Notes on Two Hundred Years (and More)
by Douglas H. Parkhurst

Many churches have lay groups that actively support the work of the local parent body and/or denomination but are not part of a committee or governing structure. First Universalist Church of Danbury, now Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury (UUCD), was and is no exception. Such groups have been an important part of the institutional and social fabric of this congregation during much of its history.

Nineteenth century organizations at the Danbury church included a Ladies Aid Society; Women’s Missionary Society; a Men’s Club; and something called the Thursday Night Conference. The early twentieth century saw a men’s group known as the Laymen’s League. Later there was a chapter of the Association of Universalist Women (AUW); another try at a Men’s Club; and mid-century Universalist Youth Fellowship (UYF) and Liberal Religious Youth (LRY) programs. The local and very popular MMT (Meet Me There) club for couples and singles was active in the years following World War II.

The latter part of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth were a golden age for “joiners.” Participation in clubs, associations, fraternal bodies, church and church-related organizations, and other such voluntary groups became very popular with Americans. Some Universalist societies had young people’s clubs; their activities were often characterized as “literary and social.” In 1881 the interdenominational Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor (YPSCE) was formed by Congregationalists. It soon counted chapters in a variety of Protestant churches, including Universalist. An effort by Universalists in the mid-1880s to create a denominational youth group, called Young People’s Missionary Association, had limited success. Still, the time had come for the creation of a Universalist young people’s organization, to help bridge the period between the Sunday school years and full adult membership and participation in church activities.

A lay organization with a long and impactful life in the Danbury congregation was the local branch of what was officially named The National Young People’s Christian Union of the Universalist Church or YPCU (in later years the National Union was sometimes referred to as the Central Union). The YPCU had its start in October 1889 in Lynn, Massachusetts, at a gathering of one hundred thirty-one interested young people from fifty-six societies in thirteen states. It was inspired by a YPSCE chapter formed the year before at the Universalist church in Bay City, Michigan, and was another effort to unite various young people’s organizations associated with the larger Universalist church. This new organization was intended to be supportive of, but not controlled by, the Universalist General Convention [see two notes below]. The following statement appeared in the YPCU’s 1889 constitution and shows the essential religious element at its foundation: “The object shall be to promote an earnest Christian life among the young people of the Universalist Church, and the sympathetic union of all young people’s societies in their efforts to make themselves more useful in the service of God.”

National officers in the early years came from Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Washington State. A motto, “For Christ and His Church,” was adopted. Blue (for Truth) and white (for Purity) were chosen as the official YPCU colors. An insignia was created, and pins were designed and sold. A periodical called Universalist Union and later renamed Onward was published, and service materials and a song book titled Praise and Thanks were prepared. Devotional meetings and activities were emphasized and encouraged from the beginning.

The YPCU came to have a three-tier structure, with the continental body, state organizations, and local branches. The Connecticut YPCU was organized in Hartford on September 16, 1890, with local groups soon forming. Most Universalist churches in Connecticut housed YPCU branches at one time or another. These included Bridgeport, Danbury, Hartford, Meriden, Middletown, New Haven, New London, Norwich, Putnam, Stafford, Stamford, and Thompsonville. In some cases existing young people’s groups joined with the new state organization [see note below]. The first president of the Connecticut YPCU was a Yale University student named Homer Cummings, later to become a prominent lawyer in the state and, from 1933 to 1939, attorney general of the United States. Annual state conventions were held around Connecticut, at first in the autumn and later in the spring, with local Unions taking turns hosting. The Danbury YPCU was instituted in 1891 and had a continuous existence to about 1950, even after the National YPCU reorganized as the Universalist Youth Fellowship in 1941. For much of its existence the “young people” of YPCU, called Unioners, were in a broad age group, ranging from teens to thirties and even forties. Later this changed with an upper age limit in the mid-twenties, as older members were encouraged to “graduate” to full church membership. Junior groups for youngsters were also formed, including for a time in the Danbury church.

