A Historic Hub for Culture, Ideas and Social Activism: The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair

Description

Houses of worship like the Unitarian Universalist Congregation have played an outsize role in shaping Montclair. This is the first of the Adult School's three-part series highlighting individual religious institutions as a means of exploring Montclair's history.

Founded in 1897 as the Unity Church, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair (affectionately known as the UU) has been the home of "progressive movements" from its inception.

Longtime minister Rev. Edgar Weirs nurtured the congregation with the expectation that it would "birth twins" every year: creating two new community organizations to feed the community in one way or another. To fulfill that aspiration, the UU hosted Unity Concerts, New Jersey's most important venue for classical music before NJPAC, and the Unity Speaker's Series, which brought W.E.B. duBois, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mother Jones, Aldous Huxley, Mother Jones, Margaret Sanger, the poet Robert Frost and the aviator Amelia Earhart, and almost all of the most important thought leaders of the early 1900s. The UU also created a cooperative store that dramatically lowered food prices, a cooperative kitchen for families with working mothers, an Alliance Francaise and a Deutche Haus for foreign language speakers, and more.

The congregation has continued to address powerful social problems: During the civil rights era, one minister was a founding member of the Montclair NAACP and in the 1990s, another helped establish the Montclair Inn, non-profit independent shared housing for seniors, as well as designating the UUs "a Welcoming Congregation" for LGTBQ people and advocating for same-sex unions. Under the joint leadership of Rev. Scott and Anya Sammler-Michael, the congregation has continued and extended this long tradition of social activism.

Come find out more about one of the institutions that "make Montclair Montclair"!

Facilitator

Jerry Fried is a civic engagement expert, teaching courses on local government and community leadership. He serves as the archivist for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair.