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Annual Meeting 2003--All UUs Invited!
Program Workshop Descriptions Leader Biographies Directions

“Declaring Our Faith”

A Conference Marking the Bicentennial of the Winchester Profession

Friday evening, April 25, Keene, NH
Saturday, April 26, Winchester, NH
Sunday morning, April 27, Keene, NH

This year’s annual conference is jointly sponsored with Universalist Convocations, an older organization with the same overall goals that since 1990 has held annual conferences in the South, the mid-Atlantic states, and Ohio.

The Winchester Profession is a famous declaration of faith that served Universalists throughout the nineteenth century. It is the great-great-grandparent of the UUA Principles.

The main program will be on Saturday, April 26, in Winchester, NH, in the United Church of Winchester’s Center Church (Universalist memorial), which stands on the spot where the Winchester Profession was adopted in 1803. The program will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., with an option to stay for dinner and an evening program that will end about 9.

Other, related events will take place Friday evening and Sunday morning at the Unitarian Universalist Church in nearby Keene, NH. All are warmly invited to attend.
 

Location:  

Friday evening and Sunday morning:

Keene, NH, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 69 Washington Street

Saturday:

Winchester, NH, at the Center Church (Universalist memorial), Richmond and Michigan Streets, near the junction of routes 10 and 119 east.
   

Cost:  

 $15 per person. In addition, Saturday lunch and Saturday dinner, including vegetarian options, will be provided by the Winchester congregation for $10 per meal. Advance payment required.
   
Reservations: 
 Please send us by mail the following information:
 
  • your name,
  • your postal address,
  • your phone number,
  • your email address,
  • the number of registrations (at $15 per person),
  • the number of Saturday lunches (at $10 each), and
  • the number of Saturday dinners (at $10 each).
  Also, please indicate if you would like to receive:

  • motel information. Blocks of rooms in the Keene, NH area will be held at a reduced rate until March 25;
  • information about Bed & Breakfast accommodations with members of the Keene church;
  • directions from nearby airports.
 

Please send this information along with your check, made out to “Universalist Convocations,” to:
     The Rev. Faith Grover Scott, Registrar
     71 N. Ann St.
     Little Falls, NY 13365

 
 

Program
Friday, April 25: Keene, NH, Unitarian Universalist Church, 69 Washington Street
  Dinner on your own
4:00 - 7:30 p.m. Registration
7:30 p.m. Welcome--Cole Wiggins, President, Universalist Convocations
“Universalist Convocations: Past, Present and Future”--Cole and past presidents
8:30 p.m. Worship--The Revs. Jeanne and Olav Nieuwejaar
 
Saturday, April 26: Winchester, NH, Center Church (Universalist memorial), Richmond and Michigan Streets (near junction of routes 10 and 119 east)
8:30-9:15 a.m. Registration & Coffee
9:15-10:00 a.m Worship--North Carolinians
10:00-10:15 a.m. Break
10:15-11:45 a.m. Theme Presentation: “The Winchester Profession and Its Cousins--Uses and Misuses of Statements of Faith within Universalism”--The Rev. Dr. Peter Lee Scott
11:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m Break
12:00 p.m. Group Photo
12:15-1:15 p.m. Lunch
1:15-1:30 p.m Break
1:30-2:45 p.m. Simultaneous Workshops
 
  • “The Larger Message: Universalist Religious Education’s Response to Theological and Cultural Challenges, 1790-1930”--The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth M. Strong
  • “Sharing Our Views of World Religions”--The Rev. Frank Robertson
  • Further conversation with The Rev. Dr. Peter Lee Scott
  • “Romans 5:18--A Pearl of Great Price”--The Rev. Dr. Barry Whittemore
3:00-3:45 p.m. “Hosea Ballou’s Life-Long Search for Meaning”--Dr. Ernest Cassara
4:00-5:45 p.m. Carpool to Hosea Ballou sites in Richmond, NH, then return to Winchester
6:00-7:30 p.m. Dinner
7:30-9:00 p.m. Universalist Hymn-Sing--The Rev. David Johnson
9:00 p.m. Social Time
   
Sunday, April 27: Keene, NH, Unitarian Universalist Church, 69 Washington Street
8:30 a.m. Universalist Convocations Business Meeting
10:00 a.m. Worship--The Rev. Richard Trudeau
  Lunch on your own

Workshop Descriptions

“The Larger Message: Universalist Religious Education’s Response to Theological and Cultural Challenges, 1790-1930”
The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth M. Strong
We will explore how Universalist religious education developed in response to the changes and challenges of the Professions, Confessions, and Bond of Union Statements of evolving Universalist theology.
 

“Sharing Our Views of World Religions”
The Rev. Frank Robertson
We will share our different approaches to the question of the place of world religions in our lives and in our churches.
 

