History
The congregation, organized in 1912, was founded and once ministered to by Dr. Preston Bradley and was described in the 1924 edition of the "Western Unitarian" as "one of the most largely attended liberal churches in the world, its Sunday morning attendance being upwards of two thousand." Dr. Bradley, who was 24 years old when he founded the congregation, finally located it in the former Pantheon Theatre (its current location), a huge building of five floors with two balconies and a wide stage. Bradley's dream, as published in a 1942 press clipping, was that this congregation would have "a prophetic voice and civic conscience," and it grew to have a membership of over 4,000 in the 1940's, along with a distinguished social action program. Bradley's ministry included several church services each week, radio broadcasts reaching several million listeners, and an active community relief effort serving hundreds on the north side.
As urban flight took place over the last four decades, membership in the congregation dwindled dramatically, and the congregation nearly closed its doors. A decision was made to jointly affiliate with the United Church of Christ while maintaining Unitarian Universalist Association membership, and the congregation today has a membership of about fifty adults, maintaining an active social justice outreach ministry. Among its many activities, the church rents space to Residents for Effective Shelter Transitions, known as REST, which is the largest homeless shelter on north side of Chicago, housing 60 men on its 4th floor who eat and sleep in the building and receive social service assistance. The 5th floor is rented to Women In the Director's Chair, an organization fostering women's involvement in the visual arts through training in documentary film making and video and photography production. The church also has a meals program, serving 3 meals every week to 150 people needing food, many from local community and local shelters. Additionally, the church hosts an annual Memorial Day Picnic for the Homeless, with about 500 people coming for barbequed chicken and ribs. Another ministry of the church is the Empti-Spoon Job Club, a program which offers job-placement assistance to people having special challenges finding work, such as homeless persons, ex-offenders, people in shelters, and welfare-to-work persons who need assistance in finding jobs.