S. Berliner, III's Long Island Unitarian Page keywords = Unitarian Universalis Muttontown Plandome Shelter Rock Huntington Long Island Unitarian Universalist Fellowship MUUF church denomination district UUA Metro religio philosoph histor
Updated: 06 Mar 2005, 20:15 ET
(Page created 08 Oct 00)
[Ref: This is uulongis.html (URL http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/uulongis.html )]

S. Berliner, III's

Long Island Unitarian Page

FLAMING CHALICE

LONG ISLAND UNITARIANISM

(the Unitarian Universalist movement
on Long Island)

This site has now been visited times since the counter was installed.

INDEX

ON THIS LONG ISLAND U.U. PAGE:

Long Island UU History
Local UU Churches in my area of Long Island, New York

(moved from UU Page 08 Oct 00)
Huntington Universalist Society

(moved from UU Page 08 Oct 00)

ON THE U.U. PAGE:

Doxology
UU History
Sojourner Truth - "Ain't I a Woman?"
Olympia Brown - first ordained female minister
Purposes and Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Other Unitarian Groups
UU Christian Fellowship
UU Principles and Purposes
Personal - Readings, Sermons
(including Thomas Jefferson disclaimer)
BenedictUUs III

See also the UU Partner Church Program in Erdély (Transylvania); there is a large and historically-significant Unitarian presence there and we try to maintain close contact with our brothers and sisters in Erdély. An expanded history of Unitarianism, especially of its founding in Transylvania, appears there.

Reference is made on the UU page to the Flushing Remonstrance and the Bowne House, an early American declaration of religious freedom and an early Dutch-era house still standing in Flushing, and to inventor Lewis Howard Latimer, whose house also still stands in Flushing; Flushing is on Long Island.

Long Island UU History

There are several very old Universalist churches on Long Island, notably the All Souls Universalist Bethlehem Church (Federated) [which includes the former First Universalist Church of Williamsburg (1845)] in Brooklyn (yes, Brooklyn IS on Long Island!) and The First Universalist Church of Southold (1835), noted on the UU page and below.

I also mention on the UU page that Sojourner Truth was on Long Island in 1843, walking from New York City to Huntington (about 40 miles) to preach about God and advocate abolition, women's right, and other causes (per NEWSDAY, 03 Feb 98, page A28).

John and Abigail Adams were members of the First Parish Church* of Quincy, Massachusetts, and, in 1826, shortly after his father's death, John Quincy Adams (their second of five children) formally affiliated with the Quincy church, conceding at the time that he should have taken the step thirty years earlier, but, to my surprise, JQA (as he identified himself) and Louisa Adams were also residents of Long Island, summering in Deer Park from about 1835 until his death in 1848 (ref.: NEWSDAY, page A32, Tuesday, 13 Aug 2002). The John Quincy Adams Elementary School at 172 Old Country Road in Deer Park sits on JQA's former estate and has a portrait of JQA donated by family members in its main lobby.

(* - where all four Adamses are buried)

Local UU Churches
in my area of Long Island, New York
(moved from UU Page 08 Oct 00)

There are three major churches and one very small one in this immediate area (northern Nassau* County, Long Island's "North Shore", the so-called "Gold Coast", and neighboring north-west Suffolk* County). The three big congregations are the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock (formerly Plandome), in East Hills, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington, and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Central Nassau in Garden City, and the small one is the Muttontown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. They can be reached (and linked) as noted:

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock
(formerly the North Shore Unitarian Universalist Church at Plandome)
48 Shelter Rock Road (in East Hills,
about half way between Northern Boulevard/Route 25A
and the LI Expressway/Route 495, on the west side)
Manhasset, New York 11030
627-6560

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington
109 Brown's Road (between Southdown and West Shore Roads -
technically just a few miles east of the Suffolk County line -
north of the village, between the public school and Coindre Hall)
Huntington, New York 11743
427-9547

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Central Nassau
223 Stewart Avenue (half way between Franklin Avenue and
Clinton Street, on the northwest corner of Washington Avenue)
Garden City, New York 11530
248-8855

The Muttontown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
[Located in Muttontown, on the south side of the North Hempstead Turnpike/Route 25A (Northern Boulevard)
about a ½-mile west of Route 106 in East Norwich]
Mailing address: P. O. Box 123, East Norwich, New York 11732
922-9833

These churches are all members of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and of its Metro New York District, and of the Long Island Area Council).

[ URL (27 Oct 03)]. Although we are non-creedal, we subscribe to certain mutually-accepted purposes and principles. These purposes and principles by which we abide are on the UU page.

[* - Historical Note - notice the county names;

Nassau was the easternmost extent of Dutch Nieuw Amsterdam,

while Suffolk was the western end of English settlement.]

I mention the Southold (Long Island) church (The First Universalist Church of Southold - UU) on the UU page and urge Long Islanders and visitors to Long Island to visit this historic church.

Huntington (NY) Universalist Society

At 6 Nassau Road, on the east side just south of Main Street (Northern Boulevard/North Hempstead Turnpike/Route 25A) up the hill on the northeast corner of Platt Place, in Huntington, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York (11743), sits a beautiful old house which is the local meeting place of the DAR (National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization long spoofed by the late Helen Hokinson and hardly noted for its tolerance, diversity, or openness.

(View0 to the SSE)
[Low-res. image restored 24 Oct 03]

The rest of my 07 Oct 00 photos appear to be lost forever, so I went there on 28 Oct 03 and shot new images:

(28 Oct 03)

(View to the East-Southeast - TH)

(Detail of entry - view to the Southeast - TH)

Univ Soc Hunt 0 NE
(View to the Northeast)

Univ Soc Hunt 5 NNE
(View to the North-Northeast)

Sorry, the sun was at a bad angle on some of these and the south wall is obscured by foliage; the east wall is not accessible.

This venerable structure has several bronze plaques from the DAR but, far more importantly, it bears this ancient, painted wooden plaque on the south side of the west (front) wall (visible at the far right in the above photos):

1837
BUILT FOR A HOUSE OF WORSHIP
BY THE UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY.
WHEN NOT IN USE BY THEM
TO BE USED BY ANY RELIGIOUS
DENOMINATION.

Now, there is just NO WAY one can claim the DAR as a "religious denomination"!

I (personally) should like to question the DAR's title to this place and would like to make it a long-term project of the local churches (under the Long Island Area Council), the Metro NY District, the NY State Convention of Universalists, and the UUA itself, to reacquire this house and grounds and make it into a UU meeting hall and museum.

THUMBS UP!

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S. Berliner, III

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
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