by Mike Roberts, Church Historian

During the 1960s the orders of service for our church included thoughtful words to ponder while waiting for the service to begin. Below are a few of those thoughts for you to ponder as we continue our trip through the fall season.

Let us strive more to comfort others than to be comforted,
To understand others than to be understood,
To love others more than to be loved.
—St. Francis of Assisi—

Every personality bears the imprint of the universal.
—Lewis Mumford—

I am the people— the mob— the crowd— the mass.
Do you know that all of the work of the world is done through me?
I am the workman, the inventor, the maker of the world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience which witnesses history.
—Carl Sandburg—

When the ocean is in tumult, every shore will feel the agitation.
When the sea is calm and tides come in, all vessels rise to greet the dawn and leave the land in peace for distant shores.
— William Ellery Channing—

Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.
— Albert Schweitzer—

For a thought to change the world, it must first change the life of the man who carries it.
— Albert Camus—

What could we build if we worked together?
— U Thant —

The love of liberty is the love of others.
The love of power is the love of ourselves.
— William Hazlitt —

The question is no longer whether we can believe in God but whether and in what sense we can believe in man.
— Max Otto —

Ideas are, in truth, like forces.
Infinite, too, is the power of personality.
A union of the two makes history.
— Henry James —

Two things fill the mind with ever increasing awe and admiration.
The starlit heavens above and the moral law within.
— Immanuel Kant —

Out of the fertile earth we come, children of the dust. May we know ourselves akin to all earth’s creatures and for our having lived, may the earth-home be fairer for the generations which shall come.
— Slaten —

I deeply believe in the capacity of democracy to surmount any trials which may lie ahead, provided only that we practice it in our daily lives.
— David Lilienthal —

 

by Mike Roberts, Church Historian

We resume our examination of Arthur Nash, business entrepreneur and religious wanderer. He had opened a business as a clothing manufacturer and had built his company around the dictates of “The Golden Rule.” By 1924, Nash’s business was flourishing. The profits of that success were paid back to his workers. The worth of his company surpassed one million dollars and he returned the money from dividends to the workers in the form of higher wages and reduced hours. He especially cut the hours of women workers to 40 hours a week stating that these ladies needed to be home with their children to raise healthy future generations.

With all this success, Nash’s fame grew. He became popular as a public speaker and took every opportunity he could to spread the word about how he ran his business. He spoke at national organization meetings, church convocations, business conventions or wherever he could spread the message. J. C. Penney became a supporter and offered him opportunities to reach out to corporate America.

The message Nash delivered was simple. Treat your workers like you would want to be treated yourself. It was hard to argue against that message considering that Nash’s company had become one of the most successful in the United States. Its gross sales were huge and much of the company’s profits went back to his workers.

Part of the message that Nash wished to deliver was that of Universal Brotherhood. He believed that respect and dignity should be extended to all people regardless of race, creed, gender, national origins or religion. That theme had come to him partly through his involvement with the Universalist Church. He had traveled an ever-questioning, evolutionary religious path from his roots as a Seventh Day Adventist and that life-long quest had ended with the theme of Universal Brotherhood.

Nash also had to come to an understanding with the trade union movement. While he felt his own workers were well served without a union, he had gained great respect for Sidney Hillman the head of the garment workers union. He therefore urged his own workers to accept the union knowing it would have little effect on their economic standing or working conditions. He did feel that benefits would accrue to his company and the workforce as the union had much to offer in the way of technical advances in the field of clothing manufacture and worker safety. He and Hillman reached an agreement that would benefit both sides.

It should be noted that Sidney Hillman became a major player in unionization and politics during the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. He was able to throw considerable support behind Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, leading to a strong collaboration between the Democratic Party and the union movement.

As Nash spent more and more time touring and speaking, his business began to suffer. The management people he left to run the company lacked the Nash touch and production began to suffer. Nash also saw a decline in his health. He maintained a rigorous schedule and it began to take its toll. He was advised by friends to slow down but it was simply not in his nature to yield to forces that kept him from accomplishing his dreams. Nash briefly turned his attention to his business and the growth and profits picked up again.

