Dedicated Lives: 162 Years of Liberal Ministry and Its Ministers in Lansing, Michigan 1849 - 2011

ISBN-13: 9781448678242 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 154 str.

Ed Busch; Shirley Beckman; Harry Schwarzweller

Opis

The First Universalist Church of Lansing was founded in 1849 by a small group of religious liberals. Since then a stream of forty-two ministers served to lead the long, continuous progression of Universalist and Unitarian/Universalist congregations in the Lansing area. They were a diverse lot of dedicated men and women, and this collection of biographical sketches reveals much about the guiding values, aspirations, and personal motivations that sustained them on their life journeys. Each brought their own perspectives and past experiences to the pulpit. And as they entered upon their ministry in Lansing, each was challenged by a social context and circumstances that differed from their predecessors'. Their lives and careers were unique, as all people's lives are unique. But collectively, their stories represent and are not unlike stories that could be told about countless other dedicated ministers who have served liberal religious communities elsewhere in America during the past century and a half. Information for these biographies was laboriously gleaned from numerous sources: church records; university archives; historical societies in many different localities; a variety of internet sources; and the Universalist and Unitarian/Universalist archives at Meadville-Lombard and Andover-Harvard. Photographs of most of the ministers are included. Also, in a brief history of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing, photographs of the different meeting places used by the progression of congregations help to illustrate the efforts that were made to build a lasting foundation for the Unitarian/Universalist movement in this mid-Michigan area.