Monthly Archives: February 2009

“Universalism in Death”

Rev. John Murray Spear, the Universalist minister in New Bedford from 1837-1841, publicized the following anecdote (which I found in an online edition of the Universalist Union on Google Books). The Universalist Union for Saturday, December 26, 1840, reported:

“UNIVERSALISM IN DEATH. Br. J. M. Spear, of New Bedford, Mass, notices through the Trumpet, a striking instance of the power of Universalism in death. It was in the person of a Miss Matilda Alden, who died in New Bedford, on the 1st inst. She was in the morning of life — but 22 years of age. At the early age of 15, she joined the Christian society in that place. — Soon after she went to reside with an uncle in Boston. The Sunday before the old Murray meeting house, Br. Streeter’s, was removed to give place to a new house, a year or two since, she heard Br. Streeter pray, which so operated upon her mind that she rested not till she was able to see Christ as the Savior of all. Two years since she was thrown from a carriage and received injuries from which she never recovered, but has lingered, enduring severe pains, till her death as above noted. But she has borne it all with unexampled patience, and died ‘rejoicing in the hope of meeting a ransomed world in the regions of immortal blessedness.’ Br. Spear closes his letter as follows :

“‘The Sunday before she died, I observed to her that it was frequently said that Universalists always renounced their faith on a dying bed. She replied, “I have not a doubt that I shall meet the whole world in peace. I love every body, and my heavenly Father loves them better than I do.” About an hour before she breathed her last, I asked her if her faith remained unchanged? She signified her assent. She was then unable to speak. Afterwards she distinctly said, pointing to her friends who stood weeping around her, “I shall not come back to you, but you will all, all, all come to me.” Indeed, my brother, when standing by her bed-side, I could truly say, “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting.” It is “my heart’s desire and prayer to God” that when I leave this world, I may die like Matilda, and that my last end may be like her’s [sic].’  ”

More New Bedford Universalist laypeople…

Winter walk

The warm spell over the weekend melted most of the snow and ice. That meant the sidewalks were mostly clear, so today Carol and I walked all the way to Fairhaven center and back — a good four miles round trip, and the longest walk we’ve been able to take since December. Although the sun wasn’t out it was a mild day, with temperatures in the low forties and very little wind. We walked, and as we walked we talked about our family and friends, and our jobs, and local politics. When we were almost back home, Carol looked up at the cloudy sky and said, “It’s one of those timeless days, isn’t it?” We could have kept walking and talking for another couple of hours, except that we both had to get back to work.

America

We were out for a late night walk. I happened to look up at one of the downtown bank buildings that is occupied by a branch of one of this country’s biggest banks. “Look at that!” I said to Carol.

Five stories above the street, the internally-lit sign on the bank building said, “Ban America.”

We both marveled at it.

“You almost wonder if it was intentional,” said Carol. “It’s just too perfect.”

 

Liveblogging the Frederick Douglass Readathon

2: 57 p.m. I’m sitting here in the tenth annual Frederick Douglass Readathon, the annual event sponsored by the New Bedford Historical Society during which the entire text of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is read aloud by people from the community. We just heard Barney Frank, our congressman, read; and Scott Lang, the mayor of New Bedford; and right now Carl Cruz is reading — Carl is a local historian who knows more about the history of people of color in New Bedford than anyone else that I’m aware of. Now Carl has finished, and a boy, about nine years old and wearing a pink shirt and a red tie, is reading a passage from Frederick Douglass’s childhood memories.

Right now there are about sixty or seventy people here. As you’d expect, the people who come to this are of a variety of skin colors — black and white and brown. This is a distinct contrast to the Moby-Dick readathon which takes place in New Bedford in January, and which draws a predominantly white audience. I like the fact that there are quite a few young people here — mostly children and pre-teens, but a few teenagers as well.

But the best part of this year’s Frederick Douglass Readathon for me is that it is being held here in First Unitarian. I got to welcome people here on behalf of the congregation, which was fun. And it’s great fun to have one of my favorite pieces of American non-fiction read aloud here.

4:40 p.m. The Readathon has gotten almost to the end of Chapter IX. I’ve read my section of the Narrative, the first third of Chapter VIII. The afternoon is darkening into evening, and we’re down to about thirty people now; which is too bad, because this is where the book gets most interesting; and we’ve had a good run of very good readers.

5:46 p.m. Frederick Douglass has just failed in his first escape attempt; and now has been discovered. It is a dramatic moment, and the person reading this passage is doing it just right: not reading dramatically, but in a deliberate and straightforward manner.

6:13 p.m. “…on the third day of September, 1838, I left my chains, and succeeded in reaching New York without the slightest interruption of any kind….”

