by Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell

A sermon given May 19, 2002

First Unitarian Church

Portland, Oregon

CALL TO WORSHIP

Good morning, and welcome!

We come here today to give thanks,

to be reminded of our highest ideals,

to ask for forgiveness,

and to be strengthened for the journey ahead.

Come, let us worship together.

To speak about who we are as a people is to speak historically—there is no other way to express the greatness and significance of this church except to go back to the founding, to the roots. Some of you know the story well, but many of you are new and may not know the story at all. Incidentally, the story I will tell comes from the excellent history of the church written by one of our members, Evadne Hilands, and a former minister, Earl Morse Wilbur. The book is called A Time to Build.

Portland in the 1860’s was a frontier town of only about 5,000 to 10,000 people. It was reached by stage coach from California, and two or three steamers arrived monthly. Try to imagine the scene, the place. Streets full of mud—yes, it still rained in Portland then—and sidewalks made of planks of wood. There were no cars, of course—there were horses. And for the more well-to-do, carriages.

Though the town was in its infancy, many of the settlers had come from the Boston area—in fact, one of the names that was under consideration for the new community was Boston. The name Portland won the toss of a coin. Among these early folk were a number of people of wealth and influence, including some who had been raised in liberal Christian churches back East, both Unitarian and Universalist.

These liberal Christians had no church of their own, and they worshipped in, they supported, the several churches of other faiths which had been earlier established—Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, etc. Then one Sunday morning something happened that changed things forevermore. One of the ministers of the city make an angry and unprovoked attack on the Unitarian faith, which continued for several Sundays—a sort of sermon series on the evils of Unitarianism.

This, as you might imagine, did not sit well with the Unitarian Christians, and they began to plan for a church of their own. Among the more prominent citizens of the community were the Frazars. Mrs. Thomas Frazar had longed for a church of her own faith, and she prayed for this, for years. By her faith, by the intention of her heart, more than any other single influence, was our church born. Note: it was the vision—this prayerful vision of one woman--more than any other single thing, made this church possible.

The first actual organizational steps were taken in the founding of the Ladies’ Sewing Society in December of 1865. The first business done was the adoption of the preamble, written by Mrs. Frazar: "We, the friends of Liberal Christianity, pioneers of that Christian Faith in this new land, do here unite for the purpose of strengthening each other in the same and pledge ourselves, God helping, that by prayer and earnest effort we will use every endeavor to promote and advance the Cause." The Cause was, of course, the founding of a church. Notice how the process went forward: they prayed, they strengthened one another, and they gave an earnest effort.

The Society held monthly meetings, where they earned money by sewing; they also held monthly socials, occasional entertainments and festivals—they were the center of the organized life of liberal Christians in Portland. The earnings of their first year amounted to $400, an amazing amount of money, especially considering that their average weekly attendance was only 7. These women had faith in the future of their cause, and a tangible way of showing that faith was to take the first $30 they earned and to send it to Rev. Horatio Stebbins, the minister of the San Francisco church, the only other Unitarian church on the West Coast, and to request a sterling silver communion service—the same that is still used today in this church for our Maundy Thursday service.

In 1866 these liberal Christians invited Rev. Stebbins to visit Portland to determine whether there was sufficient strength to begin a church here. Stebbins came and preached for three Sundays in a row in the basement of the Baptist church. He also held a communion service in the home of one of the group, and at the same time baptized 7 children. The early organizers were energized by Stebbins’ visit, and new people who had never heard liberal Christianity preached came to understand that this is where they belonged.

After Stebbins’ first sermon, a meeting was held in one of the homes, and Stebbins basically said, "You can do this, you can found this church, but you must have the commitment—not just heart commitment, but financial." To that end, he passed around a sheet of paper, and asked the men for financial pledges. It was a sort of a "fish or cut bait" situation. These men pledged $1,700 for the purchase of a lot, and $1,600 to pay a minister’s salary. Just like that. Done. Stebbins advised that a Society be formed and a minister be called, and that is what they did. At a meeting held on June 26, 1866, at the office of Thomas Frazar, 24 people signed a constitution, and the First Unitarian Society of Portland, Oregon, was born.