To better get his message out to the public and his business peers, he began a newsletter identified as the “Nash Journal”. To edit the publication, he again turned to the First Universalist pulpit. He recruited John Edward Price to oversee the publication. Price at the time was the minister of our church. He left the church to assume his new duties which continued for about one year. He eventually moved to New York where he became the editor in chief in a publishing house and continued in that work until his retirement.

What ended the newsletter was Nash’s sudden demise. He was suffering from angina attacks and knew that his heart was weakened by his abundantly active life. He was urged to slow down but that simply was not in his nature. On October 28, 1927, he suffered a major heart attack and was rushed from his house at 830 Lincoln Avenue to Good Samaritan Hospital where he died two days later.

At the time of his death, he had 2,500 employees working in his factory in Cincinnati and a sales force of another 2,000 across the nation. He was paying his workers far above the standard of the day, working them fewer hours and yet was producing a quality line of clothing apparel that was earning his business huge profits every year. The business had reached these heights after starting 11 years earlier with a work force of about 25 people.

He had also done so by sticking rigidly to the application of the Golden Rule. This included five simple principals. These were “the strong shall help the weak; equal opportunity for all; opposition to war and power by force; no allegiance to partisan politics; and religious tolerance.”

Perhaps anticipating his passing, Nash had set up a Board of Directors to run the firm in case of his death or incapacity. It is not known what happened to the company immediately after his passing, but in the summer of 1929, the board sold nearly all of its stocks to a brokerage firm. This preceded by four months, the fall of the stock market that led to the Great Depression.

Both large Cincinnati papers announced his death on the front page. The headlines referred to him as “Golden Rule” Nash. Arthur Nash’s funeral was held at the Masonic Temple in Walnut Hills. It is also not known whether our church played any role in the funeral. Nash was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery. As late as 1943, Nash’s widow sent flowers in his honor to a ceremony being conducted at the Essex Street Universalist Church.

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Part 1

 

by Mike Roberts, Church Historian.

In researching the biographies of our past ministers, the name Arthur Nash was mentioned recurrently between 1915 and 1927. Researching the man has led to a fascinating story of Universalist thought and its application to society in general.

Arthur Nash was born in 1870 near Kokomo, Indiana. He was the son of fundamentalist Seventh Day Adventists. Raised and educated in the church, he eventually took a position teaching at the church’s theological seminary in Battle Creek, Michigan. There, he befriended a woman who was offering programs for discharged prisoners. These programs included Sunday church services which was anathema to Adventist thought. She was condemned to eternal damnation by the Adventists. Nash felt this to be wholly unfair and, in protest, he left the church forever.

Seeking to find himself, he adopted the life of a nomadic hobo and traveled throughout the Midwest seeking any odd job to sustain himself. He read books and studied people, all the while trying to determine where his religious belief lay. He eventually settled in Detroit, married and became a minister with the Disciples of Christ. His first calling was in Bluffton, Ohio. His connection with that faith did not last long as he conducted a funeral service of a man he believed to be kind and generous. He eulogized the man’s positive attributes but the deceased was a self-proclaimed non-believer. The church immediately asked for Nash’s resignation.

At a crossroads with a wife and three children, Nash decided to abandon the ministry and became a clothing salesman. He succeeded there, but felt he could run his own clothing manufacturing firm and thus opened a shop in Columbus. He experienced immediate success but his factory along with his finances were wiped out by the Great Flood of 1913. Not to be deterred, he moved to Cincinnati and opened a new shop which specialized in making made-to-order clothing, especially men’s suits.

Arthur Nash at some point became a member of our church and pastor Anthony Beresford invited him to deliver a sermon to the congregation. Nash had expressed opposition to Beresford’s position of supporting our entry into World War I but Beresford asked him to preach on the subject “What is Wrong with Christianity?” Nash stated in his sermon that he likened evangelists to maniacs saying that they pursued sawdust trails instead of seeking the paths of righteousness. Nash believed that organized religion was a contributing factor to many wars and especially World War I. In his sermon, he finished by stating that “There is nothing wrong with Christianity except that she stands outside the portals of our cold and selfish hearts knocking and pleading for entry.”