Itinerants to Freethinkers: Universalist preaching in New Bedford

Part one: 1825 to 1875

During the 1820s and 1830s, at least a few itinerant Universalist preachers visited New Bedford. By tradition, Rev. Hosea Ballou, the greatest of the early Universalist theologians and preachers, came to speak in New Bedford c. 1825. In 1831, one William Morse preached a sermon on Universalism in New Bedford titled “On Revival of Religion. A Sermon delivered in New Bedford, April 17, 1831,” which was printed by Benjamin T. Congdon. In 1836, one Abraham Norwood preached Universalism in New Bedford and Fairhaven, with mixed success.

The first settled Universalist preacher was Rev. John Murray Spear, who preached abolitionism along with his Universalism. While he was minister, from 1836 to 1841, the Universalists built a church building on School Street (since demolished, the site is now the parking lot for Pilgrim UCC Church); they also were one of the few Massachusetts churches of any denomination to unequivocally declare their support for abolition. Nathan Johnson, a prominent African American citizen of New Bedford and conductor on the Underground Railroad, became a member of the Universalist Church. Frederick Douglass is known to have visited the church, but only to argue against the doctrine of universal salvation; Spear met Douglass during this visit, and the two men wound up sharing the lecture platform for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society many times in later years.

In 1841, Spear was hounded out of New Bedford for helping a fugitive slave evade her master. Spears’ biographer John Beuscher writes: “A slave, Lucy Faggins, traveled with the family that owned her to visit New Bedford, which was home to a sizable community of free Negroes. Spear was instrumental in arranging the legal process through which Faggins was able to opt for freedom. For depriving the southern family of their household ‘servant’ Spear was vilified in public as a ‘nigger stealer,’ threatened with legal action, and forced to resign his New Bedford pulpit.”

Following Spear’s sudden departure, Rev. Levi L. Sadler (1806?-1857) served as a supply minister during 1841. Sadler had previously preached in the recently-settled states of Ohio (1833, 1837) and Michigan (1835). Continue reading →

Seals

Carol and I got out for our daily walk a little late today, so we only had time to walk down along the waterfront. Of course we walked out to the end of State Pier to see if we could see any seals.

“Look, there’s one,” said Carol when we were about halfway out the pier.

I didn’t see it. “Where?” I said, and then, “Oh, I see it.”

“No, not that one, there’s another one,” said Carol. There were two seal heads bobbing in the water.

We got out to the end of the pier. “Look, there’s one really close,” I said, pointing down. At about the same time, Carol spotted yet another one. There were more than ten seals swimming around the end of the pier. Three of them were very close.

“You can hear them breathing,” I said.

“Look, there’s a little one,” said Carol. “They’re gamboling, that’s the only word for it.”

One of them looked up at us with its big dark eyes. When it exhaled, it lowered its nose to the surface of the water so that it blew a cloud of water droplets out in front.

We stayed and watched the seals for a good ten minutes, and then it got too cold to stand there any longer. We walked home feeling very satisfied.

Workshop on Small RE Programs, July 11-17

As an act of shameless self-promotion, I’m posting the following announcement for a workshop I’ll be leading this sumer. Please pass this along to anyone who might be interested.

Running a small religious education (RE) program can be challenging, but it can also offer unique rewards for children, teens, and adult volunteers. This week-long workshop will help participants unlock the potential of small programs. The workshop is aimed at RE Committee members, Sunday school teachers, concerned parents, DREs, and ministers. The workshop will benefit small churches with small programs, larger churches that run small mixed-age programs (e.g., summer programs, programs during low-attendance worship services), “one-room schoolhouse” programs, and churches that don’t have an RE program right now but want to start one.

Topics to be covered include: working with small mixed-age groups of children, finding curriculum for small programs, working with tiny youth groups, motivating volunteers, finding classroom space, administering your program, marketing on a low budget, and figuring out what to do when your program grows (or shrinks). If you are trying to run a program with between 0 and 25 young people, this workshop will have something for you! Continue reading →

African UU countries: Nigeria

After my spectacular failure on an online African geography quiz last week, I resolved to spend some time brushing up on my African geography. As part of this learning goal, I’m going to do a short series of posts on African countries that have Unitarian Universalist congregations in them. Here’s the first installment:

UUs in Nigeria: There are two Unitarian Universalist groups in Nigeria. Both Ijo Isokan Gbogbo Eda (Unitarian Brotherhood Church) and The First Unitarian Church of Nigeria are in Lagos. The Unitarian Brotherhood was founded in 1919, and is the second-oldest Unitarian group in Africa; First Unitarian was founded in 1994. Both are full members of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (more about these congregations).

People: Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with 148 million people. It is a major oil producer (and the biggest oil producer in Africa), yet half its population live in poverty. Major languages include Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba, and English; English remains the official language. Religions include Christianity and Islam; some Nigerian states have imposed Islamic rule, causing non-Muslims to flee those states. Lagos is the biggest city, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, with a current population of nearly 8 million.

Continue reading →