"CLF" by Laura Cavicchio ©

V. THE FIRST STEP:  The Church of All Souls

It was the Rev. William Channing Gannett who gave the work of Miss Ellis the name, ‘Post Office Mission’.  A key supporter, he wrote, "Strange enough should it prove that this bit of a lady, almost caged from the world by cripplings, had opened the most effective channel yet made for carrying our liberal faith to the world." ^[45] In his later history and memoirs of the Unitarian movement, Charles William Wendte wrote that due to the work of the Post Office Mission,  "centers of liberal worship were established in communities as yet without a liberal church."   Such was the timely vision of Sallie Ellis, whose passion to spread the liberal word transcended her own physical hardship and isolation and led her to innovate, on a far-reaching scale, new ways to bridge spiritual separation. 

Ellis helped to fuel and to fuse a network of hungry souls that was the humble, yet noble beginning of "a church without walls".  The concept of correspondence mission and ministry spread to churches of other liberal denominations, including the Universalists.  Post Office Missions were also founded in the British Isles, India, and Holland.  ^[46]  In Unitarianism the practice was continued into the 1940’s through the women’s General Alliance.  Early records of the Unitarian CLF make reference to coordination between the AUA Board and the POM of the Alliance, and the provision of one hundred and ten names as prospects of the Church. ^[47]  The Post Office Mission has been called a significant force in the extension of Unitarian ideas into the twentieth century. ^[48]           

An interesting strand in the story can be traced to programs in the early 1900’s that were initiated by then AUA president, Samuel A. Eliot.  In addition to hiring a full-time publications agent to develop and distribute free literature, Eliot pursued numerous avenues to growing the Unitarian movement.  In the words of Conrad Wright, "The heart of Eliot’s programs was missions.  We Unitarians", Eliot declared, "have never sufficiently learned the art of irrigation.  We have failed to adequately spread the good news." ^[49]  Wright continues:

"Eliot used the power of organization to spread the Unitarian gospel.  Having convened the first international congress of religious liberals in Boston in 1900, he turned to the domestic front, and in 1908 took the lead in forming the National Federation of Religious Liberals, ‘to unify and concentrate the forces which make for religious sincerity, freedom, tolerance, and progress in America.’ Wishing to exclude no one from the blessings of religious liberty, Eliot in 1909 invited unaffiliated liberals to become associate members of the AUA offering literature through the Post Office Mission and the assistance of a Unitarian minister if requested."  No stratagem escaped Eliot’s notice.  A portable church was constructed and used in Youngstown, Ohio.   ^[50]

A corresponding missionary effort was going on in the Unitarian Laymen’s League, formed in 1907 to establish lay centers in areas that were without a Unitarian church.  The League was one organization that served as an agent of the growth in religious liberalism that followed the end of World War I.  The League launched publications and ran advertising promotions to disseminate the ‘Unitarian cause’.  By 1924 it had 270 chapters and 12,000 members, with offices and agents in four cities and was holding rallies complete with mission preachers throughout the country.   AUA records from 1924 show that ministers left their pulpits to engage in itinerant preaching tours to unchurched cities.  Samuel Eliot himself undertook a travel campaign to know "the condition and prospects of every church."  Records show that Eliot’s salary as Unitarianism’s president appeared in the AUA budget under the category: "general missionary work". ^[51]                                

              Returning again to the early 1900’s and the efforts to carry on a liberal ministry by correspondence, it is notable that in 1903, a ministry by mail called the" Church of All Souls" was established in New York by the Unitarian minister, William Channing Brown.  In his long career, the Rev. Brown occupied many traditional pulpits and beginning in 1904, served as Field Secretary of the AUA.  By starting the Church of All Souls, Brown is credited with having "revised and personalized the Post Office Mission."  It has been reported that, "for more than a quarter century the Rev. Brown mailed a pastoral letter to members of the fellowship he called the Church of All Souls…to this missive he added a sermon by a prominent clergyman.  His mailing list was (one source of names for) membership for the Church of the Larger Fellowship.  Some Church of All Souls members were among the 57 charter members of CLF." ^[52] Brown started his postal ministry following a summer at Unitarian headquarters in Chautauqua, New York where he met numerous individual Unitarians who were living in places far removed from any organized Unitarian church.  During its ‘peak’ years, his correspondence was ‘very voluminous’, and members’ were even making monetary contributions, but there was no mechanism to actually ‘join’ the fellowship. 

              By 1943, Brown’s mailing list was dwindling.  But the onset of World War II served to re-stimulate interest in ways to connect service people and other scattered individuals and families in liberal religious fellowship. That year, the AUA, under the leadership of President Frederick May Eliot, set up a committee to "Make a Study of the Possibility of the Re-Establishment of the Unitarian Church of All Souls".  One of the committee’s first findings was that what isolated liberals wanted was membership in a "church". ^[53]  It was evident that the Rev. Brown had kept his correspondence list comparatively closed; he had never tried to incorporate people new to Unitarianism or members of churches who moved to areas where liberal religion was not available to them.  The Rev. Robert Raible called the general lack of follow-up by ministers in regard to transient parishioners a "waste of good Unitarians.  ^[54] A new, more effective vehicle was clearly needed. 