Nash’s pacifist stance was challenged when his eldest son enlisted in the Canadian Army and was critically wounded in France. His second son, feeling guilt, then enlisted in the U.S. Expeditionary Force and headed to Europe. Nash abandoned his pacifism and began selling Liberty Bonds and supporting the war effort in other ways. His business was neglected and neared bankruptcy.

His wounded son recovered, the war ended and Nash was at another crossroads. He decided to commit fully to his clothing business but with one rule in mind— the Golden Rule. He raised the salaries of his workers by two or three times their original rate, treated them with the utmost respect and was told that his business practices would plunge the company into debt within weeks. The opposite happened. The employees were so indebted to his kindness, the production of the workers increased exponentially and Nash found himself with a quality product sold at fair prices. His business boomed. He was determined to always run his life and his business with the Golden Rule as his guiding beacon.

The year 1920 witnessed massive labor unrest across the United States, especially in the garment industry. Unions were trying to organize but Nash’s workers were unmoved by the pressure to unionize since they were all making much higher wages than any workers in the industry. They crossed picket lines and continued to work during the strikes and Nash’s profits increased six-fold. He continued to hire new workers and increased the size of his operation at one time buying the old Moerlein Brewery to obtain the necessary space for burgeoning production. He was never openly hostile to the union movement as he knew how poorly most workers were treated. However, he felt paying good wages and treating the workers fairly—the Golden Rule—was the answer to the problem. He even issued an invitation to Sidney Hillman, head of the national garment workers union, to come to Cincinnati and address his workers. However, he soon had to rescind the invitation when it was discovered that the union had sent several highly inflammatory letters to his garment workers. His workforce demanded that the union should allow them and Nash to operate the factory in their own way.

It was during 1921 that Nash delivered another guest sermon at our church. He likened Jesus to a magnet. He demonstrated that random pieces of iron were in no way attracted to each other. But when a magnet was placed close to them, they all gravitated to the magnet as one. Also, minister Harold Guy Don Scott, who had taken the pulpit as our minister when Reverend Beresford left, stayed only several years before being lured to work for Nash at his company. He wrote newsletters for Nash and helped Nash in some of his efforts to communicate his labor ideas to the community. In 1926, Scott returned to the Universalist pulpit and served as a minister to many congregations before his retirement.

The unions were still hoping to draw the Nash workers into their organization and Nash was looking for ways to communicate his ideas to a greater audience. These issues and others will be discussed in Part II of the Arthur Nash story.

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Part 2

by Mike Roberts, Church Historian

For all the wonderful volunteers who keep our kitchen operational for church services, potlucks and special occasions, below are the instructions that were posted on the wall of the kitchen in times long past. These directions were in a large picture frame and it is believed they come from the Essex Street church but may have come from Salem Acres. Perhaps one of our long-time members could shed light on this question. Nonetheless, here are the directions offered to the kitchen volunteers of years past.

BEFORE CHURCH SERVICES

Turn on hot water tank located in furnace room.

IN KITCHEN

Turn stove burners you will use to “High”.

Fill the two large kettles half full of fresh water. (For coffee)

Fill the tea kettle: Heat to boiling then turn off. (For tea)

Use 3/4 lb. Coffee for full capacity of Drip Coffee pot.

Prepare two tea pots with 2 bags of tea in each but do not brew until just before Coffee Hour commences.

When water in two large kettles is boiling, plug in Drip Pot, fill and turn indicator on pot to “High”. After all water has dripped through, turn indicator to “Low” and allow to remain so before and during “Coffee Hour”.

When leaving kitchen, be sure all top burners on stove are turned off.

JUST BEFORE COFFEE HOUR

Reheat water in tea kettle to boiling and brew tea.

Set out rolls, cream and sugar and milk for drinking.

AFTER COFFEE HOUR

Turn off hot water tank in furnace room.

Turn off all stove burners. If using oven, be sure to turn off.

Unplug drip coffee pot from wall outlet. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

Dispose of all refuse to prevent pest infestation.

Arrange to have dish towels laundered.

SUPPLIES NEEDED FOR COFFEE HOUR

12 dozen rolls and donuts
1 pint of Half and Half
1/2 gallon of milk

Coffee and tea (in small refrigerator)

48 cups, small plates, napkins and teaspoons

3 cans of juice for children

LOCATION OF SUPPLIES

The two large kettles, teapots, and large bake pans (for heating rolls) are in kitchen closet next to small refrigerator.

