To
explain the history of Antidisestablishmentarianism in Cambridge I
decided not to untangle the interwoven stories of religious pluralism,
the Disestablishment movement and the history of Unitarianism in
Cambridge. I think it is in the spirit of the lengthy title of this
post. If you're just interested in finally learning what the word means,
head to the bottom of the full post (appearing on Friday), but the full
story is more complex and richer, which is why it's here.
The End of the
Establishment
Those who split off from their Congregational churches and those who
were a part of other religions altogether continued to grow in number
and in influence. By the 1830's, those in favor of disestablishment
were working together to argue that any state establishment of
religion inhibited freedom of religion. While many of these groups
had once accepted the establishment as long as there was no
hierarchy, as stipulated in the state constitution, and as long as
their taxes could go to their own church, three decades later they
felt the only way to be treated as equals is to end the Standing
Order. In time, their view came to dominate public opinion, and
antidisestablishmentarianism faded into being the opinion of a
minority.
In 1833, the General Court of Massachusetts proposed an amendment to
the state constitution ending the practice of state-established
churches. The people ratified it on November 11th, and it became the
eleventh amendment to the state constitution. The amendment replaced
the original Article III of the state constitution, which was the
article concerning public support of religion, with a statement that
every religious society had the right to contract with its members to
raise money for support of the minister and the building.
Two hundred years after several dissenting English religious groups
came to the are to live under their own religious laws, churches
would no longer be established or maintained by the state of
Massachusetts.
Disestablishment created a greater wedge between the Unitarians and
Trinitarians in the remaining Congregational churches. Since their
parishes were no longer defined geographically, many of them found
that their theological differences were a reason to divide into
separate congregations.
Some of the churches that had once been state-supported suffered a
real financial blow, and had to adjust to being supported by their
congregation alone. For the recently-created churches, for Quakers,
Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and others, disestablishment was
the beginning of full religious freedom.
Epilogue: The Churches Continue to
Evolve
In the mid-nineteenth century, most of
the Congregational churches that had stayed on the Trinitarian side
of the split underwent a serious of theological changes. By the turn
of the century, they had rejected the harshest doctrines on sin and
damnation, and embraced positive outlook on human nature. In 1957,
the Congregational Christian Churches merged with the Evangelical and
Reformed Church to form the United Church of Christ, a mainline
Protestant denomination. Today, the UCC is known for being socially
progressive; for example, most UCC churches have been supportive of,
and active in, civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights
movements.
The
Shepard Congregational Society, the one that broke off from
Cambridge's first church during the Unitarian Controversy, has
continued to change over the years. They met in the Old Court House
building, which where the Harvard Coop is today, until establishing a
more permanent space. Since 1957 they have been known as First Church
in Cambridge, Congregational, United Church of Christ, and their
current building is just behind the Cambridge Common.
The Unitarian church continued to
change over time as well. In the 19th century,
Transcendentalist thought had a profound effect on Unitarian beliefs,
although many people originally treated Transcendentalism as radical
or heretical. By the turn of the 20th century, some
Unitarian churches were moving away from being explicitly Christian,
preferring to value Christ's teachings without the rest of the
trappings of the tradition. In 1961, the American Unitarian
Association and the Universalist Church of America, another liberal
group of Protestant origin, merged to form the Unitarian Universalist
Association, a humanist religious group whose churches tend to be
very liberal – in the modern, political sense of the word. The UCC
and the Unitarian Universalist Association, the descendants of the
two sides of the Unitarian Controversy, have much in common, and the
two organizations even share many parts of their religious education
curriculum.
The majority of Unitarians today would
be surprised that their religious ancestors supported
antidisestablishmentarianism. Like their early American ancestors,
many Unitarians use their churches as a unit for organizing for
social and political causes, but the great majority (perhaps all?)
firmly believe in the separation of church and state in this country.
The First Parish in Cambridge had been one of the first members of
the Standing Order, and once wanted to keep the religious
establishment that privileged their church over others. Today, First
Parish Cambridge Unitarian Universalist is the home of a Jewish
Culture group, a Women's Sacred Circle / Goddess spirituality group,
and a Buddhist practice group, to name a few.
Antidisestablishmentarianism – the
word
It's considered by many to be the
longest non-scientific word in the English language. According to
Etymology Online, the word was coined in 1838 to describe the
movement in England.
Now, the term can be applied to a similar movement in any country,
and even though it post-dates the controversy in Massachusetts by a
few years, historians still use the word to describe what happened
here. While Anglicans were on the disestablishment side in America,
where they were part of the minority, in England, of course, the
Anglican church remains the established church to this day.
For those of you who love words, here's
a breakdown to help you remember the word's definition:
Establishment (in this context):
The practice of a select set of churches being officially
sanctioned by the state, and often supported by taxes.
In Massachusetts, these churches were
known as the churches of the Standing Order, and they were the
Congregationalist descendants of Puritan churches.
Disestablishment: Ending
the practice of a select set of
churches being officially sanctioned
by the state, and often supported by taxes.
In Massachusetts,
this officially took place in 1833, but churches outside of the
Standing Order had been campaigning for it for decades.
Disestablishmentarianism:
The movement for ending
the practice of a select set of churches being officially sanctioned
by the state, and often supported by taxes.
In
Massachusetts, the participants in this movement included members of
religious groups that had arrived through immigration, such as
Anglicans and Baptists, and members of religious groups that had
split off from establishment churches, such as conservative
Congregationalists.
Antidisestablishmentarianism:
The belief opposing
the movement for ending
the practice of a select set of churches being officially sanctioned
by the state, and often supported by taxes.
In Massachusetts,
supporters of antidisestablishmentarianism mostly came from the
established churches, which were the original Congregationalist
churches that had maintained their status in the Standing Order
during the Unitarian Controversy.
