Bicentennial Stories

Community Stories

On this page, we're creating an archive to document the life of All Souls through first-person accounts, images and reports. To make contributions to any of these sections, please send them to us at archives@allsoulsnyc.org. For additional information about contributing, please see Preserving the Present as a Legacy for the Future.

Bicentennial Stories contains personal writings and artworks relating to All Souls history, while the sections All Souls in the Pandemic and Advocating for Racial Justice relate to the current experiences of the All Souls community.

Jul 11, 2020

Facing Our Past: All Souls Unitarian Church, NYC, 1819-2020

The past matters because the future matters—history is as much about the future as it is about the past! We acknowledge our past… New...

Mar 8, 2019

Lorraine Allen ... Archivist Extraordinaire

by Peggy Montgomery. “I loved it all!” Lorraine Allen says of her 30 years of devoted work to organize the archives of the Unitarian...

Jan 25, 2019

The Adult Forum at All Souls

by Wiley Saichek. One of the things that attracted me to Unitarian Universalism is that the denomination allows its members to craft,...

Dec 22, 2018

A Beckoning Steeple

by Carmen Cook. Rising on Lexington Avenue, a graceful church steeple stood assertively above the noise and traffic, reminding me of the...

Nov 16, 2018

Rev. Dick Leonard: All Souls Memories

by Rev. Dick Leonard. My first wedding at All Souls (eventually followed by close to 2000 more) was on June 28, 1969, in the main...

Nov 15, 2018

SPIRIT continually AWAKENS along the path of a NEVER-ENDING search for a GROWING sense of one’s HUM

SANGHA: Spirit Awakens Never-ending Growing Humanity Actualized A while back, Pamela Patton, now Director of Pastoral Ministries,...

Nov 13, 2018

Where the Stars Meet the Sea

by Barbara Hosein. “Where the Stars Meet the Sea,” is my Bicentennial installation covering the years 1819-1900 at the Unitarian Church...

Nov 7, 2018

New in New York but near All Souls Church

by Luisa Stigol. It was the year 1973. I moved to Dedham, MA, to start a full-time pediatric practice. I was an Argentinian immigrant....

Nov 7, 2018

SANGHA: Spirit Awakens Never-ending Growing Humanity Actualized (right here at All Souls)

by Yvette Gonick. SANGHA: Spirit Awakens Never-ending Growing Humanity Actualized A while back, Pamela Patton, now Director of Pastoral...

Sep 25, 2018

The All Souls Quarterlies

The All Souls Quarterlies were created by Marietta Moskin. These congregational newsletters were published four times a year, starting...

Sep 20, 2018

The Laymen’s League (2017 Annual Report)

The revitalized All Souls Laymen’s League had an exciting year of continuing renewal in 2017. We started up again in 2016, after being...

Sep 19, 2018

Honor the Past, Because It’s Still Out There: Memories of the AIDS Task Force by All Souls members

Launching the AIDS Task Force - I remember Forrest’s impassioned sermon about AIDS in 1985 (see below), and his call for the members of...

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