Heirlooms of UCN History #58
by Will Frank
The ordination and installation of Robert W. Sonen as minister of the Unitarian Church of Norfolk now accomplished, the work of the church awaited. Foremost was the call of the American Unitarian Association in late 1939 for churches to respond to the deepening crisis of a world at war. War was always a human tragedy, but a Nazi-dominated Europe would be a horror. Hatred and fear dominated. What to do?. The United States was yet neutral, and many Americans seemed ready to turn their backs on Europe. The church should not.
With the sermon by the Rev. U. G. B Pierce at the installation ceremony pointing the way, the Unitarian Church of Norfolk could join with other churches “to clarify the ethical issues in the present war, refusing to be bound by any of the easy formulas which may serve as excuses for violence, indifference or moral cowardice.” So the church board addressed a letter to other local churches, that all might combine to keep the ethical issues of the war constantly in mind. “If the world is not to see a return to the Dark Ages,” the letter said, “it will be on the basis of a cold, dispassionate analysis of the present chaos in world relations. . .. If, when the present war ends, there is to be any chance for a new world order, it will be on the basis of understanding rather than emotion.” The letter called on the churches “to offer sacrificial service for the alleviation of suffering” as the Unitarian Service Committee was founded to do, and “to begin at once to create the ministry of reconciliation among all contending elements in human society.” A tall order, but a central mission of the church. How to start?
Bob Sonen followed up with a sermon on December 4th on “modern living saints,” identifying Albert Schweitzer as “the modern saint of Germany.” Schweitzer was already by his 30th year a master concert organist, an authority of J. S. Bach, a university professor, and minister of a prominent church in Strasbourg, a city that wars had shifted from French to German and back into French hands. “But 30 is a critical age in the life of men” Sonen said, “and Schweitzer joined the ranks of Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, St. Paul, St. Augustine and all the myriad others who graduated to a higher plane of living about the end of their third decade on earth.” Schweitzer gave up all sinecures and independence, earned a medical degree, and went to Africa to found a hospital, which “continues to be the major motif of this life.” One can devote one’s life to others even in the midst of hatred and carnage.
Then, on January 28, 1940 Sonen preached on “democracy and religion.” “It is quite logical that the dictators are opposed to the religious life, for they have appraised the religious life correctly,” Sonen said. “They have seen in it the source of inspiration that makes men secure in their manhood, rejects the pretension of their masters, and invests the human personality with infinite dignity and untold promise. Democracy has faith in the worth of spiritual forces, and so does religion. For what is faith in spiritual forces and respect for the individual but a practical application of the central principle, ‘Love of God and love of man’?” Sonen proposed that Fascism and Communism are like absolute monarchy, “brutally materialistic, basing life on force, selfishness, cynicism and mistruth.” But an unassailable religious faith produces “a righteous nation and a happy, prosperous people.” Love can resist the stalking beast and prevail.