Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford, Connecticut
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The Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford, Connecticut (UUSIS)
From the outside, the Stamford building looks like a quaint British church. Inside, however, it is a colorful place that offers a place for all people regardless of where they may be on life's journey.
The Society includes members of various religious backgrounds: Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Pagan, and even the Afro-Brazilian faith of Candomblé. The term “society” best reflects that diversity. However, some of its members use “church” because that is such a familiar term.
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Mission
The Society's stated mission is to be a dynamic, nurturing congregation that affirms a commitment to spiritual and personal growth. In honoring our heritage of religious freedom and diversity, we pledge to live our moral and ethical values.
Purpose
Key is the celebration of
- • The worth and dignity of every person
- • The free and responsible search for truth and meaning
- • The authority of reason and conscience
- • Freedom of religious expression and the value of a wide diversity of religious beliefs
History
Universalism first came to Stamford in the early 1830s. The Long Ridge Universalist Church, which was was raised June 12, l834, was dedicated on October 15th. It experienced numerous changes. In the 1940's, Mrs. Howard Gilmour purchased the building and presented it to the Missionary Society of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. The structure has been renovated and is still used as part of the St. Francis Episcopal church, according to Ms. Dorothy Sonn, the congregation's historian.
The Second Universalist Society of Stamford was officially organized on April 3, l841. Its congregation met and officially organized in the Town House on River Street (now Washington Boulevard) in l841. In 1845, they built a church on the corner of Atlantic and Bank Streets where the old Town Hall now stands. In 1941, for the 100th anniversary celebration, a plaque was placed on the corner of the building:
- The simple bronze plaque on the face of the Town Hall marks not only the site of the first building, but preserves in the minds of our fellow citizens the many stories of the first liberal Church in Stamford.
The current building was dedicated on December 29, 1870.
The stained-glass windows depicting St. Peter and St. Paul once hung in the New York City's Orchard Street Universalist Church. The tenement that was built in the footprint of the demolished church building became a part of the present Lower East Side Tenement Museum, not the church building itself, which was long since torn down by the time of the museum's founding. The museum's website shows the windows:
- In the process of moving from the site at 97 Orchard Street, members of the Universalist Society made sure to preserve two stained glass windows that had been donated to the congregation by Barzillai Ransom. Ransom had acquired the windows while in Italy, and they were said to date from the 16th or 17th century. A few years later the Society of New York would donate the stained glass windows to the Universalist Society of Stamford, Connecticut. Recently, researchers at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum discovered that these beautiful windows were still very much in existence.
- This window is commonly referred to as the "Paul" window, as it depicts the Apostle Paul. In the Bible, Paul becomes a Christian missionary after he is blinded on the road towards Damascus by the presence of Jesus - The book and sword are common emblems of St. Paul, the former symbolic of his writing, the latter of the means of his mimagesyrdom. St. Paul was executed by the sword, rather than by crucifixion, because he was a Roman citizen.
- This stained glass is known as the "Peter" window. According to the Bible, after his death, Saint Peter became the keeper of the gates of heaven. In Christian imagery, Peter is often depicted holding his key, as he is with his right hand in this window.
- The church is the Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford, at 20 Forest Street.
(See Dutch Reformed Church slide show. )
Contact
Ron Sala has been the Parish Minister since 2001. Originally raised a Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonite, he has a B.A. in English from Eastern Mennonite College (1992) and a Master of Divinity from New York Theological Seminary (1999).
His writing has been included in Unitarian Universalism: Selected Essays (2000) and Underground: The Disinformation Guide to Ancient Civilizations, Astonishing Archeology and Hidden History (2005), and he is a frequent contributor to The Stamford Advocate. He was awarded the Unitarian Universalists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ Albert Schweitzer Sermon Award (2000).
Ron is active in AIDS Interfaith Stamford, Cures Not Wars, and Union Lodge #5, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons. He is a frequent speaker at labor rallies and was one of the ministers who performed same-sex weddings at New Paltz, New York. In his spare time, he enjoys appreciating nature, dream yoga, walking, reading (especially Robert Anton Wilson), and writing poetry and prose.
He lives in downtown Stamford, Connecticut with his wife, ReBecca Ames Sala (a UU hospital chaplain and UUSIS’s Community Minister), and six beloved felines.
