Northlake was founded in 1961, when Lola Reynolds, Betty Jirucha, and Ellen Hanly, members of East Shore UU in Bellevue, began thinking and talking to each other about having a church closer to where they lived. They envisioned a liberal fellowship to serve Kirkland and the northern shore of Lake Washington.

Twelve couples met and drafted the first bylaws. Northlake’s first home was rented space at the Cadle Theatre at Lake Washington High School. The first service was on April 21, 1961. The official charter for Northlake Unitarian Fellowship was issued by the Unitarian Universalist Association on May 15, 1961. It was the very first charter issued after the merger of the Unitarians and Universalists.

Northlake purchased its first building – a former mortuary – on First Street in downtown Kirkland in November, 1962. We also acquired a parcel of land in Juanita. The church community included 27 adults and 43 children.

In 1965 we hired our first minister, Rev. Ralph Mero, who was part time. Under his leadership Northlake took on social justice causes, such as remodeling houses for minority families.

In 1971, with massive layoffs at Boeing and other cultural events, Northlake faced financial challenges, and Rev. Mero resigned. The congregation then became lay-led, and more active within the local and national Unitarian Universalist organizations.

In 1974 we sold the Juanita property, and did a major remodel of the Kirkland building. We paid off that mortgage in 1976.

In the late 1970s, Rev. Patrick Thomas Aquinas O’Neill gave a memorable sermon as a guest speaker. The congregation loved it and hired Patrick to return for guest speaking. Then in the fall of 1979, the congregation hired Patrick as our second minister, also on a part-time basis. His ministry energized the community, adding more spirituality and more music. His preaching “packed the house.” Membership grew from 80 to 120 in one year. He encouraged work for social justice, and we housed a Vietnamese refugee family in a church rental house. Religious education once again became important, and we hired our first paid religious education director.

Rev. O’Neill resigned in 1985, and we hired Rev. Mary Scriver as an interim minister. In 1986 we asked Rev. Michael Hennon to be minister, but he proved not a good fit and resigned a year later. After another lay-led period, in 1989 we invited Rev. Barbara Morgan to be minister. Membership increased from the low 80s to 130, the church school was full, and two services were held weekly. During Rev. Morgan’s tenure, we changed our name to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church.

During 1993 and 1994, the church sold its First Street property to the city of Kirkland, and bought the current building on State Street. Rev. Morgan resigned in 1997, due to her assessment that her effective ministry was coming to its conclusion.

We became lay-led again and hired Rev. Roger Smith as a quarter-time minister. We created a task force to move us toward strengthening the liberal religious presence in the city. This group’s work established clear values and goals, with priorities and a timeline to achieve them. After completing this process, Rev. Amanda Aikman was contracted quarter-time for the next four years.

In 2005, we acquired what is now the Northlake chapel, a structure with a complicated history. The chapel was built in 1938 by the Lutheran church then on the property. Then in 1964 the Lutherans built a larger church, and sold the chapel building to a funeral home a few blocks south. But then in 1996 that site was sold to a developer. 

In 2005, the developer offered the chapel building to Northlake. The building was free, but we had to pay to physically move it to our site, and we had to construct a new foundation. It would have been cost prohibitive to bring the chapel building up to current codes, but the building was deemed eligible for historic landmark status, which made the project viable. 

Many of our current members have stories about the chapel project. Members devoted thousands of volunteer hours to it, and the church community was strengthened in the process. Today we rent the chapel building to several tenant organizations, and we use it for our religious education program on Sundays.

In 2008, the congregation invited Rev. Marian Stewart to serve as full-time minister. During her tenure membership increased from 92 to 161, and the number of children in RE grew from 25 to 60. We prioritized a strong religious education program, including adding “Lifespan” religious education when hiring our current religious education director, Margaret Rogers. 

Rev. Stewart was a leader in strengthening interfaith alliances in the region. Following services commemorating the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, she was a leader in founding the interfaith organization Fostering Interfaith Alliance in the Eastside (FIRE). During this period the social justice issue that most galvanized Northlake members was legalizing same-sex marriage. Our congregation worked on the state legislative process to guarantee equal rights for LBGT people. Rev. Stewart left Northlake to lead a larger congregation in 2017.

Rev. Jim VanderWeele was hired as interim minister in the summer of 2017, and served until the summer of 2019. He was an invaluable guide as we looked for our new settled minister. He steered the congregation through a reflective journey, helping us create our congregational covenant, which defines our common values and priorities.

In August, 2019, Reverend Nancy Reid-McKee came to Northlake. She joined us with a goal to grow our social justice programs. Six months later, the first cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. were diagnosed in Kirkland. We quickly moved Northlake activities online, figuring out how to offer all of our programs remotely. Nancy held us steady, keeping Northlake healthy and vital through the pandemic. 

Now we continue to offer hybrid services and meetings, because they greatly increase accessibility and inclusivity. Under Rev. Nancy’s leadership Northlake made important upgrades to our buildings and grounds, and restructured our governance to prioritize transparency and widen participation. Rev. Nancy inspired the congregational vote to adopt the 8th principle, which addresses racism and other systemic oppressions.

In the 2023 – 24 church year, we were also joined by Rev. Kimberly Quinn-Johnson, who offered monthly sermons remotely from New York. Part of Rev. Kimberly Quinn-Johnson‘s mission with us is to help us understand the 8th principle and revisions of Article 2 of our Unitarian Universalist Association bylaws. These address our shared values, and place love at the center of our faith.

In spring of 2024, Rev. Nancy chose to retire, and a search team was formed for an interim minister. Rev. Brigitta Vieyra, MDiv, MA, joined Northlake in August of 2024 to serve as an interim minister for one to two years.

This article draws from a combination of “How Northlake Began” by Ellen Hanly, with additions written by Kim Convertino, Laurence Fennema, and others.