Henry Bergh died on this day in 1888.
If Unitarian Universalists were just a tad more Christian in our current incarnation, I’d suggest this day be a feast in his honor. Given our givens, probably we should be celebrating his birthday, August 21st.
Whatever, his life should be marked out as special and special in a spiritual sense.
He was the son of a shipbuilder and a successful one. He attended Columbia University although he left without taking a degree.
Henry met Henry Whitney Bellows of All Soul’s Unitarian in New York, and joined the church and remained a member for the rest of his life. While serving as vice-counsel for the American legation to the Russian Imperial Court he found his focus in life, the welfare of animals.
When Henry returned to the states he formed the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and was its first president. He devoted the balance of his life to this work.
There is a move among Unitarian Universalists to modify the text of our first principle, a call to the worth and dignity of every person to a call to the worth and dignity of all beings. This is a shift I support.
And, as it relates to one aspect of that insight, I find my heart grateful for Henry Bergh and his life and his work. Today, August, whenever…
A call of the spirit.
A call to the heart.
A call to the great interdependent web…
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