Tag Archives: Unitarian history

Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Emerson meet

Ellen Tucker Emerson, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was an engaging writer in her own right. She never bothered to publish anything, writing instead for the enjoyment of her family and friends. Recently, I’ve been dabbling in the two volume set of her letters (Kent State University Press, 1982), and I came across a letter in which she describes going to a Unitarian summer conference with her father in 1879; by which time her father’s memory loss was fairly pronounced. In addition to giving a fascinating glimpse into the very beginnings of the kind of summer religious conferences that still continue today at places like Star Island and Ferry Beach, she also writes about how she happened to meet Jenkin Lloyd Jones, the secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference:

Weir’s N.H. July 22nd 1879

Dear Mother,

We all met at Nashua and came in high spirits to Lake Winnepisagee. We landed on a platform right over its waters, and felt all that sense of coolness & stillness & relief of getting out of the cars into beautiful nature that we have all often enjoyed. A friendly voice cried out “All who wish to go to Concord Building, follow me,” so we all followed, presented our credentials which were received with laughter and pocketed unread, because they said we didn’t need any, and the we were told the evening meeting was just beginning. The Meeting consisted of a welcoming address from Mr Powell of Laconia, who said he was chairman of the Reception Committee appointed by the N.H. Unitarian Assn. as their representative, as such, servants of all who arrived, to take good care of us, and that they would do it to the utmost. Then one Rev. from Mr Beane of Concord N.H. telling us about the lat Grove-Meeting, and that all who attended it learned the lesson that religion was more a social & less a solitary sentiment than they used to think, and that the cumulative effect of making it the business & study of a whole week night and day had been very great so that not only in general the Unitarians of N.H. had been more active, zealous and mutually attached ever since than they had been before, but that individual men had felt through the whole year the lift they got here last July, it was true of him, and he believed almost all who were here would be able to give the same testimony. So he congratulated us that we had come, and said we couldn’t help expecting much from this week. Then some notices, and we were dismissed and brought by Mr Powell to our present abode, Mrs Lovett’s house, quite near the Ground on a hill overlooking the lake and having a fine view of the Gunstock Mountain and the right and Ossippee Mountain on the left. The cooking is admirable, and there is plenty of new milk. Of course the mountain water is excellent. We arrived just a little late at the 8.30 morning prayer-meeting. There was the “Rev. Jenk. Ll. Jones” addressing us, not from the stand but down in the aisle. What he said was good and in a quiet sincere voice. Someone else spoke. Then there was silence, and Mr Powers said “If the Spirit doesn’t move us, we will close the meeting.” Notices were given, a hymn was sung, and Mr Jones gave the blessing. We were told that Mr Tiffany would preach at 10.30…. We were pleased, I of course most of all, that dear Mr Tiffany was here and we enjoyed his sermon. It was “Physician heal thyself”, learn something before you attempt to impart. In the course of it he couldn’t help saying that Mr Emerson was an example of the true way of teaching. Then arose his brother ministers and “hackit him in pieces sma’ ” (not on the point of Papa) except Rev. J. Ll. Jones who had a great deal to say about Father, in much the same strain as Mr Tiffany, and what did the man do, but standing within a rod of me insist on looking me in the eye all the time he wa speaking of Father. I stood it a little, but kept him out of focus a great deal….

I love the way she slides from dead serious to dryly humorous to slyly witty, sometimes in the space of one sentence. And I like the way she threads together small observations and minor incidents, seemingly quite unrelated, to make her narrative. But to conclude her miniature portrait of Jenkin Lloyd Jones….

In a letter to her sister, dated two days later, she wrote, “I have here had a chance to see the Western Unitarian Minister side by side with the Eastern. They are the most different creatures imaginable.” I suppose one difference was that the Eastern Unitarian Minister would preach from behind a pulpit; while Jenkin Lloyd Jones, a Western Unitarian Minister, came down from the stand to speak from the aisle. Ellen concludes, “On the whole my hero is the Rev. Jenk. Ll Jones…. Mr Jones spoke on the subject of the afternoon “If Life worth living?” I heard more clearly now than I had before the advantages, the joys, the light of Unitarianism. It was a beautiful, beautiful speech.”

Early “Flower Communion” in the U.S.

Some Unitarian historical trivia for you…

Just by chance, I happened across the odd fact that Maja Capek spent time here in New Bedford. Maja Capek was married to Rev. Dr. Norbert Capek, the Unitarian minister Czechoslovakia who was killed by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp. Maja Capek managed to escape Czechoslovakia when Norbert and their daughter Zora were captured by the Gestapo, and she settled in New Bedford’s North End, where she became a part of North Unitarian Church.

North Unitarian Church started as a Unitarian mission in the 1890’s among the millworkers and recent immigrants in New Bedford’s North End. It was originally called “Unity Home,” and it was similar to a settlement house. Before long, a Unitarian congregation gathered at Unity Home, and became a legal, corporate entity in 1920. First Unitarian continued to own the building, but the North Unitarian congregation now had a separate existence. It is said that at one point the membership of North Unitarian exceeded that of its parent church.

