chalice with rainbow flame
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County

Our Ministers

Edward Hale - 1891-1897 Orange Chronicle, March 28, 1891: "The Rev.Mr.Hale was born at Northampton, Mass. in 1858. . . .He was fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Academy . . . and entered Harvard College in 1875, graduating in 1879 at the head of his class of 200, taking the highest honors in classics . . . While in college he was . . . class poet . . . For three years after graduation he was in Europe as tutor in an American family. During 1882-3 he was private secretary to President Eliot, of Harvard University. . . In January, 1884, he entered the Divinity School of Harvard University, graduating in 1886. In October, 1886, he was ordained and installed as associate minister of South Congregational church, of Boston, of which Dr. Edward Everett Hale is the minister. From 1887 to 1890 he was President of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches in the city of Boston. Since the fall of 1888 he has been assistant in homiletics at the Harvard Divinity School. . . He was married in 1889 to Miss Emily Jose Milliken, of Boston." Died March 1918.

Walter Reid Hunt - 1898-1922 Born in Camden, Maine, in 1867. Educated in the public schools of Bangor. A.B. Bowdoin College, 1890. Principal of he Academy at Hampden, Maine, 1890-91. In summer of 1891, was a member of Bowdoin College scientific expedition to Labrador. B.D., Harvard, 1894. Ordained and installed at Duxbury, Mass, fall 1894. Called to Ellsworth, Maine, 1896. Married Alice Winslow of Boston, 1901. Became American Unitarian Association Field Secretary for the Middle States in 1922. Served as Secretary of the AUA from 1930 to 1937. Died Nov, 2, 1955. [Unitarian Year Book, 1956-57, p.173]

Frederick Houston Kent - 1923-1927

Joseph S. Loughran - 1928-1931

Edward D. Johnson - 1932-1939

Donald C. McMillan - 1940-1944

William Ellis Davies - 1945-1949

Phillips Endecott Osgood - 1949-1956 . Born 1882. S.T.B. Episcopal Theoogical School (Cambridge Mass.), 1907; ordained 1908. Served at Church of Our Saviour, Roslindale Mass. 1909-1915; at St.Mark's Episcopal Church, Minneapolis 1921-1933. President of house of clerical and lay departments at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church,1943-1945. Died Nov.6, 1956. Author of:

Hartley Cabot Ray - 1957-1963

Robert Wilcox Sonen - 1963-1968

Neal W. Ferris - 1969-1979

Shannon Bernard - 1979-1985

Richard Reno Neff - 1986-1994

Cynthia Ward (interim) - 1994-1996

Anthony P. Johnson (consulting) - 1996-2005

Yielbonzie Charles Johnson (consulting) - 2005-2007

Darrell Berger (consulting) - 2007-2013

Gordon Clay Bailey (consulting) - 2013-2015