All Souls Unitarian Church

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 - 31.

In 1957, the church moved to its current home at 2952 South Peoria, adjacent to the historic Maple Ridge district. This building was designed by Tulsa architect John Duncan Forsyth, who also designed the E. W. Marland Mansion in Ponca City, Southern Hills Country Club, and Pensacola Dam at Grand Lake o' the Cherokees, the last of which also involved All Souls co-founder W. R. Holway as chief engineer.

Ministry of John Wolf

In 1960, John Wolf became senior minister. He became prominent as a liberal activist in Tulsa's predominantly conservative politics, and his church grew to become the largest Unitarian congregation in the world.

Some of Wolf's notable causes included his efforts to reform the funeral industry; his leadership of protests against the administration of the Tulsa Public Schools; a controversial sermon entitled "Tulsa is a Hick Town" that was credited with leading to the construction of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center; his consistent pro-choice activism; and his frequent criticisms of Tulsa's most famous evangelist leader, Oral Roberts.

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."

Recent years

Wolf took emeritus status in 1995. Under his successors, Brent Smith and the current senior minister, Marlin Lavanhar, the church's activism has continued. Lavanhar was a leading opponent of the Tulsa Zoo's controversial (and short-lived) 2005 decision to include a creationism exhibit. 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 travelled 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.

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. Expansion plans were developed in 2007–2008 but not pursued. In 2011, serious consideration began of a master plan to move the church to a new Downtown Tulsa campus. In November 2011, the congregation voted to accept the donation of a vacant city block in downtown's East Village neighborhood.

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

All Souls Unitarian Church has been identified as one of the largest UU congregations for many years. A second Unitarian church, Hope Unitarian Church in south Tulsa, was established in 1968, drawing off some membership; later, another small spin-off, Church of the Restoration, was started in the Greenwood district. In the early 2000s, All Souls Unitarian dropped some inactive members from its rolls, and for a time it was supplanted in the top spot by Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City and then by the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisconsin.

The Unitarian Universalist Association certified membership statistics have shown All Souls Unitarian to have the largest congregation of any single-church UU congregation since at least 2009; as of February 2, 2016, All Souls Unitarian had 2,023 members, more than 500 members larger than any other church-based congregation, as well as the largest number of students enrolled in religious education of any congregation. The only larger congregation is the Church of the Larger Fellowship, an outreach ministry.