What Heritage?

JESUS OUSTED BY CHURCHES IN MERGING. Under this eye-catching headline the Austin (Texas) American reported the labor pains of a new denomination: the Unitarian Universalist Association. Meeting separately and simultaneously in Syracuse, N.Y., representatives of the American Unitarian Association (membership: 108,396) and the Universalist Church of America (membership: 68,949) agreed last week to unite. But though neither of the creedless sects officially accepts the divinity of Jesus (except as all men participate in divinity), the Man from Nazareth managed to give them a hard time.

The twelve-member merger commission first came forth with a document stating the new church's aim as "to cherish and spread the universal truths taught by Jesus and the other great teachers of humanity in every age and tradition, and prophetically expressed in the Judaeo-Christian tradition as love to God and love to man." To the delegates meeting in joint session this sounded too specifically Christian, and they voted it down. The amended version read: "To cherish and spread the universal truths taught by the great prophets and teachers of humanity in every age and tradition, immemorially summarized in their essence as love to God and love to man."

The merger went through as planned, will go into effect in May 1961 if ratified by the local churches before next May. But just before the 1,000-odd delegates packed up to go home, a third version was voted. Jesus was still out, but "in the Judaeo-Christian heritage" (instead of "in their essence") was in.

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