April 17-April 19

I cannot believe it but this week has been the final week. I felt like I just arrived for the internship for the first time in January. Overall, I am very pleased with my progress. This week I caught up on all my work, finishing all the scans and the cataloging of metadata concerning the 1957 sermon folder. I look forward to seeing my digitized work on RICHES even though I know that some time will pass before that happens. Overall, I am proud of the work I've done and feel very satisfied with the skills that I have learned. As an aspiring archivist, I have always heard of scanning documents and metadata but I have never gotten the opportunity to do those things for myself. Thanks to this internship and in particular the First Unitarian Church of Orlando for giving me the opportunity, I learned how to do those activities by myself and how to apply them. Now I am much more confident in reaching my goal to be an archivist now that I have a better understanding of the nature of what my work would be as one. Having completed an internship, I encourage other history students to complete at least one before graduating from UCF. An internship not only gives credit but it also imparts valuable skills that can be used in the future. Also, an internship is a very useful thing to have on a resume because it reflects experience and responsibility.

Another thing that I appreciated greatly was the historical knowledge that I handled and gained for myself. Reading about 1950's and 1960's Florida society through the eyes of a liberal minister in the south was very eye opening. The Florida commented and criticized by Reverend Fuller is eerily similar to the Florida that we live in today. Reverend Fuller worried about the Cold War, rampant consumerism, modern technology, violence in third world countries, racism and antisemitism. Nowadays we still worry about racism, international conflict, consumerism and the dangers posed by technology. Reverend Fuller's answers to the troubling questions posed by these things still ring true. Reverend Fuller discussed how, while most people wanted to do good, it is hard for people to step out and go beyond. To challenge themselves to reach out and help other people. During his own time, Reverend Fuller felt that a social revolution was occurring and that men could potentially grow in goodness. While disagreeing with most aspects of traditional religion, Reverend Fuller believed in the concept of men being cast in the image of the divine. That when God created man he saw that "His work was good." Indeed, Reverend Fuller believed that men and even the universe as a whole were intrinsically good. Evil only occurred when men became detached from reality. It was Reverend Fuller's explicit faith in the goodness of the universe that stood out the most to me. And I believe that, especially in this day and age, having faith in your fellow man is not only important but vital to living a healthy life.    

April 10-April 12

This week I finished compiling metadata for Reverend Fuller's sermons given in 1961 and began scanning documents containing the sermons he gave in 1957. The reason for this is because there are no sermons given by Reverend Fuller after 1961 because that was the year he left. He must have left towards the end of the year because the final sermon of the year given in December was authored by Reverend Smith. In his final sermons, Reverend Fuller made it clearly known that he was leaving but he did not go into much detail why. What he did make clear was that he had enjoyed his time in Orlando and that he had the fondest of memories concerning the First Unitarian Church. This led him to make many poignant observations concerning Unitarian beliefs. It is certainly not surprising that he had felt so sentimental. He was around when the First Unitarian left their old location which was in Central and Rosalind. He was also there when the church school finished construction and was dedicated in 1960 after having construction begun in 1954. Indeed, it is no wonder that Reverend Fuller's final sermon was so touching.

Reverend Fuller's final sermon asked a deceptively simple question, what endures? Most protestants would say that it is the soul that endures but Reverend Fuller is not so sure. He has not seen enough evidence to be convinced that a personal soul endures after death and what even is the true nature of a soul. Reverend Fuller instead believes in a concept known as 'salvation by character', which was first coined and developed by Ralph Waldo Emerson. A famous influence on Unitarianism whose name was mentioned in many prior sermons. According to Emerson, it isn't so much saving your soul that is important but rather it is loving your brother that is the top priority. Man should focus on helping his fellow man more than about him or herself. This ties into Reverend Fuller's belief that it is the good a man does that endures.What also endures is man's never ending search for truth, beauty and justice. Over time nations disintegrate and generations fall and rise but the values that they saw as important will always last. Mankind, being intrinsically good, will search for these values as long as they exist as a species. The beneficial contributions they make to society will also last beyond them. Reverend Fuller may be leaving the First Unitarian Church, but he hopes that the good he did will last even when he is gone. Still, he confesses to being sad at the prospect of leaving, but change is a fact of life. This neatly ties into the other theological concepts he discussed in his sermons. According to Reverend Fuller, the universe is an ever changing process of different forces interacting with one another. Mankind is not alone, but rather part of the ever changing universe. Part of the creative process that runs it all that will, of course, always endure. After this sermon, Reverend Fuller would serve as a reverend in Syracuse and would pass away due to a heart condition in his native New England.    

