The Young People's Christian Union (Y.P.C.U.), organized in 1889, was a Universalist youth group created to develop the spiritual life of young people and advance the work of the Universalist church. Soon after it was founded, the Y.P.C.U. focused its attention on missionary work. It was instrumental in the founding of new southern churches and the creation of a Post Office Mission for the distribution of religious literature.
Initially organized as an auxiliary to the Universalist General Convention, the Y.P.C.U. developed an independent identity. It held its own yearly conventions, published a magazine (Onward), implemented funding mechanisms and elected officers.
In 1941, the Young People's Christian Union was re-organized as the Universalist Youth Fellowship. In 1953, the Universalists and Unitarian youth organizations merged to form the Liberal Religious Youth (LRY). After the merger in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, LRY was re-organized as the Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU).
History Early Young People Societies
The inspiration for the Young People's Christian Union can be traced to the founding of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in England.
George Williams, after entering the drapery business in 1841, formed a mutual improvement society with fellow workers. The aim of the society was Bible study and support of missionary efforts. Three years later, Williams and twelve other young men formalized the mission of their support group as the "improvement of the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery and other trades". Membership was later extended to anyone who was "a member of a Christian church" or gave "sufficient evidence of his being a converted character". They called their new society the Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.).
By 1855 there were 8,500 Y.M.C.A members in Great Britain. The American version of the Y.M.C.A. soon spread during a period of heightened religious activity called the Third Great Awakening (1850s – 1900).
In 1860, Rev. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, minister of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York, became aware of the success of the Y.M.C.A. to gather young men for prayer meetings, but that the Y.M.C.A. had not succeeded in organizing them for more sustained Christian work in the church. To address this situation, on November 6, 1867, Rev. Cuyler organized the Young People's Association (YPA). Cuyler's YPA was designed to focus the energy of young men on long-term church work such as "the conversion of souls, the development of Christian character and the training of converts in religious work".
Some years later, Rev. Dr. Francis E. Clark, pastor of the Williston Congregational Church in Portland, Maine, visited the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. In 1892 he reflected back on his impression of the Young People's Association, stating it "was certainly an inspiration to the first Christian Endeavor Society."
Christian Endeavor Society
During a monthly Week of Prayer, Rev. Clark observed that similar to the Y.M.C.A. model, the Week of Prayer gathered young people for Christian devotion but afterwards they soon departed. Clark had relied for years upon prevailing wisdom that entertainment, mutual improvement and literary societies would sustain young people's interest in Christian church work. After five years of such efforts, Rev. Clark had little to show.
Clark abandoned the "low expectations" model and opted instead to raise the expectations of the religious obligations of young people. His youth organization would be first and foremost a Christian society. Musical soirees and literary readings may follow, but they would be subordinate to the larger mission of seeking the kingdom of God. On February 2, 1881, Rev. Clark proposed his new society and secured the signature of forty to fifty young people to the constitution of an organization called the Christian Endeavor Society.
Additional societies soon followed in Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts. The absence of a denomination designation enabled a Christian Endeavor Society to be organized within any church denomination. Five years after the organization of the first Christian Endeavor Society, there were 850 societies representing eight denominations from 33 states and seven countries.
Others followed Rev. Clark's model, but created youth groups that were specifically denominationally branded: the Baptist Young People's Union (1891), the Luther League (1896), the Universalist Young People's Christian Union (1889), the Unitarian Young People's Religious Union (1896) and the Methodist Epworth League (1899).
Universalist Young People's Christian Union
The Universalists, not having made any earlier effort to create a unifying national youth organization, discovered that within the denomination there were more than 120 young people's societies including 38 Christian Endeavor Societies and others with names such as "Christian Union", "Christian Culture", and "Christian Work".
This situation was addressed at the 1886 Chicago General Convention with a proposal to create a national youth society called the Young People's Missionary Association (Y.P M.A.). The proposal called for the formation of parish-level associations designed as auxiliaries to state conventions. After the convention, the Y.P.M.A. saw some initial success. More than 20 such organizations were formed, but the Y.P.M.A. did not have wide appeal. Existing youth groups resisted joining the Y.P.M.A., preferring to retain their individual social or literary charters.
Two years later, in 1888, Rev. Stephen H. Roblin revived the idea of a distinctively Universalist nationwide youth group.
Bay City, Michigan Shortly after his ordination in 1882, Rev. Roblin assumed the pastorate at the Universalist church in Victor, New York. His experience with his church's Christian Endeavor Society as well as his personal connection with Rev. L.B. Fisher and James D. Tillinghast, publishers of a New York state monthly journal called the Universalist Union, would contribute to the reboot of a Universalist youth organization.
