"CLF" by Laura Cavicchio ©
I. INTRODUCTION
‘Religious prospecting’. [1]
Charles Lyttle employed this colorful word pair in his book, Freedom
Goes West, to describe the missionary expansion efforts mobilized
in 1825 by the new American Unitarian Association (AUA). Not without
some trepidation, Unitarians had in their fashion claimed a sectarian
identity, adopted a shared purpose, and were ready "to diffuse the
knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity throughout
our country." [2]
The westward movement of Unitarianism was about to begin. With a
little imagination, Lyttle’s words come in handy for fashioning
a loose definition that for the purposes of this paper, captures
the spirit of this religious adventurism: Religious Prospecting:
going forth in expanding liberal truth and word to uncover other
like-spirited religious prospectors with whom to share in free fellowship.
Words like ‘conversion’ are not comfortably used by religious liberals. Even
Webster’s dictionary makes a point of explicitly distinguishing the word ‘evangelism’
as separate "from Unitarians, Universalists." However, every faith tradition
must propagate its faith and teachings, or perish. The 18TH and
19th century western Unitarian movement was aimed at spreading the
liberal gospel in a context of Orthodoxy; hence, a "forthright, proselytizing
Unitarianism could not be avoided." [3]
Both the Unitarian and the Universalist traditions had their itinerant preachers
and doctrinal evangelists, conservative and liberal, who wanted nothing more
than to bring the enlightenment of their gospel to the minds of others. Both
movements were characterized early on by the drive to find and to preserve what
I would name ‘an indigenous ministry of like souls’. In the times when religion
was legislated by a ‘standing order’, as it was in Massachusetts before 1833,
the strands of free religion were struggling to find themselves and Enlightenment
thinkers needed to connect with one another. As a case in point, the AUA was
formed to incite and unite individuals rather than churches. Those who were
outside of the standing order, such as the Universalists, did their best to
band together in state conventions of churches and by attempts to achieve some
degree of unification by limited doctrinal assent.
‘Prospecting’ is an apt and appropriate term in this context because it implies
the uncovering of something (or someone) that is already or potentially present.
It represents a drive to discover, meet, and to join forces with, rather than
to impose or to otherwise convert. It also reflects the energy of religious
determination, yea, of self-determinism, and the will to overcome separateness,
that characterized the early American liberal traditions. ‘Prospecting’ underscores
the ways by which religious liberals, particularly those on the western front,
identified and became connected with one another. It points to their zeal to
articulate their ideologies in word and practice both inside and outside of
given boundaries. The story of some of these efforts, past and present, is
the focus of this paper.
A more specific focus to this work is the evolution of what today is known
as the "CLF", or the Church of the Larger Fellowship Unitarian Universalist,
a unique member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association that
has ‘no walls’ and whose ‘saints’ are ‘everywhere’. It lists the largest membership
of any church in the association. Its history is one of reaching beyond conventions
and boundaries to create new meanings for human fellowship. It is a history
that has much in common with the religious prospectors of Western Unitarian
expansionism. Thus, I intend to show that innovations from that context share
correlations with the current CLF. I will also show how those innovations connect
with the former Unitarian CLF, which has been called ‘a pioneer type of correspondence
church’ [4],
and with a similar early Universalist model.
I will begin with some background on the movements that
forged the patterns of liberal missions and the dissemination
and exchange of the ‘word’. Indeed, the ‘larger fellowship’
derives historically from both Unitarianism and Universalism,
with each tradition containing its precursor forms. As the
Unitarians were the pioneer shapers’ of the model, my discussion
will focus mostly upon the Unitarian side of the story. I
will explore the forerunners and formation of the Unitarian
Church of the Larger Fellowship and the events that led up
to and followed merger with the Universalist CLF. My sources
will include primary documents from the Western Unitarian
Conference and the archives of the CLF and draw from my own
experience as a former staff person,and a member of the Church
of the Larger Fellowship since 1996.
"CLF"
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[1]
Charles H. Lyttle, Freedom Goes West: A History of the Western
Unitarian Conference 1852-1952 (Boston: The Beacon Press,
1952), 26.
[2]
Lyttle, 20.
[3]
Lyttle, 22
[4]
Undated document, probably circa 1961, "The Church of the
Larger Fellowship", archives of The Church of the Larger Fellowship
Unitarian Universalist (UUCLF).
Last updated June 12, 2005
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