It is one of the oldest and largest Unitarian Universalist churches on the West Coast and has had many distinguished members, including numerous professors at the University of California, Berkeley.

It is highly regarded for its music program as well as its series of renowned ministers and its many avenues for spiritual growth, learning, and social action.

[2] The redwood-shingled First Unitarian Church became a landmark of Bay Region "building with nature" architecture and still stands at the same location, now used as a dance studio on the University of California campus.

Bernard Maybeck, another leading California Arts and Crafts architect, was a member of the church and designed its parish hall, built in 1909 (not extant).

[5] In the mid 1950s, the elderly Maybeck was also the owner of a tract of land in Kensington, an unincorporated area of the Berkeley Hills, which he sold at a discount to the church when it had outgrown its old building and the university had taken the property through eminent domain.

In 1950, Harold Levering, a California assemblyman from Bel Air, proposed an amendment to the state constitution that would require all religious institutions to sign a loyalty oath or lose their tax-exempt status.

An Aeolian-Skinner organ, three grand pianos (Yamaha, Chickering and Baldwin), a harpsichord, and a gamelan are among the many musical instruments featured in church services and special events.