Forrest Church is dying. This Unitarian Universalist minister was diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer last February. Some of you may have known his powerful father, Senator Frank Church. He has written and edited over 20 books since 1985. Some of you may have read some of his books, such as The Devil and Dr. Church or A Chosen Faith written with Rev. John Buehrens. His most recent book, Love and Death, is a memoir that confronts the universal prospect of death and, in the process, offers readers a meditation on the end of life. Forrest Church served as Senior Minister of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City until late 2006 and is now called as its Minister of Public Theology. Public theology is disciplined thinking and speaking about religion and the body politic, it enunciates the stands toward which theology impels us on matters of public policy.

Recently Church was interviewed by Terry Gross of National Public Radio. She noted that UUs don't necessarily believe in God and don't have a settled belief in an afterlife and so, she asked, "What's the point?" Forester's quick reply was, "We don't give questionable answers to unanswerable questions." It is true. We force no position on usual matters of belief but we do believe that people can live well. We teach one another how to live abundantly, and lovingly, on this good earth. What is more, we expect everyone to live thus, in right relations with each other and with all living things including the stately trees. Especially, we expect everyone to live by the highest ideals of all religions about the common good, and to affirm values shared by all. Thus we don't expect that everyone become Unitarian, but that everyone be universalist, that is, to seek universal truths and universal community.

The first time I heard the title of my sermon, "Unitarian is an Adjective" was as the title of an article by Helene Knox in the July/August 1993 issue of the UU World magazine. She noted:

"Seemingly trivial matters of punctuation and syntax can actually define relationships. The name as it now stands, lacking a hyphen, proclaims that we are a Unitarian variety of Universalists and implies that the two strands of our tradition are unequal. Universalism is the noun, the identity, while Unitarian is merely an adjective, a qualifying attribute."

Note that for the early American Unitarians the word "Unitarian" was the adjective, modifying the word "Christian." W.E. Channing, who defined and thus created the Unitarians as a group within the U.S. Congregationalist movement, at first disliked the adjective 'Unitarian' and preferred "[i]liberal Christian" as in generous, broad minded, and compassionate. In fact though all Universalists were not Unitarian most Christians who have carried the name Unitarian have also been Universalist, assuming that God is Love and thus there is no permanent damnation or eternal Hell. However, when people shorten our full name they usually shorten it to Unitarian. Often the Universalist heritage is forgotten or disregarded. We are one of a small handful of historically Universalist Churches that remain from the times when the Universalists were more numerous. As the old joke about the merger goes, many people resisted the UU merger but for different reasons. The Universalists, who were fewer in number, feared they would be swallowed up... and the Unitarians feared they would get indigestion.

We must admit that a Unitarian Universalist congregation is a unique form of religious community. It is not for everyone. For example, our community includes both atheists and people who love God and our worship services are framed with that fact in mind. Not everyone can live easily with the humility, and lack of comforting certitude, that such diversity engenders. One service may be centered on a Biblical image and the next on the Ramayana. Not everyone can adjust to that sort of discontinuity in their worship. Some people will say they agree with our principles, but they miss the elements of traditional religion. On the other hand most everyone in this city, though they want to worship in their separate ways, understand the deep need for civil tolerance and the deeper reality of universal human values, beyond belief. We are involved in civic affairs because we want the spirit of civic discourse to be unifying and universal in its nature.

My recent letter to the editor is an example. If you read the letters to the editor you might get the impression that religious exclusivists dominate this county. But when I wrote that we must first seek respect and tolerance before pronouncing our differences, people everywhere told me they loved my letter. All four people in my Yorktown branch bank, the day after my letter was published, got into a conversation about how sensible was the approach of tolerance and how strange that one crank (Mr. Wingate) gets so many letters published in the paper. People at our local camera store, the cashier at the grocery store, and the people I spoke with at the library this week, none of whom were members of this church, said, "I liked your letter."

