the world.
Our Covenant
We, the members of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire, commit ourselves to provide support for our individual members and families of every variety in their emotional, spiritual, and intellectual lives; to promote the healthy growth of our congregation through full participation and creation of a welcoming environment for all people; and to unite in upholding and sharing the Unitarian Universalist principles.
Our History
Our congregation’s first meeting was in 1995 with 6 people in attendance. We are a chartered congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association. We currently have about 80 members and maintain strong ties to our community. We are a growing congregation in the liberal religious tradition that respects ideas, values diversity, and encourages the exploration of spirituality and life’s meaning.
On June 2, 2014 UUMSB became the owner of a church building for the first time! Our purchase of the historic Housatonic Congregational Church building marks the end of our 19-year journey in search of a permanent home. Our first service at our Housatonic church was on June 15, 2014.
Our purchase of the Housatonic Congregational Church building marks the end of our 19-year journey as renters in Great Barrington—at St. James Episcopal Church, the Methodist Church, the Senior Center, and Ahavath Sholom—and we are grateful to all those organizations for providing a place for our Sunday meetings through the years. We especially thank the good people of Ahavath Sholom for being such gracious hosts and for so kindly releasing us from our lease so we could follow our dream of having our own home.
Through the years we looked at many buildings in the region, and none fit our needs as well as this church at 1089 Main Street in Housatonic, next to the public library. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, it was built in 1892 to replace an earlier church founded by its congregation in 1842. The sanctuary, with remarkable stained glass windows, working pipe organ, and honey-colored wooden pews, provides an inspirational place for worship, and the large community room with stage and kitchen offer opportunities for socializing, meetings, and religious education. We see it as a place where we can live into our mission and express our values as a Unitarian Universalist community, and we are pleased that this beautiful building will remain a sacred space and resource for the town of Housatonic.
Our services are at 10:30 every Sunday. Location and directions.
Welcoming Congregation
We are a Welcoming Congregation, recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association. This means we affirm and include people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer at every level of congregational life—in worship, in program, and in social occasions—welcoming them as whole people.
As a Welcoming Congregation we have pledged to:
- honor the lives of all people and equally affirm displays of caring and affection without regard for sexual orientation.
- celebrate diversity by using inclusive language and content in worship.
- incorporate an understanding of the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons throughout all of our programs, including religious education.
- affirm and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer issues and history.
- affirm marriage equality and conduct same-sex weddings.
- advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, promoting justice, freedom, and equality in the larger society. We speak out when the rights and dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people are at stake.
We recognize that there’s always something more to learn, and remain open to deepening our understanding about the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.