A Brief Early History of the
Joseph Priestley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
The Fellowship began in 1960 when three families living in the Penn's Creek, Pennsylvania area discovered that they all belonged to the Church of the Larger Fellowship. The CLF is an outreach effort of the Church in Boston to reach members in remote locations with worship materials.
The record book of the group began in October, 1960 as the Penn's Creek Unitarian Fellowship, and listed the first officers including Edward Moyer, Alfred Butler, John Blacklock, Margaret Moyer, and Richard Nellis, Jr. In October 1961 at a meeting at Nellis's the name was changed to The Joseph Priestley Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship. On Nov. 12 it was decided to open a checking account.
On Jan 6, 1962, at a Twelfth night party at the Elkington's it was decided to investigate the possibility of fellowship status and to retain the current officers until the issue was disposed of. On Jan 7 a By-law committee of one member from each family agreed to meet Wed, Jan. 10, at the Butler's. On Jan 14 at the Butler's by-laws were adopted and officers elected. Finally on Feb. 18, at the Moyer's, a letter of acceptance by the UUA was read.
Summer Camp began June 10-11, 1966, at Halfway Dam and the second was also at Halfway Dam on June 2 '67. Winter Camp began Mar 17, 1972 at Nellis's since Wesley Forest wasn't available. December 17, 1972, was the first mention of the annual Christmas Cookie Bake. The beginning of Palm Sunday egg dyeing must have been a bit later but isn't mentioned in the book.
Meeting places varied in the early days, but most meetings were in homes of members. In the mid 60's the meeting were primarily at Anderson's and Harbaugh's, and later meetings were regularly at SEDA-COG's Timberhaven for several years when Rollie Berger was its director. In the early 1970's the PARC building in Lewisburg was used for a short time before returning to a regular cycle of member's homes.