A Sermon for the 180th Anniversary of
First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans
The Rev. Melanie Morel-Ensminger
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Only two years after being seated on the Mississippi Presbytery
as the minister of First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, The Rev. Theodore
Clapp had formal charges of heresy and immoral conduct lodged against him. The proceedings ground on for 6 long
years, back and forth. Finally, Parson
Clapp, as he was familiarly known, was convicted of heresy (the immorality charge was dropped) in December of 1832.
It was a fair verdict – Parson Clapp WAS a heretic. In his sermons, he had denied the
divinity of Jesus and the doctrine of the Trinity, asserted that Sabbath
observance was optional, and said he did not believe in intercessory
prayer. Perhaps even more
disturbing to the Presbyterian authorities was his rejection of hell and the
doctrine of eternal damnation (he was famously inspired to universalism while
at a party at a parishioner's home).
News
traveled slowly those days. Word of Clapp’s conviction did not reach New Orleans until February of 1833. Meetings were held – and we have to
assume in the homes of members as well as at church – and many discussions
ensued. (Good thing they had
neither email nor parking lots.)
As with any issue in any church at any time, people were
divided. There were folks were
wanted to keep Parson Clapp as minister and those who were appalled by his
heresy. On February 26, 1833, a majority
of the congregation voted to keep Clapp and to remove their congregation from
the Presbyterian faith. (The
minority retained their ties to Presbyterianism, and their descendants are our
neighbors at First Presbyterian across Claiborne Avenue.) In 1837, the congregation was listed in the directory of the
American Unitarian Association, and has remained ever since as a Unitarian, and
later as a Unitarian Universalist, church.
Since February
26, 1833, this congregation has weathered countless church fights, 6 major wars
(the congregation really had to struggle to survive the Civil War and the
Vietnam War, a hundred years apart), several local epidemics (Parson Clapp’s close observations of mass deaths in his diaries are still taught in epidemiology at
Tulane Med School), and many cultural and social issues – emancipation, women’s
suffrage, humanism, integration and civil rights, second-wave feminism, gay
rights, paganism, the environment, to name a few -- that resulted in congregational
conflicts. The church has also
survived and overcome bankruptcy, a fire, a firebombing, lack of building
maintenance, a major church split, and of course the destruction of Hurricane
Katrina. We have had 2 ministers
with tenure over 30 years, and a large number of short-term ministries,
especially during periods of stress, such as after the Civil War and during the
Depression. (Our current
average ministry, not counting interims, since Rev. Albert D’Orlando’s retirement in 1979 is slightly
over 6 years.)
Even during Parson Clapp’s ministry, when so many non-members
attended services that the church’s nickname was The Strangers Church, the
actual official membership has been rather small. With the exception of a short post-World War II period of
the Baby Boom, the church has never had a large bustling membership. And yet, over our history our church has had an outsize
impact on the important justice issues of our day in every era.
At this time, the week of our 180th anniversary as
a heretical progressive religious congregation, we look back at our past to
gain inspiration and hope. We know
what our church’s ancestors faced, and what they managed to overcome. We draw the spiritual conclusion that
we can certainly overcome whatever challenges we have to face in the present,
since our current troubles really don’t seem as bad as what we’ve already triumphed over.
We learn a spiritual lesson from our looking back – that it’s
important that the majority of church members prevail when there’s a
conflict. Conflicts are messy and
uncomfortable, and conflicts are usually NOT what most folks come to church for
– but only by sticking with the church through such hard times can the
congregational majority achieve what they want. It was a minority in the church who wanted to stay
Presbyterian and get rid of Parson Clapp; it was a minority who disliked the
methods and message of Rev. D’Orlando; it was a minority who were afraid of
what standing up publicly for gay rights would mean. But because congregational decisions were arrived at
democratically, the majority was able to move ahead in the directions they had
chosen for themselves. Democracy
in all its complications and participation when the going gets gets rough become for us a spiritual discipline, and like most
spiritual disciplines, hard to stick to.
