The First Unitarian Church of Chicago is a Unitarian Universalist ("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 A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets. The ea ...

and include people with a wide variety of personal beliefs, and include

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

s, deists, monotheists, pantheists, polytheists,

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

s, 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. Its first building was constructed in 1841 on what is now the site of the Picasso statue in Daley Plaza. 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 research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

was built at 57th and Woodlawn in Hyde Park, Chicago. 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 Harv ...

whose ashes now rest in the crypt below the building. A crypt for cinerary urns (a Columbarium) 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 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 Dolores Cross is an educator and university administrator who became the first female president of Chicago State University (1990) and Morris Brown College (MBC) (1998–2002). In 2006, she pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement in connectio ...

Bradford Lyttle Bradford Lyttle (born November 20, 1927) is an American pacifist and peace activist. He was an organizer with the Committee for Non-Violent Action of several major campaigns against militarism, including "Omaha Action", against land-based nuclear ...

* Toni Preckwinkle *

(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. A ...

(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 (interred in the crypt) *

Von Ogden Vogt Von Ogden Vogt (February 25, 1879 – August 2, 1964) was a Unitarian minister. His theory of worship influenced the shape of mainline Protestant worship in the early 20th century, and he was an authority on the theory of worship and an influentia ...

(interred in the crypt) *

Curtis W. Reese Curtis Williford Reese (September 3, 1887 – June 5, 1961) was a Unitarian minister and humanist. He was the dean of the Abraham Lincoln Center in Chicago. Raised in a conservative Southern Baptist environment, his seminary studies of biblical cr ...

(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 *

John Charles Haines John Charles Haines (May 26, 1818 – July 4, 1896) served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1858–1860) for the Democratic Party. Biography John Charles Haines was born in Deerfield, New York on May 26, 1818. He arrived in Chicago on May 26, 1 ...

Y. C. Wong Yau-chun (Y.C.) Wong (1921–2000) was a Chinese-born American architect who practiced primarily in Chicago, Illinois. Wong was born in Canton, Guangdong, China and earned a bachelor's degree in the Department of Architecture, National Central Uni ...

(interred in the crypt)

Senior ministers

* 1839-1844. Joseph Harrington Jr. * 1846-1849. William Adam (minister) * 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 William Wallace Fenn (February 12, 1862 – March 6, 1932) was a Unitarian minister and a dean of Harvard Divinity School. He served the First Unitarian Church of Chicago from 1890–1901. He gave the 1921 The Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immorta ...

* 1901-1923. William Hansen Pulsford * 1925-1944.

* 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 Robert Collyer in 1880 Robert Collyer in 1903 Robert Collyer (December 8, 1823 – November 30, 1912) was an English-born American Unitarian clergyman. Biography Collyer was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, England, on December 8, 1823; the fam ...

(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