At the time Maja Capek arrived in New Bedford, there was a large Eastern European community in the North End; perhaps that is what attracted her to this city. Mrs. Capek quickly became the director of Unity Home. North Unitarian Church was listed by the American Unitarian Association (AUA) as a separate congregation beginning with the 1942-43 Yearbook. In that first listing, Maja Capek is listed as minister (!), “Unity Home Chapel Society” is listed as the congregation’s name, and 1941 is listed as the date the congregation originated. Presumably 1941 is when North Unitarian Church first affiliated as a spearate organization with the AUA.

It may well be that Maja Capek led the very first Flower Celebration in the United States with the North Unitarian Church in New Bedford; at least, that’s what David Rankin, minister at First Unitarian from 1968-1974, wrote in 1969. (The Flower Celebration, a distinctly Unitarian liturgical innovation, is widely known in the U.S. as the “Flower Communion,” but see the article by Isa Fiserova in the May, 2002, issue of Quest for an indication that the Czech Unitarians did not call it a “communion.”) You can read more about the saga of North Unitarian in the history section of the First Unitarian Web site.

My congregation, First Unitarian, is the inheritor of North Unitarian Church. Pretty cool to think that a minister of First Unitarian, I am following in the footsteps of Maja Capek. If any of you, my readers, have additional information about Maja Capek’s time in New Bedford, please let me know.

Update, June 30, 2006: Despite Rankin’s statement, I have been able to find no other evidence that Maja Capek led the first Flower Celebration here in New Bedford. Unless such evidence turns up, I’ll have to go along with First Parish Cambridge’s claim that they hosted the first U.S. Flower Celebration.

19th C. flower festivals

When did Unitarian Unviersalist churches start doing flower services? We usually associate our contemporary “flower communions” with Norbert Capek, even though he was quite explicit in not calling them “communion” services. But it turns out that Untiarian churches here in the Midwest were doing flower services long before Capek. Here’s an excerpt from the “Records of the Unitarian Sunday School of Geneva, Ills.” describing what was possibly the very first flower service in our Geneva congregation:

Flower Service was held in the church Sunday morning June 13, 1875. The church was tastefully decorated with flowers, the children gave good recitiations appropriate to the season, Rev. R. L. Herbert delivered a short sermon to the children and the choir sand some good selections of music. As the close of the meeting reports of Treasurer and Librarian were read by the Supt of the S. School, Mr Sherwin….

At this point in our history, the Flower Service looked pretty much like the Children’s Sunday it replaced, even down to the annual reports of Sunday school officers, and the recitations by the children. But by 1879, things were starting to change:

June 8, 1879 being the second Sunday of the month the annual Flower Service was held. The church was decorated in much the usual manner and well filled with spectators. The exercise conducted in a very happy manner by the Rev. R. L. Herbert, consisted of responsive reading, singing and recitation….

There were still recitiations by children, but the whole service seemed to be taking a different form. By 1880, there were still recitations by the children, but there was also a “prayer and chant,” a pageant by the children called “Ladder of Life,” and “Passing of the baskets of flowers by four little girls. While they were being passed Miss Ella Howell assisted by the choir sang ‘Consider the Lilies.'”

And by 1891, we read:

The Flower Service of 1891 was held the last Sunday in June. The Service was from Unity Festivals. The speaking was by the younger children of the school….

Unity Festivals, was a publications of the Western Unitarian Conference. This year, Lindsay, Craig, and I are planning to revive this worship service (with a few updates).

More on Unity Festivals later….

Master’s thesis, anyone?

The archives of this church contain lots of fascinating historical documents. According to Keith Coryell, director of the Geneva History Center, the original record book of the church, dating back to 1842 and earlier, could easily generate a master’s thesis in history. I’ve recently been looking at another remarkable document in the archives here, titled “Records of the Unitarian Sunday School of Geneva Ills. copied from original entries in another book beginning with the date of Nov. 9, 1867, ending with June 12, 1892.” The records continue in other hands to the closing of the Sunday school in 1901 due to lack of enrollment, with one additional entry recording a christening in 1907. This record book, combined with other material in the archives, could be the foundation of yet another master’s thesis, this time in religious education.

Here’s one entry from the Sunday school record book, written in a beautiful round hand with a very fine pen nib:

January 1st 1896

An entertainment was given by the Unitarian Sunday School, at the Unitarian Church on New Year’s Eve and was attended by a packed housed [sic] and proved to be a very entertaining affair. The efforts of the children, big and little, in representing the holidays of the year under the leadership of Father Time, were really good — all given in costume — and made a decided hit, besides being in an entirely new line. They were assisted by Mae Blackman in solos, Mrs. Will Harvey in readings, Stella Mann in Recitations, and the little Cory Sisters in duetts [sic] and solos. Mrs. Woolley [Rev. Celia Parker Woolley, minister here at that time] arranged and managed the affair and the lady teachers who assisted her, earned much credit.

A fee of ten cents was asked from those outside of the pupils of the school and the net proceeds were $12.00.