Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Summit

History

Beacon UU was founded by area residents who felt that Summit needed a liberal church, emphasizing ethics and love as the core of religion, and encouraging all members to search for their own religious truths. Parker D. King, a successful local businessman, was one of these. In the summer of 1906, he encountered a childhood friend, Unitarian minister Curtis Brown, on the Long Island Railroad. They discussed how to start a liberal church in Summit.

Starting in January, 1907, King and a small committee planned a series of “Unitarian Meetings” in Summit, which took place on Sundays throughout that year. On January 14, 1908, a small group met in Summit to consider establishing a Unitarian congregation. The group was indecisive and hesitant, so Russell Hinman, a strong supporter of liberal religion, made a motion that they not found a Unitarian church in Summit. Having rejected this option, seventeen charter members proceeded to organize a Unitarian Church in Summit and called Reverend Brown to be its first minister.

The group met in rented locations until funds were allocated to construct a building. Financial assistance from the American Unitarian Association and the New Jersey Universalist Convention made it possible to purchase the land at the current location on Springfield and Waldron Avenues. An existiing house (later called "Community House") was moved up Waldron to make room for a new building facing Springfield Avenue. Architect and member Joy Wheeler Brown designed the building to reflect the style of Colonial New England meeting houses, and incorporated elements of St. Paul's Chapel in New York City and King's Chapel in Boston. Construction began in 1912 and the sanctuary was formally dedicated on October 21, 1913. Also in 1912, the church adopted the name All Souls' Church, Unitarian-Universalist, having members from both denominations. This prefigures the later merger of the Unitarian and Universalist churches in 1961.

In 1914, the church called Rev. Frank C. Doan to the pulpit. Doan was a pacifist who voiced his opposition to war in April, 1917, when the United States joined in the "Great War." This was extremely unpopular in New Jersey, and given strong criticism from the state's newspapers, he offered his resignation to the Board of Trustees. They refused it, setting a high standard for freedom of the pulpit in Summit.

The trustees of All Soul’s Church of Summit, New Jersey, in view of newspaper comment and various current rumors, and in justice both to their minister, Dr. Frank Carleton Doan, and to themselves, wish to put on record their admiration for his sincerity, tolerance, courage, idealism, and loyalty to the best as he sees it. While by far the larger part of his congregation is not in agreement with his views regarding peace and war, they believe in a broad tolerance of opinion and in freedom of pulpit utterance. Nothing that Dr. Doan has said is capable of interpretation as treason or disloyalty to his country. The Trustees believe that there is more danger to-day in attempts to suppress honest opinion than there is in a frank and free expression of sincere pacifism. Let us not see the ghost of Benedict Arnold in every phrase which is not sufficiently war-like to satisfy our emotions. Let us rather respect an honest man, whether he agrees with us or not. In short, while fighting one form of tyranny, let us beware lest we build up another. The Trustees have no thought of accepting Dr. Doan’s offer to resign.

From 1933 to 1944, A. Powell Davies was the minister. A former Methodist, he had a profound influence on this church of "intellectuals, scientists, professionals, independent thinkers, and those not satisfied with traditional Protestantism" and also on the Unitarian movement. His preaching emphasized not just political action, but the importance of a 'world religion', a religion that underlies all existing religions. He said of religions that "what is deeply true in one of them is just as true in all of them." Davies life work was to seek to express this basic religion and to advance Unitarian thought. In 1942, a convocation of Unitarian ministers was held in Summit to develop a Unitarian statement of faith.

More prosaically, Davies convinced the church, then unaffiliated and named the "Summit Community Church," that since it was accepting support from the American Unitarian Association, it should rejoin the Unitarian Association. He also devoted himself to developing the Religious Education program and a vital Youth Group.

In 1945, the church called Jacob Trapp, a theist and a poet. He was the minister until 1970. An important theme in both his poetry and his ministry was our lost "earth of yesterdays" and the use of myths, especially from the Southwestern United States, to recapture our relationship to nature. He also took inspiration from St. Francis and wrote his own translation of the Tao Te Ching. His theology was built from diverse sources, including poets Walt Whitman and Robert Frost, fellow Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson, and philosophers from other traditions such as Martin Buber and Teilhard du Chardin.

During Trapp's quarter-century tenure, the church grew considerably, drawing many members from Bell Labs. Among these were Harold Black, inventor of the negative feedback amplifier, and James William Welsh. To accommodate the many new members and the need for religious education classes, the church instituted two services on Sunday mornings and bought an additional property to house the religious education program. Trapp was a voice of conscience in a conservative time, working with local civil rights leaders to integrate Summit's movie theater and YMCA.

The years from 1970 to 1988 were stressful for the church, with half a dozen ministers and interims, and reduction in the church membership. This period of instability ended with the arrival of David Bumbaugh. Bumbaugh served from 1988 to 1999, after which he became professor of ministry at Meadville/Lombard Theological School. Bumbaugh's spiritual inspiration was drawn from a "blend of paganism and earth worship." His sermons were "small masterpieces of fine detail and subtlety, crafted with an ear for the rhythm and power of language." For example, “We have manned the ramparts of reason and are prepared to defend the citadel of the mind…But in the process of defending, we have lost the vocabulary of reverence, the ability to speak of that which is sacred, holy, or of ultimate importance to us.”. During Bumbaugh's tenure, membership revived to its earlier levels and the church returned to holding two Sunday morning services. In 1995, the church called its first woman minister, Beverley Bumbaugh, David's wife, fulfilling their lifelong dream of co-ministry.

