First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh

  605 Morewood Avenue
  Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2999
  412-621-8008

Reverend David Herndon, Senior Minister

Reverend David Herndon, Minister Reverend David Herndon has served First Unitarian Church since 1990. A lifelong Unitarian Universalist, he earned his undergraduate degree in physics from the College of William and Mary. He received his M.A. degree from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, and his Doctor of Ministry degree from Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago. In 2001, he received a Master of Public Management degree from the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon University.

March 2010

“They paved paradise,” sang Joni Mitchell years ago, “and put up a parking lot.” Most congregations in the suburbs have parking lots. Some congregations in the city have parking lots. With the exception of four spaces just outside the church office, First Unitarian Church does not have a parking lot. Instead, we rely on street parking and the drivethrough parking areas generously made available to us in the evenings and on weekends at Winchester Thurston School across the street.

Most of the time we manage reasonably well with this arrangement. After all, on some Sunday mornings, we have more than three hundred and fifty people in the building, and I believe that most of these people drive to the church and then somehow manage to park nearby.

In February, however, we did not fare so well with this arrangement. On Sunday, February 7, it was difficult for people to get to church, and we probably should have announced on Saturday that on Sunday we would be closed. On Sunday, February 14, however, it was not difficult at all for people to travel on the roads. Getting here by car was not the problem. The problem was that the sides of the streets were totally covered with mounds of snow. Parking was not available anywhere along Ellsworth Avenue on either side. Parking was not available anywhere along Morewood Avenue on either side.

On Sunday, February 21, we followed our usual Sunday morning schedule and our attendance was quite healthy. A combination of transportation strategies allowed this to work out: our snow removal company cleared a great deal of snow from the sides of the streets on Friday afternoon, some people took the bus to church, some people carpooled, some people parked at the Morewood parking lot at Carnegie Mellon University and were shuttled to church by Jim Bain, Luiz Curimbaba, and Michael Miller, some people parked at Winchester Thurston School, and some people were able to find parking on the streets near the church.

A few years ago I noticed that two undeveloped lots were for sale on the south side of Bayard Avenue between Morewood Avenue and Devonshire Avenue. They have since been sold and two homes have been built there. At the time I thought that perhaps our church could purchase these lots and use them for parking. When I checked the price, however, I learned that each lot was selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I believe this was around the year 2000 and we had recently completed a major capital campaign, so I was reluctant to suggest a new capital project. Someday, perhaps we will manage to acquire our own parking area and we will be better equipped to provide for our own parking needs. In the meantime, we can manage reasonably well with the parking situation we have now – with rare exceptions such as what we experienced in February 2010!

In the very near future, program staff members will be developing a policy on when to cancel church activities because of challenging weather conditions and how to get the word out when church activities have been canceled.

David

P.S. If you are not currently on our email distribution list to receive occasional email notices about church events, please send your email address to David Herndon at dherndon@first-unitarian-pgh.org.

Renee Zimelis Ruchotzke, Student Minister

Renee Zimelis Ruchotzke is finishing up her coursework at Meadville Lombard Theological School as a Modified Residency Student (the same program that Jeff Liebman is in). She has completed a unit in Clinical Pastoral Education (chaplaincy training) at Akron General Medical Center.

She graduated from Kent State University Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in History. She “retired” from a 20+ year career as a mechanical engineer two years ago. She then served for two years as the Interim Director of Religious Education at East Shore UU Church in Kirtland, Ohio before taking a position as consulting student minister with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Canton, OhioCanton.

She currently serves as the Modified Residency Student representative on the Meadville Lombard Board of Trustees and as the Campus Ministry Coordinator at Kent State University for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent, where she is also a member. She is a member of the district Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association chapter and the Alban Institute. She recently served on the Ohio Meadville District's Leadership Development Team.

Before being called to ministry, she served her home congregation as Moderator, Finance Secretary and Registrar (Membership Trustee), as well as leader of classes in Adult Religious Exploration, Small Group Ministry and Children's Religious Education. She has written a biographical piece on Caroline Bartlett Crane for the Dictionary of UU Biography.

She is active in Social Justice work, having traveled with Kent State students in the Spring of 2006 to the Gulf Coast to assist in cleanup after Hurricane Katrina. Renee has organized various local events that connect the arts to justice and diversity work. She is the 2007 recipient of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Seminarian Award for Excellence in Social Justice. She also started a political action committee, Citizens for a Better Kent, to defend against the misuse of the recall provision in local city government.

Renee lives in Kent, Ohio with her husband, two children and two stepchildren.