Category: Universalism

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Having Medford's Universalist Library

Unitarian Universalist minister (and good friend) Hank Peirce posted an Instagram photo that he called (on Twitter) “Universalist library in Medford.” I thought “I have some of those” and wondered how many have been digitized — so you might have them, too. (The first two aren’t actually Universalist.)

All are available, incidentally, through The Internet Archive. The chair is, however, undigitized (for now.)
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New "Union Prayer Book" and old "Parish Practice" arrived today

I’ll keep this brief because I came home feeling not-so-well today. Two books that I had ordered arrived: the hot-off-the-presses new addition of the Union Prayer Book, Sinai Edition, Revised And a used copy of Parish Practice in Universalist Churches, by Robert Cummins.

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The first is a modern adaptation of a classic Reform Jewish prayer book and I’m excited to review it since it has many of the same liturgical sensibilities of classic Unitarian liturgy. Indeed the Sinai referred to in the title is Chicago Sinai Congregation, its source. Chicago, as many of my readers know, is also a wellspring of this Unitarian liturgical tradition I referenced.

The other book is what it says on the label, written in 1946 by a well-loved, now-deceased General Superintendent of the Universalist Church of America. Fun fact: This copy was withdrawn from Andover Newton and was last checked out 40 years ago.

More details about these, and the Coptic works I’ve been writing about as soon as I can.

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More James Relly texts online

The Lord be praised! The original works of James Relly, the preacher of universal salvation and John Murray’s minister, have been miserably hard to find. I republished his Union (PDF) a few years ago, but — apart from a few awkward moments in front of some scanned microprints, a late monograph and a collection of hymns — have never seen anything else. And I have tried.

That is, until last night, when I found high-quality scans at OpenLibrary.org, presented in a format that’s pleasant to read on a screen. A nice variety of other Universalist and Unitarian imprints, beside, but this is the lost treasure.

Bound into a single volume:

 

 

 

 

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A short film of hope for dying congregations

I was searching online, clicking links and reading tonight when I found this charming, touching and pleasingly funny film short. It’s about a Jewish congregation in the East End of London trying to keep a minyan on Yom Kippur. Spend ten minutes and — if your congregation is in peril — hope.


“The Tenth Man”

And the punchline, for this blog? The Sandys Row Synagogue, where it was filmed, is a real place. And this is the actual building, in another age then known as the Parliament Court Chapel, where a spiritually-conflicted John Murray and his first wife, Eliza, heard the Universal Gospel from James Relly. In other words, this is where the “father of American Universalism” became a Universalist. It makes me think, and tremble a little.

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Fourth Universalist, Brooklyn?

I got home this afternoon from a weekend trip to New York, and I’ll have plenty to say and show about that later. But I like to follow up on thoughts while fresh.

We know about Fourth Universalist in Manhattan, but what of Fourth Universalist, Brooklyn mentioned here. (But that’s not Greenpoint, where I always go for a Polish meal.)

Is this it? It does remind me of other small Universalist Churches I’ve seen.

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Files from my presentation at Revival

Find here the resources I used and references for “Women, the Image of God and the Universalist Hope”, the workshop I presented at Revival. (PDF)

The presentation deck:

Hymn text found at this excellent blog.

Bits and pieces I ran across in my reading.

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Women, the Image of God and the Universalist Hope by Scott Wells is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.