{This is a chapter in a Memoir, “Give Light…” of the six decades the author has spent writing about faith communities in daily, weekly and monthly news publications covering the western third of Virginia.}
Stopping by the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Roanoke around 11:30 a.m. on a recent Sunday, I got the last available parking space. Something special, I surmised, must be going on.
It turned out to be a special Teach-In, Talk-In on “White Supremacy.” The worship area appeared to be full, but the pastor, Alex Richardson, about whom I had written twice over the three years he has served the congregation, greeted me warmly in the entrance hall, offered me my requested monthly newsletter and also information about the program of the day.
A mid-life woman member also was on the job as greeter and guide to a visitor.
The congregation was just doing its thing. That’s raising public consciousness about some aspect of injustice being carried out against a group in society; currently the effort to right injustice against the descendants of slaves has been revived, as occurs periodically. Over the past two years, as President Donald Trump has heated up national, cultural and religious differences among Americans , those who espouse the liberal, rationalist beliefs of Unitarians have plenty to work on.
In the material the pastor had given me, I found that the program on fighting racial injustice was aimed at carrying into action more practical acceptance of persons of color. It described three types of churches. One represented a congregation – white Protestant absorbed in its own internal issues with no attention being given to getting to know deeply persons “different.”
A second church had tried to make members informed of others unlike themselves but had gone no further. In the third – seemingly ideal, according to the handout – there was a lot of personal contact with the “different” whether these be persons of color, LGBTQ , mentally handicapped, clearly poor or otherwise unappealing.
In a short, informal message in the monthly publication, “RevAlex,” as the pastor styles himself, admitted the two years Trump has been in power had made him “anxious.” He has ,however, been given hope by the willingness of his congregation to stand up for basic human rights.
Richardson is an openly gay man married a Radford University professor. Unitarians have long stood for gay rights. Earlier, Richardson told me, the denomination, at least in the South, has remained relatively small in numbers because it has often taken unpopular stands.
The group that meets in a former Mormon house of worship on Grandin Road at Brandon Southwest, was not visible when I came to the Roanoke Valley in 1953 to report on religion issues for the daily newspaper. Earlier, its records reveal, there was a small group of adherents, but it faded during the 1930s only to be revived in the late 1950s when industries brought families from the North to the valley. It now has about 100 persons gathered in community. A number of them have been active in news publications and in art and music circles.
Several weeks ago, I wrote of the “New Thought” churches in the valley including Unity that also became established locally around 60 years ago. Often confused with Unitarian, the denominations are entirely separate in their beliefs about God, their origins – Unitarians are older – and their goals.
In reading the Unitarian newsletter, however, I discovered that both offer classes and support for such activities as meditation, rhythmic dance and self-discovery.
Both date from the 19th Century, early-accepted women in leadership and stand apart both from the evangelical Protestant tradition, such as Baptists, and the formal liturgical prized among Roman Catholics, Lutherans and the various forms of Anglicans.
