Presented by Lincoln Gray
July 8, 2007
This talk was presented as a part of Our Spiritual Journeys service.
I am proud to be the 12th great grandson of Roger Williams (claimed as a spiritual leader by the Unitarians). I knew my great-grandmother, a Williams who married a Gray, and heard the stories. Roger was a Puritan who came to the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 1600’s seeking religious freedom. He soon ran afoul of the local leaders because he believed in too much religious freedom. He was eventually banished for promulgating his signature principle of “separation of church and state”. The story goes that the banished criminals were thrown out the back of the English settlement on the coast to face their fate in the wilderness to the west. Roger knew of a penal colony, called Rouges Island, and set out trudging through the woods to find that minimal refuge of kindred spirits. Despite his belief in the separation of church and state, he was a devoutly religious man and felt that the Almighty directly assisted him in safely reaching the destination of that (spiritual) journey. While that story may not be true in all details, many followed, and his new settlement grew. History does record that he named that place “Providence” to honor the generosity of the Almighty, and the colony became Rhode Island. He was the first English leader of an American colony to pay the Native Americans for the usurped land. He was the first to allow Jews and Quakers in his colony. His grandson was granted 2000 acres in far northern Vermont in return for his service in General Washington’s Army. Roughly 100 acres have now come to me to preserve and protect, and hopefully to pass on to the next generation. As I walk that land, I often feel the ghost of my ancestors. I surely support religious freedom, the separation of church and state, and acceptance of those who have different religious views. I only hope that the stewardship of all I have inherited (both the intellectual traditions of religious tolerance and freedom, and that bit of land) will not falter on my watch. Toward that end I can only hope for such Providence as might come my way. (That said, I must admit I feel that the Spirit of Almighty Providence is more likely a mysterious internal force rather than an elderly, European-looking, man-in-the-sky who magically directs events on earth in response to our prayers – as Roger Williams undoubtedly prayed on his trek through the wilderness).
History records the Puritans dissolved into the liberal Unitarians and the more conservative Congregationalists. My parents were both raised as conservative Congregationalists, continuing many Puritan traditions. My father went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, as this was the only way he could afford to go to college. My mother studied Christian education at a religious college for similar reasons. In those days, the Army was hustling young cadets out of school quickly (to lead charges in the war), but just as my father graduated the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and our enemy surrendered. So my father was spared having to invade the island of Japan, but he was soon wounded in the early skirmishes in Korea and sent back to Tokyo. My mother happened to be on a missionary assignment in Japan. And so I have a Japanese birth certificate and was raised by a Japanese nanny during a military occupation. As I said, my father was wounded, decorated with both the Silver Star and Purple Heart. He never talks about those experiences, except that something about the war made him became a devout atheist. My mother continued to hold equally devout, traditional Christian beliefs. As you can imagine, my parents could not agree on religious matters while I was growing up. Their compromise was that their children were required to attend church, but we could choose the service. I grew up in a small town in northern MN (very similar to Lake Woebegone, if you every listen to Garrison Keilor on NPR). There was a Lutheran and Catholic Church. I typically chose to attend the early morning Catholic Mass, as I had then discharged my religious responsibilities and had the whole day free for other pursuits. The 7:00 Mass was in Latin and mercifully short. I just sat quietly in the back – and absorbed. That regular ritual had a lasting effect as my favorite pieces of music are the Requiem Masses by Brahms and Faure. This music is my spiritual source and comfort. I return to it regularly, both when I am feeling good and bad. Listening to these musical masses, I feel the genius of the composer and the musicians, but also that indescribably connection with something enduring and ephemeral. This music soars like nothing else on this earth, and here I feel again a bit of Providence from the Great Spirit.
Whenever possible I try to forsake civilization for the wilderness (perhaps to honor Roger William’s journey to find Providence), first canoeing in the summer and snowshoeing in the winter in northern MN, later in the desert mountains of The Big Bend in west Texas, and now in the Blue Ridge. Here again I feel the indescribably connection with something enduring and ephemeral, and a bit of Providence from the Great Spirit.
The Quakers, who Roger Williams first allowed to settle in his colony of Rhode Island, were a great threat to the Puritan establishment, and were elsewhere grievously persecuted. They believed, as do we, that one needs no professional clergy. The relationship with the Almighty is the private business of each individual. They, as we, have lay-lead services. In another interesting twist of fate, we HUUs share this lovely Shenandoah Valley with the Mennonites, who also gathered to promulgate the separation of church and state. And so a spiritual journey continues, as I live in a place that supports many of the ideas of my great, great, … great grandfather .
One of my favorite verses from scripture is the line AFTER the famous poem in Ecclesiastes. “There is a time to every purpose under heaven”, it begins. But just beyond the place where everyone stops is a verse that asks (here in my own words) “what personal gain can we expect from all of our labors?” and the answer is (again in my own words) “All is utterly meaningless and futile.” This convinces me that Ecclesiastes was a pessimistic existentialist, as is perhaps Divine Providence – and that there may be no point to most of our efforts, except maybe for me to preserve for a few more years the idea of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state, and to enjoy the beauty of wilderness, inspired religious music, and gathered kindred spirits.
So such are my spiritual journeys, feeling the spirit of my Puritan ancestors and the spirit of Divine Providence in the great Requiem Masses, in the wilderness, and in lay-lead religious community.