Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, Religious center in Berkeley, United States.
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley is a church building in Kensington, California, designed by Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons with Theodore Bernardi as lead architect and landscape architect Geraldine Knight Scott. The congregation began using the main building in 1961, and two religious education classroom buildings were added soon thereafter. Bernardi admired Bernard Maybeck, whose work influenced the church design.
The First Unitarian Church of Berkeley was founded on July 12, 1891, with Edward B. Payne as its first minister. After renting quarters, it built a redwood-shingled church at Bancroft Way and Dana Street in 1898, designed by A. C. Schweinfurth. In the mid-1950s the congregation sold that property to the university and moved to Kensington in 1961, into a building by Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons.
The church's music program is led by Dr. Bryan Baker, with the main choir Luminescence, a Youth and Children's Choir, and other ensembles. Instruments used in services include an Aeolian-Skinner organ, three grand pianos, a harpsichord, and a gamelan. The Kensington Symphony Orchestra is based here, and a sing-along performance of Handel's Messiah has been a December tradition since 1966.
The main building, used by the congregation since 1961, sits in the Kensington hills above Berkeley, with two religious education classroom buildings added soon after. The church is the home of the Kensington Symphony Orchestra and is frequently used for musical recordings because of its acoustics. A sing-along performance of Handel's Messiah has been a December tradition since 1966.
During the 1950s, the congregation resisted a government loyalty oath requirement and temporarily lost its tax-exempt status as a result. A Supreme Court victory later helped the congregation reclaim its protected status.
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