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North Unitarian Church and Unity Home
North Unitarian Church was established by First Unitarian Church as a Unitarian mission in the North end of New Bedford. It existed as a separate and legally incorporated congregation beginning in 1920. Its most famous member was Maja Capek, wife of the Czech Unitarian minister, Rev. Dr. Norbert Capek; he was killed by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp during World War II.
Rev. David Rankin, minister of First Unitarian from 1968-1974, wrote the following history of North Unitarian for the newsletter of the Inter-Church Council:
In the early 1890's there were several waves of migrations into the North End of the sity which consisted primarily of people from England and the central and eastern countries of Europe.
The young minister from the First Unitarian Church, the Rev. Paul Revere Frothingham, saw the opportunity of establishing a center in the North End for both church and social work. In 1894 three rooms were procured in what was then Sharples' Bakery on Acushnet Ave., in order to serve the needs of the migrants and to help integrate them into American society. These first rooms were known as the North End Mission; but a year later, when larger quarters were found on Tallman St., the North End Mission was renamed Unity Home.... The present building was constructed some time around the year 1902....
In the North End Mission and then in Unity Home, regular worship services were conducted on Sunday morning, a Sunday school was formed with Mrs. Frothingham as first superintendent, and a large number of church and social activities were undertaken....
[Unity Home] was more than fulfilling the expectations of its founders. It served a variety of needs at a time when few institutions in American society were concerned with the poor, the migrant, the non-English-speaking people. It was a social agency. It was a community center. It was a house of worship. In all of these ways the Home attempted to serve the whole man [sic]. It was in 1917 that the members, apparently feeling that religion should play a more integral part in the affairs of the Home... voted to form a religious society. The Rev. Leon Pratt was installed as the minister and regular worship services were conducted in the chapel on Sunday mornings. It was not until 1920, however, that the organization was legally incorporated as the North Unitarian Church of New Bedford.
The history of [North Unitarian Church] is rich in names and events. One of the most illustrious was Mrs. Norbert Capek [Maja Capek], the Director of Unity Home in the early 1940's and wife of the Unitarian martyr at Dachau. It is thought that the Flower Communion, a creation of Dr. Norbert Capek and now used by Unitarian churches all over the world, was first performed at Unity Home....
Rankin's assertion that the Flower Celebration was first conducted in the United States at Unity Home is almost surely incorrect; that honor belongs to First Parish in Cambridge, where Maja Capek had strong personal ties [link].
North Unitarian Church was listed by the American Unitarian Association (AUA) for the first time in the 1942-1943 Unitarian Year Book. Called "Unity Home Chapel Society," with "Maja V. Capek" listed as minister, 1941 is given as the date organized (although its corporate existence begins earlier, we believe that 1941 is the year that North Unitarian first affiliated formally with the AUA). Rankin's history continues:
In 1945, [North Unitarian] Church was re-incorporated so as to be almost entirely separate from the larger [First Unitarian] Church. The assessors of the First Church still controlled the real estate and the building and continued to manage a portion of the invested funds, but they made no effort to dominate their Northern friends....
The 1940's and 1950's were the glory days of North Unitarian. The congregation thrived and grew. But the character of the surrounding neighborhood was changing, and there were fewer and fewer children in the church. In an undated reminiscence, Audrey Steele remembers the early 1960's at North Unitarian:
The Sunday school [of North Unitarian] dwindled until our daughter Susan at 8 years old was the only child left attending class. Susan was transferred to this church [First Unitarian] about 30 years ago as we felt she needed companionship. Our membership was also transferred to here....
By 1968, membership of North Unitarian had dwindled still further. First Unitarian asked the Board of North Unitarian to allow First Unitarian to lease the building to a social service agency. Rankin writes that the Board of North Unitarian was "at first... opposed to the plan," and that "there was even some resentment over the sudden interest ...by the First Church." But that year they voted to turn the building over to First Unitarian, with the proviso that the chapel be "permanently maintained as a chapel."
Then in November, 1974, the building burned. Audrey Steele remembered, "The congregation was a small one at that time and some of the ladies transferred to our church and joined our Women's Alliance." North Unitarian, though nearly defunct as a church at the time of the fire, still continued in some ways as a corporate entity. It had its own funding and property, but its coporate existence was still entwined with First Unitarian. In a December 15, 1974, letter, Rev. Farley Wheelwright, then minister of First Unitarian, wrote:
Out of the ashes of the North Unitarian Church building fire arises two sources of money [for First Unitarian], and an ethical problem facing the congregation of First Unitarian Church.
Before any decisions are made as to what to do with the money of the desolated property on Tallman Street I hope that this congregation will face all possible choices....
For three-fourths of a century the First Unitarian Church has had a visible presence in the North End of New Bedford. At one time there were over 300 members who regularly worshipped there (giving rise to the irony that perhaps the tail wagged the dog, theologically speaking, and which church was the mission to the other?) Inevitably the building built of stone and the wealth of New Bedford would outlast the building built of wood for the benefit of the working classes in the mills.
But it can by no means be taken for granted that the parent church has served a more important need in the community. Though there are few members left of the old North Unitarian Church, there are members of this church who once belonged there and came uptown when transportation presented no problems and they were assured here a warm welcome.
North Unitarian Church has been a beacon of hope and service to many generations of New Bedfordians [sic] right up to last November 5th. We have the difficult choice now forced upon us waht to do with the insurance money and the income from the Abby Cobb fund....
Mr. Wheelwright and others advocated that the money go towards establishing a "minister-at-large," what we would now call a community minister, to serve the wider community. The congregation of First Unitarian voted in favor of this proposal, and Rev. Maurice Cobb was called as community minister in 1976. But the financial fortunes of First Unitarian declined during the deep recession of the 1970's, and the money soon ran low. Mr. Cobb had to leave in 1979. The social service work of Unity Home continued for some years thereafter in the form of the Abby Cobb/Unity Home Fund. Money from this fund was disbursed as grants to social service agenices in the greater New Bedford area.
Today, the memory of North Unitarian Church lives on at First Unitarian. Each year one of we still have a Flower Celebration during one of our worship services in June. We often use that service as an opportunity to remember Maja Capek, the most remarkable minister who ever served a Unitarian or Universalist congregation in New Bedford.