We, at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill, are just now completing our "Building Our Dream" program in which we:

• Built a new Sanctuary,
• Built a new Fellowship Hall,
• Built a new Commons meeting area for coffee and conversation,
• Added four new Religious Education class rooms,
• Totally refurbished our Unitarian House containing our office space, the Horsch Room and a caretaker's apartment,
• Added a wing to Unitarian House - the "Betsy Nemser Resource Wing".
• Rebuilt our former church office for Religious education uses.

        (As of now, January 2001, we have moved into Unitarian House, the Sanctuary and the Commons and are completing the remainder.)
We are very excited and proud of this accomplishment. Here's the brief story:
 

HISTORY Shortly after our organization was born as the Unitarian Fellowship of Southern New Jersey in 1956, our founders acquired the delightful, mostly-wooded 13 acres we now own on a hill in central Cherry Hill, New Jersey. This property contained an historic old house we renamed Unitarian House. In the early sixties we built a large, "lamellar" domed structure which was to serve as both our sanctuary and our social hall. We named it  Fellowship Hall. We also built a Lower RE building in a campus-like layout. These, plus an existing barn converted to office and RE space use, served us well for many years.	Original "Fellowship Hall",      Christmas Eve 1990.
PLANNING In the early 70s, the first of many Long Range Planning Committees was formed to plan our growth. One outcome was a decison to plan for a congregation of 500 members maximum on the theory that, beyond that size, we would prefer to spin off another fellowhip and maintain our knowing-mostly-everybody intimacy. A less formal but no less intensely felt objective was to, some day, have a "Church on the top of the hill" - an objective we are now finally achieving.      In September 1991, our growth forced us into double sessions on Sunday primarily because of limited RE classroom space. Concentrated, specific  planning then began. A Master Plan was approved in 1993 and a first capital fund drive was kicked off in 1994 under the theme "Building our Dream". A two-phase program was formulated with Phase One being the complete renovation of Unitarian House and Phase Two being the construction of a new worship space plus RE space complex.	Blueprints, plans, meetings, fund raising          etc. etc. etc
THE ACTION STARTS   In 1996 we started Phase One. This resulted in a totally reconstructed Unitarian House plus an addition to it - the Betsy Nemser Wing. This combined structure now houses our offices, the delightful Horsch Room and a comfortable caretaker's apartment. In this and all the following phases of the total project, a lot of "Sweat Equity" was invested by congregational members to reduce costs. We dug, painted, pulled wires, cleared land, ran back-hoes, cleaned up and performed myriad humble but energetic tasks	"Sweat Equity" in Unitarian      House Basement.
CATACLYSM Then, on 3 February 1997, after the completion of Phase One and in the midst of our final planning for Phase Two of our BOD Program, a fire destroyed Fellowship Hall just two weeks before the rededication of the rebuilt Unitarian House. Since we now had no worship space and no large social space, this forced a major revision in our plans. Fortunately, the major features of the existing, planned layout on our hill-top site could be preserved by adding a Social Hall under the planned Sanctuary space. This created a two-story structure. New, changed plans were drawn.	Original Fellowship Hall fire.
RESOLUTION Ground was broken on 13 July 1997 for the start of construction of the new, combined 15,000 sq. ft. Sanctuary/Commons/Religious Education structure. In October of 1998 construction of the new building began in earnest.      Now, January, 2001, we have moved into the Sanctuary in which we hold our Sunday worship and the Commons in which we have our post-worship Sunday coffe hour. Work on the remaining components of our total new church is continuing.	Ground breaking, 13 July 1997.
AND NOW?   What you see now, finally our "Church on the top of the hill", is the result of a $2.6 million dollar, two-phase effort, $1.2 million of which has come from direct contribuions of members and friends (Almost half!). But, even more, it is the result of hours and hours (more accurately  years and years!) of planning, meetings, manual labor and, most of all, love for this church. That we are proud of this accomplishment, there is no doubt. But more than pride, we wish to feel the emotion of sharing the Unitarian Universalist worshiping-together and living-together experience with an ever larger group of like-minded people. We want to grow not primarily to become larger but to be of greater service to the denomination, to the community and, yes, to each other.       Come join us!  For our BOD photo album, click this icon...  BACK TO TOP	Christmas Eve 2000, in our NEW Sanctuary,     HOME