Notes on Two Hundred Years (and More)

by Douglas H. Parkhurst

In the years following World War II, the American Unitarian Association [see note below] began establishing “lay-centers” in areas of the United States perhaps underserved by a liberal religious presence. These lay-centers, with a minimum of ten members, came to be called “fellowships.” The first was organized in Boulder, Colorado, in 1948. Over the next two decades more than three hundred Unitarian fellowships would be formed. All began as lay-led groups. Some live today as fellowships, some achieved full church status, and some did not survive. A spokesman later emphasized the Unitarian ideal of “deed rather than creed” saying “[fellowships] are making a valuable contribution to their community life; they are providing a satisfactory religious exposure to thousands of people who insist that religion should help us to live nobly and constructively, rather than emphasize preparation for an after-existence” [see note below].

Headlines on the front page of The Ridgefield [CT] Press of April 9, 1964, included “Last Train Has Come Up Branch Line,” ” ‘Oklahoma’ Wednesday Will Benefit the AFS,” and “Referendum Likely On Bailey Property.” Inside, in the center of page 5, was a small advertisement reading “Are You Interested in Unitarianism?” and including a phone number to call for information about a Unitarian group being formed in the Ridgefield-North Salem area. Two weeks later a news release in the Press announced “A meeting to consider formation of a Unitarian Fellowship in the Brewster-North Salem-Ridgefield area….Anyone interested in discussing the question is welcome.” The meeting would be held on May 1.

The prime movers in this project were George (Bird) and June Volckhausen of North Salem, New York. Long-time and committed Unitarians, the Volckhausens were among the organizers and leaders of Main Line Unitarian Fellowship outside Philadelphia in 1958. This group is now Main Line Unitarian Church, Devon, Pennsylvania, with a membership of over 500.

Two more local planning meetings were conducted, in late May and early June. Officers and committee leaders were chosen. These included Neysa Jancz, secretary; Rosemary Wahlgren, treasurer; Loraine Fischer and Corrine Fingado, church school program; Ted Cheney and Howard Scofield, speakers; Robert Hoffman, Sunday program; and Grace Bakamjian, music. June and George Volckhausen oversaw membership. The first chairman of the group was Peter Wright. Participants were enthusiastic, the effort continued, and the first Sunday service of what became the Unitarian Fellowship of Ridgefield was conducted on Sunday morning, June 21, 1964, at the Ridgefield Community Center, 316 Main Street. Rev. Dwight Brown, executive director of the Metropolitan District of New York, Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), was the speaker. Music was provided by Joan Weibel, violinist, performing the andante from the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor, and pianist David Volckhausen, offering the Bach Toccata in F Minor and Beethoven’s Sonata in E Flat, Opus 7, allegro con brio. The postlude was Sonata for Violin and Piano, allegro, Handel. More than forty adults and twelve children attended.  Certainly a favorable beginning for this fledgling congregation!

Organizing Ridgefield’s new Unitarian Fellowship continued through the summer months and by-laws were adopted that fall. Services in September were held at the Community Center. On Sunday, October 4, 1964, at 10:30 am, the group began meeting at Odd Fellows Hall, a Tudor-style building that was home to Pilgrim and Mary Rebekah lodges, at 21 King Lane, off Main Street, in downtown Ridgefield. George Volckhausen addressed “The Nature of Prejudice.” Grace Bakamjian, pianist, played Mozart’s Sonata in A Major, Theme and Variations, and Beethoven’s Bagatelle No. 1 in E Flat. The following week member Robert Fischer was lay leader with author Merle Miller, of Brewster, New York, as guest speaker. The week after that Martin Brech, active in Fourth Unitarian Society of Westchester County, New York, spoke on “Transhumanism,” which he described as “an attempt to present an intellectually respectable concept of God.”

Over the coming weeks, fellowship members took turns being lay leaders on Sunday mornings. “Talk-backs” and discussion often followed the services, as did coffee and refreshments. There were guest speakers covering such topics as “The Unitarian Mystique,” “The Power of Love,” and “Some Thoughts on a Neglected Giant: Nietzsche.” Other guest speakers were from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Westchester Urban League, and the Peace Corps. On the Sunday afternoon before Christmas members, friends, and their children gathered for a family Christmas service with music, decoration by the children of a mitten tree, and refreshments. And, on the last Sunday in December member Robert Hoffman led a discussion on “The Origin of Ethics.”

The Unitarian Fellowship of Ridgefield affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1965. A listing for the Ridgefield Unitarians appeared in the 1966 UUA Directory for the first and only time [see note below]. This listing showed the Ridgefield Fellowship meeting at Odd Fellows Hall on King Lane at 10:30 am [Sundays]. President was Rosemary Wahlgren and Shirley Weber was secretary. Total membership was thirty-five. In 1965 there were nineteen UU congregations in Connecticut, twelve churches and seven fellowships. The oldest churches were in Stafford (1818); Norwich (1820); Danbury (1822); West Hartford (1822); and New Haven Universalist (1836). The Brooklyn church (c. 1822) had reorganized as a fellowship. Two former fellowships, Westport (1949) and New Haven Unitarian (1950) had since achieved church status. Most of the Connecticut fellowships in 1965 were of similar size to Ridgefield, two were somewhat smaller. Two had affiliated with the UUA as fellowships in the 1950s, the other five so far in the 1960s.

Between June 4, 1964, and June 12, 1966, more than sixty people joined the Ridgefield Fellowship. The majority lived in Ridgefield, but there were members from Norwalk, Wilton, and Cannondale, Connecticut, and North Salem, South Salem, and Carmel, New York. Several had been members of the Danbury Universalist-Unitarian Church. Some new members felt established UU congregations (Danbury, Westport, Mt Kisco, for example) were too far away and wanted to meet closer to their homes.

[Note – The American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America joined in 1961 to form the present-day Unitarian Universalist Association.]

[Note –  From The Ridgefield Press, June 18, 1964.]

[Note – The 1966 UUA Directory showed denominational statistics for 1965. The 1967 Directory showed the Ridgefield Fellowship had merged with the Danbury Universalist-Unitarian Church to form the Unitarian Universalist Society of Northern Fairfield County, which is now called the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury (UUCD).]

To be continued…