So, here's that clever order of service I described

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a set of nicely-formatted orders of service/bulletins from First Church (Unitarian), Boston, that I found in the archives at the Andover-Harvard library. They were preserved in a file about coordinated opposition to the consolidation of the Unitarians and the Universalists because the minister’s message in them. But I recognized its good taste and yet was hesitant to post the photos of the order of service. Unless something is plainly public — websites and reported statistics come to mind — or of historic interest, I won’t discuss the business of a congregation. Is this too recent? We are talking about 1960: the matter is old (and decided) news and it’s very clear that I’m not going to get around to making a mockup of it.

So here are the photos. Click through to see enlargements. Lean but elegant stuff, this.

bitb_fcb-oow_19600221_p1

bitb_fcb-oow_19600221_p2

bitb_fcb-oow_19600221_p3

bitb_fcb-oow_19600221_p4

5 Replies to “So, here's that clever order of service I described”

  1. It really is lovely. My hope: for congregations on a shoestring to capture the grace, if not necessarily the printer’s craft.

  2. “. . . allow no room for disappointment” in regard to tickets for the roast beef dinner! I love it! I confess, I could do church like this (with appropriate 21st Century modifications) but I doubt we will ever see it again.

  3. Thanks for this, Scott; I did a paper for Conrad Wright on opposition to the merger, but didn’t have this particular item. It’s an interesting point, because it worries for history rather than theology. The common element was that the merger’s driving vision was secular power for secular purposes, rather than theological. To which it does not seem inappropriate to add, “historical.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.