In the middle of the nineteenth century Thomas Starr King, a Universalist minister who had been called to serve the Unitarian church in San Francisco was asked what the difference was between the Universalists and the Unitarians. To which King responded, “The one thinks God is too good to damn them forever, the other thinks they are too good to be damned forever.”
While their theologies were nearly identical from the early part of the nineteenth century, both held a unitarian view of the divine and both believed in the eventual reconciliation of the whole world; still, it seems class remained the great impediment to institutional union. Universalists were small farmers, clerks in stores, and occasionally merchants. Unitarians were Boston’s “brahmins,” the leading lights economically and socially in Massachusetts.
It would take over a century and a half for a leveling that would allow the two streams of liberal religion to come together. (Although I think issues of class remain one of the hidden wounds of this wonderful religious tradition. I’ll wait for another time to reflect on this, however…) Near the beginning of the twentieth century there were various schemes for religious liberals to join forces, including a delightfully wacky scheme to unite Unitarians, Universalists, Hicksite Quakers and Reformed Jews into a united Liberal Church. By the nineteen twenties Universalists and Unitarians began to find ways to cooperate institutionally, including merging their religious education programs.
And, then, finally, on this day in 1961, the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America consolidated, forming the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Over the last decades it has become a great bush under whose branches the many different birds of heaven have found a place to rest. May it continue to grow deep, may its branches become strong, and may be prove a roost for many wondrous creatures of spirit and love and justice…
Happy birthday, UUA!
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