How many private questions from readers have I answered, “Well, there’s First Universalist Church in Providence?” It’s a church close to my heart.
And now, after several years, it has a new website.
Intro video guide to Christianity
I think the Ready to Harvest channel provides objective overviews to Christian denominations, and this recent video provides a quick jargon-free introduction for non-Christians generally, though atheists are noted in the title. Each time I tried to quibble with the content, it was usually because I wanted to argue a point (so not neutrally) or thought there was room for nuance (not the point of a jargon-free introduction.) I would have liked more history, too, but that also would have made the introduction too long.
If I did have to quibble, it would be using a flaming chalice emblem to represent various Unitarian Christianities, which includes Jehovah’s Witnesses and other non-Trinitarians like the “Abrahamic Faith” churches, neither of which Unitarian (Universalist)s would identify as common kin or vice versa. But his point in bringing up the various kinds of Unitarians was to identify majority and minority opinions, and where boundary lines may be drawn. In that spirit, he specifically points out the existence and variant opinions of liberal Christians as a minority opinion through the generations and among Christians today. But — being objective — did include them, and did so fairly. Quite a lot of ground covered in just over 21 minutes.
While you’re al it, he has a 2021 video about the Christian Universalist Association — perhaps the only one I’ve seen from outside the CUA orbit — and while I hate the thumbnail, it pictures figures often mentioned in discussion of Universalism.
Gift acceptance policy to consider
I’m a member of Esperanto-USA, and it recently adopted a new gift acceptance policy that I thought churches might use as input for developing their own. Esperanto-USA customarily publishes its governance and financial information in English, so there’s no need to learn la internacian lingvon to read it. Note how it clearly assigns responsibilities, makes clear expectations of donors for large gifts and avoids poison-pill gifts.
And while we’re at it, give your local food bank or pantry cash, not the refuse from your pantry. It’s looking like a hard fall in the United States, and cash is far more useful.
Sunday-only calendar for 2026
I can’t believe this has been going for eighteen years, but I’m consistently asked if there’s going to be a new Sunday-only calendar. Your wish is my command.
Get your copy of next year’s — and this year’s if you have a need for next three months — at the original page from 2008.
Next up
As it happens, it’s been a busy summer but I have five things to write about:
I’ve been asked about Universalist liturgical practice around All Souls Day, so I’ll share what I found.
In collecting answers to the All Souls question, I realized I hadn’t published some nineteenth-century reports that I transcribed.
In answering another reader question, I used a research source I’ve never had to used before, so I’ll review that. (I may or may not write about the original question.)
Two readers have asked about where you can find a Universalist church, so I’ll be updating that information here.
And I’ll be updating the Sunday-only calendar for 2026. I know what drives traffic here.
So, what now?
I doubt I’m the only one to sense national dis-ease, not only from Administration and Opposition actions, but from the economy and society as a whole, not to mention the situation in other countries. It’s a minister’s desire to share a good word, to express the gospel in way that comforts and encourages the most, and the more difficult the times, the stronger the impulse.
I have not found the words, and that’s a big reason I’ve not written anything lately. Answers are often found in the complex interplay of one’s values and customs, but those are hard to express in a general way. Other solutions may be found in acts of kindness and ordinary presence; these defy prescription. I’ll keep thinking about words to enliven and inspire; they may or may not come. But I don’t want silence confused with indifference, and that’s part of the answer, too.
Source of the prayer
I wanted to know more about the author of the prayer in the last post — R. Crompton Jones — there’s very little about him online, but he seems to have been in poor health towards the end of his life, around 1885. One of the few references I found was a post I wrote eleven years ago about a service book for Unitarian “lay centers”. The collection of prayers mentioned there must be Jones’s Book of Prayer. W. Copeland Bowie, compiler of Seven Services for Public Worship (London, 1900) points out the three prayers in service 28 as being his, and worth including in that work. Tender and contemplative, they remain worthy representatives of a Unitarian public piety now all but forgotten.
