Joy Brown Taylor grew up in a town on the New Jersey shore attending a Presbyterian church, and later tried out services that were Lutheran, Methodist, and other denominations from the Protestant calls to faith.

"I've kissed a lot of church frogs," said Taylor, who moved to Key West in 2003 after retiring from a teaching career. "Something was missing."

It's not that any of them felt wrong, Taylor said while standing inside her spiritual home for the past four years. The building at 801 Georgia St. has housed a Unitarian Universalist service since 1998.

Those other places of worship just didn't provide the spiritual foundation she found at the Georgia Street building, which members on Sunday will christen with a new name: One Island Family.

The sign out front changed Thursday afternoon, and a public reception is set from 2 to 4 p.m. today at the congregation's home at the corner of Georgia and Petronia streets.

"It's the tenets without the dogma," said Taylor, the congregation's president.

"You're listening very intently and you have something to think about all week long. The doors are always open, never closed."

No, the place and its 60-plus regulars at the weekly 11 a.m. Sunday services aren't leaving the Unitarian Universalist movement, which welcomes all religions to explore -- no creeds or theological arguments included.

Yes, the new name voted in by the congregation Jan. 29 owes inspiration to the One Human Family motto created by J.T. Thompson and adopted by the city of Key West. Thompson was consulted and gave approval for the One Island Family, said Taylor.

"The name more closely fits our beliefs and practices," said the Rev. Randy Becker, the full-time minister since 2007. "We don't think spiritual and religious values are dependent on a belief in God. Our community encourages us to live up to our best selves."

One Island Family will routinely hold a Buddhist service one Sunday and then invite a speaker from the Metropolitan Community Church a week later.

Atheists and agnostics show up, while Christians, Jews and the rest of the world's religions -- and non-religions -- are also warmly invited to share the services.

Thom Harris, 64, had never joined a church until he found what is now One Island Family a few years ago, despite a near lifetime of taking part in religious services and studying faiths.

"It's a great place; I just decided to join," said Harris, who was raised Methodist, yet today is a practicing Buddhist who in 2004 spent three months living in a monastery in the south of France.

"I get a lot of value out of the services," said Harris. "It's always stimulating."

His sentiments are closely shared by other members.

"This is a place I can come and feel welcome and a part of," said Janet Whalen-Dunning, one of seven local artists who provided a piece made specifically for the walls of the building, recently treated to a new coat of paint for the renaming celebration.

Whalen-Dunning plans to attend today's reception, along with the other artists including Diana Reif, Barb Dreher and Poochie Myers, who offered their works to illustrate the seven principles of the Unitarian Universalist movement.

Those principles start with "The inherent worth and dignity of every person."

Founded in 1986 aboard a sailboat in the Key West harbor, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship has grown significantly over the years.

Led by laypeople, the "UUs" met where they could over the years -- Indigenous Park, a church on Fifth Street, a cistern behind the Chamber of Commerce building in Mallory Square, and at the Key West Woman's Club.

By 1998, the UUs had a permanent home on Georgia Street, a building the congregation now owns, and in 2005, the group decided to bring in a part-time minister.

A year later, the self-supporting, all-local UUs decided to transform the property's small connected apartment into a children's center. In typical UU fashion, the members gave up the rental income for the greater good.

One Island Family may not offer any hard rules of religion, but the congregation has its share of heartfelt traditions.

On Sundays after the opening of the service, Becker addresses the children in the audience and signals that it's time for them to head to their own service, held at the apartment.

As the kids begin to leave, the adults sing a song in their honor.

"We sing them out," Becker said.

gfilosa@keysnews.com