Six years later, in 1888, Rev. Roblin had relocated to Michigan to assume the pastorate of the Universalist church in Bay City. Since his new church did not have a youth group, Rev. Roblin appointed Alfred J. Cardall to form a Christian Endeavor Society. Also closely associated with the formation of this Christian Endeavor Society was Albert G. Grier, a principal in the local school system.
As he organized his local youth group, Roblin became curious about denominational support for a revised national youth society. Roblin recruited Cardall and Grier, who had just formed the local Bay City Christian Endeavor Society, and Fisher and Tillinghast, publishers of the Universalist Union, to conduct a correspondence campaign. They contacted Universalist youth groups to ascertain their interest in a Universalist national youth organization. If interested, youth groups were encouraged to send delegates to an organizing meeting to take place a day before the General Convention in Lynn, Massachusetts.
Lynn Convention On October 22, 1889, 131 delegates representing 56 societies from 13 states attended the First National Convention of Universalist Young People. By-laws and a constitution for the Young People's Christian Union (Y.P.C.U.) were drafted. The mission of the Y.P.C.U. was "to promote an earnest Christian life among young people of the Universalist Church, and the sympathetic union of all young people's societies in their efforts to make themselves more useful in the service of God." The Universalist Union was adopted as the official press organ of the Y.P.C.U.
The Lynn General Convention approved the youth group's by-laws and constitution. There were, however, those who opposed the formation of the youth group, arguing that no intermediate organization should stand between the church and its people. The opposition insisted that youth groups must be designated as auxiliaries or subordinates to the General Convention and adult supervision must be exercised over the Y.P.C.U.
Nonetheless, over time, the new youth group acquired the profile of an independent organization. In 1893, the Y.P.C.U. assumed responsibility for the publication of the Universalist Union, changing the name to Onward, and modified the format from a monthly to weekly magazine. By 1894 the Y.P.C.U. began holding their conventions independently from those of the General Convention. The Y.P.C.U. also acquired other independent trappings such Y.P.C.U. branded colors (blue for truth, white for purity), motto ("For Christ and His Church"), hymn ("Follow the Gleam") and watchword ("Onward!").
Despite having a national profile, the Y.P.C.U. was at its core a local institution. Churches sponsored a local Y.P.C.U. group that, in turn, was affiliated with a state Y.P.C.U. organization. The local groups could then voluntarily affiliate with the national organization. Also loosely defined was the term "young." It was not uncommon in the early days of the Y.P.C.U. for individuals in their thirties or older to be a member of the local Y.P.C.U. For the truly young, a Junior Y.P.C.U. concept was introduced in 1894, with Mary Grace Canfield being appointed as its first national superintendent. Finally, to provide an organizational structure for young Universalists who did not have a local church community, the Union at Large concept was introduced in 1892, with Sarah B. Hammond being appointed its first national superintendent.
Y.P.C.U. missionary focus At its first convention in Rochester, New York, in 1890, the Y.P.C.U. turned its focus to missionary work. This focus shaped the actions taken by the Y.P.C.U. in the following years by the appointment of its first missionary, Rev. William H. McGlauflin; granting its secretary a salary; adopting a temperance position; organizing a Post Office Mission for the distribution of religious literature; establishing a funding mechanism called the Two Cent a Week for Missions; explicitly denominationally rebranding the group by appending "of the Universalist Church" to the group's name; and the appointment of Rev. Quillen H. Shinn as their National Organizer.
The first missionary action taken by the Y.P.C.U. was accepting the responsibility to build a new Universalist church in Harriman, Tennessee.
Harriman, Tennessee Y.P.C.U. missionary work 1890 - 1895 Despite being operational for only one year, building a new church, given the economic situation in Harriman, was a plausible objective for the Y.P.C.U. Harriman was barely a town in early 1890, but growth was almost assured. Northern businessmen through the Tennessee Land Company were making substantial investments in Harriman to exploit abundant coal, iron, timber and limestone resources. Rev. Henry L. Canfield, State Superintendent of Churches and Sunday Schools of Ohio, and Rev. C. Ellwood Nash, then pastor at a Universalist church in Akron, Ohio, encouraged the Harriman missionary project. They argued that in Harriman the Universalists would be the religious vanguard in a burgeoning new city instead of trailing along as late-comers.
Furthermore, Rev. Nash had visited Harriman prior to the Rochester convention. Nash was aware that there were a number of Universalists already in the area and that other conditions in Harriman were favorable to the Y.P.C.U. The East Tennessee Land Company, for example, provided Nash two land lots for a Universalist church. The town's charter with its explicit prohibition on liquor closely aligned with Y.P.C.U. temperance sensibilities. This commitment to temperance was further fortified by the East Tennessee Land Company's plan to construct an institute of higher learning in the city called the American Temperance University.