An old prayer for the moment
I saw this prayer many years ago and it’s been rolling in my mind the last couple of days.
O Lord, the eternal Life-giver, who liftest out of death and shame all faithful sufferers for the truth, setting their humanity on high, and making it glorious in the might of thy Spirit; give us grace always to contend for the right, and, if need be, to suffer for it; and give us not over to the death of the soul, but raise us up into newness of life, that we may abide in thy love forever. Amen.
From A Book of Prayer (Robert Crompton Jones), later used in Orders of Worship (Lindsay Press) and in the service for Easter in Services of Religion, prepended to the Hymns of the Spirit (Beacon Press /Murray Press)
One month on
It’s no secret that I’m politically liberal and like many of you have been stunned and disheartened by the first month of the current administration in the United States. But my role on this site is more pastoral than political, and besides there are others who can speak more eloquently and with greater detail than I can about what might come and how it may be responded to. What then is a faithful Christian response to the current situation?
First, I’ve made peace knowing that I cannot come up with a comprehensive solution and don’t expect you to have one either. Good ideas can quickly become fossils, and the moment requires nimbleness and discernment or else each of us will come overwhelmed, and then defeated. (We also have to be comfortable with language of conflict, or else we will delude ourselves about what is happening.)
That’s why — above all else — I remind myself of my core convictions. I need to know what I’m defending: not only the standards of American democracy, but social compact based on decency and mutual respect, characteristics the incumbent president sorely lacks. This is congruent with my faith, and beneficial to decent people of any faith or none. So I don’t have to hold myself to some pious and self-defeating false standard about what Christians should or should not do; I just need to know what I want at the end of this process. The common good, I suppose, above all else. That’s a work in progress, but it will be neither what we have now or what we have had recently.
Discernment like this is one tool on the path towards wisdom, and I’ve been thinking a lot about Jesus is saying in Matthew: “Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (10:16) I’ve seen enough debilitating and catastrophizing rhetoric on the Left — sometimes with unproductive rage towards political opponents — to know that harmlessness or gentleness is necessary for an eventual solution to this crisis. Why? Because there are a lot of people with whom I might agree politically who have a spiritual knife in the hand, pointed towards their own hearts. This is misplaced energy: fear or rage taking the place of constructive action, even so simple as listening to those in Federal service or dependent upon Federal funding for their livelihoods, or preparing for the destruction of programs which may or may not be legitimately in the president’s purview. The performance of outrage benefits no one, including the performer.
The tone is this post is not accidental. If the president wishes his enemies destroyed, there is no easier path for him than they destroy themselves: emotionally, morally or spiritually. With Christians in all times, we bear the strain with humility and grace, relying on the prayers and example of those whose suffering is and was immeasurably greater. We will not increase our suffering by debasing ourselves, but rather uplifting one another. Christian vocation prepares us for stressful and painful moments, and it is a blessing and opportunity we might share with others who struggle deeply and without relief. If we should find ourselves better persons at the end of the current crisis, let us count it as specks of gold mixed with the ashes.
More “Universalist Leader” issues online
Last night after midnight, more intellectual property entered the public domain. In the United States, generally speaking these are items published in 1929. As in other years, I will see if there any new Universalist works of interest. (More about that later.) But while looking at the Internet Archive, I see that issues of the main Universalist denominational magazine, variously entitled The Christian Leader or The Universalist Leader were posted there earlier in 2024.
Click here to see the issues from 1926 to 1952. Earlier issues are in the public domain and are available elsewhere, and later issues — leading to the consolidation with the Unitarian Register are available online at the Harvard-Andover Library. I wrote about these in 2023.
The big gain, of course, are the years during the Great Depression and World War Two. These were difficult for the Universalist General Convention/Universalist Church in America, and there is remarkably little online about then. Or there was until now; Universalists communicated policy focus and decisions through these magazines, not to mention the changing tone in theological and social matters. These issues will make an interesting read.
Want to know what else is available to share and reuse freely? See this helpful review at Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain.