Universalism: What it is, in brief
The Universalists are so named for making universal salvation the cornerstone of Christian faith, a religiously democratizing proposition, traceable to the third century theologian Origen and the apostolic age. Strongly rooted in New England and in the society produced by the American Revolution, later Universalists were prominent social reformers and leaders in education, publishing, and business.
And locally . . . . The Universalist National Memorial Church is one-of-a-kind in the Nation's capital. It is a parish drawn diversely from the metropolitan Washington area, yet was built to serve as the national representative of the Universalist Church of America, which merged in 1961 with the American Unitarian Association to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.
In Washington D.C., the Universalists were a presence before the Civil War, relocating at the present site in 1930. The building, designed by Francis H. Allen and Charles Collens of Boston, who were also the architects for the Riverside Church in New York, and the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, has its roots in Romanesque architecture from English, French, and Italian traditions.
Among the web sites maintaining historical documents, liturgies, and other specialized information about Universalism are UUChristian.org and UniversalistChurch.net.
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