Early years The church began when Richard Lloyd Jones ran an advertisement in the
Tribune seeking people interested in starting a "liberal church". The group, originally calling itself All Souls Liberal Church, met at Tulsa's City Hall, Jones's house,
Temple Israel, and the Majestic movie theater before erecting their own building at 14th and Boulder in 1930 and 1931. In 1957, the church moved to its current home at 2952 South Peoria, the last of which also involved All Souls co-founder W. R. Holway as chief engineer. In 1974 All Souls began a broadcast ministry, initially known as Univision, that included a multipart series hosted by Wolf called
Faith in the Free Church. Wolf took emeritus status in 1995, and remained active until his death in 2017 at age 92. Under his successors, Brent Smith and the current senior minister, Marlin Lavanhar, the church's activism has continued.
Ministry of Marlin Lavanhar In 2000, the All Souls' congregation, then comprising about 1,000 members, voted to call Reverend Marlin Lavanhar as its senior minister. Lavanhar had grown up in suburban Chicago, Illinois, where he grew up in the
Unitarian Universalist Church. After high school, he moved to New Orleans, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology at
Tulane University in 1990. After graduation, he and a friend moved to
Kyoto, Japan, to work and study for two years. The pair then began a three-year adventure traveling the world on mountain bikes. They covered about 20,000 miles, to learn about religions and religious practices in different cultures and traditions. Not only did he study the main religions along the route (Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity), he searched out Unitarian-related communities on
Negros island in the Philippines, in the
Khasi Hills of Northeast India, and in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. He later said that the journey helped him recognize that he was called to become a Unitarian minister. Lavanhar presided over the 2004 memorial service for
Fern Holland, a Tulsa lawyer and human rights activist who was the first U.S. civilian to be killed in the
Iraq War. In February 2010 he traveled to
Uganda to speak in opposition to the proposed
Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill. All Souls has also been noted for its efforts to re-examine the 1921
Tulsa race riot, including the controversial role of the church's co-founder and
Tribune publisher Richard Lloyd Jones, as well as the riot's lasting impact in Tulsa. In the summer of 2008 the church rented space to New Dimensions, the congregation of
Carlton Pearson, a prominent evangelist, former protégé of
Oral Roberts, and
bishop of the
Church of God in Christ, who was declared a heretic by a group of
Pentecostal bishops for preaching his "Gospel of Inclusion", a message that salvation is afforded to all persons including non-Christians. At the end of the summer, Bishop Pearson dissolved New Dimensions and invited the members of his congregation to join him in signing the membership book at All Souls, and to enroll their children in the church's religious education program. All Souls began hosting the All Soul
Acoustic Coffeehouse in 2008 in Emerson Hall, founded by Anitra Lavanhar, wife of the church's senior minister. The coffeehouse is not a part of the church's official program, but is a monthly venue for music aficionados. Lavanhar was first exposed to the concept of a smoke-free acoustic coffeehouse that catered to folk musicians while living in Boston. It is a non-profit venture, staffed by eight volunteers. The music is predominantly blues, bluegrass and alternative country style. Attendance varies, but has reportedly been as high as 200. The influx of new members received attention for the concurrent move to introduce a worship liturgy with the livelier, predominantly African-American
Pentecostal style of Pearson's followers during one of the church's two Sunday services. As the church has continued to grow in recent years, it has strained the capacity of its Maple Ridge campus, where the main sanctuary has a seating capacity of only 400 people. Expansion plans were developed in 2007 and 2008 but not pursued. In 2011, serious consideration began of a master plan to move the church to a new
Downtown Tulsa campus. The block, donated by three families who have been long-time members of the congregation, is bounded by Frankfort and Kenosha avenues and Sixth and Seventh streets. In November 2011, the congregation voted to accept the donation of a vacant city block in downtown's
East Village neighborhood. In 2017 a membership vote reaffirmed the church's intention to move downtown; if sufficient and timely financing is raised, the schedule calls for the new campus to open in time for the church's 100th anniversary in 2021. One historian of the UU movement has described All Souls Unitarian Church as a "prominent" example of a small group of urban UU churches that became "powerful voices of liberal religion in their communities and in the nation." ==Largest Unitarian Universalist congregation==