March 3-March 5

This week I focused on compiling the metadata for the 1961 sermons. So far, I am very pleased with how it is turning out but, once I am done, I feel that I need to go over everything again in order to add some more outside sources to the entries. This is easy to do with the documents that reference real world events but more difficult with the ones that focus on theology. Speaking of real world events, I feel that it is very important to discuss what exactly Reverend Fuller's views of the world around him were. This is very important, because many of his sermons actually deal with the problems man faces in the modern world and the nature of American society that he lived in.

First of all, what is this 'modern world' that Reverend Fuller discusses in many of his sermons? This world is the one contemporary to him which is the 50's and early 60's, the years in which he preached at the First Unitarian Church of Orlando. It is a world that is different but in many ways similar to our own. Reverend Fuller talks about the dangers of technology, race conflict, civil unrest and religious conflict, all things that still plague our current time. According to Reverend Fuller, the world of his time is one devoid of spirituality. Rampant consumerism and conformity dominate American society. People are afraid to be individuals for fear that they will be labeled a communist or as someone who divides a united society. The Cold War is a constant backdrop in Reverend Fuller's discussions of modern society. People live in constant fear of nuclear weapons so they give up their freedom and individuality in order to rely on the safety of the group. Reverend Fuller points out that this is a natural reaction but a wrong one. Reverend Fuller maintains that man is intrinsically good, and that they can make the world a better place by working together with their inner soul that has been gifted with the creative spirit. Concepts I have discussed in an earlier post. The problem is that modern society divides people, not only from each other but from their inner, spiritual souls. Another problem that runs rampant in American society is hypocrisy. Reverend Fuller observes how communism is detested for being atheistic and yet the materialist consumerism that is so lauded by American society is equally godless. Fundamentalist protestants praise themselves for their love of God and yet insult all those who dare go to integrated schools. America praises itself for being the best at war and yet, Reverend Fuller points out, wasn't it Russia that actually took Berlin? Again, this stems from the spiritual disconnect of the times. All is not doom and gloom, however. The modern world has benefited all of humanity greatly by bringing the world together, uniting East and West. Through greater international interactions, in the form of trade fairs and cultural exchange. Reverend Fuller is confident that a solution to conflict can be worked out but this must be a continual process. Stagnation not only prevents change but allows more and more conflict to happen. Freedom is not a state but something an individual must continually strive for by practicing that freedom. This is done by the person using his/her own mind to judge right from wrong. All these teachings I believe, even though they are decades old, can definitely apply to our present day.        

March 28-March 30

This week proved to be very productive. On March 28 I finished compiling metadata for the 1960 sermons and on March 30 I began scanning the sermons given in 1961. After 1961, Reverend John C. Fuller would leave to become a reverend for a different Unitarian church in New England. The reasons for his departure are not clear to me at this moment. He may have left to be closer to home, he was originally from New England, or he may have left because the higher authorities in the Unitarian Church ordered him too. Either way, once I am done with the 1961 folder I will most likely move on to the folders that contained sermons he gave before the year 1958. This would no doubt be interesting because not only would I learn about Unitarian teachings but I would be able to see how Reverend Fuller was reacting to all the historical events happening in the 1950's. Scanning the 1960 sermons I was able to see his reactions to the presidential election, the United Nations and a race riot that occurred in Jacksonville.

While on the subject of these sermons, I feel the need to discuss some more important Unitarian teachings I have learned about. The first that needs a lengthy explanation is the Unitarian concept of 'Reverence for Life.' According to Unitarianism, the Universe possesses something known as the 'Creative Spirit.' This Creative Spirit is responsible for the creation of life and every life form, whether it is a human or animal, shows traces of this creative spirit. What makes humanity unique is that the creative spirit acts through every member of mankind. The soul of man is inherently good instead of sinful like most other Protestant religions attest to. Men and women can use the Creative Spirit to reach out to the cosmos and learn more about spiritual matters. The Creative Spirit also allows mankind to show a Reverence for Life. This is the recognition that all beings are part of the cosmos and that they are to be respected as reflections of that greater entity. The soul, Reverend Fuller states, is made to do good but outside events can lead it to go astray and cause man to do evil. Man becomes irrational when he allows outside events to make him lose touch with his/her soul and he loses that important connection to the inner self that is inherently good. This disconnect causes negative actions to occur. This is why another teaching, that one's personal beliefs are a private matter, is so important. Ones relationship with his inner self or soul is a sensitive one. When outsiders pry this relationship can be upset and communication with the inner soul can be lost. Respecting ones private beliefs is not just about not invading ones privacy but rather more about not disrupting another person's spiritual tranquility. Each Unitarian is on his/her own path when it comes to the search for the truth and their individual journey cannot be disrupted by others. This is what Reverend Fuller means when he refers to Unitarianism as a liberal religion. It is the religion of freedom and of the individual.

