Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and DevelopmentCooke, George Willis
History
Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and Development
Cooke, George Willis
Unitarianism -- United States
In 1829 the younger Henry Ware visited England and Ireland as the foreign
secretary of the Unitarian Association; and at the annual meeting of 1831
he reported the results of his inquiries.[1] This was the beginning of
many interchanges of good fellowship with the Unitarians of Great Britain,
and also with those of Hungary, Transylvania, France, Germany, and other
European countries. During the first decade or two of the existence of the
Unitarian Association much interest was taken in the liberal movements in
Geneva; and the third annual report gave account of what was being done in
that city and in Calcutta, as well as in Transylvania and Great Britain.
Some years later, aid was promised to the Unitarians of Hungary in a time
of persecution; but they were dispossessed of their schools before help
reached them. In 1868 the Association founded Channing and Priestley
professorships in the theological school at Kolozsvár, and Mrs. Anna
Richmond furnished money for a permanent professorship in the same
institution. Soon after the renewed activity of 1865 an unsuccessful
attempt was made to establish an American Unitarian church in Paris; and
aid was given to the founding of an English liberal church in that city.
These are indications of the many interchanges of fellowship and
helpfulness between the Unitarians of this country and those of Europe.
[Sidenote: Society respecting the State of Religion in India.]
As early as 1824 began a movement to aid the native Unitarians of India,
partly the result of a lively interest in Rammohun Roy and the
republication in this country of his writings. On June 7, 1822, The
Christian Register gave an account of the adoption of Unitarianism by that
remarkable Hindoo leader; and it often recurred to the subject in later
years. In February of the next year it described the formation of a
Unitarian society in Calcutta, and the conversion to Unitarianism of a
Baptist missionary, Rev. William Adam, as a result of his attempt to
convert Rammohun Roy. There followed frequent reports of this movement, and
after a few months a letter from Mr. Adam was published. Even before this
there had appeared accounts of William Roberts, of Madras, a native Tamil,
who had been educated in England, and had there become a Unitarian. On his
return to his own country he had established small congregations in the
suburbs of Madras.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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