I am looking for interested Unitarian Universalists who will take ownership of this collection, the Facebook page, and the domain name. I will provide transition technical support (and possibly other support). I want this site to continue and thrive. It is now stable and manageable, although has much room for improvement and growth. There are many pages of relevant UU information created online that are being lost or obscured. There are other ways this information can be used to inform the community moving forward.
This is a personal post by Earl Alvin Daniels, the originator of WWUUD.net. It is my hope that this post will be archived and no longer needed on the live version of this website, when/if this website continues into the future.
The background…
With the transition of Thich Nhat Hanh yesterday, I am brought to the present moment awareness of what is really important. I need to be attentive.
I see much good in the Unitarian Universalist world, where many people find much-needed acceptance. I also see people trying to protect that world in ways that are not so accepting. It is tragic when the oppressed become oppressors, when the maligned and attacked react in ways that seem to go beyond protecting to attacking.
I see shunning of people. I see acceptance, albeit limited at times.
I see fear. I see suffering.
I see people trying to build a better world and people protecting what they have. Sometimes these are the same people.
I see walls dividing people. I see opportunities to build bridges. And even more opportunities to see that we are on the same island.
The dilemma seems to exist within our perceptions of “individual” and “community.” I feel that the path forward may be found in a new first principle that includes Love. I am not in a good place to lead into that Love, and this site alone will not provide “facts” that will alter anyone’s perceptions.
While this site was started for other reasons, it is now only being maintained as a hopefully unbiased witness to what is going on in the UU world in the light of what seems to be significant changes. I am willing to discuss how this collection came to be and how it has been maintained.
So, I’m looking for someone to take on this site. See my other post for more…
Pulse magazine has a page about a Unitarian heritage trail in London, which could do with postcodes and Google Maps to make it easier to find the places mentioned; but it's a good article. Sadly the photos which seem to have featured in the original article are not included on the web-page. The trail includes Newington Green Church, Stratford Church, Hampstead, Bethnal Green Church, Richmond Church, Golders Green Church, Islington, Croydon Unitarian Church, Brixton Church, Lewisham, Kensington, Hackney, the Gravel Pit, the Priestley plaque and statue, Bishopsgate Chapel, Lindsey's Essex Street Chapel, Blackfriars, Stamford Street, South Place Chapel, Conway Hall, Stepney College Chapel, Dingley Place Mission, Putney Church, and Bunhill Fields Cemetery (the Dissenters' burying ground).
There's an excellent Unitarian trail with a tour around the Black Spot (Y Smotyn Du), so called because there was such a concentration of Unitarian churches on the map that they formed a single blob.
The Humanist heritage website has a list of some Unitarian landmarks and people (mostly those which were connected with the early history of Humanism).
William Johnson Fox (1786-1864) William Johnson Fox was a religious and political orator, born near Southwold, Suffolk. He was trained for the Independent ministry, at Homerton College (then in London). He later seceded to the Unitarians, and in 1817 Fox became minister of a nonconformist congregation which subsequently went on to become the non-religious South Place Ethical Society.
Conway Hall, London Conway Hall at at 37 Red Lion Square, Bloomsbury, is the home of the South Place Ethical Society and today is a landmark of London’s independent intellectual, political and cultural life.
Leicester Secular Society By tradition the Leicester Secular Society dates its formation to 1851, although an earlier “Rational Society” branch is mentioned in No.9 of The Movement edited by G. J. Holyoake dated February 10th 1844.
Moncure Daniel Conway (17 March 1832 – 15 November 1907) Moncure Daniel Conway was an American abolitionist, Unitarian clergyman, and author.
Ullet Road Unitarian Chapel, Liverpool The Ullet Road Unitarian Chapel is known as the English ‘cathedral of Unitarianism’. It was built between 1896 and 1898 to a design by the Unitarian architect Thomas Worthington and his son Percy. Although founded as a non-conformist Christian faith, Unitarianism has historically been characterised by a rationalist and individualist approach to spirituality, which encompasses diverse religious views. In its anti-dogmatism, it has come to include atheist views, particularly under the banner of Unitarian Universalism in the twentieth century.
