Heirlooms of UCN History #66
by Will Frank
In 1940-41, the serenity of the Unitarian Church of Norfolk and its people was about to change as war raging in Europe and Asia came ever closer home. Norfolk was now burgeoning with an ever-expanding military presence that doubled the population. The Naval Base and its ships greatly expanded. Defense industries grew. Norfolk became a bustling cosmopolitan town of defense workers and military transients from all over the country and the world.
The Rev. Robert W. Sonen was already thinking of how to serve the newcomers. The church had at its disposal a spot on the radio, newspaper advertisements, direct mailings, and pamphlets to reach new people. Sonen and members of the congregation, which now included many military families, realized that the spiritual needs of young men in uniform were often in pressing need for connection with normality and sound values. It called for concerted attention.
The Navy YMCA in downtown Norfolk was filled with off-duty sailors. When a program at the Navy Y let out, some churches drew sailors to their own churches for an evening worship service. The Unitarian Church of Norfolk participated in that program, the first invitation coming on December 22, 1940, when congregation members with cars congregated at the Navy Y and invited one and all to a 8 PM “Christmas Song Service” at the Unitarian Church, to be followed by a social hour and refreshments. Then the sailors would be driven back to the Navy Y or their duty stations. The success of this first event prompted further thinking.
Sonen and lay leaders in early 1941 developed a plan to put their religious ideals more fully into practice. They put their attention on the spiritual needs of three groups of people brought to Norfolk by the war crisis – members of the British merchant marine whose ships were in port, enlisted men of the U.S. Navy, and the families of a portion of these sailors. The church dedicated itself to provide for these groups “the opportunity of enjoying such simple pleasures as human fellowship, informal conversation, singing, laughing, and playing in normal congenial surroundings.” Social gatherings were organized. The church did not close in the summer of 1941 as usual, but remained open and available to sailors and their families. Bob and Olive Sonen held an open house for sailors every Monday evening. Whenever sailors from another Unitarian church appeared, the Sonens invited them home for dinner. The church asked every member and friend to give one morning or evening a week to the work. Congregation members opened their homes to small gatherings of sailors. Pledges of time and energy proliferated.
At the 11 o’clock worship service on December 7, 1941, Sonen preached on the topic of “Your Responsibility in the World of Today.” After the coffee hour, church leaders Captain Horace C. And Ruth E. Laird went back to their Lakewood home to enjoy a quiet afternoon. Horace turned on the radio, and the news blasted into their lives that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. The United States was at war.