Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Paris Thrives

Once a month, on a Sunday morning, Unitarian Universalists pass quietly through a stone-paved courtyard in Paris’s picturesque Montmartre district so as not to disturb the building’s residents living on the upper floors. They follow signs to the door of the small, mid-century modern ground-floor auditorium of La Maison Verte, a Protestant-linked social action center that helps the local immigrant community, which they have rented since 2012.

An early morning crew of volunteers has set up chairs for the congregation of around forty adults and six children who typically show up for the service. On the stage is a piano and a table for an altar with a chalice and flowers; another table holds candles for Joys and Concerns. In the back of the room are coffee and cookies for everyone to enjoy afterwards.

This is the UU Fellowship of Paris, one of four groups outside of the United States and Canada that are official members of the Unitarian Universalist Association. This also includes the Unitarian Church of South Australia in Norwood, Australia; the UU Fellowship of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and the UU Church of the Philippines, which itself has twenty-seven congregations, according to Rev. Morgan McLean, the UUA’s director of the Global Connections Office.

“The Paris fellowship is a prime example of a group begun long ago that has thrived through the years, bringing together longtime expatriates from several countries, locals, and people passing through Paris looking for a UU connection.”

The Paris fellowship is also part of the Unitarian Universalists in Europe (EUU), a group of eight, mostly English-speaking fellowships in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic, McLean says. There are many more groups who identify as Unitarian, Free Church, or UU; in Europe there are about 335 such fellowships or congregations, with the Hungarian and United Kingdom Unitarians each having over 150 congregations, she adds.

“The Paris fellowship is a prime example of a group begun long ago that has thrived through the years, bringing together longtime expatriates from several countries, locals, and people passing through Paris looking for a UU connection,” said Rev. Diane Rollert, UUA ambassador to the EUU. The fellowship’s members have provided significant leadership to the EUU, she said, adding, “Of course, being in Paris helps to attract many gifted ministers from abroad who are willing to come speak at their Sunday services.”

Within Europe, “Paris is our most stable, amazing, thriving fellowship,” said Bonnie Friedmann, president of the Unitarian Universalists in Europe (EUU). Twice a year, EUU hosts retreats bringing together UUs from around Europe and building connections.

Volunteer-Run Paris Congregation a Vibrant Mix

The Paris congregation got its start in November 1985, in a Protestant church dating from the 17th century, when a group of mostly American expats gathered for a UU service lay-led by Lucienne Kirk, a Frenchwoman who had lived in the United States.

“There was a pretty good turnout, at least thirty people, which was amazing for a new group,” recalled Dorcy Erlandson, a Paris UU who attended that first service.

In early 1986, the group formally joined the UUA as the UU Fellowship of Paris, aided by a couple who worked at the U.S. Embassy in France, Bill and Beryl Barraclough, who had experience with founding fellowships.

Forty years later, almost against the odds, the fellowship continues to offer monthly Sunday services and other events. It is volunteer run, with no resident minister, and has changed locations numerous times over the decades. The congregation comprises a vibrant mix of expatriates who chose to stay in France, temporary residents in Paris on job assignments or student exchanges, and UUs visiting this world-renowned city.

“You’re with people like yourself, same values, and that feels good in a foreign country.”

“You’re with people like yourself, same values, and that feels good in a foreign country,” said Katherine Blondel, a lifelong UU from Massachusetts, who is married to a Frenchman and went to the fellowship in 2004 so her children could experience what she had growing up.

Blondel says she thinks the Paris fellowship has thrived because of some “core members who are here permanently.” She’s one of those core volunteers, having served as a religious education teacher, former president, and now worship committee chair.

So too is Peter Jarrett, a Canadian UU and the fellowship’s president, who worked in France as an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He saw an advertisement for the Paris fellowship in the International Herald Tribune in the early 1990s. With their two children, he and his wife, Claire, “had started thinking about giving them a religious education,” he said.

Jarrett described the UU Fellowship of Paris as a place to meet people “who care about social trends, care about ethics, the environment, all the things UUs care about.”

Similar motivation has continued to bring participants to the congregation over the years. “I was searching for an English-speaking group with like-minded people … and child friendly,” said Jonathan Kirk, a British father of two young daughters, who recently joined the fellowship. Also looking for a faith that was different from the Catholicism he was raised in, Kirk found the fellowship via its website.

Now he and his kids make the 45-minute drive from the suburbs each month to the fellowship’s location in north Paris.

UU Fellowship of Paris ‘a Home Away from Home’

For Americans like Chris Buja, who worshipped with his two sons at the fellowship during his two and a half years in Paris, the services brought a sense of the familiar. He had been active at his UU church in New Jersey and wanted to continue his connection to UUism in France. The fellowship provided “comfort in a place that was very new to me,” he said.

“For Americans, it’s a home away from home,” observed Ida van Haren. She herself is Dutch but said she feels welcomed in this fellowship with an international ambiance. Other members are Danish, French, Indian, and Pakistani.

Van Haren first went to a service in 2016 and found “a room of nice people, warm, open-minded, and there was wonderful music and good talks.”

Smiling, she added that the social aspect was a big draw for her. She has become an avid organizer of the fellowship’s social events, from book and movie clubs to museum trips and meals at local restaurants.

Erlandson, a worship committee veteran, said at first the congregation thought it needed a permanent minister, but it turned out people liked the diversity of guest preachers.

The Paris of sidewalk cafes and long leisurely dinners is part of the reason the fellowship finds it fairly easy to attract a string of guest UU ministers, who lead eight of the ten annual Sunday services. (The fellowship is closed in the summer.)

Erlandson, a worship committee veteran, said at first the congregation thought it needed a permanent minister, but it turned out people liked the diversity of guest preachers. They come from Great Britain or are American UU ministers traveling in Europe. The congregation pays an honorarium and sometimes offers a place to stay.

Rev. Chris Buice of Tennessee Valley UU Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, has made many trips to France and has preached at the fellowship five times.

“It’s a beautiful place to go … I have totally been enriched” by the bilingual, multicultural congregation in Paris, he said. “It’s a perspective we could all benefit from.”