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Unitarian cleric has diverse flock ©
The Schenectady Daily Gazette July 10, 2004
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MARC SCHULTZ Gazette Photographer |
"I identify myself as a Christian, and when I first came here that was a problem for a small number of people in the congregation," said Savage, minister at the First Unitarian Society on Wendell Avenue in Schenectady. "Fortunately, most people who go to Unitarian churches realize that the person sitting next to them may have a different perspective and spiritual orientation than they do, and that's OK."
Less than 20 percent of Unitarians nationwide consider themselves Christians, according to Savage, and of those even a smaller percentage think of Jesus Christ as the son of God.
" The Unitarian view of Jesus is that he was a prophet, a teacher and a great role model, but there was nothing divine about him," said Savage. "When I identify myself as a Christian, it means that this system of thought and ethics pronounced and exemplified by Jesus is the one that speaks most eloquently to me. As far as needing Jesus to be saved, that's not my brand of Christianity."
Savage uses the Bible for his Sunday sermons, but he also may quote the Quran or any other religious text, and sometimes even uses articles from the Wall Street Journal or the works of Emerson and Thoreau, two Unitarians of the 19th century.
"Our service is structured like a liberal protestant worship service, but my sermon could be a reflection of something I read the other day in any publication," said Savage. "I preach for all perspectives. I know I have people with a very broad view out there, so I'm trying to reach Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists or scientific rationalists. I try to minister to everyone."
Another aspect of Savage's faith that puts him in the minority as Unitarians go is that he feels he was "called" to the ministry.
"The wording speaks to me, but not to some in our congregation," said Savage. "I have a sense that it was a calling from God, that I was called to do sacred work."
It wasn't a call that came early in life. Savage grew up in suburban Washington, D.C., his father a musician in a military band. He got master's degrees in English and radio and TV from the University of Maryland, where he also got his Undergraduate degree. He spent most of his life working for Southwestern Bell and Bell Laboratories, living in Houston, Oklahoma City, St. Louis and Short Hills, N.J.
Savage grew up as a Southern Baptist, his wife Trish an Episcopalian.
"Neither one of us felt particularly connected to any tradition that we grew up with," said Savage. "We really hadn't been going to church much at all when we first got married, but when we had our first child, we thought we ought to take them to Sunday school somewhere."
It was a Unitarian congregation in Oklahoma City where Savage and his wife started going back to church, and to his surprise, he found the experience quite enjoyable.
"The Unitarian church was a place where no question was out of bounds," said Savage. "I liked that, and I started getting involved in the leadership roles in the church. Somewhere in the mid-80's, I started thinking to myself, 'I like this.' I thought I could play the other side of the street, so I started investigating what one has to do to become a minister."
Savage took an early retirement from Bell Laboratories and started attending Harvard Divinity School in 1990 at the age of 53.
"I had never thought consciously about becoming a minister before, and at first, I was very interested in what I was learning at Harvard," said Savage. "But before I got through my three years there I really felt like I was meant to do this. I felt like it was practical for me to do something like this, but I also felt like it was a calling."
When he was done at Harvard, Savage served a Unitarian congregation in Barnstable, Mass., on Cape Cod for eight years before making the move to Schenectady a little more than three years ago.
"Terrific job"
"When we pick a new minister, it's quite an extensive process, and everyone in the congregation is involved," said Niskayuna's Don Kerr, a member at the Wendell Avenue congregation for more than 20 years. "We've been delighted with Russ since he's been here and he's doing a terrific job. He's extremely personable, and he's the kind of person you feel comfortable with almost immediately. That warmness is an extremely important part of being a successful minister."
Kerr also feels that Unitarian ministers are in a bit more challenging position than most clergy.
"We are very proud of the diversity of our congregation, and a minister has to be sensitive to so many different viewpoints," said Kerr. "Russ is very thoughtful with his sermons, which are very interesting and very worthwhile. He has to engage a lot of different people each Sunday, and I'd say he's done it very well."
Unitarians are not one of the largest sects in the world, but Savage says there's a good reason for that.
"It's attractive for many people to have clear answers offered to them, and that's not what you're going to get at our church," said Savage. "Unitarians struggle with being told what to believe, and for that reason we're not going to have a lot of numbers. We're more liberal and we have a lot of scientists in this congregation who are very rational and don't believe in miracles. The faith of our members comes from what they can know and measure and test about the universe and life."
Spark from Steinmetz
Schenectady Unitarianism began in 1901, and the group's first building
was on the corner of Union and Wendell Avenue, not too far from the
present building, which was built in 1961. Charles Proteus Steinmetz,
the world-renowned scientist who lived nearby on Wendell Avenue, was
a big supporter of the Unitarian Society, but he never became a member.
"Edison was a tinkerer, Steinmetz was a real scientist and mathematician," said Savage. "It was other GE scientists and engineers who got involved in starting this church, and while Steinmetz was never a member, he gave a few guest sermons here and was a real friend of the church."
If not for his physical deformity, Steinmetz probably would have joined the Unitarian church on Wendell Avenue, according to Midge Hayden, Steinmetz's 95-year-old adopted granddaughter. Both of her parents were members, as is Hayden.
"Because of his physical problem, it was uncomfortable for him to sit for any length of time, so I think that's why he never joined a church," Hayden said of Steinmetz, who died in 1923. "But if he had any religion, it would have been Unitarian, and I'm sure he would have enjoyed Russ's sermons. I don't get there as much as I should, but I have a friend who brings me his sermons and I read them. They're very interesting, and he's a very nice man."
Savage enjoys giving his Sunday sermons, and he feels free to converse on any subject that interests.him.
"I might go into what Steinmetz told us about the phenomena of physics, and a real crowd pleaser is to discuss some other form of religion," said Savage. "That doesn't mean we're adherents to it. It means we're open to discussing it."
Savage enjoys dialogue with members of other faiths, as long as nobody tries to force their viewpoint on him.
"My answer to fundamental Christians who quote John 14:6, 'no one comes to the Father except through me,' is to say, . 'oh, that's just John,' "said Savage. "He adored Jesus, and that's the way he wrote his whole book. That's wonderful if it works for you, but it doesn't for me, and I don't like having my nose rubbed in it."
And what about the idea of an afterlife? It is this life that Unitarians are concerned about.
''We cannot be sure about an afterlife, so it's incumbent upon us to see to the quality of this life," said Savage. "We're not going to rely on God to straighten things out in some afterlife that may or may not happen. We have a moral imperative to do what we can in this life to see justice is done."
Reach Gazette reporter Bill Buell at 395-3190 or bbuell@dailygazette.com.