Our ​History, Beliefs & Symbols

History
The Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (BUUF) was founded in 1958 and received an official charter in 1970 from what is now the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). The fellowship operated informally for many years meeting in people’s homes and various locations throughout Boone, including the Public Library.

In 1981, the Fellowship purchased the home at 381 E. King Street and we finally had a place of our own! On November 15, 1981, after many hours of cleaning, painting, papering, wiring, and plumbing, The White House was formally dedicated in a ceremony presided over by Reverend Don Male from the Thomas Jefferson District of the UUA.

For the first five years, we shared the upstairs space with Oasis, a shelter for battered women and children, and held our services, religious education and fellowship functions downstairs. In 1989, the Fellowship purchased the house and property directly behind The White House on Tracy Circle. Today we rent that space to The Playhouse, a non-profit activity center for children.

By June 1991, we had outgrown The White House, now called the Founders House, and broke ground on what is now the Fellowship with seating for 120 people.

Far left: the Founders House, center: the Fellowship, far right: the Playhouse

BUUF Today
Members, Friends & Partners
Our membership currently stands at 100+ Members with many more regularly visiting Friends, and we are active in community support for programs such as the Hospitality House, the Western Youth Network, the Community Care Clinic, National Alliance for Mental Illness, and the F.A.R.M. Café (Feed All Regardless of Means). The second Sunday of each month is designated Community Giving Sunday with directed giving to these and other charities.
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Learn more about our community partners in Community Giving.

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Diversity & Social Justice​
Wondering what kind of place is the Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship? People of all faith backgrounds are welcome. UUs are a diverse group, and if you want to see and experience more about this liberal faith, then be sure to come several times to our services to see how they can be very different. We are also a designated welcoming congregation. This means that our religious space will always been welcoming places for all people, especially when it comes to gender and sexuality. Learn more about visiting BUUF. ​

The Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is an intentionally diverse and inclusive group offering a refuge to search for spiritual and intellectual growth to people of every intersection of identity, be it past religious histories, personal background, race, ethnicity, or nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or social status. We dedicate our membership, facilities, and staff to be a presence and influence in our community, to make a difference socially, ethically and spiritually.

In 2017, BUUF signed the UUA's Declaration of Consciousness to show our solidarity with other UUs in engaging in social action for good. The Declaration is now part of the UUA's Love Resists Campaign. Click the banner above to learn more.

Chalice and Covenant

Each Sunday, at the beginning of Service, we light the chalice and recite our Covenant.
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The Flaming Chalice
Adapted from an essay by Dan Hotchkiss

​At the opening of Unitarian Universalist services, many congregations light a flame inside a chalice. This flaming chalice has become a well-known symbol of our denomination. It unites our members and symbolizes the spirit of our work.

The flaming chalice combines two archetypes—a drinking vessel and a flame—and as a religious symbol has different meanings to different beholders. In religions around the world and through time, a chalice symbolizes sharing, generosity, sustenance, and love. A flame has come to symbolize sacrifice, testing, courage, and illumination.

The chalice and the flame were brought together as a Unitarian symbol by an Austrian artist, Hans Deutsch, in 1941. After fleeing the Nazi aggression in Europe, Deutsch met Reverend Charles Joy, executive director of the Unitarian Service Committee (USC), in Portugal. From his Lisbon headquarters, Joy oversaw a secret network of couriers and agents to help all those fleeing religious persecution.

​​Deutsch was impressed with the work of the USC and later wrote to Joy saying “I am not what you may actually call a believer. But if your kind of life is the profession of your faith - as it is, I feel sure - then religion, ceasing to be magic and mysticism, becomes confession to practical philosophy and - what is more - to active, really useful social work.”  With pencil and ink Deutsch drew a chalice with a flame.

BUUF's Covenant hangs ​in the Fellowship

Chalice artwork in the Fellowship

The flaming chalice design was made into a seal for papers and a badge for agents moving refugees to freedom. In time it became a symbol of Unitarian Universalism all around the world. ​The story of Hans Deutsch reminds us that the symbol of a flaming chalice stood in the beginning for a life of service. When Deutsch designed the flaming chalice, he had never seen a Unitarian or Universalist church or heard a sermon. What he had seen was faith in action—people who were willing to risk all for others in a time of urgent need.

Today, the flaming chalice is the official symbol of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Officially or unofficially, it functions as a logo for hundreds of congregations. No one meaning or interpretation is official. The flaming chalice, like our faith, stands open to receive new truths that pass the tests of reason, justice, and compassion.

Affirmation statement in the Fellowship foyer