FIFTY YEARS OF THE OBERLIN UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP
In the mid 1950's a group of college students formed a Unitarian Fellowship with Professor Warren Taylor as their advisor. Some local members of The Religious Society of Friends and local Unitarians soon joined this group and met together regularly for worship. The Unitarian Fellowship of Oberlin was recognized by the national association on May 25,1960, becoming the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship upon the merger of the two national organizations in 1961. The Oberlin Fellowship of the time was an active group that invited renowned speakers. A house at 92 Spring St. was bought and served as a church till it was sold in 1979. For a while the adults met in Wilder Hall on the college campus and a First Day school (Sunday School) for children was held in a room in the Co-op Bookstore. From 1987 to 1996 the Fellowship met in historic Grange Hall at 40-1/2 South Main St; then moving to the Masonic Temple on Rt. 58 until 2001. It is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America, Ohio-Meadville District.
Among the ministers, members, and students who passed through Oberlin, we can count Rev. William F. Schulz, who preached at many area churches in his student years at Oberlin College, from which he graduated in 1971. He went on to head the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and Amnesty International USA.
Currently
The Followship enjoys the part-time ministry of Rev. Mary Grigolia. It is also served by Barbara Fuchsman as Commissioned Lay Leader. Cal Frye was recently designated as CLL Candidate. The hymnal used in services is Singing the Living Tradition, 1994, and Singing the Journey, 2005.
Early Universalists in Northeast Ohio
Elmo Arnold Robinson's book, The Universalist Church in Ohio, published by The Ohio Universalist Convention (Columbus?) in 1923, speaks of a Universalist church in Oberlin,"Organized about 1848."
Mr. Robinson also lists these ministers active in the Oberlin area:
1836. Stephen Hull. A resident of Carlisle, ordained by the Ohio Convention in 1837. He preached at Oberlin, Huron, Portland, Olmstead, La Porte, etc. up to about 1845.
1842. Jay Wheaton. A student at Oberlin who preached for the Universalists about 3 years.
1847. J. W. Bryant. A resident of Oberlin. He was disfellowshipped in 1849. Some of Rev. Bryant's letters have been reprinted by the Lorain Co. Historical Society. He may well have had
a hard time preaching in our town during the tenure of Charles Grandison Finney!
1860(?). N. S. Sage, LL.D. Born at Huntington and educated at Oberlin. Private, and later Chaplain, in the Civil War. Died at Nuela, Colorado, April 8, 1919.
1867. G. S. Abbott. Born in New York in 1816, he began his ministry in that state in 1841. He preached in Lagrange, after which he retired and lived at Akron and Aurora. He died in San Jose, CA, May 10, 1894.
1867. Martin Van Buren Stevens. A resident of Oberlin who studied at St. Lawrence.
In addition, this was a time of "circuit-rider" preachers, Universalists who frequently rode across the state from pulpit to pulpit. Sometimes these meetings were arranged in private homes, or larger halls (perhaps even the local tavern) if a formal church building wasn't available. Oberlin College had its own religious foundation, which held a strong influence over the town at the beginning.
Oberlin's early years were not kind to religious diversity. An anecdote from A History of Oberlin by a student, one Delazon Smith, written in 1837,
illustrates the point well:
I will relate the substance of one more case, which exhibits in a very
peculiar manner their sectarian zeal. The circumstances were briefly as follows:
Capt. Tracy, of Huntington, in the south part of Lorain county, about two years
since, was returning from a journey, and reached Oberlin in the evening, and
being some ten or fifteen miles from home, he concluded to make application to
some one of the Colonists for entertainment during the night. To come to the
sequel: being interrogated as to his religious sentiments, and it being
ascertained by them, that he was an Universalist, he was denied refreshment or
entertainment of any kind, and there being no public house in the place, at the
time, he was obliged to pursue his journey, amid darkness, rough roads, and the
inclemency of the weather. I might advance very many cases, tending to show
their almost unparalleled superstition, intolerance, and barbarous persecutions.
And Unitarians?
The history of Unitarians in our area is far spottier, mainly consisting of settlers from New England. The most notable would be Antoinette Louisa (Brown) Blackwell, one of the first women to receive a college education in the United States. She graduated Oberlin College in 1847 and Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1850, becoming the first woman ordained by a New York church as a Congregationalist minister in 1853. However, the Congregationalist denomination as a whole refused to recognise her ordination. She quit the church and later became a Unitarian. Olympia Brown, no relation, was inspired by Antoinette Blackwell, studying at Antioch College and becoming ordained herself a Universalist minister in 1863.