Meanwhile, the forces of hatred, division, partialism, and rankism keep writing and organizing. Thus we must organize against them and assert our vision over and over again. Humanity stands on the ocean's edge; let us show how to stop fighting over who understands the ocean best and instead help everyone to cross. In this diverse world it is easy for people to mistrust others. In this nation we have seen a rise of radical hatred toward Muslims, and others who do not fit certain narrow forms of Christianity. We must constantly assert that most people do not agree with such divisive attitudes and none should. If spirituality is private, then religion is a social activity. We each have our personal beliefs, we are each on our own, personal, spiritual journey. But religion is what we do with other people to affirm the interconnected source of meaning and purpose that sustains each and all.

What I want you to claim is the small 'u' universality of our faith and its public importance in the life of this city, and of this nation, and of this world. Especially now as a new revival of Christian Universalism is rising in this country it is essential that we be seen as leaders of the religious life of our communities. We should be seen not merely as promoting a unique or quirky way of faith but the leaders helping everyone in a diverse nation find unifying principles, practices and beliefs.

Recently someone came to my door with a cup. It was from the Dialogue church. I thought I might tell them that they were infringing on our copyright but then we don't actually have any corner on that practice. It is central to our way, but something we hope everyone can practice. We call everyone to dialogue, knowing that if we listen to each other we will naturally be drawn into an open and tolerant universalism. We know that this congregation was formed with some prejudice against it, but we also know that it had a very strong civic leaning. Our first building had the highest steeple in town to proclaim our centrality and importance, to put hope and love in the heart of this town.

I spent much of this last week looking through the old, leather bound, books and faded papers of our church in the Ball State Library archives, as well as microfilm rolls of old issues of the Muncie Star newspaper. With these you have to take them out of their boxes, put them in viewers and roll through each page after page. It was a fascinating experience.

I learned that The Reverend Thomas Guthrie, the other Thomas to serve this church, was called in November 18, 1873 but did not begin his ministry until January 4, 1874. His salary was $1500 per year. This was a turning point in the fortunes of the church leading to the great ministry of The Reverend Margaret Brennen which began in April of 1997. I read in the church Board minutes a note from the church secretary, Mr. Joseph Hummel, Deacon, dated the 17th of April, 1897" describing reactions to her first sermon for the congregation. Mr. Hummel wrote, "We feel that the church will be abundantly blessed by her ministry and we thank God we have made no mistake in calling Rev. Brennen to our charge." Under her leadership this church grew and was renewed as a downtown landmark.

This congregation changed its name in 1913 to St. John's Universalist. The civic and industrial leaders, the Ball Brothers, were all active in our church at that time and up through Reverend Hersey's ministry, which began, in 1919. Hersey gained public attention for his opposition to the Klan, and for his support of black ministers and of Catholics against discrimination. His ministry ended in 1923 after he led a difficult struggle to keep the church building from being given away by Frank Ball.

A new minister was called within a year. From the archives you can hold in your hand the letter from the Board to the congregation, dated the 16th of April, 1924, stating that they had called the Reverend McDavitt to serve this congregation. I hold up his ministry today because it had a strong public dimension, especially since his preaching, the evocation of the faith and values of this church was published in the paper for most of his time in this pulpit.

I did not find the first record of McDavitt's ministry, but on Easter Monday (9, April, 1926,) the front page of the Muncie Star described the Easter services of the largest churches in Muncie: High Street Methodist, Friends Memorial, Jackson Str. Christian, 1st Christian, St. John's Universalist, Grace Episcopal, Holy Trinity Lutheran, First Presbyterian, and Riverside E.U.B. They reported that St. John's cancelled an outdoor sunrise service in the park, due to icy rain, and had a service in the church, followed by a waffle breakfast at someone's home. Rev. McDavitt's sermon later that morning ended with these words, "The question to ask on this day is not 'has Jesus risen?' but 'is he still rising?'" That means that he expected Universalists not to focus on a resurrected god but on whether or not we find the spirit of Christ rising in our actions and way of living. That was the message of this church in 1926.

