The First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta began in 1976, holding weekly Celebration of Life services each Friday evening in a private home under the guidance of minister and founder R. Lanier Clance. The First Existentialist Church, as it was known then, incorporated later that same year with the stated purpose to create and maintain an Existentialist community based on Existentialist philosophy and psychology. In 1978 the membership voted to join with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. To better reflect this relationship, it was decided that the Church would operate as a federated society of Existentialists and Existentialist/Unitarian Universalists. As our membership grew, we continued Friday services at the Decatur YMCA, changing to Sunday mornings in 1978
In 1980, the Congregation assumed ownership of the Phoenix Unitarian Universalist Fellowship property at 470 Candler Park Drive. Later that decade, the name was changed to The First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta to reflect our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Feminism has been from the beginning one of the guiding principles of the Congregation. In the 1990s, the Congregation officially defined itself as “a philosophically based spiritual community dedicated to human liberation and founded upon Existentialist and feminist principles.”
Marsha Mitchiner, Dean Rowley, and Janna Nelson were ordained as Existentialist ministers in 1992, 1994, and 2002, respectively. Rev. Lanier Clance retired in 2001, and during an interim period, three lay ministers, who had studied Existentialism with Lanier, alternated as speakers at the Sunday Celebrations of Life. In September 2003, the Congregation installed Rev. Janna Nelson as full-time minister, while Rev. Marsha Mitchiner, who has served since 1992, continued as associate minister. Rev. Nelson served for nearly two years. In July 2005 the Congregation became an independent fellowship with Rev. Marsha Mitchiner serving part time as our Fellowship Minister. We continue today as a Fellowship, governed by a Board of Directors elected by our membership.