Phil Chapman’s Memories of the origin of West Village Meeting House From a phone interview in March, 2020, by Christina Gibbons Phil and his wife Alice Chapman were very active in All Souls Church in the 1960s. He remembers climbing MT Washington with John and Calista Kristensen, sitting at the Lake of the Clouds Hut, … Continue reading Phil Chapman
The idea to leave the stone UU church on Main Street and build a new church in West Brattleboro arose in the late 1960s. In this section, you can read the memories of those who were there for the beginnings.
Watercolor of the West Village Meeting House by Maisie Crowther In 2020, All Souls Church celebrated the 50th anniversary of our building, also known as the West Village Meeting House. Ironically we were unable to use the building for most of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so all our communications were virtual. But the … Continue reading Our 50th Anniversary!
Charles Butterfield has compiled an excellent overview of the history of All Souls Church, beginning in the early 1790s when the Rev. Hosea Ballou, “Father of Universalism in America,” preached to a small gathering in West Brattleboro. His narrative covers a lot of ground from there until 2019. You can read his history here.
A Brief History of All Souls Church By Charles Butterfield With additions and updates by others Our church dates to the early 1790s when the Rev. Hosea Ballou, “Father of Universalism in America,” preached to a small gathering in West Brattleboro. The Universalists continued meeting in schools, Grange Halls and farmhouses, until in 1833 its … Continue reading Our History
The Mission of All Souls Church is to create and sustain an open and caring community where we may find inspiration for our spiritual growth, opportunities for lifelong religious education, and encouragement for putting our beliefs and values into action and service. Our Affirmation states: Love is the spirit of this congregation and service is … Continue reading Our Mission and Vision
In Unitarian Universalism, you can bring your whole self: your full identity, your questioning mind, your expansive heart. Together, we create a force more powerful than one person or one belief system. As Unitarian Universalists, we do not have to check our personal background and beliefs at the door: we join together on a journey … Continue reading Our Beliefs
Being a Green Sanctuary is one of the ways we work toward a vision of healthier, more sustainable future. As a recognized Green Sanctuary, we make choices based on ecologically sound reasoning. We commit to four practices, grounded in Unitarian Universalist principles: Environmental Justice: We partner with marginalized communities who are hit first and hardest … Continue reading A Green Sanctuary
We are a Welcoming Congregation, recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association. This means we affirm and include people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer at every level of congregational life—in worship, in program, and in social occasions—welcoming them as whole people. As a Welcoming Congregation we have pledged to: honor the lives of … Continue reading An LGBTQ Welcoming Congregation
All Souls’ story begins with two separate congregations in Brattleboro, Vermont. Each of them, one Universalist and one Unitarian, were, in turn, splinter groups that in the 1830s separated from orthodox Congregational congregations at two ends of the town. Ninety years later, 1922, the two liberal churches united to become All Souls Church, Universalist Unitarian. … Continue reading About All Souls
