Comments on: UCC getting the Universalists anyway http://boyinthebands.com/archives/ucc-getting-the-universalists-anyway/ Scott Wells on the practice of Christian faith Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:52:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Ron Robinson http://boyinthebands.com/archives/ucc-getting-the-universalists-anyway/comment-page-1/#comment-25241 Ron Robinson Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:43:30 +0000 http://boyinthebands.com/archives/ucc-getting-the-universalists-anyway/#comment-25241 Speaking of mergers and history, et al, Lyle Schaller's latest book, From Cooperation to Competition, has a lot of fascinating statistics and analysis (of course!) about the era of the mergers (in some ways from the 30s to the early 80s) and the more recent and continuing era of you might say de-merging. It wasn't good for growth or at least a case could be made that it kept the merged groups from being able to respond to culture shifts more quickly and also to plant more. Will be interesting to see how these additions to UCC, for example, might spur on some de-merging. By the way Carlton's church is now known as New Dimensions and his new website is www.newdimensions.us. I will post some more soon from the Schaller book on my blog Speaking of mergers and history, et al, Lyle Schaller’s latest book, From Cooperation to Competition, has a lot of fascinating statistics and analysis (of course!) about the era of the mergers (in some ways from the 30s to the early 80s) and the more recent and continuing era of you might say de-merging. It wasn’t good for growth or at least a case could be made that it kept the merged groups from being able to respond to culture shifts more quickly and also to plant more. Will be interesting to see how these additions to UCC, for example, might spur on some de-merging. By the way Carlton’s church is now known as New Dimensions and his new website is http://www.newdimensions.us. I will post some more soon from the Schaller book on my blog

]]> By: Derek http://boyinthebands.com/archives/ucc-getting-the-universalists-anyway/comment-page-1/#comment-25239 Derek Mon, 17 Jul 2006 13:08:49 +0000 http://boyinthebands.com/archives/ucc-getting-the-universalists-anyway/#comment-25239 Church of Universal Fellowship does have membership in the Northeast District, but not in the UUA. This may be a legacy of Universalist polity. There are other Universalist heritage churches in the UCC in Bristol, NY; I think Beverly, Mass; Sycamore, IL and Avon, IL. Many of these the product of Congregational-Universalist flirtations with denominational merger, that still produced local merger. As an aside, when I served a Universalist church in rural Ohio there were still a few VERY elderly people who remember the talk of merger with the Congregationalists, and still said they would have preferred it to the Unitarians. But I suspect that there were my Trinitarian Universalists in the flock. This was the kind of church that considered Universal Salvation mandatory doctrine, and Unitarianism "optional theological speculation". Church of Universal Fellowship does have membership in the Northeast District, but not in the UUA. This may be a legacy of Universalist polity.

There are other Universalist heritage churches in the UCC in Bristol, NY; I think Beverly, Mass; Sycamore, IL and Avon, IL. Many of these the product of Congregational-Universalist flirtations with denominational merger, that still produced local merger.

As an aside, when I served a Universalist church in rural Ohio there were still a few VERY elderly people who remember the talk of merger with the Congregationalists, and still said they would have preferred it to the Unitarians. But I suspect that there were my Trinitarian Universalists in the flock. This was the kind of church that considered Universal Salvation mandatory doctrine, and Unitarianism “optional theological speculation”.

]]>