On a continental level the work of the Young People’s Christian Union went far beyond the usually local “social, literary, musical, and educational” activities of earlier and existing youth groups. During its first years the National YPCU, supported by its state and local bodies, focused on domestic missionary work, creating new congregations, and building churches. Rev. Quillen H. Shinn, a Civil War veteran and tireless evangelist of Universalism, was called the “St. Paul of the Universalist Church” for his extensive circuit-riding efforts and associated preaching. For a time he was YPCU’s National Organizer [see note below]. In 1895, Rev. William H. McGlauflin, a Maine native who later served as General Superintendent of the Universalist General Convention, was chosen as Southern Missionary of the Union. Between 1890 and 1917 the YPCU was instrumental in establishing new churches in Harriman, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; St. Paul, Minnesota; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Chattanooga, Tennessee. A “Two Cents a Week for Missions” effort raised money. Those willing and able would put aside two cents a week, to be forwarded to support the Union’s work.

The YPCU sponsored a Post Office Mission, which sent Universalist literature by mail. Its goal was: “To extend the light into the dark places and to proclaim the gospel of our church where hitherto no voice has been raised in its behalf is the sphere of this mission.” Local Unions provided mailing lists and donated postage and distribution costs. The Universalist Publishing House created literature, paid for in part by a bequest of showman P.T. Barnum, born and raised in Bethel, an enthusiastic and generous Universalist who died in 1891. As well, racks and “wall-pockets” containing denominational pamphlets and similar information were maintained by local Unions in churches and public places. Some state YPCU organizations, including Connecticut, appointed superintendents of Christian Citizenship, a department which later became the Social Service Commission. Other departments in the National Union included Topics and Devotional; Increased Membership; and Increase of Ministry. As well, the Union took a strong pro-temperance stand. Over the years YPCU summer conferences and institutes were conducted, in places like Ferry Beach, Maine; Joliet, Illinois; and Camp Hill, Alabama.

The National YPCU held its twenty-fifth anniversary celebration in Boston and Lynn, Massachusetts, in July 1914. A year earlier there were fourteen state Union organizations with 166 local branches (by late 1914 another fifteen branches had been formed). Local members numbered 4,850. In addition, there were forty-four Junior Unions with 1,002 members. The total collected over the years through the Two Cents a Week fund-raising effort, as of July 1, 1913, was $34,159.95 (approximately equal to the purchasing power of $1,150,000 today). New churches given assistance during the Union’s first quarter century were as mentioned above, plus in Pensacola, Florida. Formal YPCU support for an existing Universalist mission in Japan had commenced a few years earlier. A mission was also established in Texas. There was a department for the systematic study of mission work “both at home and abroad.” A Union-at-Large effort served isolated Unioners and Universalists, or those without a YPCU branch nearby. The national periodical Onward was issued semi-monthly. It numbered twelve pages and a subscription cost fifty cents a year. A permanent fund, the income of which helped finance the schooling of Universalist divinity students, had been established in 1894. There was another permanent fund which income was used to defray YPCU administrative expenses. It was announced that a Twenty-fifth Anniversary History of the YPCU was being written and would be published in time for the July 1914 celebration [see note below].

[Note – The Universalist Church of America (UCA) was earlier known as the Universalist General Convention. The UCA and the American Unitarian Association combined in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.]

[Note – In 1896 Unitarians organized a counterpart to the YPCU called the Young People’s Religious Union.]

[Note – For example, a group in the Hartford Universalist church called the Young People’s Guild and Stamford’s Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor.]

[Note – Quillen Shinn was also known as the “Grasshopper Missionary.” He maintained that all Universalists should be missionaries of their faith.]

[Note – The Twenty-fifth Anniversary History can be found online. Look for A Miniature History of the Young People’s Christian Union of the Universalist Church by Rev. Frederick A. Bisbee, D.D.]

To be continued in November 2026…