January 2012 Chalice Lighting

ML student John Czachurski shares his chalice lighting from the student-led vespers service of January 2012 about our transition from 5701 S. Woodlawn to 610 S. Michigan.

M Eloise Adams remembers the Four Corners

James Luther Adams, faculty 1936-1956

There is no one on the blog from Meadville that I remember. I grew up in Channing House from 1936 to when JLA left to go to HDS in 1957.  Is there anyone left from the history  in the 30’s and 40’s?  Does anyone remember the days when students whistled at the Channing House youngsters on Woodlawn Ave.  I guess not.  I have 8 millimeter movies converted to VHS and then to DVD and now in my computer.  I guess my sister and I are the only ones left to remember when Thanksgiving Dinner was a big event we shared with the students living at Meadville House which was part of the “four corners”.  I am M. Eloise Adams, James Luther Adams’ oldest daughter.  My remaining sister Barbara shares my nostalgia for the days growing up on Woodlawn Avenue and grieve over the way the inside of Channing House was destroyed in some “renovation”.   Now the school goes to Michigan Avenue which even recent students I have met wonder how that could happen!

Rev. Marvin Evans Remembers 57th & Woodlawn

I enrolled at Meadville fifty years ago and received a B.D. with the class of 1963.  It was in many ways a different day and age.  I was 35 with a spouse and two children.  My recollection, not entirely trustworthy, was that only three students were older: namely, Art Johnson, who did not graduate; Edgar Peara, who did graduate; and me.  I did not at that point have a graduate degree, but had been an archivist and research historian for eleven years.

I wrote extensively about those days in my memoir, Pearl’s Boy, which I published privately and distributed privately in 2010.

Relationships between faculty and students were quite formal:  we always used titles like Mr., Dr., etc.  Many students paid no tuition and in addition received a stipend for living expenses.  Chapel was four nights a week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday had a vespers service and Friday was a full service, followed by dinner at Meadville House.

The community gathers for an evening at Meadville House, early 1960s.

A rather quick perusal of the 2009 UUA Directory indicates that eighteen of us are still listed (although it is possible that some have passed away since that directory was published).  In any event, my list is as follows, in alphabetical order:

•  David Bumbaugh
• Bruce Clary
• Ron Engle
• Marvin Evans
• Rudy Gelsey
• Jack Hayward
• Jim Hobart
• David Johnson
• Fred Lipp
• Ralph Mero
• Michael O’Kelly
• Edgar Peara
• John Robinson
• David Sammons [later graduated from Starr King]
• Neil Shadle
• Allen Wells
• Jim Wentz
• Bob Wolfe

I later served on the Board of Trustees of the school in the late 70s and early 80s.

The Meadville Lombard Board of Trustees meeting, May 1981.

Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker Remembers 57th & Woodlawn

My first attempt to get to 57^th and Woodlawn was an abortive one.  I decided to visit the school on my January break in 1967, as I was examining options for a September 1968 start to my theological education.  I headed west from Boston on January 27 on the New England States Limited.  We were running well until about Toledo where a great mob boarded the train with stories of the Interstate closed, no buses, no flights, etc.  By the time we reached the Englewood Station (where I was de-training for the crosstown 63^rd Street bus) we were in the midst of the record 23″ blizzard.  Not only did I de-train but so did everyone else.  The tracks downtown were fouled with a derailment.  Soon, about 1500 people jammed the little station, and we found that the El had quit, that buses were all stuck (800+ in total), and no one was going anywhere.  I called Meadville Lombard and reached a janitor who said that no one else was there and to not even try coming over.  So much for my interview.  I caught the first eastbound train to come through, and headed out of snow country.

I did meet up with President Sutherland for an admission interview in Boston later that year, was admitted to both Meadville Lombard and the University of Chicago, and returned to campus in early summer 1968 to look for housing. The virtually empty, hot, and stuffy building at 57^th and Woodlawn looked like something out of another era to me, a graduate of 20 year old Brandeis University which was filled with modern architecture.

Meadville Lombard President Sutherland speaks on the phone in his office, c. 1960.

I decided to share the upper apartment in the carriage house at 1214 East 57^th Street, opposite the main door to the main building.  My move into that apartment became the summer equivalent of my initial Meadville Lombard journey.  I arrived at LaSalle Street Station on the opening day of the 1968 Democratic National Convention . . . long-haired, carrying a backpack and a bedroll (I was continuing on to the SRL Continental Conference) . . . and upon coming out the door of LaSalle Street Station I was asked where I thought I was going by a National Guardsman.  I said I was headed to the Illinois Central to go down to the UofC, and I was escorted to the IC station by a contingent of Guardsmen and told not to even think about coming back up into the city if I knew what was good for me.  That night, with the windows all opened to catch any breeze in the summer air, I could hear relentless sirens back toward the Loop.

By the September 1968 start of orientation, the Police Riot was history and we were ready to start. 17 of us.  Reduced to 16 by the end of orientation, with a theological career and a new marriage a casualty of orientation.  Some of the class had only set foot in a Unitarian Universalist congregation less than a dozen times. Others of us were lifers.  It was a mix of those who were there for careers and those who were there to avoid the draft.  Anger at the system, at the administration (US and Meadville Lombard), at life in general was in the air.

