For the first time in the 144 year history of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock, a retired minister has been elected Minister Emeritus. The honor was voted unanimously for the Rev. Dan Larsen at a congregational meeting last fall. Earlier in the year Larsen retired after serving the congregation for 19 years.
The Congregation will recognize his remarkable career and achievements at a special worship service at 4 P.M. Sunday, April 10. Details published April 3.
Historical Background
Rev. Larsen came to the pulpit of what was then known as the Congregational Unitarian Church in 1991 as a part time minister. The congregation had fallen on hard times after the contentious departure of the husband and wife ministerial team who had preceded him. Membership had dropped by half and moral was low. But Larsen threw himself into his work and soon conducted a major capital campaign that re-modeled the crumbling sanctuary of the 1905 building. Over the years his stewardship of the congregation led to steady growth. Originally ordained a Presbyterian, he returned to school and was fellowshipped at a Unitarian Universalist minister and ordained by the Congregation. He was able to become a full time minister and oversaw many changes, including a vote to end a dual affiliation with the United Church of Christ, a centennial celebration for the church building, and the decision to change the name to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock.
But Larsen is best known around the country for his courageous advocacy of those forgotten or outcast by society and his tireless work for social justice.
Almost immediately upon assuming the Woodstock pulpit he reached out to the Latino community creating the first county wide Hispanic Concerns Task Force and battling housing discrimination and other hurdles faced by that community. As numbers of Latinos in the county swelled, so did an ugly racist backlash and in recent years a virulent anti-immigrant sentiment fueled by groups like the Illinois Minutemen. Rev. Larsen helped organize and lead the county’s first big immigration reform march and organized protests to Minutemen meetings. At church, he developed special outreach and service programs for the community, including a weekly group for Latino women that combined help with learning English with support in finding employment and, when necessary, assistance.
When a faction of the Ku Klux Klan targeted McHenry County in 1997 with a rally at the County Courthouse, Dan Larsen helped organize an interfaith alternative event on historic Woodstock Square. That event became the Diversity Day Festival which ran annually through 2010, intentionally bringing together people of different racial, ethnic, religious, language, physical and mental challenges, gender, and sexual orientation. The Festival, held in late September or early October, helped local Muslims introduce themselves as a human community in the dark days after the 9/11 attacks. It was also the first public forum in which Gays and Lesbians felt comfortable in participating.
Starting with work educating the public about the truth about the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1990’s, Larsen has been an advocate for Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgender community. He offered the church building as the only safe haven in McHenry County for Gay and Gay ally groups to meet. A support group became McHenry County Pride, the first openly gay organization in the county, which continues to meet at the church. The church also housed a pioneering counseling program for Gay teens who were often the objects of bullying and violence in their high schools, and is the home for the county chapter of PFLAG. Larsen helped the Congregation become certified as a Welcoming Congregation and becoming a comfortable home for Gays and Lesbians. He pioneered in performing religious union ceremonies in the county and in forthrightly advocating marriage equality.
Larsen was also a leader of the peace movement in McHenry County and helped organize and mobilize demonstrations, marches, and public forums.
On the level of practical community service, Larsen helped found the Woodstock Community Ministry, a consortium of local congregations which now is responsible for the PADS emergency homeless shelter housed at the church on Wednesday nights October through April and the Direct Assistance Program which provides small emergency grants to those in dire need. As minister he also helped countless individuals with his Minister’s Discretionary Fund.
The public is welcome to both the reception and service, but reservations for the reception should be made as soon as possible.
For more information call the church at 815 338-0731 or e-mail office@uucofwoodstock.org .
