Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento
A Church of Open Minds and Loving Hearts
UUSS HISTORY PART THREE — Transition into the Modern Sacramento Society
With the departure of the Rev. Arthur Foote in 1945, the small Unitarian Society of Sacramento gave no indication that it was upon the threshold of an unprecedented era of growth and development. The turning point came when a Sacramento resident became part-time minister in November, and minister almost a year later. That person was Theodore Curtis Abell, a native of Connecticut. who had been nurtured in religious orthodoxy and trained for the Methodist ministry from which he departed in the 1920s because many of his developing concepts were then too far ahead of the times. These chapters chronicle the remarkable period of 1945-1950, in which Mr. Abell diligently but confidently gave the Society its modern character.
The Postwar Period
Against the background of five years of violent, armed conflict around the world, which came to a dramatic end after atomic bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities in August of 1945, the affairs of the Sacramento Society then seemed minor. Besides, it was a time when people were primarily concerned with readjusting their lives and affairs to peacetime conditions.
Appraising the Society, Spring of 1945
At the request of the departing minister and the Society trustees, Florence Baer1 as a representative of the American Unitarian Association visited Sacramento in April for appraisal and recommendations for the future course of the church. In a fourteen-page report she outlined her evaluations. She noted that Sacramento was growing at the rate of a thousand persons a month, that its population of 105,000 in 1940 had reached 127,000 just five years later. The number of Society constituents — persons participating in Society activities — was steadily increasing while the number of members was declining, according to the data that she presented:
| Year | Members | Pledges | Constituents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | 54 | 25 | 115 |
| 1943 | 42 | 28 | 130 |
| 1944 | 33 | 24 | 160 |
Her conclusion was that the Society had no systematic way of attracting members from persons attending services. She stated, “Your weakness has been that you have not always used the most businesslike way to bring about the results you desire.”
She commented as to the physical appearance of the church building: “The windows are in bad shape... It is unbelievable that you have allowed one window to have no glass at all but a simple cloth tacked to frames... The glass in the others is badly in need of repair.”
She cited a current Sacramento religious census which found that 10,000 persons identifying themselves as Protestants were not members of any church. That was considered to be evidence that a sound and vigorous Unitarian program could be maintained in Sacramento under the leadership of a full time minister.
The usefulness of the report as a guide to the vitalization of the Society seems to have been diluted due to unfortunate circumstances. Florence Baer became seriously ill for several months and unable to pursue that project. Interaction between the Sacramento congregation and the Boston headquarters was broken off, apparently by the pressing need for a large number of Unitarian ministers who had been serving as military chaplains to be relocated into parishes as the armed forces were disbanded as rapidly as possible in October and November.
This loss of communication between Sacramento and Boston resulted in a poor state of Society morale, as revealed in a letter written on 5 October 1945 to the Boston office:
Mr. Foote’s leaving was a heavy blow to the group here, and the apparent indifference of the American Unitarian Association after Miss Baer made her survey was most disheartening to the entire membership... many felt that the time had come to give the whole movement a decent burial and seek other channels for their activities.
The Sacramento Society and the AUA
It may be useful at this point to explain the relationship between the Sacramento Society and the American Unitarian Association (AUA). Unitarian churches use a “congregational” structure, which is defined as “that system of church organization which vests all ecclesiastical power in the assembled brotherhood (members) of each local church.” Thus, while being completely autonomous and recognizing no hierarchical control by the AUA, the Society was in the ambivalent situation of having existed at least since 1893 by financial grants off and on from the AUA. Over that
period aid had averaged perhaps $1 a day, but the trustees had apparently become accustomed to thinking of it as a birthright of a permanent nature.
The AUA is a national association of completely autonomous groups, be they named churches, societies, fellowships or whatever, banded together for mutual benefit and funded largely by voluntary contributions from member groups. In return the AUA educates ministers, recruits and guides ministers offered for selection by congregations, develops program resources for local groups; inspires, informs and publishes aids to the development of local programs, and so on. By philosophy it is opposed to proselytism, so there has been little “missionary” effort. Rather, its procedure is to help new and weak local groups to become self-sustaining through direct and temporary financial aid, more so in the past than in the present.