The library seemed archaic compared to what I had experienced as an undergrad.  The main building seemed more suited to a bygone era than the present, much less the future.  My D.Min. curriculum included all mandated classes for two years (8 quarters including Clinical Pastoral Education) and then two years of all electives, split between Meadville Lombard and the University of Chicago.  The main events of community life were weekly Chapel and community dinners, which underwent drastic curtailment by my second year.  With a majority of the students living on the north side, and an almost-majority not thoroughly committed to Unitarian Universalism, community was a elusive entity.

I said good-bye to 57^th and Woodlawn midway through my second year, heading off to do Clinical Pastoral Education in Minnesota, get married, and complete a quarter at a Minnesota State University.  I then settled in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, while serving the Unitarian Church North in Mequon, Wisconsin “part-time” (part-time meaning preaching only 3 Sundays a month and being responsible for all other aspects of ministry).

In late Spring of 1970, I returned to Meadville Lombard, to the second flood classroom, to meet with the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee.  An hour later I had my “1″ from them, which left only my completion of the equivalent courses for an M. Div. to allow me to enter search and the completion of my D. Min. to obtain preliminary Fellowship.  (My Meadville Lombard program offered only the completed Doctor of Ministry . . . it was all or nothing.)   Later that day in Wisconsin my wife of two months was offered a teaching job in a district close to Mequon.

I commuted to 57^th and Woodlawn two or three days a week for the next two years for courses in the main season and took graduate courses at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in the summer.  By June 1972, my class had been winnowed to three of us: Bart Gould, Don Marshall, and myself.  Graduation at First Unitarian Church was a moving event for us survivors, of whom only I am left in the Unitarian Universalist Ministry, Don having died long ago and Bart having chosen to follow his own ethical path not consistent with our Guidelines.

Over the years I have felt that the education I received at Meadville Lombard prepared me well not only to do ministry but to be open to continuing education.  But, the education was not about the physical plant.  When I arrived the buildings were already middle aged, too-well-worn, not really suitable to the tasks of the future.  Mircea Eliade could lurk in his upper floor office, library keys could be lowered by string to those on the sidewalk, formal teas and receptions could be held in the Curtis Room, and chapel held in a formal Hull Chapel.  But, as much as I enjoyed all this quirky reality, Unitarian Universalism was more my home than any Meadville building could be.

The main building of Meadville Lombard, c. 1970.

57^th and Woodlawn was an address where the really important activity could happen, but that activity also happened at addresses worldwide as graduates went forth to embody and express what was envisioned there.

Now I know I will stop by the new location of Meadville Lombard for various reasons into the future, but I am not sure I will make a pilgrimage to 57^th and Woodlawn except maybe to show my grandchildren where I studied as a benchmark to tell them about all that happened in 1968.

Saying goodbye to the corner, on the eve of my 40^th reunion year of graduation from there, seems much less important to me than to wonder on what corner the future of Unitarian Universalism will find its inspiration and its education and its encouragement.

You see, it never was about an address, it was about an attitude.

Bearing Witness: J. Ronald Engel on Meadville Lombard and the Chicago Years

As part of the 2011 Commencement activities, on May 14, 2011, Dr. J. Ronald Engel, Professor Emeritus, gave the following address, “Bearing Witness: Meadville Lombard and the Chicago Years.” Meadville Lombard staff scanned photos from our archives and our Videographer, Ben Kolak, inserted some of these photos into the video. We are grateful to Mrs. Barbara Murry for her work in gathering and labeling these archived photos for us. This video is 1 hour and 5 minutes long.

The Rev. Dr. Mark Morrison-Reed Remembers …

… a life at the four corners of 57th and Woodlawn.

The following video was produced as a complement to the lecture given by Dr. J. Ronald Engel, Professor Emeritus at Meadville Lombard, during our 2011 Commencement weekend activities. The lecture, “Bearing Witness: Meadville Lombard and the Chicago Years,” will be posted to this blog in the coming week. Stay tuned!

Here are some of the still photos used in the video from our archive collection:

University to Purchase Woodlawn Houses from Meadville Lombard

The University of Chicago has agreed to purchase two more buildings belonging to Meadville Lombard Theological School, located at 5707 and 5711 S. Woodlawn Ave.

Last month the University and Meadville Lombard announced the sale of the theological school’s main academic and administrative building, subject to the approval of University Trustees.

The buildings at 5707 and 5711, originally designed as single-family houses, have been used most recently by Meadville Lombard principally for office space. Meadville Lombard officials said its group of buildings on South Woodlawn Avenue no longer serves the seminary’s needs, because its educational model has shifted from a small residential operation to larger classes that use innovative distance-learning methods, combined with periodic intensive classroom sessions. The sales will allow Meadville Lombard to reallocate its resources to its core educational mission.

Meadville Lombard officials said that the search for new space is underway. An announcement about the School’s new facilities is expected toward the end of March.

University officials said that as the University continues to grow, these buildings will fill a need for academic space close to its historic campus, while honoring and maintaining the character of the immediate neighborhood.

The sales of these two buildings are expected to close by summer.

see announcement on meadville.edu