June 8 of this year will mark the 300th anniversary of First Unitarian in New Bedford. Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s really the date of the oldest extant written record of the congregation. June 8, 1708, is when the the Massachusetts provincial legislature ordered that a Puritan minister be settled in the town of Dartmouth (much against the will of most of the people who lived here, since at that time 80% of the town was Quaker and most of the rest were Baptists, and they had no desire to see their tax money go towards supporting an established Puritan church).
We are kicking off our year-long celebration this Friday with an evening worship service. The mayor of New Bedford has kindly agreed to come and read the original act of the legislature that established the congregation. The minister from the First Congregational Church in Fairhaven, which amicably split off from our church in 1794, is coming to read the earliest church covenant we have. Everett Hoagland, the former poet laureate of New Bedford, will read one of his poems. And — this just sunk in today — I have to preach a sermon suitable for a three hundredth anniversary.
I have to say, I don’t have much inclination to preach a sermon on history. My personal attitude is: the past three hundred years have been fun, let’s celebrate them, but let’s really look ahead to the next three hundred years. What will it take to keep this congregation going for another three hundred years? And what will the surrounding society need from us over the next three hundred years?
So what would you do: preach a nice safe historical sermon, or talk about the moral imperative of facing up to things like global warming, peak oil, the legacies of racism and colonialism?
For you history geeks, below I’ve included the text of the act that established a Puritan church in the old town of Dartmouth…
[1st SESS.] PROVINCE LAWS (Resolves, etc.). — 1708-9.
CHAPTER 8.
Legislative Records of the Council, viii., 360
Executive Records of the Council, iv., 566.
VOTE FOR PROVIDING A MINISTER FOR DARTMOUTH. £. 60, PER ANNUM, ALLOW’D AS A SALARY FOR MR SAMLL HUNT.
WHEREAS it has bin reported & represented to this Court, at a Session in the Year past, by her Majesties Justices of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace for the County of Bristol sitting in Court, That the Town of Dartmouth within the said County, having been several Times presented, & complained of for not Providing them selves of a Minister, as by Law is directed, And that the necessary Orders by them made thereupon, as by Law they are impower’d, not being duly observed, but eluded, and render’d ineffectual for Remedy thereof, They remaining destitute of such a Minister; And Mr Samuel Hunt Minister having been lately treated & prevailed with to go, & reside there, & serve them in the Work of the Ministry;
Resolved that the said Mr Hunt be sent to the said Town of Dartmouth to be their Minister, And that Provision be made by this Court as the Law directs, for his honourable Support & Maintenance.
And that the Sum of Sixty Pounds be allowed as a Salary for the said Minister for the Year ensuing, And in Case his Abode there shall be for less Time, in the same Proportion.
[Passed June 8.
Being in a melodramatic mood just now, I would note that in 1708, they could assume that humans would be around today. It’s not as easy to assume that about 2308.
I’d preach the kind of sermon that some minister would be interested in reading aloud to the congregation 300 years from now. (I know, that doesn’t really answer the question. But I think something about purpose and promise and vision might fit the bill.) Good luck.
Some people actually like sermons about Unitarian history.
Global warming is comparable to, say, the second world war, so it is indeed important, but to use this history occasion to preach about it does not get my vote
A little of both? Promise and vision in the context of history as a state of constantly moving forward?
I’ll be interested to see what you come up with — quite the challenge!
For a service where folks are coming to hear a 300th anniversary sermon, then certainly you need to have a 300th Anniversary sermon.
you may want to end with looking ahead to the challenges of the next
300 years; or you may want to show how the challenges of the last 300 years tie in to our current challenges.
I think you need a bit of everything, Dan: history and vision of the future, but given the question of the church hanging around another 300 years and the challenges that confront humanity and threaten much of the life on earth, my question at such times is why does it matter that we have a religious institution anyway, especially our typically smaller ones? What difference does it make? Would our efforts now spent in institutional survival and maintenance be better spent in political and activist causes and campaigns? 300 years ago the question was “which church?” and the alternatives chosen, promoted and founded made a difference. Now the question is, I think, “what is the purpose of the church?” My answers typically have something to do with: it’s purpose is to be the church.