UU History Continued
One of those who carried the torch
of Unitarianism to America was Joseph Priestley (pictured), a
Unitarian minister better known as the discoverer of oxygen.
After being harassed and nearly killed in England by those of a
less liberal bent, Priestley established the first openly
Unitarian church in America in Philadelphia in 1796. Soon
many well-established American churches acquired Unitarian
ministers or Unitarian views. By now the day was long gone
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Often led by women, like Julia Wrd Howe, Susan B. Anthony, and Clara Barton, the liberal religious movement became the champion of the abolition of slavery, women's rights, and penal reform. Though these issues sometimes divided the religious liberals, the gap was often greater between members of the same movement than it was between Unitarians and Universalists. As the two movements grew and acquired greater definition in the sermons of Ballou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Ellery Channing, Theodore Parker, and others, the two paths of religious liberalism grew ever closer.
Both movements became more organized. In 1785 a Universalist convention adopted a Charter of Compact, which eventually evolved into the Universalist Church of America. In May of 1825, the American Unitarian Association was formed. In 1842 the first Unitarian church in Canada was founded in Montreal.
The Unitarians and Universalists shared first a philosophy of religious tolerance and religious questioning. Later they shared resources such as religious education materials, a joint hymnal, and finally on May11, 1961 they combined their organizational strength by becoming the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America. However, nothing stopped on that day. There are still questions to be asked, views to be heard, a journey to be shared. The paths have merged, but the road goes on. --Gary Provost |
when
an aversion to Trinitarian doctrine was sufficient to define
these religious liberals. In Unitarianism and
Universalism, virtually every aspect of religion was fair game
for doubt and debate. Many smaller liberal movements
began, later to be reabsorbed into the Unitarian Universalist
movement as it learned greater and greater tolerance.