The new little church was eager to find a minister. With Rev. Stebbins’ help, they asked one to come, and he refused. Then they went into negotiations with another, and he withdrew. In faith, they went ahead with the building, and by August of 1867, they had a wood frame chapel that held 200 people. They were already building for growth. The building was completed, free from debt, at a cost of about $2,000, and was furnished before the end of the year, awaiting the minister they were sure would come. And that minister came—he was Thomas Lamb Eliot, from a distinguished family in St. Louis. He came by way of New York and the Isthmus of Panama, and arrived in Portland on Christmas Eve, 1867. In less than two years after bringing Stebbins to discuss the possibility of a church, they had a building and a minister. Amazing! And now I’m quoting from Evadne Hilands fine history—she writes: "From the day of his [Eliot’s] arrival, the young Society began a career of growth and prosperity which has continued without hindrance to the present day." Well, I wouldn’t exactly say "without hindrance." There were some serious hindrances, like the fire that almost destroyed the church in 1965. Off and on, the church had financial difficulties. A few of the ministers didn’t work out and had a very short tenure.

Young Thomas Lamb Eliot came to this semi-wilderness of a town and began to see the needs all around him and began to lead the church to meet these needs. He held services at the County Jail, at the Insane Asylum. He reached out to the unchurched, holding Sunday evening services in a theater, for which he was roundly criticized by many, for such a secular setting was seen as inappropriate for the word of God. In his decades of service to the church, Thomas Lamb Eliot along with his congregants—not the minister alone, but the visionary and devoted church members as well—founded or co-founded almost every charitable and civic organization that came to exist in early Portland—the Boys and Girls Club, the Humane Society, Reed College, the public library, the art museum. Members of the church conducted its philanthropic work, and committees from the Christian Union made regular visits to the the Poor Farm, to the Insane Asylum. They gave testimony before the Grand Jury on the disgraceful sanitary condition of the County Jail. Within 7 short years, the church building that housed the First Unitarian Society was too small, and the church began to consider building once again.

What I am saying here by giving this history of our founding is that there are themes which have persisted through the years: First Unitarian has been an establishment church, known in the community for its values and respected for those values; it has been characterized by ministers through the years who have often given bold leadership; it has been characterized by strong lay people who were determined to make a difference in their community; it has been characterized by far-seeing institutional leaders who acted when the times called for it, and did not remain passively on the sidelines; it has been characterized by the willingness to build new space so that others who wanted to do so, could join this liberal religious family; and always, always, always it has been characterized by a strong and on-going concern for the disenfranchised, for those of little means, for those who are suffering.

I want to jump now to our church. Have we carried on this bold and noble history? Are we worthy of our roots, of the founding mothers and fathers who were so committed?

Well, certainly, some things are different now. We are not 200 members, or 600, or even 1,000. We serve approximately 1,400 members and 200-300 others who are friends of the church and who pledge. We are no outpost now, as in the early days of Portland, with 5,000 or 10,000 people, and now our church is one of the leaders of the Unitarian Universalist movement. We have a city 100 times the size of that town where the young Thomas Lamb Eliot began his ministry; we have a city that is considered to be progressive in city planning, in environmental concerns, in transportation. It is a beautiful city, a livable city, an exceptional city which citizens through the years have planned and worked for, many of those citizens members of this very church. Theologically we have changed, in that everyone is not Christian. In fact, the majority of us would not define ourselves this way. We no longer baptize children, we dedicate children. The cross has been removed. Because we are a free religious faith, our people come from many different faith traditions, some even atheist and agnostic. We honor these various traditions. Some of us you might call establishment figures, but most of us are not people of great wealth and influence.

Now turn over your orders of service, and let’s look at the mission statement of our present church. Would you read this statement with me?

"Given our long and distinguished history in Portland, we covenant together:

*To create a welcoming community of diverse individuals;

*To promote love, reason, and freedom in religion;

*To foster lifelong spiritual growth; and

*To act for social justice."`

I’m not sure our early church was looking for diversity in terms of race or theology or even class—but our society is much more pluralistic now, and we need to be intentional about creating a welcoming environment for all. We are a diverse church by many measures, and growing more so—we have members who are very wealthy, and we have those who are on the street and have no wealth at all, and everything in between. We are growing more diverse racially, especially in our children’s religious education program. We are a church with progressive values, but politically we have members who are Democrats and others who are Republicans, and of course, we have some Greens. The other three mission statements I think are surely in keeping with the tradition of this church since its founding in 1866.