Cups, small plates and napkins are in blue cabinet in furnace room. Be sure to check cups for leaks.

Large yellow plates for rolls and plastic tablecloths are in bar closet on right of bar sink.

Flat silver, sugar containers and cream pitchers are in bar closet on right of bar sink.

Dish towels in small kitchen cabinet left of stove. China and glass serving pieces in bottom of small kitchen cabinet.

Receptacle and sign for Coffee Hour Donations is on top of blue cabinet.

If you wish to heat rolls before Coffee Hour turn right oven to 150 degrees. Use the large bake pans mentioned above and place rolls in oven where they will remain with heat on until they are served.

If you wish to use silver service, please contact Frances Carpenter.

6/15/2023.

by Mike Roberts, Church Historian

What was happening in the life of our church 25 years ago? By reviewing a few months of Board of Trustees meetings held in the spring of 1998, we might reflect on the issues that Heritage UU Church faced a quarter century ago. During that time period, Dave Spinney served as President of the board. Other members who served during that term were Jim Crocker-Lakness, Sam Gamble, Julie Kane, Barb Lyon, Pat Murray, Tom Rockenfeld, Dawson Smith and Rod Vivian.

To refresh your memory, in case you put 1998 well behind you, here are some of the leaders in pop culture that year. “ER” was the #1 television show. “Sunny Came Home” by Shawn Colvin won the Grammy for best song. Titanic won the Oscar for best movie. In May of that year, You Belong to Me, by Mary Higgins Clark, was the top selling book of fiction and Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom, was the top-selling non-fiction book.

These may have provided diversions for our church as they looked ahead to the new millennium. The most important issue facing Heritage concerned the announcement that minister Elinor Artman wished to retire in the near future. The board saw the need for action in that regard on two fronts. First, a search committee would have to be assembled to begin the process of hiring a new minister. To that end, a retreat was scheduled for October 3rd to discuss the creation of a search committee. This effort was led by Peg Feder. Secondly, it was recommended that the church bylaws be amended regarding the search process. These amendments were to be recommended to the membership at the annual meeting in April. At that annual meeting, four changes to the ministerial search process were discussed.

(1) The first change transferred the responsibility for securing a new minister from the Board of Trustees to a separate search committee. In the church’s past, the search for a new minister had always been conducted by the Board of Trustees. It was believed that the board was involved in too many other aspects of running the church to commit to finding a new minister, a process that could take between 12 and 18 months. Instead, it was proposed that a seven-member ad hoc committee would conduct the search, five of those committee persons being chosen by the membership and two appointed by the board.

(2) A change was recommended that instead of a 75% approval of a candidate, a vote of 95% approval would be required.

(3) The third recommendation was to change language regarding the dismissal of a minister. The change would require that a 51% negative vote of the congregation had to be obtained to dismiss a minister.

(4) It was also suggested that a change be made regarding the responsibility of the minister to adhere to the church constitution and the UU Ministers Association Guidelines.

The first and fourth recommendations were approved at the Annual Meeting but items 2 and 3 were tabled for further discussion. A vote would be taken at the next annual meeting but the discussions carried far beyond that date.

In addition to these issues related to the search for a new minister, the finance committee offered its new budget projections for the 1998-99 fiscal year. It included a raise in the minister’s salary to ensure that Heritage would be competitive during the search process.

While the board was wrestling with the issue of a search for a new minister, other items were, of course, on their agenda. Jim Crocker-Lakness announced that Reverend Artman had been accorded the Anne Miller Award for Excellence in Religious Education for the Ohio Valley District.

New candidates for the board had to be nominated for the ensuing year. Those nominated were Peg Feder, Jill Frank and Jerry Howard.

It was also agreed that Sam Feder and Tim Kloth were to be the joint recipients of the Heritage Award.

Much time was spent in discussing the need to re-organize the committee structure in the church. Among the issues were: 1) attaining commitments from chairpersons and members to participation for a set length of time; 2) training sessions for committee members; 3) team building strategies for these committees.

It was also reported that the membership of the church had reached 134 with 122 of those members having voting rights.

