I recently returned from Knoxville, TN, where I taught in the University of Tennessee’s summer session. While there I attended the Tennessee Valley UU church, site of the two murders and wounding of others by a crazed shooter one year ago. I’m not sure what I expected to see; I guess visible reminders of the tragedy, memorials, and flowers, but it all seemed quite ordinary, a busy church with many things going on that reminded me of MMUUS. Sure, there probably were and are many related reminders that our friends at Tennessee Valley deal with all the time, but it got me thinking about how our own church has dealt with past crises or tragedies.
Perhaps the most talked about crisis was the Jerry Rescue in October, 1851. Jerry McHenry, a former slave was “an athletic mulatto, who had resided in Syracuse for a number of years . . . as a cooper,” (Sam May, Some recollections of our antislavery conflict, Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1869, p. 375) was arrested under the infamous and despicable Fugitive Slave Law. This must have been most disconcerting to our church ancestors, and because Sam May was right in the middle of an ultimate rescue of Jerry from jail and the illegal transporting of him to Canada, it no doubt put some church members in a quandary about Rev. May’s actions. However, parishioners continued to shower him with love, concern for his health, and tolerance for his continued work on behalf of abolition. Of course, as we all know they named the church after Sam upon his death in 1868.
Our church experienced a very real tragedy in the winter of 1852 when it was destroyed “by a hurricane which struck the spire; threw it directly upon the ridge pole, crushed down the whole roof, burst out the side and end walls, . . . [demolishing] the entire building excepting the front and the foundation” (May No One Be A Stranger, http://history.mmuus.org/stranger.html, p. 10) After recovering from realizing their church had been destroyed in a few moments, members quickly organized themselves, began holding church services in City Hall, and initiated the process of not only rebuilding the church but also the house next door that had been destroyed by our falling debris. Our church was rebuilt and rededicated in the spring of 1853.
There are several other instances in our history when church members have responded to wars, community tragedies, community problems, and even world conflicts with quiet courage and determination. However, here is one more in recent times that describes how the current “we” dealt with trauma as did our ancestors. In 1998, Dan and Doris Sage as well as long time minister, Nick Cardell, spent several months incarcerated as prisoners of conscience for their active demonstrations against the atrocious School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia (Chronology of SOA Prisoners of Conscience, http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=339). As a church we addressed these heroic acts of courage by showering Dan, Doris, and Nick with love, correspondence, and even Unitarian Universalist “prayers” during their sentences. After their return this recognition continued and they were honored along with two colleagues by receiving the 1998 Samuel Joseph May Citations for Community Action Award Recipients. Our response reminders are not always immediately visual either, but they are heartfelt and indicative of what we are as a community.
Rog Hiemstra, Chair, History Committee
Written July 14, 2009