Further conversation with The Rev. Dr. Peter Lee Scott
The Rev. Dr. Peter Lee Scott
A chance to pursue topics raised in the morning’s Theme Presentation, “The Winchester Profession and Its Cousins--Uses and Misuses of Statements of Faith within Universalism.”
 

“Romans 5:18--A Pearl of Great Price”
The Rev. Barry Whittemore
This workshop will examine the second half of Romans 5, a key to Hosea Ballou’s conversion and a cornerstone of Universalism.

Leader Biographies
Cole Wiggins is President of Universalist Convocations.
 
The Revs. Jeanne and Olav Nieuwejaar are Acting District Executives of the New Hampshire-Vermont District of the UUA.
 
The Rev. Dr. Peter Lee Scott, our Theme Speaker, is a 5th generation Universalist, and is retired after 44 years in the Unitarian Universalist ministry. With a strong interest in UU history, he is currently writing a history of Universalist/Unitarian relations that led into “merger,” and a Centennial History of Ferry Beach.
 
The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth M. Strong is a Minister of Religious Education and a third-generation Universalist. She is Religious Education Consultant for the Mass. Bay District of the UUA.
 
The Rev. Frank Robertson was ordained in 1962 by Grace Universalist Church in Lowell, MA. He attended St. Lawrence Theological School and studied world religions at Columbia University. He is a Minister of Religious Education, author of the UUA curriculum World Religions, and a member of the United States Chapter Board of the International Association for Religious Freedom.
 
The Rev. Dr. Barry Whittemore is the minister of the Holston Valley UU Church in Gray, Tennessee, where he was ordained in 1999. He holds an M.Div. from Duke and a doctorate in History from Carnegie Mellon. He serves as Vice President of the SouthEastern UU Ministers’ Association, as well as of the Universalist Convocation.
 
Dr. Ernest Cassara is Professor Emeritus of History at George Mason University in Virginia. He has also taught at Goddard College, Tufts, Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland and the U. of Munich. He is author of The Enlightenment in America; The History of the United States of America: A Guide to Information Sources; and editor of a new edition of Abraham Lincoln by Carl Schurz. His interest in Universalist history is of long standing. His writings include Hosea Ballou: The Challenge to Orthodoxy; Universalism in America: A Documentary History of a Liberal Faith; and two “Father Ballou and His Dog Spot” mystery novels. He has contributed several biographies to the on-line Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography (www.uua.org/uuhs/duub).
 
The Rev. David Johnson has served churches in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and now the First Parish in Brookline, MA. He fell in love with Universalist history while in seminary, and with several books and papers to his credit became a consultant to the UUA’s Universalist 200 Committee. Gene Navias and he produced the great “Singing, Shouting, Celebrating Universalism” programs. He has taught Unitarian and Universalist history, and hymnody, at Andover Newton Theological School.
 
Rev. Richard Trudeau  is minister of the UU Church of Weymouth, MA, and edits the newsletter of the New Massachusetts Universalist Convention.  He also teaches mathematics and the history of astronomy at Stonehill College in Easton, MA.

Directions

The Saturday program will be in Winchester, NH, at the Center Church (Universalist memorial), near the junction of routes 10 and 119 (Richmond and Michigan Streets).

From Interstate 91 (Vermont): Take exit 1 or 2 (Brattleboro, VT) and follow route 119 from Brattleboro to Winchester. In Winchester route 119 turns left and joins route 10. When they separate, turn right with route 119 and you are at the church (route 119 and Michigan Street).

From Interstate 91 (Massachusetts): Take exit 28 and follow route 10 through Northfield, MA to Winchester, NH. In Winchester route 10 is joined by route 119. When they separate turn right with route 119 and you are at the church (route 119 and Michigan Street).

From Keene, NH: Follow route 10 to Winchester. Turn left onto route 119, and you are at the church (route 119 and Michigan Street).

From MA Route 2: Take exit 15 and follow route 122 north to the center of Orange. Go left onto route 2A and then, after about a mile and a half, right onto route 78. Follow route 78 through Warwick, MA to route 10 in Winchester, NH. Turn right onto route 10 (and route119). When the routes separate, turn right with route 119 and you are at the church (route 119 and Michigan Street).
   

The Friday evening and Sunday morning programs will be in Keene, NH, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 69 Washington Street.

From NH Route 101: Take Main Street into Keene center. Go through the rotary and bear slightly right, onto Washington St. The church is on the right.

From the North: Take the Washington Street exit off of Route 10 (also Rt. 9 at this point). Follow Washington Street for about 2 miles. The church is on the left, just before the rotary in Keene center.

Church website: www.keeneuuchurch.org.
 
 

 
 
 

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