As a postlude, the issues regarding the hiring process were finally resolved and a seven-member search committee was created. The members of that committee were: Cindy Berryman-Fink, Chairperson; John Simpson; Joan Stoffregen; Tamara Smith; Bob Booth; Kathy Nalepa; and, Jim Crocker-Lakness. The committee worked diligently and offered Reverend Bill Gupton as their first choice. He was accepted by a vote of 84 yes and 1 no and was installed as our minister in April 2002, a full four years after the Board of Trustees initiated the search process.

June 2023.

The Stories of 42 Ministers Who Have Served Our Church

Part 9

by Mike Roberts, Church Historian

Over the past eight installments of From the Archives, we have explored the stories of all of those dedicated ministers who have served our church since its inception. We began with Josiah Waldo, our first minister. It is now time to conclude the series with the final two ministers who have served our church, namely Elinor Artman and Bill Gupton. These two have served our church for over thirty years and are well known to our long-time members.

Elinor Artman

Elinor McHale was born in White Plains, New York, on January 30, 1927, the only child of Walter and Hildegarde McHale. She was the valedictorian of her high school class and went on to graduate summa cum laude from St. Lawrence University with a degree in Chemistry. She then moved to Colorado for further studies. There she met Neil Artman, a fellow Chemistry major.

They married and moved to several locations as he pursued his PhD as well as job opportunities. They finally settled in Cincinnati in 1955 when Neil took a position with Procter and Gamble. The family eventually grew to five children.

Elinor never fit into the “corporate wife” mold. One of the ways she expressed her feminist leanings was by becoming active at First Unitarian Church, bringing her children with her to the religious education program there. She quickly became a lay leader and helped create a spinoff congregation in the suburb of Wyoming—Northern Hills UU Fellowship (known as The Gathering at Northern Hills today).

She grew more active in the women’s rights movement and encouraged the women in her life to strive for gender equality. Her next step was to take course work at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, where she finally earned the credits for a Master of Divinity degree and was ordained in Cincinnati at age 52.

Reverend Artman’s first assignment was serving as Extension Minister for the UUA Ohio Valley District. After three years in that role, she accepted a UU ministry in Kokomo, Indiana, serving there until 1987. That experience was followed by her taking the pulpit at Heritage where she offered her skilled guidance and leadership from 1989 to 2001. The UU Retired Ministers and Partners Association states that “she was known for her skills in conflict resolution and often facilitated groups in need of guidance. She became a certified instructor in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and often used this tool with church boards and congregations.” Upon her retirement from Heritage she was recognized as Minister Emerita.

Elinor’s Unitarian Universalist resume beyond the congregation was impressive indeed. She contributed to the development of coursework in feminist theology entitled Cakes for the Queen of Heaven and Rise Up and Call Her Name. She twice served as a board member of the UU Women’s Federation, and worked as a facilitator for UU Right Relations, a member of the UUA task force on congregational response to clergy misconduct, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA) Executive Committee.

After retiring from Heritage she lived in Highlands, North Carolina, and later Asheville. There, she was a consultant to the Mountain Retreat, a chaplain of the UU Musicians Network and a board member of the Women’s Heritage Society. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Southeast District of the UUA and was also granted membership into the Clara Barton Sisterhood (a special recognition of the UU Women’s Federation).

Elinor Artman died at age 87 on March 16, 2014, following a brief illness and stroke. She is survived by four of her five children, daughters Martha, Sarah and Vanessa and son Linus. Son Chris died in 1970.

After Rev. Artman left Heritage, Rev. Amy Russell served as our congregation’s Interim Minister, during the church year 2001-2002. Rev. Russell later served six years as settled minister at Miami Valley UU Fellowship in Dayton, Ohio.

Bill Gupton

We now reach the end (for now) of the nearly two-century long story of our church’s ministers. Rev. Bill Gupton began his ministry with Heritage in 2002, and continues to serve us today, as the longest-serving minister in the congregation’s history.

Bill was born in Bristol, Tennessee, in 1958, and attended the University of Tennessee, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. He then attended the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, where he obtained a Master’s degree in English. It was in Greensboro that he began working with Unitarian Universalist youth, at the church there – a calling that would, several years and many cities later, lead him to seminary.

