by Douglas H. Parkhurst

Continued from August 2024…

Special parish meetings were held at First Universalist Church on May 12 and June 30, 1957. Agendas for each meeting included discussion of the congregation’s search for a new minister to follow Rev. Frederick Harrison, who departed Danbury on May 1. At the June 30 meeting a call was extended to Rev. Gaston Carrier, then ministering to First Grace Universalist Church in Lowell, Massachusetts. Mr. Carrier accepted the call; he, with wife Mary and their four daughters, would move to Danbury in mid-August.

Gaston M. Carrier was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1920, to a French-speaking, Roman Catholic family. His forebears were early settlers in what was first known as New France; Gaston was of the thirteenth generation of his family in Quebec. When Gaston was a small child his family began attending a French-language Protestant church, a significant cultural and religious switch for that time. Gaston’s early education was in a small school in the church basement. Later, as a scholarship and boarding student, he attended secondary school and graduated from Institut Feller in Grande-Ligne, Quebec, southeast of Montreal, as valedictorian. Gaston was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He later said his experience at Feller “saved my life” as it started him on the path to higher education and a fulfilling career as a minister and scholar.

Rev. Carrier, who was bi-lingual, had perhaps the most interesting background and education of any minister who has served the Danbury church, now called the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury (UUCD). Receiving a scholarship to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario (with a year at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia), he graduated from McMaster in 1941. At first planning to study law, Gaston instead pursued theology at United Theological College (affiliated with McGill University, Montreal) and Emmanuel College (University of Toronto), receiving a diploma in 1943. In 1947 Rev. Carrier earned a bachelor of divinity degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School (in cooperation with the University of Chicago). While ministering in Danbury he received a master’s in education from the University of Bridgeport. Later, after moving to Burlington, Vermont, he earned master’s degrees in counseling and in French literature from the University of Vermont. Rev. Carrier was a member of the first Clinical Pastoral Education class in Vermont. In 1973 Gaston Carrier was awarded an honorary doctorate of divinity from Meadville Lombard.

Ordained by the United Church of Canada in September 1943, Rev. Carrier began his ministerial career in Montreal, serving two French-speaking congregations of the United Church. He moved to the Unitarian church in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1947, and to Cohasset, Massachusetts, in 1950. In 1952, Mr. Carrier accepted a call to the Universalist church in Lowell, Massachusetts (see above), where he ministered for five years before coming to Danbury. Early in his career, to earn extra money, he took summer jobs packing crates in a beer factory and as a laborer for New England Power Company. He also taught French and Latin part-time at a private school in Lowell.

The trustees of First Universalist met in late August, 1957, a special meeting to consider Rev. Carrier’s suggestions for the growth and improvement of his new congregation and church. His primary goals for his new pastorate were:

1. Make First Universalist a recognized leader in liberal religion in the community. Community would come to include not just Danbury but the Greater Danbury area;
2. Make the venerable church building and grounds at 347 Main Street more physically attractive;
3. Provide the finest religious education program in the church’s power to deliver.

Among Rev. Carrier’s immediate working proposals, made at the August board meeting and another in September, were the following.

1. Begin the Sunday morning adult service at 11 am, with a children’s worship service to be conducted at 10:30 am.
2. Welcome parents to a 10:30 am coffee (half) hour.
3. Develop advertising for the Sunday school, to acquaint the public with what the church school program offered.
4. Spruce up the church lawn and repaint the Wayside Pulpit sign in front.
5. Clean out the church attic, basement, and closets and dispose of surplus and unwanted items.
6. Paint and redecorate the church interior where needed, including the vestibule. Install several new lighting fixtures.
7. Purchase fifty folding chairs to be used in church meeting rooms.
8. Perform renovations in the building to meet current fire codes.

Some of these projects required funding beyond what was already in the 1957 church budget. It was estimated that a minimum of $1,000 would be needed to complete this work. The MMT (Meet Me There) couples club offered to pay for materials needed to redecorate the upstairs rooms and church entrance halls. Likewise, the local AUW (Association of Universalist Women) group contributed $200. The board discussed using invested money to pay for other improvements and a special parish meeting was called for October 10 to allow church members to weigh in on these proposals. This resulted in pledges of an additional $335 for the renovation projects.

Danbury radio station WLAD, at this time and in cooperation with the local ministerial association, alloted air time for various houses of worship to broadcast religious services. Rev. Carrier suggested that First Universalist Church apply for Sunday morning air time, perhaps four broadcasts per year. Cabling and related equipment would need to be purchased and installed in the building. This work was accomplished and First Universalist’s initial broadcast was scheduled for Sunday morning, February 23, 1958.

Gaston Carrier hit the ground running upon his arrival in Danbury. For August, September, and October he reported the following activities, in addition to preparing and delivering Sunday morning services: 57 parish calls; five hospital calls; one christening; one funeral service (in Lowell); a devotional service on WLAD radio; two prison visits; attended an out-of-town ordination; attended board of trustees meetings; met with the choir; met with each committee chair; met with leaders of church clubs; attended meetings of small groups of parishioners regarding proposed redecoration and renovation of the church building; assisted with painting in the church; attended meetings of the AUW and MMT groups; and was accepted for ministerial fellowship with the Connecticut Universalist Convention.