We were amazed to see this piece of our local Universalist history, which was recently posted on slate.com:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/poverty-party-invitations-from-the-gilded-age.html

     

The present-day Unitarian Universalist Church of Athens and Sheshequin (UUCAS) is descended from the Universalist congregations in the towns of Athens and Sheshequin, Pa. The Athens congregation officially dissolved in 1965, and the remaining members joined the Sheshequin Universalist church.

The Rev. Darcey Laine, who has served UUCAS since 2008, writes:

“We have been slowly learning some of the history of the Athens congregation that had been lost. We were saddened and disturbed to read that a Universalist church would engage in this kind of classist and insensitive fundraiser. And we feel it is important that we take responsibility for this offensive classism.

“The Universalist tradition has, since its beginnings in the late eighteenth century, believed in a loving God who didn’t play favorites. It is founded on the idea that all people are held in God’s love, or as we say today “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Universalism is now part of Unitarian Universalist Association, which expressly works for economic justice and which in 2017 passed a Statement of Conscience denouncing escalating economic inequality: https://www.uuworld.org/articles/economic-inequality-statement-2017.

“Finding this posting about the “poverty party” in Athens helped us learn something about our history and reminded us that there is more work for us to do as individuals and as a congregation in building a world that affirms every person.”

Read more about the 1896 Poverty Party in Part 2.