About Us
With open minds and caring hearts we freely gather together to support one another in the practice and promotion of liberal religion. We, the members of this liberal religious congregation, therefore commit ourselves to:
- Provide a community of love and fellowship, to honor diversity, religious freedom and encourage personal and spiritual growth;
- Build closer relationships of mutual trust, understanding, respect and support of different cultures, philosophies, and beliefs;
- Inspire and assist the larger community toward greater compassion, justice, and beauty;
- Participate in the Unitarian Universalist Association and support its vision of peace, social justice, environmental responsibility, and religious tolerance;
- Contribute toward the goal of a global community, with respect for the interconnected web of all existence.
Love is the spirit of this fellowship
and service is our gift;
to dwell together in peace,
to seek the truth in love,
and to help one another:
This is our covenant.
Want to to explore more about UUism? The Unitarian Universalist Association website visitors’ area is a great resource and may have what you’re looking for.
Our Consulting Ministers, Rev. Fred & Rev. Margaret Keip retired here to Grants Pass in 1997, after co-ministering with the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula in California for 25 years, where they helped the congregation grow and build a home of its own. Marge continued to serve as an interim minister with congregations in transition for another seven years.
They became active Fellowship members, and were contracted as a quarter-time consulting ministry team as of January 2009 (an arrangement that is reviewed and may be renewed annually). Their goal is to help the Fellowship thrive and grow and to work themselves out of this job.
Fred grew up on a Wisconsin farm, served as a Marine in Korea during the war and taught theater and speech at the college and university level for ten years, before heading into ministry. Marge was Chicago born and bred, and an art major when they met and married in college.
They found Unitarian Universalism together while Fred was in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin. When they moved to Minnesota they organized a UU fellowship in Northfield, where Fred was teaching. It led him to change careers.
They each in turn earned Masters of Divinity degrees at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley (the UU member school of the Graduate Theological Union), which awarded them honorary doctorates in 1998.
Their perspectives are complementary. Fred’s experience led him to embrace a narrative theology, using story to embed meaning directly in everyday life. Marge resonates with process theology, a 20th century philosophy in accord with contemporary science, viewing all existence as relational and always evolving.
Besides enjoying their 3 grown children and 4 grandchildren, mostly very long-distance (California, North Carolina & Ohio), Fred serves on Josephine County Search and Rescue as chaplain. Marge co-leads the Pacific Northwest District (UU) Healthy Congregations Team, and consults on request.
Reaching Fred & Marge – Email us at: ministers@uufgp.org We regularly check Fellowship voice mail (476-5600) and gladly make appointments, too. For immediate matters, phone us at home.
Rev. Brad Carrier — Brad has served the UUFGP since 1987, helping to revive it as a UU congregation (it had an earlier incarnation stemming from the 1950’s, which had disbanded). He lives in Ashland and comes to lead services here monthly in addition to intermittent visits to other west coast congregations. Brad has ministered to congregations in Ashland, Oregon, North Carolina, Illinois, Michigan. He trained for the ministry at the Meadville/Lombard Seminary at the University of Chicago. His main mentor was Dr. A. U. Vasavada, of Bombay , India , who studied with Carl Jung. Brad has an ongoing interest in meditation and related topics. He also strongly cares for “religion this side of God” or “life this side of death” and has established a religious perspective: God’s Goods, a humanistic, naturalistic, deistic religion you can read more about on his web site: earthlyreligion.org.