You have to be careful with lists of famous Unitarians, because sometimes they claim people who stopped being Unitarian part-way through their lives (like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Stearns Eliot).
The Poetry Chaikhana recently featured a poem by someone who is not on the usual Unitarian lists: Edmond Bordeaux Székely, although he was the grandson of Sándor Székely, a Transylvanian Unitarian bishop, who was himself a poet, and is buried in Cluj (Kolozsvár).
I just found a fascinating website about the Great Ejection of 1662, with profiles of the ejected ministers, plus sermons and historical background.
The 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection will be in 2012 (something to distract us from the Olympics, I am delighted to say), and doubtless many churches will be marking the anniversary. Unitarians certainly will be.
Jana Sims of the Institute of Education in London spoke on Mechanics' Institutes in Sussex and Hampshire. The leafy counties of southern England aren't normally associated with Mechanics Institutes, but as Jana revealed there were plenty of them, in places like Brighton, Lewes and Winchester, many founded by members of the Unitarian church. The coastal ones ran classes in navigation, and any ideas of southern softness were dispelled by 5.30am classes in science and philosophy. Music played an important part in most Institutes, dispelling the myth of Engand as a non-musical nation, and although the early 19th century saw resistance to womens' attendance, that was largely resolved by the 1840s.
It is fairly well-known that Unitarians founded many educational establishments and projects, but I hadn't come across this one before!
When I last visited Conway Hall in London, however, I did notice that it was built by a group of Humanists who had originally been a Unitarian and Universalist chapel. The group still exists as the South Place Ethical Society, which owns Conway Hall. Their history is fascinating:
William Johnson Fox became minister of the congregation in 1817 which in 1824 it built a new chapel in South Place. This the Society occupied for 102 years and the name is still commemorated in the title of the Society, although it moved from South Place in 1926 to build its present home in Red Lion Square which was opened in 1929.
In 1831, Fox bought the journal of the Unitarian Association, The Monthly Repository, of which he was already editor; for five years this was virtually the first ancestor of the Ethical Record. Verse was contributed to it by both Tennyson and Browning -- the latter always spoke of Fox as his"literary father" ; the contributors of articles included John Stuart Mill, Leigh Hunt, Harriet Martineau, Henry Crabb Robinson and a fearless iconoclast, William Bridges Adams, whose outspoken series of articles on marriage, divorce, and other social questions split the South Place congregation again. So came about another evolutionary step that included severance from the Unitarian movement and established South Place as the centre of advanced thought and progressive activity. Among the causes with which Fox identified himself and the Society were the spread of popular education and the repeal of the Corn Laws. In 1847 he entered Parliament whilst remaining minister at South Place for several more years.
The most outstanding of Fox's successors in that position was an American, Moncure Conway, after whom the society's present home is named. He had adopted an uncompromising anti-slavery position at home and came to England in 1863 on a speaking tour. He settled at the South Place Chapel from 1864 until 1897, except for a break of seven years (from 1885 to 1892) during which he returned to America and wrote his famous biography of Thomas Paine. During that interval, in 1888, under the leadership of Stanton Coit, the name South Place Religious Society was changed to the South Place Ethical Society.
Perhaps those 19th century humanists and progressives would have been surprised at the modern evolution of Unitarianism, which now includes humanists, non-theists, theists, Pagans and Buddhists, among others.
It includes worship materials, background information, a directory of events, and a list of contacts. It was compiled by Rev. Dr. Ann Peart, with two sections by Kay Millard and Rev. Jim Robinson.
