History of UUCB
The Unitarian and Universalist churches in Buffalo were each organized in 1831 when it was still a village.[i] In 1953, they merged locally and began services at a building that originally was built as the First Unitarian Church, where the congregation now known as the Unitarian Universalist Church continues today. Nationally, the two denominations merged in 1961.
Early Universalism in Buffalo Universalist origins in Buffalo can be traced to the circuit riding ministry of The Reverend Stephen R. Smith, which was established in 1816. In June of that year, a Masonic festival was held and the barn hosting the festival provided the setting for “a discourse from the 6th verse of the 126th Psalm” by Rev. Smith. Although he departed his circuit in 1819, a congregation formed in 1823, with Rev. Smith visiting again in 1824. This early congregation lasted five years. Finally, a board of trustees organized the congregation from which our current church emerged on December 6, 1831. The cornerstone of the church building was in 1832 and after completion the building near Washington & Swan Streets was dedicated on June 5, 1833. Costing $10,000, it was described by The Patriot, a local newspaper, as "an elegant building which is an ornament to the city." Rev. Smith would return as a central figure in the development of the church. He came back to Buffalo as minister in 1843 and preached until 1849. A year later, when he died, his deathbed was within earshot of the ringing Universalist church bell. By then the church he helped found was prosperous and a strong religious influence in the city. Later locations were Main & Huron (1866), a mission church at Grant & Ferry (1889), North & Mariner (1892), and Lafayette & Hoyt (1911). Early Unitarianism in Buffalo While the founding of the Universalist church in Buffalo was preceded by many years of Universalist preaching, the Unitarian presence in Buffalo emerged in a different way. When wave after wave of revivalist Christian orthodoxy swept through upstate New York in the early 1800s, especially in 1831 and the years preceding it, a handful of men -- new arrivals from New England -- wished to hear preaching more consistent with their non-orthodox, Unitarian views. One of them, Noah Sprague, lobbied to bring Unitarian preaching to Buffalo. Subsequently, in November, 1831, a Unitarian minister from Keene, NH arrived to preach three sermons in the Buffalo Court House. The following month, a board met to organize “The First Unitarian Society of Buffalo” on December 2, 1831 (just four days from the formation of the Universalist Church!) The first Unitarian Church building in Buffalo was erected on a lot at Franklin & Eagle Streets; its cornerstone was laid in 1833. (This building, much altered, remains standing today.) Among those contributing towards its construction was Millard Fillmore, church member and future U.S. President, who later welcomed John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln as guests in his pew. Mr. Lincoln’s visit occurred during his stop in Buffalo on the way to Washington for his inauguration as U.S. President. Other Unitarian churches were located at Delaware & Mohawk (1879) and Amherst & Fairfield (1897), prior to the current church (1906). A Common Bond: Long Histories of Social Action Both faith traditions in Buffalo share a common bond: long histories of social action. Universalist Minister Rev. Smith lectured on temperance and brought the concept of universal salvation to the masses. During his ministry, an extensive Sunday School program was financed by an annual picnic excursion which one year totaled over 1,500 persons. Meanwhile, members of the Unitarian Church helped found the free Buffalo public school system. Also prior to the Civil War, Unitarian Minister The Reverend Dr. George W. Hosmer aided fugitive slaves[ii] and spoke out against slavery. He criticized the Fugitive Slave Law, even in person to its signatory, church member Millard Fillmore who as U.S. President signed it into law as part of the Compromise of 1850. Rev. Hosmer had two sons who served as soldiers in the war, James and Edward. While they served, Rev. Hosmer engaged in war relief, visiting soldiers in hospital as a prominent representative of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. In this capacity he is notable for writing a widely distributed report, described by him in a passage printed in a memoir published by his family: "December 30, 1862. -- My report upon the Sanitary Commission astonishes me. One thousand copies were published by our Buffalo Ladies' Aid Society. As soon as this report was seen at New York and Washington, ten thousand were called for Washington, and five thousand for New York; and since that, four thousand more, and they continue to be called for. Many, they say, have been made to work and send their goods by the right way.