"CLF" by Laura Cavicchio ©

III. THE MINISTRY OF THE LIBERAL ‘WORD’

By 1865, liberal tracts were being distributed by the WUC out of a small office in Chicago.  By 1873, the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society and the auxiliary Western Women’s Unitarian Conference had been established.  Two years later, Jenkin Lloyd Jones was hired as the WUC’s first "Mission Secretary".  By his wife, Susan’s account, he was a missionary force "who made his headquarters in the saddle, (but) the ‘field’ was so extensive and the isolated so far apart…and there was only 24 hours in a day…" ^[15] The circulation of literature, especially since new railway systems had made postal service more economical, was a way to meet the needs of a greater number of the unchurched over a larger geographical area.  Susan Jones writes that The Sunday School, the first Sunday School lesson sheet among Unitarians, was published at Janesville and sent to subscribers and others, "the ‘others’ being the longest list".  The hope was to encourage the start of home or circle Sunday Schools.  Mrs. Jones points out that the origin of this distribution effort began via a painstaking process of gathering names of interested folk and by the means of extensive correspondence and the gratuitous sharing of resources.  ^[16]

What is referred to as the "Pamphlet Mission" originated out of a similar response to the realities indigenous to the West in a time when Orthodoxy still purported to be the only religious choice open to the sane.   When The Chicago Times began to regularly publish liberal sermons, the demand for information about the doctrine of Unitarianism became heightened.  Missionary Secretary Jones and three other men established a ‘publishing committee’ to produce a bi-monthly periodical called The Pamphlet Mission, whose editorial bi-line, "Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion", was the same as the WUC’s motto.  The Pamphlet Mission was established,

"to be the instrument in forming Sunday circles with its sermons and services, to carry the strong loving word of thought and worship, hope, and cheer to the solitary…" (but) "…in the meantime, the correspondence seemed only to increase." 

It seems that the sermons in the secular press and the Mission "awakened fresh interest in new themes pertaining to religion".  ^[17]

The Pamphlet Mission took its by-line motto very seriously.  In a sense, it represented a working socio-religious model in published form, a circulated incarnation of the "Liberal’s Mission", which was the title of one of the first essays published in the original format of The Pamphlet Mission. ^[18]  In that very first volume, Robert Collyer, a member of the publishing committee, stated in the ‘greeting and ‘prospectus’ the initial purpose behind the publication:

"We want to make this Pamphlet Mission go like a benediction among Liberal thinkers all through the West. To feel…that our little messenger is the most welcome visitor, especially in the lonely homes and thinly scattered communities of free religious thinkers…(we hope) those who are like-minded with ourselves take hold with us, and spread the news… of its birth and promise; subscribe for as many copies as they can… and send them out where they know it will be a blessing…It has been a cherished thought…that such pamphlet might be printed, as the good seed of Sunday services where Liberal thinkers have none, and want to meet for worship, and a sermon." ^[19]

Collyer’s prospectus further explained the ‘mission’ goal of producing a fortnightly series of pamphlets devoted to words that "combine liberal thinking with religious feeling": topics relating to denominational, "doctrinal", and biblical concern, devotion, conduct, and the like.  Collyer voiced the hope that "each number of the publication will make good the promise of its title; i.e., that each will stand for real FREEDOM of mind, for real FELLOWSHIP between differing minds, and as most important of all, for CHARACTER as the test and essence of religion."  Each issue would have an essay or sermon, and a "Current Thought", or  "brief utterances from our best thinkers on the most living religious topics of the hour", along with other shorter articles and news items about liberal books and " Liberal Work". 

