The First Unitarian Church of Chicago is a

Unitarian Universalist Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present) ...

("UU") church in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Unitarians do not have a common creed and include people with a wide variety of personal beliefs, and include atheists, agnostics,

deist Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...

monotheist Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxfor ...

pantheist Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has e ...

polytheist Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the ...

s, pagans, as well as other belief systems. One of the oldest churches in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, First Unitarian Chicago was founded July 29, 1836 and is currently located at 5650 S. Woodlawn Avenue. Its founding was in part the result of a small group of Chicago Unitarians with the minister

Charles Follen Charles (Karl) Theodor Christian Friedrich Follen (September 6, 1796 – January 13, 1840) was a German poet and patriot, who later moved to the United States and became the first professor of German at Harvard University, a Unitarian minister, a ...

. Its first building was constructed in 1841 on what is now the site of the Picasso statue in

Daley Plaza The Richard J. Daley Center, also known by its open courtyard Daley Plaza and named after longtime mayor Richard J. Daley, is the premier civic center of the City of Chicago in Illinois. The Center's modernist skyscraper primarily houses of ...

. The building, twice enlarged before it burned down, held the first church bell in Chicago placed there in January 1845. In June 1862 the building was lost to fire, the congregation temporarily worshiped in St. Paul's Universalist Church until the new church building was completed and the first service was help November 22, 1863. In 1873 a new church building was constructed at the corner of 23rd and Michigan. And in 1897 a mission chapel to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

was built at 57th and Woodlawn in

Hyde Park, Chicago Hyde Park is the 41st of the 77 community areas of Chicago. It is located on the South Side, near the shore of Lake Michigan south of the Loop. Hyde Park's official boundaries are 51st Street/Hyde Park Boulevard on the north, the Midway Pl ...

. In 1909, the 23rd ave building was sold and the congregation moved to the University chapel. A new edifice was built in 1925 in an English perpendicular Gothic style, a gift of church member and Illinois US Representative

Morton D. Hull Morton Denison Hull (January 13, 1867 – August 20, 1937) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Hull attended the public schools and Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1885. He graduated from Har ...

whose ashes now rest in the crypt below the building. A crypt for cinerary urns (a

Columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "''colu ...

) below the nave was the first crypt for ashes in the city. It was designed intentionally to serve the neighborhood and city, not just members of the church. The 1931 building had a belltower featuring multiple floors, on top of which was added a steeple. The steeple was repaired in the 1990s, and removed in 2002 due to failing structure. This was not the first time the tower of a church building had incurred a cost to the society. After the Church of the Messiah was built in 1964, the tower on that building settled. As a result, it had to be taken down and entirely rebuilt along with the front of the church at a cost of $15,000. In 1956, the

Chicago Children's Choir Chicago Children's Choir is a non-profit organization, founded in 1956 at First Unitarian Church of Chicago. Organization Founded in Hyde Park in 1956, CCC has grown from one choir into a network of in-school and after-school programs serving near ...

was founded in the church by assistant minister Christopher Moore.

Notable members

James Luther Adams James Luther Adams (1901–1994), an American professor at Harvard Divinity School, Andover Newton Theological School, and Meadville Lombard Theological School, and a Unitarianism, Unitarian Parish#Ecclesiastical parish, parish minister, was the ...

* Dolores Cross * Bradford Lyttle *

Toni Preckwinkle Toni Lynn Preckwinkle (née Reed; born March 17, 1947) is an American politician and the current County Board President in Cook County, Illinois, United States. She was first elected as President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the ...

(interred in the crypt) *

Hans Gustav Güterbock Hans Gustav Güterbock (May 27, 1908 – March 29, 2000) was a German- American Hittitologist. Born and trained in Germany, his career was ended with the rise of the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage, and he was forced to resettle in Turkey. ...

(interred in the crypt) *

Ralph Wendell Burhoe Ralph Wendell Burhoe (May 21Social Security Death Index or June 21, 1911 – May 8, 1997) was an important twentieth-century pioneer interpreter of the importance of religion for a scientific and technological world. He was awarded the Templeton ...

(interred in the crypt) *

Shailer Mathews Shailer Mathews (1863–1941) was an American liberal Christian theologian, involved with the Social Gospel movement. Career Born on May 26, 1863, in Portland, Maine, and graduated from Colby College. Mathews was a progressive, advocating soci ...

(interred in the crypt) *

Frank Knight Frank Hyneman Knight (November 7, 1885 – April 15, 1972) was an American economist who spent most of his career at the University of Chicago, where he became one of the founders of the Chicago School. Nobel laureates Milton Friedman, George ...

(interred in the crypt) * Von Ogden Vogt (interred in the crypt) * Curtis W. Reese (interred in the crypt) *

Horatio G. Loomis Loomis was a native of Vermont who came to Chicago as a pioneer settler in 1834. A grocer by trade, Loomis also was an entrepreneur who became involved in many business fields, including commodities trading. The four financial trading exchanges of ...

Ebenezer Peck Ebenezer Peck (May 22, 1805 – May 25, 1881) was an attorney and politician in the United States and Lower Canada and a judge of the Court of Claims. Education and career Born on May 22, 1805, in Portland, District of Maine (then part of Ma ...

* John Charles Haines * Y. C. Wong (interred in the crypt)

Senior ministers

* 1839-1844. Joseph Harrington Jr. * 1846-1849.

William Adam (minister) William Adam (1 November 1796 – 19 February 1881) was a British Baptist minister, missionary, abolitionist and Harvard professor. Scotland and India Adam was born in Dunfermline in Scotland, and it was after being inspired by the churchman Tho ...

* 1849-1857. Rush Rhees Shippen * 1857-1859. George F. Noyes * 1861-1864 Charles B. Thomas * 1866-1874. Robert Laird Collier * 1876-1881. Brooke Herford * 1883-1891. David Utter * 1891-1901. William Wallace Fenn * 1901-1923. William Hansen Pulsford * 1925-1944. Von Ogden Vogt * 1944-1962. Leslie T. Pennington * 1963-1968. Jack Kent * 1968-1969. John Robinson (interim) * 1969-1978. Jack Mendelsohn * 1980-1986. Duke Gray * 1988-1991. Tom Chulak * 1993-1998. Terasa Cooley * 1999-2011. Nina Grey * 2011-2013. Barbara Gadon (interim) * 2013–2021. Teresa and David Schwartz

Ministers-at-large

* 1860-1863. Robert Collyer (minister-at-large) * George Sikes (minister-at-large) * 1977–present. W. David Arksey (minister-at-large)

References

FURTHER READING Alan Seaburg, The Unitarian Pope, Brooke Herford’s Ministry in Chicago and Boston, 1876-1892, 2015

External links

Official Website
{{Coord, 41, 47, 30.0, N, 87, 35, 49.0, W, region:US-IL_type:landmark, display=title Churches in Chicago Unitarian Universalism in Illinois 19th-century Unitarian Universalist church buildings Unitarian Universalist churches in Illinois Religious organizations established in 1836 1836 establishments in Illinois Gothic Revival architecture in Illinois Hyde Park, Chicago