Our Interim Minister
Reverend David Johnson

Dave Johnson is the Interim Minister (Transition Consultant) for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens, Georgia. Before coming to Athens in 2008, Dave was the settled minister of the Shawnee Mission UU church in Overland Park KS (1987-2002), then he served interim ministries in Portage MI, Birmingham AL, Plantation FL, and Bloomington IL.

Rev. Johnson's first career was as a marine geologist. His university education was in earth sciences (S.B. and S.M from MIT). He then shifted focus to marine geology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Ph.D. in 1971), and served on the staff at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for twelve years. He left full-time research in 1983 and entered Harvard Divinity School, from which he graduated in 1987.

Rev. Johnson sees his ministerial role as a consultant to the Boards of Trustees of congregations that are in the midst of ministry transitions. His primary goal is to strengthen the congregation via coaching them through five specific developmental tasks, thereby preparing the congregation for calling their next settled minister.

Dave and his wife Diann have been married forty-one years. Their children are Melanie (enrolled in a Masters' degree program in Dance Movement Therapy, at Antioch New England University) and Stefan (enrolled in a dual degree program in Computer Engineering and Spanish, at Syracuse University). The Johnson's family home is in Overland Park, Kansas

Contact Information:

Phone: 706-546-7914 or 706-224-7260
Email: revdaj@aol.com

Community Minister
Rev. Don Randall, Ph.D.

Don is a licensed marriage and family therapist and professional counselor with Athens Associates for Counseling and Psychotherapy. He has special interests in marital therapy, spiritual development, mind-body healing, and hypnosis. Don provides consultation to the pastoral care team and monthly pulpit supply at Canon UU Church. He and his wife Sally have three adult daughters and three grandchildren.

As a service to members of the Fellowship, Don offers a free consultation session to those seeking a referral to the most appropriate psychotherapist.

Contact Information:

Counseling Office: 706-353-0709
Home: 706-769-7540
Email: darandall@earthlink.net

Mission Statement

We, The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens, choose to be a diverse community committed to a search for Truth, Meaning, and Justice. We unite to create a caring and respectful environment for individuals of all ages to seek intellectual, spiritual and religious growth.

History of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens

UUFA was founded in 1954 by ten families seeking a liberal religious presence in Athens. Originally small gatherings were held in members' homes to hear interesting speakers. From the beginning, we have been known for our strong commitment to social justice and human rights. In the 1960s, members of our Fellowship led the University of Georgia faculty in supporting campus desegregation. Later, other members helped to create the Clarke Community Federal Credit Union to serve the needs of lower income people.

Today, UUFA is a vital community of over 300, with a minister, choir and religious education program for both children and adults. We are a growing congregation, grateful for the beauty and functionality of our new building, dedicated in 1993.

Along with more than 1,000 other member UU congregations in the United States and Canada, our Fellowship benefits from the leadership and support of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Our Fellowship also has a rich tradition of social events, from Wednesday potlucks and circle suppers to Nifty-Gifty (a children's holiday gift-making workshop). Committees and activities are as diverse as our membership because they are led and organized by the members. In 1995, we began our paraministerial CARE RING program to support and strengthen the members of our community. Additionally, we honor the gifts of our lay members by having at least one lay-led service each month. We invite you to join us in the pursuit of your religious, spiritual, and intellectual interests.

With its historical roots in the Jewish and Christian traditions, Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion -- that is, a religion that keeps an open mind to the religious questions people have struggled with in all times and places. We believe that personal experience, conscience and reason should be the final authorities in religion, and that in the end religious authority lies not in a book or person or institution, but in ourselves. We are a "non-creedal" religion: we do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed.

Unitarian Universalist Association Principles and Purposes

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
• Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support.

The Purposes of the Unitarian Universalist Association

The Unitarian Universalist Association shall devote its resources to and exercise its corporate powers for religious, educational and humanitarian purposes. The primary purpose of the Association is to serve the needs of its member congregations, organize new congregations, extend and strengthen Unitarian Universalist institutions and implement its principles.

The Association declares and affirms its special responsibility, and that of its member societies and organizations, to promote the full participation of persons in all of its and their activities and in the full range of human endeavor without regard to race, color, sex, disability, affectional or sexual orientation, age, or national origin and without requiring adherence to any particular interpretation of religion or to any particular religious belief or creed.

Nothing herein shall be deemed to infringe upon the individual freedom of belief which is inherent in the Universalist and Unitarian heritages or to conflict with any statement of purpose, covenant, or bond of union used by any society unless such is used as a creedal test.