Heirloom #4
by Will Frank
For the next few years after its founding on December 8, 1912, the First Unitarian Church of Norfolk continued to rent space in the Dickson Building on Granby Street. The following is an excerpt from the report of the Rev. Julian R. Pennington of April 7, 1913 to the American Unitarian Association.
“We are holding services in a modern office building in the heart of the business section of Norfolk. We are very comfortably situated in our own quarters, which have very recently been modernly furnished.
“This church has two ‘personalities.’ One is a strict business personality, and the other wholly spiritual. On the business side of the church we are always scheming to grow. We devise many ways for getting a congregation. We try one way and then another, mostly the other. We advertise, we solicit, we invite. On the other side of the church is spiritual development, the atmosphere of which makes one feel in church. I feel that in the South where too many persons are inclined to look upon the Unitarian Church as a club, we cannot develop too mightily the spiritual atmosphere at the hour of worship.
“Every member of the church is an officer, but two, and we are trying to invent some offices for these two.
“It is seven thirty Sunday evening. Services begin at eight o'clock. The officers are on hand. Our church is situated on the third floor of the building, way back around two bends. Exactly at seven-thirty one officer stations himself downstairs in the lobby near the elevator, and the others on the third landing. It is nearing eight o'clock. It is a very warm evening, and here comes a stranger. He has always heard that the Unitarian Church was rather a cold proposition, and he comes to cool off, and so see how many icicles hang on to the square inch.
“He is met at the door with a hand shake and greeting that makes him feel conceited. The elevator boy is paid extra for being polite. On the third landing, he is met with a dozen handshakes and is then turned over to an officer who takes a walk with him to our quarters. Going around these two bends, there is time enough to ascertain what his religious tendencies are, and his name and address, without asking for them. Thus each stranger is carried in.”