March 20-March 22

This week I dedicated my time to compiling metadata. It appears that in 1960 Reverend Fuller began to deliver more sermons than usual. For example, in October of that year three sermons were delivered in October. This is remarkable because last year only one or two sermons were delivered per month. Of course, this could be a misunderstanding of mine based on present material. Maybe Reverend Fuller was constantly delivering plenty of sermons but maybe some of the sermons in the past years were not recorded. Which meant that in the present day I got the impression that less sermons were delivered those years. Reading the 1960 sermons was a very educational experience because in these sermons Reverend Fuller referenced the teachings of other protestant thinkers. That is why I would like to dedicate some of this entry to the descriptions of these various protestant thinkers.

The first thinker that is mentioned in numerous sermons is Dr. Albert Schweitzer. He was born in the Alsace region of France and was brought up in a family that prized education. He received his theological education at Strasbourg University in 1893 where he graduated in 1899. He not only received a religious education at Strasbourg but also a philosophical one as well. Having done his dissertation on Kant. He immediately began preaching an served in several high profile posts at the Theological College of St. Thomas. It was there, in 1906, that he wrote his famous book, The Quest for the Historical Jesus. It was this book that earned him his fame as a religious scholar and the book that no doubt gained Reverend Fuller's attention. As I have stated in a previous blog post, Reverend Fuller believed that Jesus was not divine and that he was a mortal Jewish man with remarkable insight who lived in the Levant. In his book, Albert Schweitzer argued the same thing, saying that Jesus was a religious teacher of the late Jewish tradition that preached of an incoming apocalyptic event. These similarities make it clear that Reverend Fuller was highly influenced by the European thinker's views on Jesus. Another important thing to note about Dr. Albert Schweitzer is that towards the end of his life he joined the International Unitarian Association, making him a Unitarian, showing that the influence went both ways. With Unitarians being interested in Dr. Schweitzer and and doctor being interested in Unitarianism. Another important thinker mentioned in many of Fuller's sermons was William Ellery Channing, the famous Unitarian ancestor of his. While Unitarianism first developed in Europe, it was Reverend Channing who was responsible for its spread in America. During the early 1800's when Calvinist teaching spread across the United States, Reverend Channing most daringly preached against them. Calvinism states that mankind is destined to be punished by God and only the ones destined to be saved will go to heaven. In contrast, Reverend Channing taught that God was all loving and that surely a loving God would be unable to send anyone to hell. In 1820, Reverend Fuller formed a group of liberal ministers and in 1825 they would be recognized as the American Unitarian Association. It is no wonder why Reverend Fuller mentions Reverend Channing on so many occasions. In many ways, his ancestor was the founding father of American Unitarianism.

March 6-March 8

This week I finished scanning the documents of the 1960 folder and compiled some metadata. After examining so many documents I feel that I am qualified to talk about the specific beliefs and world views of the Unitarian Church. The Unitarian Church has a long history that stretches back hundreds of years ago to New England. In 1819, Reverend William Ellery Channing, an ancestor of Reverend John Channing Fuller, gave a sermon titled "Unitarian Christianity" where he rejected the trinity, rejected the belief that all men are borne sinners, stated the importance of reasoning and maintained the dignity of human nature. This was most likely done in response to the religious movement of known as the Great Awakening that was enforcing Calvinistic ideals on the American population. Indeed, Reverend Channing's resistance to such Calvinistic concepts as original sin and predestination mirrors Reverend Fuller's future resistance to the Evangelical ideals of his fellow protestants in the 1960's. Another American religious movement that would effect Unitarianism in the 1800's was Transcendentalism. Walt Whitman and Ralph Emerson would have a strong influence on Unitarian beliefs. Transcendentalism stressed the importance of the soul of an individual and his\her own ability to experience something vaguely known as the "divine." Also, Ralph Emerson's father was a Unitarian minister who is referenced in some of Reverend Fuller's sermons. Another parallel between past and present can be seen in how Walt Whitman is quoted in many of Reverend Fuller's sermons. One sermon Reverend Fuller gave at a Unitarian conference outside of Orlando opened with a poem by Walt Whitman.

