I took a trip to the Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist archives at Harvard Divinity School (HDS). Cambridge MA is a lovely place to visit, especially in spring, and Harvard’s archivists are wonderful.

The First Universalist (now also Unitarian) Church of Wausau WI (UUWausau) has a unique place in U/U/UU history. It boasts two of the last Universalist Church of America superintendents and, in its time, was regarded as one of the most beautiful Universalist churches in the US.

The Universalists, unlike the meticulous Unitarians, were notoriously lax when it came to record-keeping. Thankfully, HDS’s archivists were able to uncover nearly a dozen boxes of material on UUWausau and its former pastors (I can’t find when “pastor” was transitioned to “minister”…as if anyone other than me cares). I learned SO much!

The church was profiled by a Universalist magazine in 1961. The magazine sent a photographer to Wausau to capture the church’s beauty and congregation in action. Here are a few of the photos from that shoot.

What you’ll see…

1. The exterior of the church before the parsonage was torn down
2. A Sunday school activity led by a child in Cyrus Yawkey Hall
3. A Sunday school activity led by an adult in Cyrus Yawkey Hall
4. The children’s choir posing for a photo on the chancel

The Economist: “In Wisconsin, locals drink a sickly sweet version of an Old Fashioned made with Korbel, a Californian brandy, and Sprite, topped with a glazed cherry. Over half of Korbel’s sales are in the Badger State.”

CNN: For years, church leaders and commentators have warned that Christianity is dying in America. They say the American church is poised to follow the path of churches in Western Europe: soaring Gothic cathedrals with empty pews, shuttered church buildings converted into skate parts and nightclubs, and a secularized society where one theologian said Christianity as a norm is “probably gone for good — or at least for the next 100 years.”

Yet when CNN asked some of the nation’s top religion scholars and historians recently about the future of Christianity in the US, they had a different message.

They said the American church is poised to find new life for one major reason: Waves of Christians are migrating to the US.

And they said the biggest challenge to Christianity’s future in America is not declining numbers, but the church’s ability to adapt to this migration.

John Updike’s “Seven Stanzas at Easter”

NYT interview with Union Theological Seminary’s president Serene Jones on, among other things, Easter

Painting: Andrea Mantegna’s Resurrection

“Victimae paschali laudes” at Notre-Dame

New WSJ poll builds on data showing major declines in religious participation in America. It also shows that patriotism, having children/family creation, and community involvement are also in decline. What priority is on the rise? Money. Best read with Bobby D’s “The Times They Are a-Changin'” playing on the stereo.

Perhaps Palm Sunday or Easter

*“Unitarian” was added to the church’s name a couple decades after the 1961 consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and Universalist Church of America (UCA). Info on the photo backs refer to the church as a “Society.” My guess is that whoever wrote that had memory of the church stretching back into the late 19thC when the church was still, officially speaking, registered with the UCA as a society (aka, before the community had a physical church & ordained pastor). Photo source: Andover-Harvard Theological Library at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge MA

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was Baseball.”

That’s from the BJM translation of the Bible. The presence of the greatest sport in the known universe in this version of St John’s gospel is just one example of the translator’s poetic genius, though scholars argue that word translated as “baseball” could be the result of a misprint in the original manuscript or possibly the result of someone with a C minus-understanding of ancient Greek. It’s hard to say.

What’s easy to say is, OPENING DAY!

Opening Day is up there with Christmas, Easter, and my wedding anniversary. Please don’t ask me to rank them.

Predictions:

The Padres, NYY, NYM, Astros, Dodgers, Braves, Phillies will be hard teams to beat. The Rockies, Athletics, Cubs, Nationals, Reds, Tigers, and Royals will struggle to get to .500

The Cardinals will be the best team in the NL central and slink into the postseason by a few games or by wild card. The Cards need to sign a legit ace if they want to send shivers down postseason spines. Nootbaar, Arenado, and Goldy will be studs.

Judge, Ohtani, Trout are MVP candidates in the AL. Arenado and Goldy are MVP candidates in the NL, but they have stiff competition in Soto, Lindor, Turner, and Machado. Cy Young: AL, Cole or deGrom; NL, Verlander or Burnes…maybe Wheeler. Rookie of the Year: AL, Henderson; NL, Carrol or Walker.

But most importantly: GO CARDINALS!

I’m slowly reading -and loving- Mary Beard’s “SPQR” while also perusing a theologian’s take on desire. Also watched a couple good movies: “Les Miserables” (1998 version) and “Dick Johnson Is Dead.” Both are worth a watch, but good heavens “Dick Johnson Is Dead” is a moving tribute by his filmmaker daughter. Dick is a widower, retired psychiatrist, God-loving, present-inhabiting, devoted father who is losing his memories to dementia. It’s an offbeat documentary, but it inhabits Dick’s ceaseless love of life and family. It is proof that the world is populated by extraordinary people. We just need to do a better job of being present to that reality…like Dick.

Two good things for the ears:

1. Jimi Hendrix’s long-lost, but now found, recording of a Joni Mitchell concert, which can be read about & listened to HERE
2. The Choir of King’s College Cambridge singing “Ubi caritas et amor,” which can be listened to HERE

I had the privilege of celebrating this Ash Wednesday at King’s College Chapel. It is a grand place to kick off the Easter season. I arrived early hoping to get a seat on the choir-side of the chapel, and as luck had it I was seated just a few feet from them. The choir and clergy processed in, incense and all, and broke into song, departing from evensong’s customary liturgy. The service was a sliver of God’s grace as people from around the world took part in the solemn service. The choir sung “Ubi caritas,” a hymn dating to 796. Translations vary, but my favorite is, “Where charity and love are, God is there.” I can’t imagine a better summary of Easter’s promise than that.

Long live Dick Johnson.

A great resource on Universalist Christianity: universalistchristian.net.

Aside from DC’s Universalist National Memorial church, I don’t know of other historically Universalist churches that still practice UC explicitly (of course people are still theologically universalist individually). Many (most?) Universalist churches morphed into Congregationalist or Unitarian Universalist (or Federated, possibly Baptist) churches…or closed (eg www.oldhousedreams.com/2018/12/1…).

If there’s a list of active UC churches, I’d love to see it.

A beloved mentor in ministry has died. I got to know Sis Joyce when I worked as a chaplain at Saint Louis University Hospital. Her stories could bring me to tears and laughter, often at the same time. Her vision of God was ever-expanding grace. No one “died” in Joyce’s words; “they went to heaven,” she’d say. She baked the best sweet rolls and took charming photos. God bless you Sis Joyce. Obit: www.grdominicans.org/sisters/s…