Another lesson we learn from First Church history is that
there are few quiet times in liberal religious life. While some of us might long sometimes for the quiet
meditative sort of spirituality characteristic of Quakerism or Buddhism or
cloistered Christianity, Unitarian Universalism is usually NOT that kind of
faith and New Orleans is not that kind of city. We are a religion of action, a religion of words, and quite
often, a religion of conflict, in a city vibrant with sound and music and
coping always with the mechanisms of change.
A third important learning from First Church’s past that we
carry forward with us is the importance of our young people. Especially since the 20th
century, and I would especially lift up the interim ministry of Rev. Krista Taves, the
education of our children and their participation in the life of the church has
been a major hallmark of our religious identity, and since Hurricane Katrina,
an important engine of our recovery and renewal. If we were not known in the community and among the other
local UU churches for high-quality, professional religious education for children
and a lively group for youth, we would be a much, much smaller congregation
than we are. And it is not just in
numbers that our young people have enriched us – they have brought major issues
to our attention with their passion and commitment.
We look forward also assured that while social justice issues
can certainly rile up the folks and cause a ruckus, they also energize and
revitalize our wider ministries. I
cannot tell you how wonderful it is for me to go places in the city and have
strangers congratulate me on the things First Church stands for. This city needs and wants our voices
and our bodies, and we are strengthened by adding our partnerships in the
Center for Ethical Living & Social Justice Renewal, the Greater New Orleans
UU cluster, and the New Orleans AIDS Task Force as part of our public ministry.
What lies in our future no one knows, but we can perhaps
discern some patterns. The largest
and healthiest churches in our denomination have long stable ministries, so
that is something we ought to strive for (no matter who that minister is) as we
also work towards financial stability.
It has been predicted at one UU conference recently that the coming
trend is conjoined congregations in one locality, reducing duplication of
effort and sharing resources and even paid staff – so we may want to look to
make our connections with the Greater New Orleans UU cluster even stronger. First Church has spent a large of our
history disconnected from the wider UU movement, and yet the UU friendships we
developed after Katrina might help us to be more UU than ever, keeping abreast
of what’s happening in our faith tradition, and appropriately utilizing the resources that the UUA and the District
and the Region can offer us.
And finally, our theological evolution over 180 years has
been tremendous. From our start as
a Presbyterian congregation, we became unorthodox, liberal Christian; moved
first toward a radical humanism that evolved almost into its own orthodoxy; and
then embraced earth-based and feminist spirituality and neo-paganism. We incorporated Buddhist meditation and
Jewish holidays into our worship.
Liberal Christianity circled back into our congregation under Rev.
Suzanne Meyer (whose Candidating Sermon back in 1988 was controversially entitled “Just
as I Am, Without One Plea” after the traditional Baptist altar-call hymn). Rev.
Marta Valentin brought a new mysticism into our services post-Katrina. The Feeling Ultimate Life & Love
Group, called the FULL Group, showed a core group at First Church who were
willing and even eager to explore a wide variety of spiritual disciplines. We are at our best at First Church when
our worship life engages people physically, intellectually, emotionally, and
spiritually, and encourages members to go deep in whatever spiritual path they
have chosen.
Democracy, controversy, religious education, engagement in
social justice – this is what we carry forward with us from our 180-year history. Financial and ministerial stability,
strong lateral relationships and connections with the larger Unitarian
Universalist movement, and internal theological and spiritual diversity are
part of what we hope to fully realize as we face our next 180 years.
As Jyaphia Christos-Rodgers wrote
for our 175th anniversary:
“The fleur de lis, the chalice,
and the flame, together rising from the water, rising from the soul of a people,
in a city that remembers with care.”
As we have before, we will again – we rise. We rise from and with our city. We rise with and because of our sisters and brothers in
faith, those close by and those far away.
We rise because of our love for each other and our commitment to this
faith and this church. No matter
what, we rise. We rise. We rise.