He began his career as a UU religious professional in the early 1990s at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Okla., as the denomination’s only full-time Youth Director. During his years in Oklahoma, he married Jennifer Sanders (herself also a Tennessee native). They moved to Berkeley, Calif., in 1994, where Bill began studies at the Pacific School of Religion. While in the Bay Area, he did his ministerial internship at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. Two months before Bill received his Master’s of Divinity degree in 1996, Jennifer gave birth to their only child, Patrick Sanders. On Fathers Day of that year, he was ordained by the UU Congregation of Atlanta.

The family moved to Ohio later that summer, where Bill served as Interim Associate Minister at First UU Church in Columbus from 1996-1999. A three-year stint as minister of the historic Olmsted UU Congregation in North Olmsted, Ohio – itself, an old Universalist church much like Heritage – followed.

In the spring of 2001, the HUUC Ministerial Search Committee (Bob Booth, Cindy Berryman-Fink (chair), Jim Crocker-Lakness, Kathy Nalepa, John Simpson, Tamara Smith, and Joan Stoffregen) recommended that Heritage call him as our 40th minister. The vote on April 21, 2002, was 84-1 in favor, and Rev. Bill has served Heritage Universalist Unitarian church ever since.

In that time, the church has seen a 50 percent growth in membership, and the introduction of multi-platform worship experiences (live Zoom broadcasts, video recording of services available on the website, etc.). A capital campaign resulted in a new kitchen, redesigned sanctuary with new technology, and a digital electronic sign at Newtown Road.

Bill’s development of and attention to a new End-of-Life Ministry at Heritage led to the creation of Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary, the Tri-State’s only dedicated natural (“green”) burial ground, which opened in April of 2020 – just at the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

***

Now, as HUUC becomes fully operational once again following the pandemic, we look to the future. There will be other ministers. Other congregants. Other challenges, and successes. But always, we will honor our Heritage.

May 2023.

[Part 1] – [Part 2] – [Part 3] – [Part 4] – [Part 5] – [Part 6] – [Part 7] – [Part 8] – [Part 9]

 

The Stories of 42 Ministers Who Have Served Our Church

Part 8

by Mike Roberts, Church Historian

Our review of past ministers has reached the point of discussing pastors who served recently and are well known and remembered by our congregation.

Doak Mansfield

Doak Maddox Mansfield became the minister of our church in 1975 after the resignation of Brian Tansey. However, after Tansey’s leaving, the church brought in speakers and used members to conduct Sunday services for two years until Reverend Mansfield was hired by Salem Acres.

Mansfield was born in Fayetteville, Lincoln County Tennessee the son of John Harwell Mansfield and Margaret Jean Maddox. After graduating high school, he earned an associate’s degree from Martin Methodist College and then enrolled at Austin Peay University from which he graduated in 1970. He taught school for one year and then was appointed Dean of Administration and Housing at Martin. He next attended Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. with the intention of entering the ministry. His first assignment was to serve as pastor at Sudley United Methodist Church in Virginia. He ministered there from 1973 to 1975. At the end of his tenure in Sudley, Mansfield applied for ordination with the Unitarian Universalist Church and began his career with that organization when he accepted the pulpit at Salem Acres.

During his nearly ten years of service to our church, Mansfield preached most of his sermons in the Salem Hills house that had been purchased on land above Lunken Airport. Throughout, he felt the necessity to move into or to build a true church facility if the congregation was ever to grow. Eventually, the house was sold and the group met in the auditorium at Anderson High School and at a social service center. But, the pressing need to find a permanent home was still there. When the decision was made to construct the present church, Mansfield felt it was time to move on and he resigned his position before construction of the new church was completed. He assumed a new pastorate in Huntsville, Alabama where he remained until ill health forced a premature retirement in the year 2000.

In 1978, Mansfield received a commission as a U.S. Army reserve chaplain to become one of only four UU chaplains in the army. He served in that position for eight years. In his sermons he occasionally worked in references to the “M-A-S-H” TV program. For its final episode in 1983, he donned khaki and spoke to the message delivered weekly on the show. He stated, “The 11 years of ‘M-A-S-H’ programs have immeasurably helped America heal the wounds of Vietnam. ‘M-A-S-H’ has been a religious experience because it talked about human experience and religion in contending with life.” The service was held at the H. D. West Community Center and raised funds for a Vietnam memorial in Eden Park.

