Seek Truth
Practice Love
Celebrate Life

Our Mission--
As a liberal religious community seeking spiritual growth through diversity and respect for honesty and difference, practicing love as a model of supportive care to children, youth, families and individuals through personal and congregational social responsibility, we join together to build bridges with the community.

Our Covenant--
As a lay-led congregation, we share the work of maintaining a Unitarian Universalist presence in the community to provide a safe place for nonjudgmental, challenging discussion and action. We resolve to care for and love our children, youth, families and individuals celebrating with and supporting them.

In addition, we covenant with the Unitarian Universalist Association to promote the Seven Principles found in front of our song book.



HISTORY OF HEADWATERS UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP
BEMIDJI, MINNESOTA



A liberal group of Bemidji people met for 5 or 6 years beginning in 1962 to discuss intellectual topics. This group included Bob Naegler who never gave up his dream of having a UU group in Bemidji, Minnesota so 22 years later, in 1990, he placed an ad in the local Pioneer newspaper inviting interested persons to gather at the Holiday Inn on June 10th. Those who came thought the idea was worth pursuing and gathered again for a picnic on July 8th at Carolyn and Greg Fors’ home.

This was followed by an early Sunday morning meeting in the Hobson Student Union on the Bemidji State University (BSU) campus where Carolyn Fors reported that she had found two church buildings that might be purchased. Several people toured the buildings and declared one unusable while arranging for more people to look at the Nazarene Church on America Avenue. A committee was formed to investigate the financial possibility of buying it but after discussion, the group felt it was too soon in the young life of a fellowship to become involved in property ownership.

A committee composed of Shari Arneson, Vera Boyle, Carolyn Fors and Dick Lueben met on August 16th to develop bylaws.

On September 9th, at 11 AM, the final ‘congregational organizational’ meeting was held at the Holiday Inn in Bemidji. Twenty-two people signed as Founding Members. The bylaws were adopted and the name Headwaters Unitarian Fellowship was chosen. The first elected Board was: Dr. and Mrs. Fors as co-presidents, Dick Lueben as Secretary, Vera Boyle as Treasurer, Reid Hendershot, Diane Schwanz and Bill Wilson as Trustees, but the Fors soon asked to be relieved of their duties and Reid Hendershot was appointed President while Neen Lillquist was added as a Trustee. Articles of Incorporation were signed on November 28, 1990 and sent to the Secretary of State for official registration. We were accepted into the UUA and Prairie Star District on June 19, 1991.

For a few weeks, Sunday services were held at the Holiday Inn, but there was no way to provide for children, so we found an attractive, larger and less costly space at the Northern Town Hall but it consisted of only one large room with still no separate place for children. Then a couple of members contacted the Masonic Hall where there were separate spaces for children and we met there for about two years. We then moved to the Nary Community Center for a year and in November 1993 we rented the former St. Bartholomew's Episcopal church (the oldest church building in Bemidji) on 10th and Beltrami from the Methodists who now owned it.



We operate our Fellowship with the active participation of our members and friends on a 5-7 member Board of Trustees and Committees for Membership, Caring, Stewardship, Facility, Social Action/Environment, Finance, Leadership, Worship and Religious Education. We have a Once-in-Awhile choir. Everyone is welcome to be a committee member whether an official member or a friend.



From the beginning, we have been a lay-led congregation holding services every Sunday except summers with a dedicated group of people serving on the Worship Committee. We do have access to many excellent local speakers. Several UU ministers have been invited to conduct services several times a year. In January 1996, we hired our first part-time minister, Lisa Doege. She assisted us to strengthen our committees, improve our hospitality and work towards developing a vision and mission statement. When she accepted a full-time position, we hired Rev. Laurie Bushbaum who led our services once a month, conducted adult RE and workshops in personal spirituality. She has returned this year to conduct services, workshops and do consulting for us. We include Native American and Pagan regular speakers along with a large variety of other topics and religions. A large vairety of music has been provided by our members and friends throughout the years. We have sponsored 7 people to attend the Midwest Leadership School.

Religious Growth and Learning was begun early in our first season with paid RE coordinators most of the time. Susanne Rabel served as our first full-time RE coordinator and her daughter, Maranda served as RE Coordinator later on. Other RE Coordinators have been Ramae Hamrin and Deanne Kivi along with others who assisted: Kay Uday, Mavis and Tayler Jernigan, Gail Hendershot and Barb Houg. Our current Religious Education Coordinator is Sarah Shelton.
Several summer camps have been held along with our youth attending several Youth Cons in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. We have held various adult education events such as book studies, Evensong, Articulating your Faith, Building Your Own Theology, and Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography. We have utilized two Administrative Assistants, but now have decided to carry out the work of the Fellowship with volunteers.

We have consistently published a monthly newsletter edited first by Dick Lueben who created the name “Current Ripples” to represent our Mississippi River Headwaters name. Later newsletter long-term editors were Barb Houg and Neen Lillquist and for short times Lois Thomson and Rose Johnson. We have an up-to-date Web Site.

We have three people licensed to conduct very individualized weddings. We do child namings/dedications, memorials/funerals, house blessings and new member orientation and recognition. We have sponsored 7 people to attend the Midwest Leadership School and Susan Smith was also a faculty member. Three of our members have attended GA and several have attended PSD Annual Conferences and Leadership Workshops. We are most proud that one of our members, Neen Lillquist, receiving the PSD ‘Keeping the Faith’ award in 2005.