In Gaskell's estimation, true Christianity was not to be found in organized denominations nor in liturgy nor in theology. She believed and acted on a religion of works, "the real earnest Christianity which seeks to do as much and as extensive good as it can." Local action for change by those most intimately concerned, not government legislation, was her solution to social problems. Those who have should help those who have not. For her such charity began at or near home. She took her motto from Thomas Carlyle, "Do the duty that lies nearest to thee." Unitarian rationalist feminist journalist Frances Power Cobbe, after reading a story by Gaskell, wrote, "it came to me that Love is greater than knowledge — that it is more beautiful to serve our brothers freely and tenderly, than to hive up learning with each studious year."
The Unitarian Historical Society has a collection of images of famous British Unitarians, Unitarian chapels in the UK and Ireland, and other historic events.
Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly 2001, Cleveland, Ohio
Sponsor: Unitarian Universalists (UUs) for Ethical Treatment of Animals
The Schweitzer Sermon Award is given annually to the preacher who best articulates Albert Schweitzer’s principle of “reverence for life.” Following the worship service and delivery of the sermon, UUs for Ethical Treatment of Animals will hold a brief annual meeting.
The merger of the Unitarian and the Universalist denominations took place 50 years ago -- the official date was May 15, 1961. So, of course, I started thinking about my experiences at the merger. But, wait! I wasn't born yet!
That's right, one of the neat things that we can celebrate is that there are generations now of people who are Unitarian Universalists from childhood on, some even with ten years or more in the ministry, who were raised in, influenced by, and in turn influenced themselves this new association that was created 50 years ago.
Many argued then that without this merger, Universalism would die. I look around me here, and I really believe that. At the time of merger, there were three little rural Universalist churches between ten and fifteen miles from Jackson. My church, a small rural Universalist church, joined the new UUA, and it's still going strong. The Universalist church in Horton, MI did not join the UUA, but eventually became Congregationalist. There's a church and a congregation thriving there, but no Universalist church. The Concord, Michigan church, the furthest from Jackson at 14 miles, floundered for a while and then went out of existence. They still have special programs there every year, such as a Christmas concert or service, but there is no longer a worshipping Universalist body. There is no church there, even though there's a church building there.
Without the merger, we might have died. With it, we have generations of Unitarian Universalists to spread our saving message -- our Universalist message of love and acceptance. All that, and Unitarianism, too. What a deal we got. Happy Birthday, UUA!
Coffee, Coffee, Coffee, Praise the strength of coffee.
Early in the morn we rise with thoughts of only thee.
Served fresh or reheated, Dark by thee defeated,
Brewed black by perk or drip or instantly.
Though all else we scoff, we come to church for coffee;
If we’re late to congregate, we come in time for thee.
Coffee our one ritual, Drinking it habitual,
Brewed black by perk or drip instantly.
Coffee the communion Of our Uni-Union,
Symbol of our sacred ground, our one necessity.
Feel the holy power at our coffee hour,
Brewed black by perk or drip or instantly.
I suggest swapping two lines:
Coffee, Coffee, Coffee, Praise the strength of coffee.
Early in the morn we rise with thoughts of only thee.
Served fresh or reheated, Dark by thee defeated,
Brewed black by perk or drip or instantly.
Feel the holy power at our coffee hour,
If we’re late to congregate, we come in time for thee.
Coffee our one ritual, Drinking it habitual,
Brewed black by perk or drip instantly.
Coffee the communion Of our Uni-Union,
Symbol of our sacred ground, our one necessity. Though all else we scoff, we come to church for coffee;
Brewed black by perk or drip or instantly.
Just makes more sense to me, as if this is supposed to make sense!
Christopher Raible Remembrances (2011)
Near the end of an almost one hour interview, Rev. Raible discusses parody hymns and reads his most famous one.
This hymn is likely in his pamphlet, Hymns for the cerebration of strife : freely translated from a well-known Unitarian Universalist publication of similar title,
Raible, Christopher G., Boston, Mass. : Unitarian Universalist Association, 1972.
WWUUD stream 
