“So here we are, and grateful to be so.”
Today’s piece is less about inspiration and more about connections.
Upon perusing websites of Unitarian Universalist churches in New Hampshire, where my maternal grandparents lived and now my mother and her family live, I came across the “First Sunday Speaker” series at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Concord, NH. Each month, a member of the congregation speaks about what brought them to be members of the church, and what they have learned on their spiritual journeys. I looked down the list, and noticed the name “Bob Soule.”
When I would visit my grandmother in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, I would often have tea with her neighbors, Bob and Dot Soule. I called them “Gunny and Bocky,” which is what their grandchildren called them. Sure enough, this is the same person! I never knew where Gunny and Bocky went to church, nor did I know that they once lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where they were founding members of the fellowship that is now the Bradford Community Church, Unitarian Universalist.
So today, I bring you a piece of history from an old friend.
It’s amazing, the connections there are between people.
Enjoy.
Tags: Bob Soule, community, connection, HistoryMarch 2005 Reflection for the First Sunday Speaker Series, Unitarian Universalist Church of Concord, NH
by Bob Soule
The story of how I came to be a Unitarian-Universalist can be told in six words — I was brought up a Unitarian.
Starting when I was about four-and-a-half, my family l ived across the street from the First Church in Roxbury, Unitarian. This church was founded in 1636 by Rev. John Eliot, Apostle to the Indians, who was also involved in starting Harvard College in 1636, and the Roxbury Latin School in 1645.
As a family, we went to that church; of course, the Sunday school first for me. At 18, I joined the Church and remained a member until my first job away from home.Other jobs and five years of WWII active duty, kept me, and by this time, Dot and our family, away from church. My first post-war civilian job was in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a highly industrialized city, which was, unhappily, lacking a Unitarian Church.
Dot and the children worked hard to find an appropriate Church school and theology. Dot had met with the leaders and studied the literature of the Episcopal faith in which she had been brought up, and the Lutheran Church, which our best friends attended, and even, in desperation, the literature given her by a Jehovah’s Witness who came to the door.
Then, one day, an advertisement in the local newspaper said that a representative of the American Unitarian Association was coming to town to offer help in starting a fellowship. The AUA was the forerunner of today’s Unitarian Universalist Association.
A Unitarian fellowship might offer something else to think about.
The people who showed up at this session decided to give it a try, and we started to meet. The philosophy behind a Fellowship was that Lay people could provide themselves with a place and time to share the UU theology. Members would lead services, develop programs for children, and generally be a small, self-sustaining, minister-less congregation.
We were not entirely on our own. Clergy from Boston AUA headquarters, the Meadville Theological School in Chicago, an hour south, and from a large Unitarian Church in Madison, an hour west, were very inspiring and instructive.
Then there was the incredible Reverend John Wolf, from the Unitarian church in Racine, only 20 minutes away. This was his first ministry. He was alive with skill and energy and philosophy and a boundless desire help. He made our fellowship come alive. It grew into a church and is now still alive and going strong, 50 years later.
In those early days, however, most of the services were led by members. We met in the local Elks Clubhouse, one of the major buildings in the city. The adult service was held in the bar, and Dot ran the Sunday School in the main ball-room. Sunday services, specially when there had been a bash the night before, with broken or drooping balloons, filled ashtrays, and empty glass and china, could be challenging!
One week, the Program Committee thought it was my turn to lead. They came to our house, one Wednesday, to ask that I review an interesting book for next Sunday’s service. Dot explained that I was away from home, not to be back until late Friday afternoon. The Fellowship person asked Dot if she would read the book and review it herself.
Dot did. She sat down, read the book cover-to-cover that night and now says, with a smile, that she woke up a Unitarian.
Not much later, my employer changed my territory to northeastern New England , a change we were delighted to accept. Dot had been brought up in Fall River, and this would put both of us closer to family. We moved to Concord, NH in 1955, and joined this church. It was, of course, then meeting in the old building on North State Street. John Ruskin dark was the minister, and we soon knew this was where we belonged.
A year later, however, another job change took us to Lexington where we joined the Follen Community Church, Unitarian. It had been founded in 1831 by Rev. Charles Follen. He started the church, and designed the church building. It was based on the sanctuaries he had grown up with near Darmstadt, Germany . They were octagonal, a felicitous shape in which to speak. The architect who designed this building passed Follen Church on his way to and from work every day. It’s possible that that building may have had something to do with the inspiration for this octagonal sanctuary.
We were members of Follen for the next 22 years, then we retired, and returned to NH. This brought us closer to our daughter and her family here in Concord.
We came back to this church, now in this, to us, new building, and we asked to be put back on the membership list. We were told that we had never been taken off.
So here we are, and grateful to be so.