In the 1990s, the steeple became structurally unsound, and was removed. Toward the end of the Bumbaugh's tenure, in 1998, the congregation took the major step of deciding to unite the religious education program with the church sanctuary, on a single property with a renovated building to include office and classroom space. At the same time, a new steeple was built and attached to the top using a crane.

During the interim between the Bumbaughs and the new minister, Vanessa Southern, church membership dropped from a maximum of 477 in 1995 to 407 in 2001. Under the leadership of minister Vanessa Southern (2001–2014), Summit membership grew to 529 members in 2012, children's education numbers grew to 200, and charitable and social action efforts increased. In late 2011, the congregation voted to pursue the purchase of an adjacent property.

Governance

Beacon UU has an unusual leadership model, combining two ordained ministers with a lay executive director. One minister, the Minister of Worship and Outreach is in charge of worship, music, social action, and interactions with the wider community. The second minister, the Minister of Congregational Life, is in charge of religious education, pastoral care, small group worship, and membership. The executive director is in charge of administration, including stewardship, finance, facilities, and communications. The leadership model was developed to allow the ministers to play to their unique strengths and to improve their work-life balance.

In addition to the ministers and executive director, the staff includes a Music Director, a Director of Religious Education, a Religious Education Coordinator, a Stewardship Director, a Membership and Youth Coordinator, and a sexton.

Worship

Beacon UU offers two traditional Sunday morning services along with religious education classes for children during each service. On Sunday nights, the Youth Group holds a Worship Service and activities to promote “bonding, helping the community, and having fun.”

One Saturday night each month, there is a Green Vespers service in which participants “seek right relationship with Earth.” Attendees also share dishes at a pot-luck dineer.

Spirit in Practice Circles provide small-group worship. Facilitators lead groups of 8-10 people, discussing the theme of the current month. The groups meet twice a month at various times.

Social Action

In 2007, in response from a call from Rev. Vanessa Southern to "live boldly," the congregation began its involvement with The Irvington Initiative, a partnership between the congregation and the Chancellor Avenue School in Irvington, NJ. Beacon's Social Justice Committee provides tutoring, educational workshops, holiday gifts, and fund-raising events for the children in the largely African-American school. Also in 2007, members of the congregation responded to Rev. Southern's call by starting the "Moving Toward Peace" initiative. The congregation voted to call for an end to the war in Iraq, began a weekly tradition of striking a gong for each service member killed that week in Iraq or Afghanistan, and prepared a wall of ribbons, one ribbon for each service member killed, to display in front of the building on Springfield Avenue.

In 2008, the congregation raised a $100,000 Centennial Fund, out of which they made four gifts: to the Irvington Initiative, described above; to the Central Asia Institute to build a school for girls in rural Pakistan or Afghanistan; to the Sienna Project, which builds schools for the indigenous Mayan children of underserved, isolated villages in the mountains of Guatemala; and to provide musical instruments for schools in New Orleans that lost their instruments during Katrina.

In 2009 selected members flew to Salt Lake City to attend an annual conference of Unitarian Universalists. The 2009 national meeting discussed issues including "peacemaking, workshops on ethical eating, U.S. ratification of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty and a call for a commission of inquiry regarding U.S.-sponsored torture." A statement suggested that the Summit Unitarian congregation "encourages people to seek their own spiritual path" and "draws on many religious traditions," and is a spiritual home for "bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender people and promotes marriage equality."

In 2010, UCS was named a "Breakthrough Congregation" at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly and received the first Social Justice Congregation Award from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee "for its efforts to advance human rights work in collaboration with UUSC."

In January and February 2016, UCS raised $18,000 from plate collections for a shelter and rape crisis center in Iraq. The shelter is in Dohuk, Kurdistan, and houses Yazidi women who had escaped after being abducted by members of the ISIS militant group. The funds were given to MADRE, which partners with the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI). OWFI actually runs the shelter.

On September 25, 2016, UCS and Fountain Baptist Church held a march through downtown Summit and raised "Black Lives Matter" banners, in response to recent shootings of African Americans by police officers. The event was organized by a Black Lives Matter team, led by Claudia Cohen of UCS and the Rev. Vernon Williams of Fountain Baptist. About 500 members of local congregations and of the Summit community marched.

Beacon UU is an active member of the Summit Interfaith Council, a coalition of 19 local religious groups that “seek the welfare of the city.” Rev. Emilie Boggis was president in 2014-2015 and the previous minister, Rev. Vanessa Southern, has also been president.

Beacon UU has had a partner Unitarian church in Barot, Transylvania (Romania), since 1992. The partnership includes visits from Barot to Summit, and vice versa, and Beacon provides some financial support for the Barot church and scholarships for university students.

Additional efforts include:

Members of Beacon UU have been active in the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of New Jersey, which works for “socially just public policy” on issues including economic justice, the environment, reproductive justice, immigration reform, gun violence, and criminal justice reform. The building has housed the Executive Director of the organization for several years.

The congregation has sponsored numerous talks on such subjects as racial justice, experiences of civil rights protesters in the 1960s, readings of speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., "intentional integration," Darfur refugees, healthier eating and diet, shamanism, meditation, and other topics. Beacon UU cooperated with other churches on a project entitled Raise the Roof to build affordable housing for persons in Summit, working alongside Habitat for Humanity. It held an annual garage sale from 1977 to 2010.

Music

The music program is headed by Mitchell Vines, Director. It is varied, and features an Afternoon music series, including performances by jazz pianist Bill Charlap and harpist Elaine Christy. The church has hosted numerous concerts by musicians, including Vibraphonist Makoto Nakura, violist Kenji Bunch, Violinist Deborah Buck, and numerous other artists and performers.