They’ve agreed to sell their current church to make way for a new shopping center, and on Sunday, members of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church voted overwhelmingly to try to move to the east end of town.

The congregation voted 131-2 to buy a 4.6-acre site in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building, home of the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office. The plot is beside Summit Medical on Laboratory Road.

But they haven’t closed on the deal yet, the church’s minister, Rev. Jake B. Morrill, said Monday morning. In a press release Monday afternoon, members of the Church’s Relocation Steering Committee said the due diligence process is not complete, and a closing date hasn’t been set.

Assuming the deal is completed, the next step would be to design a building. The church said it is working with an architect “to begin a congregation-wide process to design a new church using a sustainable, green design for the new facility and preservation of as much of the existing park-like setting of the parcel as possible.”

Church members expect to be in their new home by Thanksgiving 2014.

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