Chapter 6 - A religion for one world

Summary

In the summer of 1886, in the western New York State city of Jamestown, Unitarians and Universalists shared a lecture platform for the first time. To bolster growth for his new Independent Congregational Church, James Townsend planned a summer lecture course. For two weeks in July that year, the “brightest minds in the country” occupied a tent and entertained large numbers of people. Soon The Unitarian was advertising both The Lakeside School and the New Theology, which “would unite in the bonds of a common sympathy all those who…are seeking to preserve the truth that has found imperfect expression in ancient forms of faith, and to set it forth in a form which shall command the respect and reverence of the disciples of science and modern thought.” The following spring, railroad developers purchased land from Clara Wilcox, with a site on Lake Chautauqua carved out for the Lakeside School. By the summer of 1887, a beautiful, 9,000 square foot tabernacle had been built in Wilcox Grove, and the second season of the school began. It was an enormous success. But there was no third season. By 1888, Townsend had suffered a breakdown and resigned his pulpit, and it was discovered that the developers had cheated Wilcox. She was forced to foreclose upon the property, and the Lakeside School of New Theology found itself with a huge debt, no home, and no leader. It was never reconstituted.