History
The Union Congregational Church is a historic Carpenter Gothic style church building located at 302 St. Clair Abrams Avenue in Tavares, Florida. The congregation was organized in 1885 and the church was completed in 1888 built on land donated by the founder of Tavares, Major Alexander H. St. Clair Abrams. The building was expanded in 1988. In 1989, the church was listed as in A Guide to Florida’s Historic Architecture, published by the University of Florida Press.
At Union Congregational Church you will find a warm friendly church that embraces people from many different denominational backgrounds as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our Pastor
Rev. James T. Mory and Judy Mory
Mission
To love all, welcome all, and seek justice for all.
Vision
A just world for all. That all may be one, no matter who you are or where you are in life’s journey, you are always welcome here.
Beliefs
We honor the traditional and time-honored creeds of the Christian Faith expressed in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.
We believe that Love is the Way. As Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” In the Gospel of John Jesus affirms “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Based on these commands we believe that Life is a gift and love is the point. We build our community around experiencing God’s love in our worship and fellowship and sharing God’s love through serving others. Our mission is to help each person to realize how deeply loved, valued, treasured, and cherished they are by God. Each person is created in God’s image and filled with God’s Holy Breath. We carry this message to others in our service.
We are committed to these communication practices within Union Congregational Church’s community and our gatherings:
- We listen to understand until the speaker has finished, and we do not interrupt.
- We ask clarifying questions (I’m so glad you shared that; do you mind if I ask you a clarifying question?)
- We do not crosstalk (Thank you for your perspective, here’s my point of view/take on that/ I have a different thought VS I think you are wrong or I disagree or That is so stupid)
- We speak for ourselves, not our cohort, our group, or anyone else.
- We use “I statements” as often as possible (When I am interrupted, I feel frustrated and find it difficult to stay engaged VS You interrupt me and it makes me frustrated)
- We keep confidentiality in our groups.
- We do not make triangles; we say what needs to be said to the person who needs to hear it.
- We tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Lying is disrespectful and anti-community.
- We know there might be more than one truth in a system, but we try to tell ours and own it.
- We expect love and respect for each other. We do not tolerate harassment, threats, bigotry or similar behaviors in our meetings or on our campus.
Our Volunteers
We could try to list all of our volunteers here, but we would end up with a list of nearly all of our members and many non-members who attend to help out. Everyone can be a volunteer.