All Souls Unitarian Church In Tulsa Celebrates Centennial Anniversary

All Souls Unitarian Church celebrated its centennial on Sunday. Located near 30th and Peoria, it is one of the largest Unitarian Universalist congregations in the country. 

The church’s first meetings were held downtown at Tulsa's old City Hall, then Temple Israel and the Majestic Theater. It found its first permanent home at 14th and Boulder. In 1956, the church moved into its current location.          

"This church has done a lot,” All Souls Unitarian Church youth director Corey Smith said.

This community continues to stand the test of time.

“This church has been a part of so many things from the (Great) Depression and the Dust Bowl and the world wars and everything that's happened from the Oklahoma City bombing and we've always stayed together," All Souls Unitarian Church senior minister Rev. Marlin Lavanhar said. “[A]s we come out of this pandemic, I feel like it's a new birth and a new beginning." 

The church was among the first in Tulsa to close its doors due to the pandemic. It has since offered services online and expanded its global outreach. 

As All Souls Unitarian Church celebrates its centennial, the congregation reviewed the timeline of events it took to get to this point. The church charter forming the church was signed by 27 members in March 1921. That's not long after the 1918 influenza pandemic and two months before the Tulsa Race Massacre devastated our community. 

“We were barely a congregation, barely a church when those horrific events happened,” Smith said. 

Smith said the church has helped shape the city by bringing different belief systems together for Tulsa's first interfaith service. 

"All Souls has been a voice for any time something happens in the city of Tulsa,” Smith said. “All Souls is a place where they want to know what our response is." 

Smith said his family became members of the church about 12 years ago after looking to explore their different spiritual journeys together. He and his wife became volunteers for the religious education program almost immediately.   

"We were looking for a community mainly for our daughters at the time. We were looking for some spiritual guidance, but we wanted a community where everyone was included," Smith said. “Long story short, I've been the youth director now for four years." 

Smith said the church does a lot of good including feeding families during the food desert and helping at the Tulsa Day Center. Over the last 100 years, church members have fought for social justice, marched for civil rights in the 1960s, helped public schools integrate in the 70s and addressed the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

Rev. Lavanhar recalled one of his favorite stories. 

"During the Civil Rights Movement, the Superintendent of Public Schools Dr. Mason said on the news that he, ‘[D]idn't know what the word integration means,’ so the next Sunday, my predecessor, Rev. Dr. John Wolf got into this pulpit here and he preached the sermon, and the title was 'The Last Days of Dr. Mason.' He said, ‘Any superintendent of schools who doesn't know what the word integration means is incompetent, and he ought to be fired, and I'm gonna go down to the school board meeting on Tuesday and say that to them and you should come with me,’” Rev. Lavanhar said. “And he invited the whole church, and he came and there were Catholic priests and Episcopal ministers and Presbyterians and Methodists and others, and they all came together, and they said, ‘You need to go.’ And by the end of that meeting, sure enough, Dr. Mason resigned. And after that, the schools were integrated.'" 

Rev. Lavanhar said you do not have to believe alike to love alike. This ideal, he said, is at the heart of his faith.

"We have people from all different walks of life. Different ages, different political persuasions, different theological ideas and beliefs. We have black and white. Gay and straight. All different types of folks making one community,” said Rev. Lavanhar. “Love is at the heart of what it means to be religious.” 

He said the church even has members who were around during the founding of the church. 

"What's wonderful is to have people from the generation that started this as we look towards a whole new generation in this city," Rev. Lavanhar said. 

In the coming year, they plan to renovate and expand their building.   

Rev. Lavanhar and Smith agree that the church's work concerning inclusion is far from finished. 

"We look forward to continuing this work for the next 100 years,” Smith said.

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