Reverend Mansfield was active in service to the general community while at Salem Acres. He volunteered at the Salem Senior Center, served in the University of Cincinnati Campus Ministry, was a chaplain at the Bethesda Hospitals as well as reaching the rank of captain while in the U. S. Army Reserve Chaplain corps. During his stay in Cincinnati and in later years, Mansfield authored at least four books, Gallery of Honored Cherokee, The Mockingbird’s Ballad, Jones of Old Lincoln, and An Irreverent Guide to Spirituality.

In tendering his resignation to the Salem Acres congregation, Reverend Mansfield stated that, “My nearly ten years with this congregation has been a time of wonder and challenge. I have real good feelings about the experience. I have real good feelings about your future. The relationships made here are gifts I shall treasure always.” After successful heart surgery, Mansfield went on to serve several churches over the past thirty years and, in February 2023, accepted the position of pastor at The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sussex County, New Jersey.

Following Reverend Mansfield’s leave, the church used an interim minister, James Hutchinson, to conduct services and help the congregation complete its move to the new facility on Newtown Road. Elinor Artman, whose presence will play a large role in the future years of the church, also helped in the interim period.

Laine Hawxhurst

To open a new page in the history of the congregation, the church employed Reverend Laine Hawxhurst. She was installed as the 38th minister of the church and the first woman to be employed as our full-time minister. Laine Hawxhurst was born in Cincinnati and graduated from Walnut Hills High School. She matriculated to Western College for Women in Oxford and then attended Kirkland College and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She was raised in the UU tradition, her family attending First Unitarian Church on Reading Road.

Reverend Hawxhurst was installed as the new minister on March 23, 1986. Among those speaking at the event were UU ministers Carl Whittier and Robert Clarke along with Rabbi Victor Reichert. A new start by all would be the phrase to describe Hawxhurst’s early ministry. The newly completed church was opened with its first service in December of 1985. The name of the church was changed from Salem Acres to Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church to emphasize its roots as a former Universalist congregation with a long history of service to the community. Nearly all the churches in the UU organization listed the Unitarian name first. A formal dedication for the new church facility was conducted on November 2, 1986. In order to draw new people to the church, Reverend Hawxhurst helped launch a monthly newsletter which is the predecessor of our Heirloom. She also appeared on the Channel 12 public affairs program “Dialogue.” In a report offered to the Board of Trustees, RE Director Joy Mansfield stated that new and interested worshipers were attending services each Sunday.

Reverend Hawxhurst remained with the church until she tendered her resignation on September 9th 1988. She went on to serve UU churches in Norwich, Connecticut and Allentown, Pennsylvania. She currently resides in Eastern Pennsylvania.

April 2023.

[Part 1] – [Part 2] – [Part 3] – [Part 4] – [Part 5] – [Part 6] – [Part 7] – [Part 8] – [Part 9]

 

by Rev. David E. Bumbaugh

Introduction by Russ Araujo

On February 5, 2023, Rev. Bill Gupton gave a sermon on “What Do You Believe?” The question of belief, at both the individual and the denominational level, reminded me of a talk I heard 14 years ago by Rev. David E. Bumbaugh. A search on the Internet led me to an article that was based upon that talk; I found the article fascinating and relevant to some of the denominational questions being asked today.

Here is the article from UU World magazine: The Unfulfilled Dream.

2/13/2023

 

The Stories of 42 Ministers Who Have Served Our Church

Part 7

by Mike Roberts, Church Historian

After the depression and war years, turbulent times faced the church in the 1950s. The First Society continued to struggle during the 1950s and through the hectic days of the 1960s and 1970s. Albert Perry was brought aboard and the church attempted to solve its lingering problems.

Albert Q. Perry

Albert Perry, the son of a traveling salesman, came to Cincinnati in January 1952. At age 36, he had previously served two churches in New England and one in Quebec. His family had housed a Universalist minister when Albert was a child and this likely had a strong effect on his career choice.

