Our Church

The Unitarian Church in Summit was founded in 1908 by area residents who wanted a church that would be less doctrinaire than other religious institutions. Today, we continue to be a congregation that welcomes people of varied beliefs and backgrounds -- who come together to worship, to wonder, to share the joys and sorrows of life, and to try to better the world around us. We are a regional congregation of about 460 adult members and 200 children who live in Summit and some 50 other area communities.

In 2006 we launched a challenge to one another to “Live Boldly” (see sermon What Equips us for Bold Living? by Vanessa Southern) and the results have been exciting. We now have a partnership with the city of Irvington that entails supporting the Mayor of that city in his efforts to revitalize it and an active partnership with the Chancellor Avenue Elementary School in Irvington, where we have started a tutoring program, landscaped the grounds, run stress-reduction workshops for the staff (all in response to their requests for such). We have also raised $15,000 for two years in a row to support a year of interim housing for a homeless family as an extension of our long-term partnership with HomeFirst (formerly, the Interfaith Council for the Homeless). In the fall of 2007 our congregation, for the first time in its history, also passed a resolution of witness by congregational vote to urge our leaders to end the war in Iraq, and have begun programs of advocacy and education to that end (see the news release. These are just a few of the new initiatives that complement our longstanding programs of education, advocacy, and witness in a community that is growing in the depths of its commitments to the best in this world and to one another.

Our sanctuary, completed in 1913, is recognized as a beautiful example of Colonial “meeting house” architecture. In 2002, we completed a major renovation and expansion, which added office space, classrooms and large meeting spaces under a single roof.

The Unitarian Church in Summit is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association, a coalition of more than 1,000 Unitarian-Universalist congregations in North America. Our church is self-governing: members elect a Board of Trustees and vote on major matters including the calling of ministers and the annual budget.

For more on the congregation’s religious life, see Worship Services and Unitarian Universalism.

You can read a brief history of the Unitarian Church in Summit.

Our Staff

The community is blessed with a fabulous staff.

Vanessa Southern is our Parish Minister. She has been with the congregation since the summer of 2001. A more complete biography of Vanessa appears here.

Tuli has a commitment to nurturing and deepening children’s spiritual exploration. Under her leadership the program has grown significantly. Tuli and the committee she works closely with, the Children’s Religious Education, have also begun to innovate the way we educate our children around issues of values and religion. A recent experiment with a workshop rotation model seeks to deepen children’s experiences using multiple intelligences. Children rotate through rooms that are thematically organized around a particular person from history and their work and the values that drove that work, or around a particular religious holiday, its observances and its history and its meaning. The experiment has proved to be particularly appealing and powerful as can be attested to by higher attendance and membership figures.

Tuli is married and has two boys both of whom attend classes at The Unitarian Church in Summit.

Emilie Boggis is our Youth Minister and works with our Youth Group and Coming of Age class. She began her role with the congregation in September 2005.

Emilie is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. She graduated from Meadville Lombard Theological School (a UU seminary in Chicago) in June 2005. She previously worked as a Americorps*VISTA volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. Emilie has worked with youth groups since graduating from Furman University in Greenville, SC

Emilie is married and has two young daughters.

Mitchell Vines has been music director since 1999. He performs Sunday mornings, and often brings in wonderful singers and instrumentalists. Mitchell directs the adult choir, and also invites many of our talented lay members to perform. He is artistic director of Afternoon Music, which presents four concerts a year in our sanctuary. Mitchell has a Masters Degree in piano from the Eastman School of Music, and performs throughout New York and Europe as a soloist and collaborative pianist.

Carolyn Lockwood, our Church Administrator, has been with the congregation since 1987. Carolyn’s warmth and knowledge and commitment to the community makes her the perfect center in our organization and a warm and welcoming face to greet our week day visitors. She is also the one to talk to about how to get almost anything done!