Monthly Archives: October 2007

Rev. Mr. Fenn weighs in on “Rev.”

Researching this Sunday’s sermon found me going through the church archives to look up an obscure point, and in the process I found a letter dated October 31, 1944, from Reverend Dan Huntington Fenn, then the Director of the Department of Ministry at the American Unitarian Association. It appears that Reverend Orval Clay, a brand-new Unitarian minister just settled at North Unitarian Church in New Bedford, had sent along a church newsletter, asking Mr. Fenn for his advice and comments.

As is still the case in smaller churches with no office staff, Mr. Clay was writing, typing, and printing the entire newsletter himself. No wonder he, a brand-new minister, wanted an older, experienced minister to look it over and offer advice. However, I’m not sure he got quite the advice he wanted. In the first paragraph, Mr. Fenn compliments Mr. Clay on the many activities reported in the newsletter. But the second paragraph offers this advice (which, by the way, directly contradicts the current advice given by the Unitarian Universalist Association):

I recognized the frequent typewriter slips but one which caught my eye was where you referred to yourself as Reverend Clay. That is one thing which always does bother me because it should either be Reverend Orval Clay or Rev. Mr. Clay, or just Mr. Clay, but it is not accurate to say Reverend Clay. I have always fought with every newspaper in every community I have been in trying to get them to give up the practice but they have a persistency which I haven’t been able to yet break down. This has become, therefore, a little pet obsession of mine but it is founded upon the requirements of accurate and good English.

The current practice of the Unitarian Universalist Association is to refer to ministers as “the Rev. Firstname Lastname,” upon first reference, and then as “Lastname” alone (with no honorific) for subsequent references. I have never liked this practice; I see no need to include a direct article prior to the word “Reverend.” Now I have the weighty Mr. Fenn weighing in with a different formula which he says is “founded upon the requirements of accurate and good English.” Of course, that’s basically what the advocates of “the Reverend” claim.

As is so often the case with the English language, there is no right answer. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Stranded seaman

Carol has been working down on Fish Island recently, borrowing some office space in an unused building there. She has gotten to know a seaman living on a boat moored nearby. He’s a captain of a small merchant ship, living aboard the boat and waiting for his business partner to straighten out some financial affairs in another country. But it now appears that, due to various delays overseas, and due to possible skulduggery in New Bedford, that the Captain may get kicked off his boat and temporarily stranded here.

In case he has to get off the boat fast, Carol told him about the Mariner’s Home, two blocks up the street from where we live. A big old clapboard building right next to the famous Seamen’s Bethel, the Mariner’s Home looks like just another tourist attraction from the outside, but it is still maintained by the New Bedford Port Society to provide overnight lodging for stranded mariners. A mariner who is far from home can be pretty vulnerable. Good thing the Port Society still provides this service.

“Voices of a Liberal Faith”

In the mail today, our church received one of the best marketing tools I’ve seen in quite a while. The Unitarian Universalist Association has just released a DVD with a ten-minute video called “Voices of a Liberal Faith.” Every Unitarian Universalist congregation received a couple of copies of the DVD, so it should be easy to get a look at it.

The video is definitely worth using. It’s not boring, it’s got high production values, good camera work and editing, so we’ll feel good about having it running on a TV during social hour here in New Bedford. it’s a DVD that’s cheap enough that I’m planning to buy them in bulk so that we can have enough to loan them to newcomers and not worry when some of them never get returned. Full disclosure — I make a brief appearance in the video (mercifully brief; and more mercifully, mostly they don’t show me, they show a bunch of my favorite kids from Ferry Beach) — actually, I would have been more likely to use the DVD if I weren’t in it. The real point is that while I was watching it, I immediately saw how I could use the video to give newcomers a good sense of who we are as a religious faith.

Now comes the real fun:– the “Voices of a Liberal Faith” competition. Quite a few Unitarian Universalist church buildings are shown in the course of this short ten-minute video. How many of those churches can you identify? (I lost count, so I have no idea what the total is.) Next, in how many of those congregations have you attended (or led) worship services? My answer was seven, but I’ll bet some readers of this blog can top that number with ease.

Update: In a comment, Philocrites says: “RealVideo and WindowsMedia versions of the film are now available for online viewing at UUA.org.” Thanks for the tip!