       The need was very real.  A case in point is a letter dated May 29, 1943, written by U.S. Army Pvt. Leonard E. Wolff, who was then stationed at Camp Chaffee in Arkansas.  Through his Post Chaplain, Pvt. Wolff was exposed to Unitarian beliefs.  As Wolff hailed from Boston, the Chaplain suggested a letter to a church there asking for information about "how to become a member of your church while serving in the Armed Forces."   The letter was forwarded to Frederick May Eliot, the President of the AUA, who directed Pvt. Leonard to contact the All Souls Church Unitarian in Washington, D.C.  Eliot thought that a congregation in the nation’s capitol could take care of "the simple formalities" that would give membership to one of its soldiers. 

       A flurry of letters later,^[55] it was acknowledged by Laurence Staples, Executive Secretary at All Souls, that the by-laws of All Souls church could not accommodate an unconventional membership.  Members were required to actually sign their names in the church registry and to be engaged in the "worship and work" of the church.  Staples suggested an "associate" membership.  In response, Frederick May Eliot wrote: "It occurs to me that All Souls’ church might prefer to set up a special kind of membership.  I don’t much like the term "associate member" because that seems to imply a lack of thorough-going commitment.  Very likely you can think of another designation."  He then pointed out the "uniquely national position within the denomination" that was held by All Souls, and added his dislike of a "national church" in the Episcopalian sense.^[56]  

              There were more letters from service men and women stationed around the country.  In that same period, the committee studying the correspondence model made this report to the AUA Board:

"At the May meeting the Board voted that the President of the Association be designated ‘Minister to Unitarians in the Armed Forces’ to render any possible service to those desiring contact with an individual representing the Unitarian denomination.’  However, this did not solve the problem of reaching the thousands of civilians who discover that they are Unitarians by conviction, but who live in communities where there is no Unitarian church. Nor does it solve the problem of continuing the interest and religious affiliations of Unitarians who move into such areas.  The By-laws of the Association state that ‘a subscription of $1.00 or more per year shall constitute a person an Associate member of this Association…Today there are 1770 names on the list, but last year only $33.00 was received from them, undoubtedly due to the fact that too little attention has been paid to this group in recent years."^[57]

The report concluded that the answer to meeting the needs of those isolated by war, geography, or inaccessibility to Unitarian belief would not be found by a special membership category within the AUA.  Nor would it happen simply by creating special membership status within a designated church, such as Arlington Street in Boston or All Souls in Washington, D.C.  The solution would also not be found by piggy backing’ onto Brown’s All Souls correspondence ministry.

The committee was most in favor of gathering a new church society with direct ties to the Association’s services, but with a ‘parish’ identity.  Pastoral correspondence by a minister would be key, with denominational materials, such as for religious education, specifically tailored for home and field use.  It was suggested that the "church" have its ‘home’ in the Association’s chapel in Eliot Hall, where worship was already conducted weekly.  Membership would entail a financial responsibility to help fund a budget and a salary for the society’s minister.  "The right man in charge could build up a church membership of at least 1,000 people in a reasonably short time, which would not only provide the Society with an ample budget, but also would furnish "an extremely effective means of Unitarian extension." ^[58]

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^[45] History website, ibid.

^[46] History website, ibid.

^[47] Minutes, Executive Committee Meeting of the UCLF, Sept. 12, 1944 and Feb. 21, 1945, archives of the UUCLF.

^[48] Rev. Jeremy J. Brigham, sermon preached at First Unitarian Church, Cincinnati, 1980, archives of the UUCLF.

^[49] Wright, p. 98.

^[50] Ibid, 99.

^[51] Ibid, 106.

^[52] George Marshall, "A Patriarch of CLF Passes – Forerunner Minister Nearly 100 Years Old", CLF: News Bulletin for Religious Liberals, June 9, 1967, archives of the UUCLF.

^[53] Davis, Fenn, and Kuebler, "Report of the Committee Appointed by the Board to Make a Study of the Possibility of the Re-Establishment of the Unitarian Church of All Souls", 1943, archives of the UUCLF.

^[54] Correspondence from Rev. Robert Raible, First Unitarian church, Dallas Texas, Dec.4 and 10, 1943, archives of the UUCLF.

^[55] See correspondence from May 7 to July 8, 1943, archives of the UUCLF.

^[56] Correspondence dated May 29 through July 8, 1943, archives of the CLFUU.

^[57] Davis, Fenn, and Kuebler Report, archives of the UUCLF.

^[58] Ibid.

Last updated June 12, 2005