Unitarianism and the Sea

Universalism and the Sea

Once I was a professional seaman and I am a graduate of Tufts College. From my life experience and out of curiosity, I shall explore here how Universalism took root and grew in Colonial and Post-revolutionary America, paralleling, but not then joining with, Unitarianism.

The first Universalist Church in America was founded in Gloucester Massachusetts in 1779 by the Reverend John Murray. Reverend John came from England, tried his luck in New Jersey after his ship ran aground there in 1770. He practiced as an itinerant minister in the Mid-Atlantic area, and then found a more receptive group in Gloucester. I have family in Gloucester and know the town fairly well.

To be effective and endure in a community, a preacher and his preaching must fit in. John Murray fit into Gloucester.

In the mid eighteenth century Gloucester was a small fishing town north of Boston. It was important because it brought in the dried cod which was the main export of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The young men who manned the fishing boats were also the men who were crews on the larger ships which traded in the ports of the world. As they aged and settled down they were seasoned by tales told under the stars and had experienced many peoples and cultures. They also had faced the mortal dangers of seafarers working together in the most trying conditions, their lives depending on each hand no matter who he might be. All had experienced and many realized that inner spirit that calls us to the aid of any other human who stands in harm’s way. Shipmates came and went. They were not like the folks on farms, living among their kin in more fear of drought than tempest. Nor like the city people who lived lives striving for economic advantage, not survival. In my seafaring I have always found ports more welcoming than inland cities.

Murray was an accomplished preacher, and many congregations sought his sermons but none wanted him around very long. His doctrine was mostly from a Welsh writer James Relly, who viewed God as a kindly creator who loved all he had made. Relly and Murray rejected the established concept that those who believed the ‘right things’ would go to Heaven, and those not believing, or uninformed, of those right things would go to Hell.

In November of 1774 the Sargent family of Gloucester took him in. A group had formed to read the writings James Relly. John Murray became their preacher.  His teaching resonated enough with the Gloucester population to keep him going.

His teaching also came to the notice of more established clerics both in the town and in Boston. In 1775 the Rev. Andrew Croswell of Boston published: “His doctrine of Universal Salvation is inimical to virtue, and productive of all manner of wickedness.” The established Calvinistic church in Gloucester tried to get rid of him, but Winthrop Sargent was able to protect him.

When the Revolution began, Murray joined the Army as a chaplain. He was not popular with the other chaplains, who tried to muster him out.  George Washington liked him, and probably didn’t like some of the other clergy. Murray was advanced, but soon fell ill, and had to leave the Army.

Back home in Gloucester he helped raise funds for war veterans and kept his congregation going. In 1779 Winthrop gave him a piece of land, and on it Murray built the first Universalist Church in America. It was called the Independent Christian Congregation or ICC.

In those days, and especially in New England, religion had an importance and domination of human affairs which is hard to understand by me and my contemporaries. Except for the cities, which had populations, there was little entertainment or diversion. Often the Bible was the only book in town, literally. If there were a church or chapel in a rural community, it was the only public building. The governing group met there. Religious services were the only entertainment other than public hanging and floggings. People paid taxes to the church of the town, and all the money went to this one church.

In Gloucester the members of the new Universalist Church were not happy with this taxing arrangement. Their property and chattels were subject to confiscation if they did not financially support a church which was persecuting theirs and constantly trying to have their minister declared a heretic and run out of town. In 1784 the Universalists sued in the supreme court of Massachusetts to end this taxing practice. They won. This was the precedent for our national First Amendment to the Constitution.

The belief of the Universalists made them tolerant of other opinions. They remained Trinitarians with a belief in the Holy Spirit that bordered on pantheism, considered heretical even by the Unitarians. But they fit well with the men of the sea who had been considered especially wicked by the other churches. Sea folk continued pagan practices such as putting coins under the masts of their ships and refusing to sail on Fridays. Universalism was a good fit for Gloucester, and endured there.