"We hope not only to meet the want of persons who are already connected with Liberal organizations throughout the West, but especially do we desire to reach the isolated Liberals – the fives and tens and twenties in small towns – men and women thirsty for such words as these pamphlets will carry.  Besides their use in the home, they can do good service among the neighbors and furnish regular material for Sunday meetings and discussions in places hardly to be reached by Liberal preachers…"

Collyer also asked readers to forward to the publishing committee "addresses of persons either in your own town or in other towns and states; remembering that it is those isolated Liberals whom we most wish to find."  He went a step further with the plea to "Turn missionary and local agent.  Show your copies right and left…for five cents once a fortnight (you will have) a silent preacher in your neighborhood…" ^[20]  Within months the new periodical, still under the WUC’s signature motto, was re-named "Unity".  It was not the first publication devoted to Unitarianism that was written and produced outside of Boston, but Unity represents the authentic ‘organ’ of the Western Unitarian Conference.  It was the first "important" periodical to be composed, published and circulated in the West, a "cheerful, widely welcomed courier of Conference news, liberal morale, and advanced theological and social position." ^[21] 

Unity quickly grew to be a vehicle for a growing and broadly welcoming Western religious fellowship, and a voice of free and socially conscious inquiry: 

(It held) "an unparalleled record of championship of wronged and exploited human beings…nor had any periodical in this country advocated so many reforms…education in sexual hygiene, labor reform, economic reform, women’s rights, juvenile courts (and)…not an illiberal, inhumane, sycophantic, or prudentially compromising editorial or article is to be found in Unity’s pages in all those forty years."  ^[22]

Each week it published a multitude of essays under the heading "The Liberal Preachers of America Out of the Pulpit", articles on doctrinal issues, short features, editorials, and field and conference news and reports.  The "Business Department" featured books and resources for sale, while "The Sunday School" offered lesson series for use in the home or circle.^[23]  The mission of the new Unity became clarified:

"Unity will aim to be as unsectarian as its name. Many of its contributors are indeed nominally Unitarians; but the better Unitarians hold that name in no sectarian sense and are…a sect only in their opposition to sectarianism.  They aim not to divide, but to unite… Our paper aims to be faithful to this rising truth…but though thus proclaiming the broadest religion, Unity will not the less assert its own opinions…"  ^[24]

While grassroots missionary zeal did not abate, it seems as though the liberal journalistic organ of the WUC shifted its attention to a higher path, that of achieving the work of unity on the frontier of a struggling denominational identity.  The desired unity was not to be realized on the condition of exclusion nor of conformity, however.  As the result of a controversy in 1875 over the right to call oneself Unitarian as opposed to Christian, the WUC passed a resolution that stated: "The Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no dogmatic tests but welcomes all who wish to join it to help establish Truth, Righteousness, and Love in the World." ^[25]   In short, the Western blend of Unitarianism forged ‘in the field’ consisted characteristically of a radically inclusive spirit combined with an ethic of individualism and a strong dose of social consciousness.  As a case in point, Charles Lyttle notes that the idea of "pre-church fellowships" was uniquely Western.  He writes:

"Even before the 1850’s, small liberal groups in scores of remote settlements came together and sustained their convictions" by reading the sermons of Channing,Walker, Dewey and Gannett… hearing itinerant missionaries, by tracts from the Chicago office of the Conference after 1865 to the Post Office Mission committees of the city churches.  How sacred the flame on these little, transient altars of spiritual freedom!" ^[26]

 Liberal religion was in itself a fellowship, a haven for all ‘honest doubters’.  This perspective is expressed in Jenkin Lloyd Jones’ personal account of what the ideal church would look like:

"A free congress of independent souls…it will be the thinkers home…over its portals no dogmatic test is to be written to ward off an honest thinker or an earnest seeker.  This church must emphasize Universal Brotherhood…it will seek to welcome low and high, poor and rich, unbeliever and believer." ^[27]

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^[15] S. Jones, 8.

^[16] S. Jones, 8.

^[17] S. Jones, 10.

^[18] J.T. Sunderland, ed., "The Liberal’s Mission", The Pamphlet Mission , vol. 1 no. 2 (1878), v.

^[19] Robert Collyer, "Greeting!", The Pamphlet Mission , vol.. 1 no. 1 (1878)

^[20] Ibid,  Collyer, "Prospectus".

^[21] Lyttle, 130.

^[22] Lyttle, 224.

^[23] Jenkin Lloyd Jones, ed., "Table of Contents", Unity. vols. III, no.4 (1879).

^[24] Jones, ed. "Greeting" Unity, vol. III, no. 1 (1879)

^[25] Lyttle, 135.

^[26] Lyttle, 261.

^[27] Lyttle, 187.

Last updated June 12, 2005