Our strong social justice program has been admired by many, including many other churches in our national movement. We have acknowledged not just by word but by deed that if our spirituality goes no higher than the ceiling of this church, if we drop it off at the door when we leave, it isn’t worth very much. It becomes an insular, feel-good faith, and ultimately unsatisfying. Jesus did not say, as I remember, "I have come that ye may be comfortable." He said, "I have come that ye may be set free." Spiritual freedom comes when we begin to step outside of our immediate family concerns and begin to take responsibility for healing a hurting world. We may have different approaches to that healing, but we must not ignore the hurting.

What’s been happening in the past 10 years at the church? Well, we’ve more than doubled in size, and for the first 6 or 8 years, we have been trying mightily to get enough staff to provide for an infrastructure, to meet the needs of all these new people. We hired a consultant who told us that we were like a very powerful vacuum cleaner with no bag attached. So putting the program in place, putting the staff in place, has pushed us financially, and we were always trying to plug holes in the budget. Then last year we lost some sources of income from rentals, and we ended up with a financial deficit for the first time since my ministry started 10 years ago. We now have a 5-year financial plan which will provide for adequate reserves and also for on-going mantenance, a chronic problem which we inherited. I am just thrilled that we now have the Foundation which you heard about earlier, and it should provide a substantial increase in our endowment.

Some of you have been wondering what has happened to the Capital Fund Drive. It is still going, but has slowed down—one reason for that was that I was gone on sabbatical last year, and secondly we needed to be sure that we were on a sound financial basis for our yearly on-going expenses before we moved forward too quickly on the Capital Fund. We will continue now for the next couple of years to approach large donors, and it is my hope that we’ll have the all-church Capital Fund Drive two or three years from now.

Those of you who have been in the church for a while know that the next phase of the Capital Fund Drive will be the building of a new religious education facility. That facility is part of a larger vision which the congregation adopted in concept several years ago. If you haven’t seen the model of what is planned, it is in the narthex of this building. Look for it as you leave today. As I see it, this facility would serve not only our needs, but the needs of the larger community as well, insofar as those needs are compatible with our mission.

The vision comes directly out of that first mission statement: to welcome those who wish to join this liberal faith, and to make room for them and their children. We are woefully lacking in education space both for children and adults just now.

What will it require of us, to carry out this vision? Think back on the founding of this church. It was characterized by leadership, faith, financial commitment, determination--keeping the eye on the prize. It will require visionary lay leaders, in partnership with strong leadership from ministry. It will require commitment—months of planning, disappointments and set-backs--and a depth of faith in the future that will keep us going when the going gets tough. It will require walking in faith, through it all, and never saying, "We can’t do this." It is clear to me that we can do it, if we wish to do it, if it is ours to do.

We need to keep the spirit alive in the words of the first minister of this church—words that Tom read earlier: "People are not made to grovel, but to soar—we gather here to remember that." Yes, we gather here on the first day of each week to remind ourselves what we are about, as individuals and as an institution: to remember what is the noblest and best in ourselves and to open ourselves to the call of the Spirit and to answer "yes" to wherever we are led. Not "I can’t"; not "Maybe"; but "Here I am, Lord, send me."  So be it. Amen.

PRAYER

God of our fathers, God of our mothers, we give thanks for those who have gone before in the history of this great church. We are thankful for their wisdom, their faith, their tenacity, their generosity. Make us worthy of what we have inherited. Help us to see what is beckoning to us just now. Take us away from our petty concerns and open us to the callings of the moment. Let us be faithful to those who will come after us. May they say of us, "Their minds were clear, their spirits were strong, they wanted nothing more than to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with their God." Amen.

BENEDICTION

Go now, with thankfulness in your hearts to who envisioned and built this church, and go with the confidence that we can carry on that vision.

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Copyright 2002, Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell.  All rights reserved.