Origin 1793 to 1961
The Universalist Church of America traced its organized beginnings to the 1793 Universalist Convention and formalized as a national denomination over the nineteenth century, built on the conviction that a loving God would not condemn any soul to eternal damnation, a rejection of the Calvinist doctrine of limited election that put it at odds with much of mainstream American Protestantism. Strongest in rural New England and upstate New York through the nineteenth century, it developed a strong tradition of social reform activism, including early ordination of women ministers, and declined in membership through the twentieth century before merging with the American Unitarian Association in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Facts
History
Separation or DivergenceRejected the Calvinist doctrine of limited election and eternal damnation, teaching instead that a loving God would condemn no soul; this conviction put it at odds with much of mainstream American Protestantism from its 1793 organized beginnings. 1 Organisation
GovernanceCongregational: each congregation self-governing 1 Independent local churches federated through state conventions, formalizing as the Universalist General Convention and later the Universalist Church of America. OrdinationOpen to women and men 1 2 The Universalist Church of America developed a strong tradition of social reform activism, including early ordination of women ministers, among the first American denominations to do so. Belief
Defining Doctrinal PositionRestorationist: holds the apostolic church to have been lost and restored 1 Doctrinal Position DetailRejected eternal damnation, holding that a loving God would ultimately save and restore every soul. 1 Practice
Liturgical Language Trajectory
Membership Over TimeSourced to the subject's own accountAt the time of the 1960 vote to merge with the American Unitarian Association, the Universalist Church of America contributed only 36,864 members, about twenty five percent, to the combined 141,821 members certified for the Unitarian Universalist Association formed in 1961. 3 Membership Figure As OfSourced to the subject's own account Basis of the Membership FigureSourced to the subject's own account Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginNew England, United States 1 FounderNo single founder; traced its organized beginnings to the 1793 Universalist Convention and federated into a national denomination over the nineteenth century 1 Status
Status TodayDissolved; the community wound itself up 1 Merged with the American Unitarian Association in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association; it no longer exists as a separate body. Practice Status DetailMerged with the American Unitarian Association in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association; no longer exists as a separate body. 1 Learn More
A Promise That No One Is Left Behind
Universalism, the belief that a loving God will ultimately reconcile and save every human soul rather than condemning some portion of humanity to eternal punishment, took root as an organized American religious movement in the eighteenth century, with the English-born preacher John Murray, who arrived in the American colonies in 1770, generally credited as its most influential early organizer. The first formally gathered Universalist church in America was established in 1779 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and the movement grew steadily over the following decades as it drew converts, many of them former Calvinists uneasy with strict doctrines of predestined damnation, into a religious body organized specifically around universal salvation as its defining doctrine. The Universalist Church of America eventually formalized into a national denominational structure during the nineteenth century, maintaining, like many liberal Protestant bodies of the period, congregational polity and a relatively open, non-creedal approach to membership even as it built out the institutional structures, conventions, and publications a growing national denomination required. Universalism's central promise, that no soul is ultimately left behind, remained the denomination's defining theological claim throughout its independent history.
Two Liberal Churches Become One
Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Universalist Church of America came to share a great deal, in practice and in outlook, with the doctrinally distinct but temperamentally similar American Unitarian Association: neither body required assent to a fixed creed, both had built long traditions of liberal engagement with intellectual, social, and political questions, and both denominations had ordained women and taken strong public stands against slavery well ahead of most other American Christian bodies. Formal conversations aimed at combining the two organizations began in earnest in the 1950s, and concurrent business meetings of both denominations, held in Boston in May 1960, created interim study committees charged with working out the practical questions a merger would raise, including nomination procedures, the new body's overall organizational shape, fund-raising, and regional structure. Those committees reported back the following year, and the merger was formally completed at an organizing meeting held in Boston in May 1961, at which the Universalist Church of America and the American Unitarian Association together became the Unitarian Universalist Association, ending both predecessor denominations' separate institutional existence while carrying their shared liberal, non-creedal religious tradition forward under a single combined name.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Americas directly: "The Universalist Church of America traced its organized beginnings to the 1793 Universalist Convention and formalized as a national denomination over the nineteenth century, built on the conviction..."
This source names New York directly: "Strongest in rural New England and upstate New York through the nineteenth century, it developed a strong tradition of social reform activism, including early ordination of women ministers, and..."
This source names Protestantism directly: "odds with much of mainstream American Protestantism."
This source names Universalist Church of America directly: "membership of 141,821, of which the Universalist Church of America supplied 36,864 members, about twenty five percent."
This source names Universalist Church of America directly: "main church connection was the Universalist Church of America, and then since 1961 with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Churches." Still published today, quarterly, from Seven Springs..."
This source names Universalist Church of America directly: "Wikipedia's dedicated article on the Universalist Church of America, stating the church was "established in New England in 1793" and "had no official name until 1866, as the Universalist General..."
This source names Universalist Church of America directly: "year the AUA itself merged with the Universalist Church of America."
Belongs to Tradition
Branch Of
Derived from This
One of the two denominations that merged in 1961 to form Unitarian Universalism.
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
Its own Wikipedia article states plainly that "the Herald's main church connection was the Universalist Church of America," continuing from before the 1942 renaming through it to the 1961 merger into the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.