A Brief History of Throop Church
                     A summary by the Rev. Paul Sawyer,
	  Minister Emeritus, Throop Memorial Unitarian Universalist

The First Universalist Parish of Pasadena is the oldest liberal
religious congregation in Pasadena. It first met in 1885 and organized
a year later under the leadership of the reverend Florence Kollock of
Chicago. She was the dynamic minister to Amos Throop, a wealthy
businessman, who had come to Pasadena from Chicago, to retire. Instead
he became one of the first mayors of this new city, helped finance the
new Universalist Church building at Walnut and Raymond Sts., and
founded Throop Polytechnic Institute, a trade college that later
changed its name to California Institute for Technology (Cal Tech).

The Unitarians sent Charles Wendte in March 1886 to scout out
the L.A. area for establishing new churches. He visited the Pasadena
Universalist church and found religious liberals so well-served, he
told them that the Unitarians would not start a competing church here.
Florence Kollock, after helping to organize the first Parliament of
World Religions in Chicago in 1893 as part of the Columbian
Exposition, left her thriving parish in the Inglewood area of S.
Chicago. She accepted a call to return to the Pasadena Universalist
Church. In a short 2 year ministry here, she gave the congregation
staying power.

In 1923, during the thriving ministry of Dr. Carl Henry, who had a
gift for integrating scientific and religious thought, the present
Throop Church was built. It combined Gothic and Craftsman influence,
incorporating beautiful Connick windows, dedicated to Dr.and Mrs.
Norman Bridge, members who also gave the funds for the first Physics
Lab at Cal Tech. The whole memorialized the church's and Institute's
first benefactor, Amos Throop.

The reverend Robert Cummins, our able minister from 1933-38, was
chosen to become the national leader of the Universalist Church of
America, centered in Boston. He steered our entire movement toward a
world universalism, embracing the teachings of other world religions
in addition to Christianity; i.e. to create a 20th Century
Universalism appropriate for One World.

Over a century and more, Throop Church has had a liberalizing effect
upon all of Southern California, helping to initiate UU churches in
Santa Monica, the San Fernando Valley, Costa Mesa, as well as giving
support elsewhere, especially to the DeBenneville camp, built in the
early 60s on the side of San Gorgonio mountain.

The reverend Clare Blauvelt, minister during the Second World War,
helped our church, which had a sister church in Tokyo, gave
support to Japanese Americans who were being sent off  to prison
camps.  Later during the upheavals of the 60s, Dr. Harmon Gehr and
his wife Isabel, helped lead the church's struggle against
segregation, both here in Pasadena and in the South.  Our church also
opposed the Vietnam war while the Gehrs served on the board of the
United Nations Association. This heritage of a broad-minded
universalist world faith, expressing itself in contemporary worship
and education that fosters justice and peace, is central to the
vision of this historic congregation. Today we continue to help shape
and serve Southern California, our nation and world in pursuit of
these goals.