But how do these beliefs work? Unitarianism had its roots in the Protestant Reformation in Europe and yet Unitarianism's beliefs are so different from other Protestant denominations. How did this happen? The answer can be found by examining Unitarian beliefs in more detail. The first thing that must be recognized is that Unitarianism is more of a movement than a religion, as stated by Reverend Fuller in a 20th century sermon. Members of the Unitarian Church are "seekers" who each try to use their human reasoning to discover the truth. Their human reasoning is divine because that is what gives them a measure of control in the universe. Reverend Fuller points out that yes, we are insignificant parts of the greater cosmos but our ability to understand and learn about the universe around us makes mankind special. But even if we are special, how do we use our reasoning? Unitarians say we use it by looking at the figures of the past as examples. Reverend Fuller repeatedly denied the divinity of Christ in his sermons but he still saw Jesus as an exemplary human teacher that taught important humanist values. He also listed mystics such as Meister Eckhart and even secular teachers like Freud as men whose teachings are worth learning about. Even teachers belonging to other religions are looked to. This is not viewed as unusual by Unitarians. A key belief of Unitarianism that Reverend Fuller was fond of pointing to was the "Brotherhood of Man." Unitarianism fully upholds the equality of mankind and states that we are all equal. Men are not drenched in sin but are rather made to do good by others. Reverend Fuller criticizes his fellow ministers who use threats of hell fire to keep their congregations in line. Reverend Fuller's defining belief, and perhaps the key belief of Unitarianism, is the inherent goodness of man and his/her ability to find his own salvation.        

February, 27-March, 1

I am very pleased to announce that on Monday I finished all the metadata concerning the 1959 sermons. It was very time consuming due to their length and the higher amounts of complexity they possessed than the meeting minutes but I managed to get my metadata all up to date. The descriptions were the most time consuming, everything else I managed to simply copy and paste. Upon completion of the metadata I began copying the records of the sermons given in the year 1960. Interestingly, these were in a different format than the previous folders of sermons. The 1957-1958 and 1959 sermons were recorded on individual pieces of paper that were cut into tinier portions. These sermons on the other hand were recorded in pamphlets and usually there were two copies of pamphlets for each individual sermon. It is my belief that pamphlets like these were distributed to the congregation and perhaps kept by them for future services. I say future services because each pamphlet contained enough material to last multiple church services. For example, one pamphlet identified on its cover as being for the months of "January and February" and its material encompassed a sermon that touched on love and all the different types of love. Such as love for god, brothers, neighbors and family. Another pamphlet which contained a sermon about what Unitarians believed in was part of a Lent series. Which I thought was odd since lent is usually associated with more conservative churches and it was my understanding that the Unitarian church is very liberal. I dedicated the rest of the day to scanning pamphlets and I was sure to crop them after each scan so I could easily read the digital copies when compiling my metadata. It occurred to me that I forgot to crop the scans of the OMA folder so I made a mental note to myself that I would go back and crop those images when I had the time. This week however, I dedicated my efforts solely to scanning.

On Wednesday I continued scanning the pamphlets. It appeared that the first few pamphlets might have been exceptions because one of the pamphlets I scanned, titled "What Unitarians Teach their Children" was dated to a specific day in March. It appears that in 1960 Reverend Fuller began to grow more adventurous with the amount of material he was putting into his sermons. Once again I was surprised by how liberal the content of these sermons were. One thing that stood out to me in a sermon about love was how "sexual love was the highest form of brotherly love." While this would not raise any eyebrows in 2017, I found this to be a very controversial statement for 1960. Even more surprising is that this was said by a clergyman in the deep South. This goes to show that there are always exceptions to a historical trend. The South was known for being very conservative and not especially progressive during the 1960's but the presence of the liberal Reverend Fuller in this time period subverts this view. Also, more surprising examples of liberalism was found in a pamphlet that contained a sermon about how Unitarians raised their children. Unlike most peoples' Sunday school experiences, the children that attended the Unitarian school were taught a wide variety of values from different religions. They also read a book when they got older that portrayed Jesus as a mortal man. This was all very surprising to me. I have in the past attended a Lutheran church that I considered liberal but they would of never taught children that Jesus was not divine. I decided that I would finish scanning the contents of the folder next week and left feeling pleased with the amount of progress I made.