Version Sept 1994
In the beginning, this congregation was without form, and void, and its people were dispersed among the congregation of All Souls Unitarian Church in D.C. And behold a wartime blackout was upon the face of D.C., and gas rationing made travel thither exceeding hard. So the Unitarians of Arlington said, "Let us form a fellowship unto ourselves." And it was so, and they met in each other's homes. But, lo, they grew in numbers, and said unto themselves "We must form a church, and call a minister." And it was so, and they begat the building which we now call REEB CENTER.
We were a young congregation then, in the period now known as the "baby boom."
And lo, we did so much begatting that we needed more room for the Sunday school, and begat the education wing. We grew some more, went on double sessions, and continued to grow until we outgrew Reeb Hall.
Alas, we were in the land of the Philistines then known as "segs" or segregationists. And they believed not as we did, and became exceeding wroth when we set up an inter-racial, inter- denominational summer school. Lo, one fine Sunday morning, we received a telephone call, saying even that a bomb was in the temple, and would blow us heavenward. We got out, the police came, but found not a bomb. Later, the minister's eldest son said unto him, "Dad, if a captain is supposed to go down with his ship, shouldn't a minister go up with his church?"
We kept on begatting, and said unto each other, "Lo, we need more space. Let us gird up our loins, and gather up our coins, and build again." And it was so, and we begat this Sanctuary building, which was opened at Christmas, 1963.
And behold, the time came when we were growing again, and had great need for more space, And the elders of the church were sorely vexed, and consulted at length with the congregation, which bade them to strive again to create a new building to house our growing needs. In the goodness of time, it has come to be, and dear old Reeb Hall, so dear to the older generation, is obsolete. But such is the nature of the world, and we know that it is more important to serve the needs of the younger generation than the memories of the old. These things shall be.