2. Congregation Histories : Iowa

Clinton

Unitarian Universalist Church

Unitarian Universalist Church of Clinton, Iowa—the fourth name and third incarnation of a fellowship of liberals reaching back to the early days of a boisterous lumber town/railroad center on the Mississippi River.

On the 31st day of December 1869, “The First Universalist Society of Clinton Iowa” formed itself into a “body corporate for Religious purposes.” Several months before, the Society had engaged the Rev. R. G. Hamilton of Waterloo for six months at a salary of $500. A singer was employed at “$5.00 per Sabbath,” and when a plan to buy an existing church building failed, new building construction was undertaken through the donations of more than 100 individuals and companies, headed by the town’s most prominent lumber barons.

The Rev. J. P. Sanford of Des Moines and the Rev. W.W. King of Chicago participated in sermons and lectures dedicating Murray Church late in May 1871. As late as 1884, the organization was sponsoring lecture and entertainment, but it could not maintain ownership of the building, which fell first into the hands of the atavistic American Protective Association and finally became the home of sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, 4th Ave. S. and 4th Street.

Organized liberalism disappeared over a period of seventy-five years, and then, in April of 1960, ten individuals from Clinton, Iowa, and Fulton and Albany, Illinois, met to form Gateway Unitarian Fellowship. Programs varied; generally, a topic was presented for discussion by the membership. Occasionally, members attended the Unitarian Church in Davenport. In 1961, the group moved to the YWCA, and a Junior Fellowship (RE) program was organized.

Always plagued by scant and transient membership, the Fellowship finally was forced to dissolve in 1964. Although widely scattered (and none remain in Clinton), members continue to keep in touch with one another and with Unitarian/Universalism.

In late 1979, almost completely unaware of the earlier activities of the Gateway Fellowship, another group of religious liberals began meeting in a series of Circle Suppers. Under the sponsorship of the Rev. Alan Egly and with financial support from Davenport Unitarians, the group continued to meet; it held a series of public services in the spring of 1981. Cedar Rapids Peoples Church, through the Rev. Judith Urquhart, presented a chalice, which has been lit before each service held since. Clinton Community College was chosen as meeting place.

On May 17, 1981, Murray Unitarian Universalist Society was officially organized, with a name chosen to commemorate the church home of the earlier Universalist congregation. In September the Rev. Steve Crump of Peru, Illinois, began a ministry shared with his LaSalle-Peru congregation of the Central Midwest District. Membership included representatives of western Illinois as well as eastern Iowa. An RE Program was begun, and Steve Crump’s music played a major part in worship services. After eighteen months, Crump left to begin a fulltime ministry in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the end of 1982.

The Rev. Martha Newman was welcomed to Clinton in September 1983 and quickly became active in local theological and environmental groups. She was ordained and installed in November 1984. Although the college continued as regular twice-a-month meeting place, such locations as Eagle Point Park, Nature Barn, Old School House, and Bickelhaupt Arboretum were appropriate backdrops for celebrations.

In May 1985, the congregation voted to change its name to Unitarian Universalist Church, to hold services and church school every week, and to join with the newly formed fellowship in Dubuque in a yoked ministry. When meeting rooms at the YWCA became available in the fall of 1985, it became the group’s home, just as it had served the fellowship in the 1960s.

In the summer of 1986 Gateway area liberals, still plagued by low membership numbers and industrial transfers, face another transition. Newman is expected to accept ministry elsewhere, and the congregation will once again be on its own—this time with firm resolution to continue as a liberal church in the Gateway community.

Congregational presidents who have served since 1981 are: Alberta (Bertie) Edwards, Jacquie Davis, Robert Rutenbeck, and Agnes Edwards. Richard Huyck takes office for 1986–1987.

(Author not noted)