Enter, Rev. Theodore Curtis Abell
Rev. Theodore Curtis Abell
At that low point in the fortunes of the Society in 1945, unexpected help was provided through a Sacramento resident who came forth as minister2 to infuse new life into the discouraged little band. He was Theodore Curtis Abell, a former minister of a Unitarian Society, then employed by the California Department of Social Welfare. In April Florence Baer had recommended Mr. Abell as a possible minister for the Sacramento congregation. At that time he had declined, perhaps because its budget for the 1945-46 fiscal year included only $600 for minister’s salary at the rate of $50 per month. The American Unitarian Association had been requested to grant an additional sum of $2,400 for ministerial salary; instead it had granted $900, which at that time was not even reported to the Society because of the breakdown in communications between Sacramento and Boston.
In late autumn Mr. Abell agreed to take charge of the Sunday services only, on a half-time basis, but not the obligations of Society minister. He was then receiving a yearly salary of $3,600 as a social worker, and he would not consider further obligation to the Society without adequate compensation. He stated in an October letter to Boston, “I fear that I shall not be worth any more than the local group can pay... I agreed to extend what help I could during my spare time until the services of a full time minister could be secured.”
Another Beginning
A congregational meeting called for the regular Sunday night service on November 25, 1945 resulted in the election of Mr. Abell as part-time minister. Within the week he instituted a new regime. Morning services replaced the evening ones. A display advertisement in the next Saturday Sacramento Bee set the tone for the new era:
UNITARIANISM
Is [it] the religion of reason and the human heart? It stands for deeds, not dogma; for hope and trust and vision, for freedom of thought and progress, not for bondage to the past; for earnest and united effort to build a Heaven on earth. It teaches that truest service to God is service to man.
Services every Sunday morning at 1415 27th Street
10 A.M. - Worship 10:30 A.M. - School
11 :15 A.M. - Fellowship for Social Justice
THE UNITARIAN SOCIETY OF SACRAMENTO
Under the new format of Sunday services started at ten o‘clock with a short general assembly for hymns, prayer or meditation, readings, a short sermon, offertory and benediction. At ten-thirty the adults moved to the front of the auditorium for their “Sunday School” conducted by Mr. Abell while the children went to their classrooms in the kitchen, the fireside social room and assorted nooks and crannies in a building inadequate for their needs. At eleven-fifteen, the Fellowship for Social Justice gathered under the leadership of Everett “Alex” Pesonen to pursue a topic of discussion.
Notes regarding the 2 December 1945 service listed Mr. Abell’s Sunday School topic as “The Bible in Light of Modern Knowledge” and Mr. Pesonen’s as “A Program for Social Action.”
Christmas, 1945
That Christmas was under the still-dark shadow of... World War II, which had left Europe suffering from widespread destruction. Mr. Abell’s description of the aftermath of that conflict was published in the Shopping News of December 21:
Much of the world is today experiencing the darkest days of its history. Everywhere there is starvation, disease, cold, degradation, despair. In Czechoslovakia almost a million children are destitute. In Hungary, there is no hope of bread after February 1. In Poland, there is indescribable, unimaginable distress, devastation and anguish. In Berlin, infant mortality reaches fifty percent. In Transylvania, thirty thousand sick children are homeless.
The American Unitarian Association was calling upon its people, nationwide, to join in sending food to Europe by New Year’s Day. Sunday, December 23, was designated as food collection day for the Sacramento Society, when the “price of admission” to regular services was a can of food — meat, milk, vegetable or fruit.
The Christmas program was held that evening, beginning with the minister’s message which was followed by a party. A feeling of continuity was provided by the reading of a message from the Rev. Arthur Foote, who wrote from his new parish in Minneapolis, Minnesota:
To the Members and Friends of the First Unitarian Society of Sacramento, California:
You are always in our heart and often in our thoughts, and we shall be with you in spirit as you gather about the board for the Christmas party, December 23rd. May the blessing of Christmas be yours, and may the New Year be one of growth and enrichment in the church we love so dearly. We have followed with eager interest every development since we left, and we share your confidence that under the competent leadership of Theodore Abell, 1946 will bring progress, both in outward sign and, more important, in the inward life of the Society.
— Rebecca and Arthur Foote
1 Society records show her name spelled either as “Barr” or “Baer”.
2 That had been done twice before, by Charles P. Massey in 1887 and by Berkeley B. Blake in 1922.
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