MidAmerica Region History and Heritage

Mission of the MidAmerica History and Heritage Committee

We promote gathering, preserving, and propagating the Unitarian Universalist history of our Region to attract new members and deepen pride and commitment among existing ones. We aspire to develop a network of people with an interest in UU history and encourage congregations to post their histories on the Web, to research the UU past in their localities, and to present UU history in a variety of media.

History of the MidAmerica History and Heritage Committee

This effort was begun in 1999 by the late Lowell Hanson of White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church (Minnesota). A committee held a UU history conference, Light on the Prairie, at First Universalist Church of Minneapolis in 2002, which drew around a hundred participants from around Prairie Star District. Following the conference, the PSD Board officially sanctioned the Heritage and Archives Committee. Other efforts have included workshops on producing videos, presentations at district and regional conferences, and financial assistance to congregations for their UU history initiatives. Members of the committee have produced books, articles, and video documentaries on Midwestern Unitarian Universalism. We are cooperating increasingly with the UUA’s History and Heritage Society (UUHHS). In 2016 we assisted the UUHHS and UU Collegium with their triennial Convocation of UU Studies, held in Bloomington, Minnesota. Our current project, the collection of MidAmerica congregational histories into a single online database, is a preliminary effort for the UUHHS project of collecting congregational histories for all congregations in the UUA.

For more information please contact: heritage@midamericauua.org.