When Reverend Perry started his ministry here, he saw two great challenges. The merger with City Temple was still fresh and he felt that even though the two churches worshiped together, they were still separated spiritually. The second was to start a campaign to raise funds to renovate the 50-year-old church. These tasks occupied much of the first five years he served the First Society.

In addition to these stresses, there was a strong feeling within the church that a new home had to be found. Some members were worried about changing dynamics of the neighborhood and that few new members would be found amongst the new residents of Walnut Hills. Others felt the church should not sink money into renovation but should seek a new site. Also, the Hamilton County planning commission had warned the church that in all likelihood I-71 would be built through the church property. This hung over the heads of the members for nearly five years and then the freeway was built to the west of the church and the Essex facility was unaffected.

In 1960, Reverend Perry outlined a five-point plan to improve the financial health of the church. Briefly these were 1) eliminate the confusion about the state of the church’s finances; 2) work out a temporary budget to accommodate the lack of financial drive and the loss of members who were habitual givers; 3) establish a policy regarding bequests; 4) establish a policy in regard to capital gains; 5) establish a policy regarding ministerial salaries. The church wrestled with its financial worries throughout the 1950s and Perry hoped the church would adopt policies for all of these economic issues.

Finally, the merger of the Unitarian and Universalist churches took place late in Albert Perry’s stay with our church. Adjusting to this new dynamic added to an already overstressed congregation. Perry resigned his ministry in 1961 and moved back to New England. He worked in the Civil Rights Movement and unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Rhode Island. He ministered to churches in Rhode Island, New York and Maine, finally retiring in 1990. He died in 2001 in Biddleford, Maine.

(Read a prior “From the Archives” article on Rev. Perry here.)

Raymond John Baughan

Reverend Baughan came to Cincinnati in November of 1961. He arrived after serving as editor of the Universalist Leader, the national magazine for the Universalist Church of America. Previous to that, he had served as minister to a number of New England churches. During his stay in Cincinnati, Baughan made recommendations as to how to improve the church so it could prosper. Among these were 1) give full support to the national merger of Unitarianism and Universalism; 2) update the church’s bylaws, which he felt were vague and misguided; 3) develop a better system of financial management, a constant theme throughout the history of the church; 4) conduct a self-analysis of the church; 5) initiate a study of relocation and also a possible merger with the Eastern Hills UU church.

Reverend Baughan worked for two years at accomplishing these goals before leaving in January of 1964. Upon his resignation, he cited several accomplishments. He assisted in co-hosting the state Universalist convention along with Eastern Hills church. He established a new monthly newsletter, the Lamplighter, and he created a number of new committees to address the goals listed above. During his lengthy career, he provided many and various services to the national church and his communities, among them serving 54 years as a minister, writing many poems and meditations, one of which, #485, appears in our UU hymnal, serving as a hospital chaplain, directing the Universalist Publishing House and holding many positions of leadership in state and local organizations. He also marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Reverend Baughan died in1993.

(Read a prior “From the Archives” article on Rev. Baughan here.)

Karl Albert Bach

When Karl Bach took the pulpit of our church in November 1964, he was 56 years old. He stayed with the church for nearly six years and it was his last full-time assignment, as he retired from the profession with his resignation. He had served a number of churches in Massachusetts, Iowa and New York prior to coming to Cincinnati. He was a Unitarian by training and experience, having come to our city from the First Unitarian Church of Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

It was during Reverend Bach’s tenure that the church finally decided to leave its home in Walnut Hills and relocate to Salem Acres in Anderson Township. This was the fourth home for the church. Bach likened the move to a pendulum which had been stuck on dead center but that the relocation would be a gain for the congregation and would begin to move it in a positive direction. Along with the move, Reverend Bach urged a well-planned membership drive to be a part of the change. Bach passed away in 1999 in Portland, Oregon.

Brian R. Tansey

After Karl Bach left the Salem Acres Church, the congregation went nearly three years without a full-time minister. On September 17, 1972, Brian Tansey preached a sermon at the church and on November 11 he was installed as the new minister. He remained with Salem Acres for less than one year, resigning on July 29, 1973. Little is known of his background or where he went after leaving Salem Acres.

March 2023

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