By April 1928 McDavitt's sermon was one of three, including those preached at Friends Memorial, and 1st Presbyterian. It was striking (pun intended) to see how prominent was boxing in the sports news back in those days. Almost a decade later he was still being featured weekly as one of three. On the 12th of October, 1936, he gave a sermon on prayer saying: "Prayer is no substitute for effort." He asserted, for all to hear, that God does not answer prayers without effort to make them true on our part; even in healing illness there is no evidence God heals anyone by prayer alone. And on 20 November, 1939 his sermon was on gratitude as a key to good living; a sentiment you may remember from one of my recent sermons.

On the 19th of October 1942, in the midst of WWII, the Muncie Star included sermons from the Friends Church, Normal City Church of God, and the Rev. Daugherty of Jackson St. Christian. I will mention Rev. Daugherty later, but the point here is that his words were almost as frequently featured as McDavitt's. In the deep muck of the war, 17 April 1944, the Universalist sermon in Muncie was on "Life Can be Beautiful." The paper that day had a lead cover story on continued fighting at Iwo Jima. The entertainment announcements included a Bing Crosby movie. A year later, (21 April 1945,) about a week after President Roosevelt died, McDavitt's sermon was on meriting the immortal life. He said that it did not matter if you thought immortality was a fantasy or a gift of God, what mattered was how you lived your life and we should all live in such a way as to merit such a gift.

On the 2nd of April 1951, Mcdavitt's sermon appeared beside a brief article describing the healthful effects of Dr. Pepper on the digestive system, noting its carbonation and use of citric fruit essences. In his sermon McDavitt said trying to encourage goodness in persons based on the doctrine of depravity was like trying to build a skyscraper with air for a foundation. Also featured that day were sermons from the Normal City Church of God and the Church of the Brethren. McDavitt's sermon of Nov 1951, "And then it Rained," cautioned against wishful thinking in religion.

The next spring, May 1952, Rev. Daugherty, recently retired from the Jackson St. Christian, "pinch hit" for McDavitt. My impression is that McDavitt was ill during that month. Within two weeks McDavitt was back in the pulpit and stayed there until his retirement in 1953. It is significant that, through the newspaper, his ministry was visible to everyone in Muncie almost every week for thirty years. McDavitt was also a good friend of the Meeks of Meeks Mortuary, and led many services, celebrating the lives of the rich and poor in Muncie, even for nearly ten years after his retirement from the pulpit. Through his work, through the members of our church who were active in civic affairs, and through the public ministry of this church, the basic human values of living with hope and love for oneself and others, has became an integral part of the fabric of this city.

Helene Knox in her article on Unitarian as an adjective said that to believe in universal salvation is to affirm the worth and dignity of every person—a radical principle undergirding Universalist theologies all the way from the gracious God of John and Judith Sergeant Murray and Hosea Ballou, to the bold vision declared in 1943, at the beginning of WWII and in the midstream of McDavitt's term in Muncie. Robert Cummins, then general superintendent of the Universalist Church of America, said,

"Universalism cannot be limited to either Protestantism or to Christianity, not without denying its very name. Ours is a world fellowship, not just a Christian sect. For so long as Universalism is universalism and not partialism, the fellowship bearing its name must succeed in making it unmistakably clear that all are welcome: theist and humanist, unitarian and trinitarian, colored and color-less. A circumscribed Universalism is unthinkable."

While it is true we don't offer questionable answers to unanswerable questions, we offer a great and life-affirming way to live. Within our walls and gatherings we create a unique congregation that binds people of different beliefs into a loving community. Yet at the same time we uphold universal truths and values that simply must be affirmed by everyone if people are to live well on this good earth. Not everyone will be happy with our worship services, but everyone should affirm the worth and dignity of each person. Not everyone will be a member of this historic congregation, but everyone should affirm the rights of conscience, and the methods of democracy everyone should affirm the interdependent web of which we are a part. In the face of death, all should live by love.

In our public ministry we encourage everyone to live thus; in right relations with each other and with all living things including the stately trees. Especially, we expect everyone to live by the highest ideals of all religions about the common good, and to affirm values shared by all. Thus we don't expect that everyone become Unitarian, but that everyone be universalist, that is, to seek universal truths and build beloved and universal community.