[iii]" In 1863, his son Edward lost his life to disease while in the service. Upon learning from James that his and Edward’s 52nd Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry (Militia), was passing through Buffalo headed east on a train, Rev. Hosmer marshalled his Sunday congregation and all the resources they could find to feed and comfort them. “When the hour of public service came I went to church, and after prayer and singing, I told the people to go and prepare to feed the hungry and minister to the sick. At noon we were ready to feed 800 men and care for a large number of sick, on long tables in the great depot… The whole affair was very fine, and I set the other churches going so that all the other returning regiments of New England, eight or nine already and more expected, have been fed and cared for very generously.” The Reverend Dr. George W. Hosmer, a leader of just and charitable causes As the population of Buffalo boomed due to transportation and industrial expansion, both Universalists and Unitarians provided services and advocacy for immigrants in dire need. The Universalists operated a mission church at Grant & Ferry in 1889, an area experiencing a rapid population influx. The Unitarians, a few years later in 1892, used the former residence of Mayor Scheu to establish Neighborhood House as a community center to serve the another densely populated area. After the merger of the two churches in Buffalo in 1953, The Reverend Dr. Paul N. Carnes served as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo and continued the tradition of social action so well established by the Unitarians and Universalists in Buffalo.[iv] He marched for civil rights with The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Selma, Alabama. With other members of the Interracial and Interdenominational Ministers' Association, a group he had helped to form, he rode school buses in Buffalo to calm racial tension after a student had been stabbed on a bus. In 1968, the church served as the site for a demonstration against the Vietnam War draft, providing physical and symbolic sanctuary for draft resistors. Rev. Carnes was elected the third President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), serving from 1977-79, with his term cut short only by his passing due to cancer. The Reverend Dr. Paul N. Carnes sought “to give men and women in whatever exigency inspired imagination and hope.” The church has continued being both the voice and the hand of religious liberalism in Buffalo in recent years. In 1984, the church declared itself a nuclear weapons free zone. In 1990, Interweave was established at the church with a purpose to “promote the living and celebrating of the affectional and sexual truths of lesbians, gays, bisexual and all persons.”[v] In 2001, responding to an application from Interweave, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations officially designated the church as a Welcoming Congregation. In January, 1991, when Operation Desert Storm commenced in the Persian Gulf War, the church hosted a candlelight prayer service in the Sanctuary for the troops and civilians in harm’s way while a teach-in took place simultaneously in the Parish Hall led by demonstrators opposing the outbreak of hostilities. Both of the last two Interim Ministers of the church have been women: The Reverend Dr. Margret A. O'Neall (2011-2014) and The Reverend Mary Hnottavange-Telleen (2014-2015). In adherence to the Seven Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, we continue to engage locally and nationally in social justice issues. [i] This and related information on the early churches in Buffalo is from Heritage of Heresy, by Charles P. Jamieson, 1982. [ii] See the article “‘Still They Come’: Some Eyewitness Accounts of the Underground Railroad in Buffalo,” by Cynthia M. Van Ness, published in the journal Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (Online at: http://www.readperiodicals.com/201201/2599645571.html [iii] Information on Rev. Dr. Hosmer is from Memorial of George Washington Hosmer, D.D., privately printed, 1882. (Online at: http://www.archive.org/stream/memorialofgeorge00hosmrich/memorialofgeorge00hosmrich_djvu.txt) [iv] From the biography of Rev. Dr. Paul Carnes written by Alan Seaburg in the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography, an on-line resource of the Unitarian Universalist History & Heritage Society. (Online at: http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/paulcarnes.html). [v] Living the Heritage, by Charles P. Jameison, 1995. For more information on this document, contact: Bill Parke, Church Historian, c/o Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo, (716) 885-2136. |