Our History

(Parts Adapted from A History of a Name and Place, by Lucy Walsh Phinney)

Ministry

In December of 1954, a decision was made to establish a Unitarian church to serve the Hollin Hills-Tauxemont area of Fairfax County. Under the auspices of All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., a congregation began to form in the spring of 1955. The first worship service was held on the last Sunday in September of 1955 in Holiday House off Fort Hunt Road. The chapel, located on a wooded tract overlooking the Potomac River, was owned by the Girls' Friendly Society, a subsidiary of the Episcopal Church. Eighty-five adults and 110 children came to this Mount Vernon Center of All Souls Church, as it was called. Sermons by the Reverend A. Powell Davies of the sponsoring All Souls Church were piped in over the telephone and played through a loudspeaker to the congregation.
   The church grew rapidly that first year and soon Friendly House, with its seating capacity of only 110, became too small. Even some of the community madrigal choir which performed at services became enthralled with Dr. Davies' sermons and became church members! The church moved into larger quarters the second year, a temporary home in the Hollin Hills Elementary School. In a cafeteria decorated with screens made by church member John Kofler and with sermons still piped in from Dr. Davies at All Souls, the congregation continued to grow.
   By October of 1957 the church, which adopted the name the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church, was ready to hire its first minister. The congregation called the Reverend Ernest Sommerfield formerly of the Church of the Unity in Springfield, Massachusetts. In preparation for his anticipated November arrival, MVUC purchased its first piece of property, a house on Popkins Lane in the Hollin Hills subdivision for use as a parsonage. Reverend Sommerfield served MVUC for almost five years, until he resigned in 1963.   
   John Wells, a former teacher, lawyer, and Air Force officer from Atlanta, who had been a student minister at MVUC for several months before his ordination in the spring of 1964, was called to be the second minister. Reverend Wells left in 1968 to become minister of the First Parish Church in Lexington, Massachsetts. (He later became part-time minister at the Reston, Virginia Unitarian Church.)
   After several months of lay-led services, Mount Vernon called its third minister, Reverend David Bumbaugh, in July of 1969. Reverend Bumbaugh, ordained in 1964, came to MVUC from the Park Forest, Illinois Unitarian Church. In 1977, David Bumbaugh’s wife, Beverly, became the co-minister of MVUC; she was ordained by the church in 1978. The Bumbaughs continued their joint ministry to Mount Vernon until mid-1984 when they left for the Syracuse, New York Universalist Church. Reverend Betty Jo Middleton was called as the congregation's first Minister of Religious Education and served from May 1984 through June 1990.
   Following the Bumbaugh's departure, the Reverend Judith Walker-Riggs served as Interim Minister for eighteen months. It was during this time that the new church building was built; Reverend Walker-Riggs presided over the dedication ceremonies. On January 1, 1986 the Reverend Kenneth Hurto, minister of the Des Moines, Iowa Unitarian Church, was called as minister of MVUC.. Reverend Linda Olson Peebles, long-time Director of Religious Education at MVUC, joined him as Minister of Religious Education in 1997. Reverend Peebles moved on to the Unitarian Church of Arlington, Virginia in the summer of 2001. Reverend Hurto joined the staff of the UUA in Boston in September, 2001, and now serves as District Executive of the Florida District of the UUA.
   While we searched for a new minister, the Reverend Walter Braman, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, served as interim minister.  The Reverend Louis V. Schwebius joined us in September, 2003 and resigned on February 1, 2007. Reverend Don W. Vaughn-Foerster served as interim minister from August 1, 2007 until August 1, 2008, when the Reverend Kate R. Walker became our new settled minister.
See a chronology of MVUC history.
Read an article published by All Souls Unitarian Church in 1959 about a phone call that helped start a church.

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