Ministry

Rev. Chuck Thomas, our current minister, serves our congregation on a part-time schedule, making the trip up from Dayton by arrangement for ceremonies and once a month for Sunday worship service. For other Sundays a member acts as the service leader and we arrange for a speaker to deliver the sermon (talk, lecture, presentation). We draw from our congregation and from the community. Sunday services have featured visiting ministers from our faith or other faith traditions, lay leaders, artists, educators, philosophers, public servants, historians, professors, librarians, and other enthusiasts.

Rev. Chuck Thomas

Chuck Thomas started his adult life with a career in engineering. As a young adult, he attended First Unitarian Church of Dayton, OH and taught Sunday School for the First Church teen group. Chuck and his wife Nancy (married in 1958) were active lay leaders in Dayton and then in Richmond, Indiana, during the 1960s and 70s. When Chuck decided to make a career change to the ministry, Nancy fully supported his calling. Chuck graduated from Earlham School of Religion in 1976 as the second Unitarian Universalist minister to be trained there. The Rev. Chuck Thomas served the Unitarian Universalist Association's (UUA’s) Ohio Valley and Heartland Districts in a number of capacities.

In 1984 Rev. Thomas was ordained by First Unitarian Church of Dayton, Ohio, and served as minister of that church until 1998, when First Unitarian merged into Miami Valley Unitarian Fellowship. Chuck has been minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Lima since 1990. He also serves as affiliate minister of the Miami Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, preaches occasionally from other pulpits in Ohio and Indiana, and is an on-call chaplain at Dayton’s Children’s Medical Center.

The Rev. Chuck and Nancy Thomas Scholarship

A few of Chuck' sermons are available on videotape from the Fellowship Library. Text of the following sermons are available here.

Rev. Ray Michel

Rev. Ray Michel, retired UU minister from Dayton, is a long-time friend of this Fellowship and an occasional guest minister for UU Lima services.

Rev. Richard Venus

Rev. Venus is an occasional guest minister for UU Lima. He serves as minister of the First Universalist Church of New Madison, near Dayton, OH.

Rev. Richard Venus holds master’s degrees in counseling, journalism and religion. As a journalist, he covered cops, cows and crime for the Hillsdale Daily News. As a minister he's served in Detroit’s inner city, Ohio suburbs, and rural communities. He is the recipient of two Unitarian Universalist Association’s Best Sermon awards and writes for both spiritual and secular audiences.

Every Place is Holy Ground by Richard Venus. ISBN:1461104491

Faces of UU Lima

Circle
Rev. Chuck Thomas Joins Our Circle
Piano
Rev. Ray Michel. UU Lima 2011
About Us
Discussion Group with Rev. Thomas