AUA President Tours the South 1908

American Unitarian Association
Notes of Itinerant
Part II

Atlanta

The Piedmont Hotel in Atlanta is kept by the same firm that conducts the Bellevue Hotel that adjoins our Boston headquarters. The advertisements of the Bellevue which hang on the walls of the Piedmont carry photographs of the Association’s building and of the view of the State House from my office window. These gave me a home-like greeting which was quickly supplemented by the welcome of old friends and new.

Ten minutes after my arrival I was in session with the trustees and minister of the Unitarian Church, and we spent a profitable evening together consulting about the condition and future of our cause in Atlanta. The next morning I went over the properties of the Unitarian and Universalist societies and viewed certain superior locations that some of our sanguine friends dream of possessing. The afternoon was spent in interesting conference with the entire board of trustees of the Universalist society, and in the evening there was a supper and social gathering of all the Unitarian and Universalist people at the Unitarian church. After supper the two earnest and self-forgetting ministers spoke, followed by two eloquent laymen and the visiting itinerant. This pleasant gathering betokens a better understanding and closer comradeship between the two liberal churches in Atlanta, and may be prophetic of larger efficiency and usefulness.

Florida

The financial stringency and the mild winter do not seem to have seriously interfered with the tide of travel to the Florida coasts. Watching the crowd of people who pour through Jacksonville at this season one can not help wishing that somehow we might better use the opportunity of bringing our message to the attention of these people from all over the country. Our churches in Southern California and in the summer resorts of New England are so useful that one longs to have the same kind of work done in the Florida winter resorts. Jacksonville is the gateway and natural centre of influence, and it is encouraging that our new society has got so good a start. Sunday morning and evening two good congregations met me in the pleasant hall of the Women’s Club, and, after the evening service, a business meeting authorized the Standing Committee to let the contract for the building of the new church. The lot, one hundred and five feet square, was bought by the Association last spring for $6,500. The society has now subscriptions and pledges for a building fund amounting to $12,000, and this will complete the proposed church without the furnishings. $3,000 more will be needed for organ, pews, and fixtures, and, judging from the number and substantial quality of the society and the zeal of the minister, I am confident that this sum can readily be added before the building is completed. Mr. Coleman, working under some serious handicaps, is carrying forward the enterprise wisely, and among the people interested in the movement are some of the best citizens of Jacksonville. The society is fortunate in possessing the allegiance of some exceptionally fine musicians, who generously give their services. The music on the Sunday of my visit was appropriate and beautiful.

Charleston

On Monday evening I was able to attend a supper and business meeting of the church in Charleston. The interesting reports read at the meeting showed the varied activities of the society. Mr. Gray and his wife have both been passing through painful illnesses, and Prof. Barber has supplied the pulpit for three Sundays. Mr. Gray is now able to resume his work, and is also busy in preparing for the meeting of the Southern Conference which meets in Atlanta in May, and of which he is the energetic secretary.

Charleston shows some unwonted signs of growth and change. The white population begins to increase a little, commerce begins to return to the grass-grown wharves, but the city does not lose its quaint and peaceful atmosphere. It is still exclusive in its memories, conservative in its social and religious customs, haunted with dreams of the days that are gone forever. The Unitarian church is well endowed, and maintains its worship and its work patiently and devoutly. One by one the faithful go to their rest in the lovely church yard, but new families make good the loss in numbers, and the quiet influence of plain living and liberal thinking abides in the lives of the people and in the soft lights and shadows that play among the columns and shrines of the beautiful church. It was a pleasure to tell the people of this brave and isolated society something of the larger work and progress of our fellowship, and the next morning to touch the new intellectual life of the community by meeting and addressing the faculty and students of Charleston College.

Richmond is growing in population, activity, and beauty. Our little society, fitly housed in its pleasant and appropriate chapel, will share in this growth. The people of the society were kind enough to meet me for a morning hour, and we took new courage from one another. The pluck and patience of these isolated churches and of the ministers who serve them is past praise. I take from their example of fidelity and steadfastness, more than I can give.

SAMUEL A. ELIOT

(Archivist Note: Rev. Samuel A. Eliot is the president of the American Unitarian Association.  In April 1908, Rev. Eliot sent a response to a decision by the Atlanta Unitarian church not to merge with the city’s Universalist congregation. This letter includes the admonition to the Unitarians to “unite or die.”  Based on his recent trip to the South and meeting with Atlanta’s Unitarian and Universalist congregations, it can be concluded that Rev. Eliot  had first hand knowledge of the situation in Atlanta.)

Source: The Christian Register found in Google Book, Vol. 87, No. 11, Mar 12,1908, Page: 4 (284)