On a hot June evening in 1854, a group of liberal Christians met in the Odd Fellows Hall in downtown Exeter to vote the Universalist Society out of existence. Out of the meeting, the First Unitarian Society of Exeter was born.
There had been a small Universalist presence in the town for decades. Rejecting the notion of predestination, universalist teachings granted salvation to everyone and not just a chosen few. Followers had formed into a congregation in 1831 and by 1841 had built themselves a fine church on the corner of Front and Center streets. But the mortgage on the building was high and they didn’t have enough members to support themselves.
Meanwhile, the Second Parish Congregational Church was leaking members to the growing Unitarian movement. Unitarians rejected the idea of the holy trinity and had elements of universalism tempering those beliefs. Like margarine and butter, the Universalists and Unitarians were similar, but not quite the same. Still, they had enough in common to bring them all together for the meeting at the Odd Fellows Hall. They banded together and quickly paid off the mortgage.
Now the rest of the story.
By 1985 the UUs and the TEO had embraced the same doctrine (or lack thereof) and had become so inclusive that they merged their tow congreagations in order to support one congregation of eight white senior citizens but they were able because of their endowments to hire a left wing radical lesbian priest.
David Wilson beat me to it!
David: Interesting finish to the story.
Can you point us to where you learned about this? Has the church gotten larger? Who is the new rector?
Thanks
And I should have added.
She preached about the poor and homeless as she collected a $100,000 per annum salary for a thirty hour work week, drove a BMW, and summered on Martha’s Vineyard
Hmmm.
Maybe David Wilson is thinking or speaking of another parish. Christ Church Exeter appears — by its 2006 stats — to have about 250 ASA. So unless something really really dramatic has happened, I can’t see how it’s gotten to 8 white senior citizens.
; > )
I think David was joking with us.
ASA about 250 for the last 10 years, membership about 1200.
http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_952008105508AM.pdf
My guess is that this would make it one of the larger ECUSA parishes in the Diocese. Pretty modern looking building.
http://www.christchurchexeter.org/
What was that nice old song; “Nice Work If You Can Get It”?
This is the story of nothing being so attractive to nonsense lovers that they built up a following of anything.
#8: could you tell us what you are talking about? Is it Christ Church Exeter? If so point us to the nonsense! Are you saying that what David Wilson wrote is true?
This story brought to mind my thoughts when I first saw John Harvard’s statue in Harvard Yard directly facing the Unitarian Church across the street from the Yard — which claimed on its plaque to be the oldest church in Cambridge, MA.
And the moral is the same, of course. Calvinism eventually and inevitably leads to Unitarianism. 😉
Christ Church Exeter is a growing parish with a talented rector.
Perhaps David Wilson’s story could be modified by extending it into the future: by 2035, one congregation of eight (seven? six?) white senior citizens …