We have always paid our full share of dues to the Unitarian Universalist Association and Prairie Star District. In 1996, we voted to conduct an Annual Canvass for pledges and one-on-one input to learn about the strong and weak points of our congregation and to encourage everyone to be involved. We have a Building Fund of $42,000 which we included as part of our Canvass drive for the first time in 2004. At the same time that the Board made an annual commitment to meet a $5,000 per year contribution by adding to the pledges if they did not equal this amount. This was increased to $7,000 in 2005. In 2002, we were proud to be one of the few UU congregations to establish an Endowment Fund for our future with Northwest Minnesota Foundation which is now around $11,000 and yields about $400 per year for community contributions or work of the Fellowship. Our annual budget is $30,000.

In 1996, we were one of five congregations chosen to receive PSD support for consultation. Rev. Stephen Jonasson came to help us develop our now much honored and loved vision statement that we repeat at the end of all of our services--”Seek Truth, Practice Love, Celebrate LIfe.” Then in September, 2000, we won a PSD workshop and Rev. Kathy Fuson conducted a workshop to help us strengthen our worship services and to develop a covenant statement. We have also printed tee-shirts with our colorful logo and vision statement. We received a Green Star designation from Prairie Star District in 2008 for achieving a a 12% increase in membership.

We have held many types of fund raisers such as the Northwoods Folk Collective and Coffee House; rummage, garage, plant, tee shirt and calendar sales; waffle breakfasts and concerts including Peter Mayer. Since 2002, our major fund raiser has been a Goods and Service Auction at the end of the year which helps keep us in contact over the summer.

Our community involvement has included at various times: Habitat for Humanity, the Humane Society, the Food Shelf, Interfaith Caregivers, Take Back the Night, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, contributions to the Heifer Project, UNICEF, Kids Against Hunger (tsunami), 4th of July parade float, Nymore Soup Kitchen, Senior Cleanup, Christmas food boxes, One Voice Choir sponsorship and meal and Churches United.

We had a very successful 10 year anniversary celebration with ALL of our former presidents in attendance. In 2005, we held our 15th anniversary celebration with our first president, Reid Hendershot giving the key note address. We still have 4 Founding members, 4 members of 15 years, 7 members of 10 years, 15 members of 5 years or more. We have established yearly traditions of an Ingathering--all participation first fall service, a Memorial Service at Samhain, candlelight services during the Christmas/New Year’s season, famous UU women, Flower/Apple/Earth Communion and Last Meal potluck at the end of the year. We have tried once a month summer Sunday evening services in addition to our very successful once a month summer potlucks.

Membership from 1991-1998 hovered around 50 when we had to make a sudden move to the Headwaters School of Music and Arts and our membership plummeted to 25. However, since then we have had an average gain of 6 members per year. Presently, we have 62 members and 40 plus children. We have achieved a 37% retention rate and a total of 184 people have been members over our 17 year history. We have a very enthusiastic and committed group of people to carry on our vision, mission and covenant in this large area of north central Minnesota. We consistently have a large number of visitors, up to 120 per year and our average Sunday attendance is around 50.


For the first time in 2000, we established 5 year goals and objectives which are updated annually and approved at ou Annual Meeting. They presently are as follows:



Our present five year 2006-2011 goals and objectives are--

1. Assure consistent, quality Sunday services including the:

* Inclusion of a part-time minister at least 9 times a year
* Consistent use of microphone
* Congregational input through Canvass and Congregational meetings
* Training of Service Coordinators
* Provision of child care
* Incorporation of a Music Coordinator.


2. Aim at ownership of our own identifiable space which will serve our needs in cooperation with other interested social and religious groups

* $7,000 per year added to the Building Fund.
* Have at least 3 persons as Chalice Lighters
* Examine the feasibility of a new building


3. Maintain and support our 60 active members and friends with an expansion to 100 through:

* Welcoming atmosphere by greeting and socializing with visitors & new members
* Designate a specific person to connect with visitors after the service
* Conduct new member orientation and recognition
* Improve opportunities/resources for celebrating life passages
* Communicate information regarding HUUF to the broader community
* Publicize in the Newspaper at least monthly
* Sponsor community events and speakers of interest to the community
* Publicize HUUF involvement in social justice activities
* Encourage of active involvement of everyone for a full participation lay led fellowship



4. Revise administrative work to be shared more equally with a sharp focus on priorities.

* Conduct an Annual Canvass to meet our expenses and expand our services and growth
* Conduct fundraisers to help raise additional money to support Fellowship goals
* Conduct a Board orientation in May
* Provide support and direction to committees including:

Conduct committee chair orientation
Develop job descriptions for committee chairs
Assign specific objectives to committees based on annual goals

5. Demonstrate accountability and effective use of our money.

* Seek assistance from a financial service professional
* Transfer financial records to electronic format


6. Provide religious/spiritual life-span education for children, youth and adults.

* Provide children’s RE every Sunday
* Youth attendance at UU events
* Establish and encourage youth group
* Conduct 2 to 4 adult enrichment sessions throughout the year


7. Encourage and support attendance at UU sponsored events.

* Midwest Leadership School
* Prairie Start District Conference
* UUA General Assembly
* UU workshops


8. Strengthen outreach to the broader community

* Actively participate in Churches United
* Make connections with other religious and community groups
* Participate in social justice and community events (e.g. Soup Kitchen)





Written by Neen Lillquist, Sue Nokleby
and Tricia Andrews, July, 2005 (updated 4/08)