OUR HISTORY
Our Church
In 1779 John Murray established in Gloucester the first Universalist church in America. His church maintained that God's love extends to all peoples, not just a select few. On February 11, 1821, the Universalist Benevolent Society in Sandy Bay was founded; our current church was built in 1829. In 1961, the Unitarians and the Universalists merged and we changed our name to the Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport to reflect this union. Unitarian theology holds that God is one, that we are all bound together as one race, and that there is unity (and beauty) in diversity.
Over the years, Unitarian Universalism has added transcendentalism, humanism, Native American spirituality, and environmental and ecological wholeness to our ever-growing inter-dependent web of people, creatures and places we hold sacred.
Involvement in social issues is important in our history. In 1843 we prepared resolutions against slavery, intemperance, and war. In 1861, during an anti-slavery lecture, a smoking bomb was thrown into our sanctuary. The crowd was evacuated, but later returned to hear the rest of the talk. In 1884, our Society hired its first woman pastor.
More contemporary social justice concerns have included women's and children's rights, Central American solidarity work, the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, immigrant rights, affordable housing, and disaster relief in New Orleans and Haiti.