UUSS HISTORY PART FOUR — The House of a Thousand Windows,
Building the New Church on Sierra Boulevard

Inside UUSS History



Model for New Church, Auditorium and School on Sierra Boulevard
John Harvey Carter, Architect, 1958

Easter 1951

The following Spring brought vivid demonstrations of the need for more space. Easter came early that year — March 25 — when cherry petals were falling. That Sunday in the little rustic building on 27th Street, the younger children reflected the spirit of the season as they marched in the service to receive a gift of a potted flowering plant.

The 200-member Society was then providing church school for 90 enrolled children of grade school and junior high age. The classrooms across the alley had once been a residence; the interest-free mortgage payments of $450 a year to the American Unitarian Association in Boston were being met on time, and a recent appeal for $50 more in donations resulted in the completion of the school facility.

That Easter the Sunday service was attended by 200 adults, the largest audience in the 83-year history of the Society. A portion of the minister’s presentation on that occasion has been preserved.1 This condensed version gives the essence of his meditational reading for the service:

Immortalility

“Immortality,” said Robert G. Ingersoll, “is a word that Hope through all the ages has been whispering to Love.” But he added, “The more we love, the more we fear!”

Mark Twain wrote in his Notebook, “One of the proofs of immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed in it. They also believed that the world was flat.”

When we ask for the evidence on which men believed in immortality, we begin to doubt, for the evidence is lacking. Obviously, men have believed, not because of evidence, but because of their desire to live again with departed ones, or because of intense suffering in this life and the hope for a more comfortable life thereafter; or because of injustice experienced here and the feeling that the universe may grant justice by a change of scene later...

It seems then that the longing for immortality has been due very largely to our inability to appreciate the life we now have, our inability to see the beauties of character and of life that lie all about us; our craving to enjoy the best without having to struggle to achieve it.

Perhaps if we‘d stop dreaming of what we‘d like to have, and begin to appreciate what we do have ... perhaps if we‘d begin to practice the kind of living that we dream of living beyond the grave, we‘d suddenly become aware that we are now in heaven.

Mr. Abell’s forthright address to the large Easter audience was not to go unchallenged. In the April issue of the Sacramento Unitarian2 the minister reported, “The following letter... from one of our most valued members... (is) of interest to publish hoping that it may stimulate others to contribute their thoughts from time to time.”

In the interest of readability and brevity, the subject of the letter and Mr. Abell’s reply are combined in dialogue form.

Member: I was disturbed by your talk today on the “Dream of Immortality”... Could it be... that the case must be stated, “either we die and that is the end of us” — or — “we are resurrected, or our soul continues on?”... I know of no other alternatives... but that doesn‘t mean there are no others.

Minister: It would be quite absurd for anyone to say dogmatically that immortality of the individual consciousness is impossible, but that in any case, the best preparation for any future life is living a good life here.

Member: I agree that the dream of immortality has probably done immense harm and caused suffering... To kill a man to save his soul was a mistaken inference...

Minister: The church leaders did not want to lose their prestige, privileges and power, but the belief in the soul and the necessity of saving it gave those leaders the alibi they needed... without this belief and the thought that the church held the keys to the heaven beyond, men could never have been held in mental slavery for so long.

Member: The tone seemed to me to be somewhat on the dogmatic side... you may have given us the last word, but not the final one.

Minister: I intended to emphasize in this discussion that the real values for us lie in this life — not in idle speculations about the “beyond” about which we have no evidence... There is a whale of a lot more satisfaction in attempting to make heaven here, than in thinking about heaven thereafter... We do not need hope of heaven or the fear of hell to live a good and happy life here.

Member: I was disturbed — not so much for myself, because I know the context of your talks, but visitors don‘t. I didn‘t think that the “old standbys” would have objected today with so many visitors present if you had been a little bit more elementary.

Minister: The minister cannot believe that our members would want him to “soft-pedal” his talks in any way just because visitors are present. Rather, they are too enthusiastic about the value of a church whose minister is expected at all times to preach what he honestly believes and not what he thinks people want to hear.

 

1 Sacramento Unitarian, Vol. 6, No.4, p. 29, April 1951, published monthly by the First Unitarian Society, Rev. Theodore C. Abell, editor.

2 Mr. Abell frequently referred to Robert Ingersoll’s writings in 1951. His January 21st sermon was on Ingersoll as “A tribute to a great American who has been vilified by orthodoxy because of his liberal views on religion.” The Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, the Second Edition, 1944 printing, in its biographical section listed this: “Ingersoll, Robert Green, American lawyer and anti-Christian propagandist, 1833-1899.” In Mr. Abell's private library, which he then was making available to Society members, there were three volumes by Ingersoll: Crimes Against Criminals, The Gods, and Some Mistakes of Moses.

The Sacramento City and County Library still circulates volumes of Ingersoll’s writings.

3 Ibid., pp. 34-35.

 

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