UNIVERSAL SPLENDOR IN CAMP HILL

The Universalist Church of Camp Hill is a sacred place where people to come together to share the love of God and community. The Church community puts an emphasis on learning and helping each other. Their passions and values stretch far into the community’s past, from those who continue to build the Church that graces downtown Camp Hill to those who invested their hearts in it through more than a hundred years of history.

Once the largest Universalist Church in the southeastern United States, First Universalist Church of Camp Hill originally met under a brush arbor in 1846 on the present site of Mt. Lovely Baptist Church. A simple cabin soon replaced the arbor and served until 1884 when a larger wood-frame church was built on the current site. The stately red brick church that still stands today was completed in 1907.

Designed by Birmingham architect Daniel A. Helmich, the building was completed with mostly local indigenous labor and represents a blend of traditional and simple Gothic styles. Round windows top keystone arches that frame stained glass windows above the double front doors, and a spectacular triple-arched window of stained glass commands the front view. A square bell tower rises above the steep grade of the church building, and simple spires flank the bell casing. In 1961, the Universalist congregation found common ground with the Unitarian faith, and the two consolidated in 1961, forming the Unitarian Universalist Association. The parentage of the Universalist Church includes a long list of proud warriors for the community, including local brickmaker, the Rev. Britten Conine, along with the Rev. Clarence Skinner, Mary Slaughter Scott and past president of the Church, Barbara Jane Taylor. After Taylor’s passing in 2018, CJ Marbutt was awarded the position of the president of the Church. A 2022 Bayard Rustin Community and Leadership Award winner, Marbutt is committed to continuing the Church’s legacy within Camp Hill. “We need to take time to be still and listen to remember that we are in this together; and then once we do that, we need each other as allies and as partners to affect the change in the world that we need to see because we can’t do anything alone,” Beauty Past and Present Above: An ornate wood-clad Bible was gifted to the Church in the 1800s; Below: Stained glass Marbutt said. “It goes back to the whole idea of resurrection.” In April, the followers of windows bear witness to the Church's founders; many world religions, including Facing Page: The Camp Hill Universalist Church Universalist Christians, will features traditional and Gothic architectural celebrate festivals of rebirth, like elements. Easter. The congregation studies

STORY BY KYMBERLY DONOWSKI PHOTOS BY KENNETH BOONE

many resurrection stories, from Babylonian and Greek mythology to Budda and more.

“We’re a covenant-based denomination, meaning that we’re not here out of some divine decree. We’re here because we all agree to be together. To us, that’s what makes it truly, sacred. It’s intentional,” Marbutt explained. “We are coming together to build a beloved community. ‘Dwell together in peace and seek the truth and love and to help one another.’ We’ve struggled to try to write a better mission or better covenant because that was from the 1800s, but frankly, I think it says everything that needs to be said.”

Past ministers of the Church not only look to world religions but also to philosophers and activists, like Dr. Martin Luther King, as well.

“Beloved community was a term Dr. Martin Luther King popularized in the ‘60s but it was used before him. Clarence Skinner, he was a Universalist reverend back in the early 1900s, he got it from another philosopher, but he tweaked a meaning closer to Dr. Martin Luther King,” Marbutt said. Although in later years the faith gained flexibility, there is one belief that all members must hold dear, he added.

“Rev. Clarence Skinner wanted the Universalists to be just this Christian group that didn’t believe in hell. They believe in God’s love, and love wins, and sooner or later, everybody goes to heaven. God’s already decided that there’s nothing to do about it. That’s the most important because if you love yourself, love your neighbor, love God. We have a little spot for all faiths. These are all also part of the religious yearning of humanity, so we give them space. We also hosted the Tibetan monks in 2015.”

In the 1900s, a minister of the Universalist Church, the Rev. Britten Conine, marked himself as a member by

Rich in Faith, History and Spirit

Clockwise from Left: The nave is an engineering and architectural wonder: Resurrection is a central theme in the faith; A historical marker was placed at the site in 2013; Though services are suspended due to COVID, the Church is active in food ministry in the community.

making and providing all the bricks found in the church building. He continued to make bricks, and in Camp Hill, if you pick up a brick, it’s probably a Conine brick, Marbutt said.

But Marbutt’s appreciation of the building goes beyond its brick and mortar exterior and into its architectural beauty.

“Part of the beauty of this church is its architecture,” he said, pointing out a large post. “This is part of a large beam, this whole corner. It goes all the way up, and at the top, there’s a cast-iron bracket big enough to hold a house, literally, that holds another beam that’s running along the side of the wall that goes up to this big square. And there is still another beam standing up, held where the steeple is in the center there; and then, all of this is put around that skeleton. It’s an amazing work of architecture.”

The morning light spills through a filter of colors in the stained glass windows, creating a warm and peaceful atmosphere

in the nave. The light The Splendor of Color and Light cast into the pew could Facing Page: Intricaate stained serve as a reminder glass windows cast warm light to the overwhelmed and tired that they are loved. In the past, these seats held more on the dark, curved pews; Above right: A collection of pebbles serves as a reminder of the closeness of the community; Center: than 120 eager souls. Past ministers are honored in a More recently, the display of photographs; Right: congregation has The cornerstone attests to the numbered about 50. history of the congregation.

The Slaughter family in Camp Hill also has a history of caring for the appointments of the church, and their pride is felt even in the nails of the floorboards, Marbutt said.

“Mary Slaughter Scott was born in 1900. She was the one that went on and helped actually form the national organization with the help of her husband and other friends and allies. And then in 1960, those Slaughter families were also important in the national denomination, which we’re part of.” Scott, served on the board of trustees of the Universalist Church of America for the consolidation between the Universalist Church and the Unitarians. She is remembered by a robust wooden table used for communion.

To the left of the communion table sits a dark wood altar table that holds an ornamented Bible, gifted to the Church from the Universalist Church of America around 1880. The wooden carved cover and metal hinges give the viewer a preview of the power and majesty of the gift. The Bible was first presented to Gertrude Mary Orcutt by Arabell Orcutt on May 3, 1881. Marbutt handles the book with white gloves to protect it from the oils on his skin.

The Universalist Church of Camp Hill hosts an online service at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and an in-person meeting on the third Sunday of each month at 11 a.m. On the third Wednesday of each month, the congregation meets in partnership with the Food Bank of East Alabama to distribute food to those with food insecurities.

“The food pantry is Church. Worship is a word that just means to acknowledge worth, and that’s what we’re doing. When we’re giving people food we’re acknowledging their worth,” Marbutt explained.

The Church feeds about 30 households each month and in doing so puts a unique emphasis on autonomy.

“We do client choice. We actually let the clients pick out their food. The idea of just throwing food at people and not giving them a choice about what they’re actually going to eat. I think that’s why I prefer to give people agency. Let people actually take home stuff that they’ll appreciate,” he said.

The First Universalist Church of Camp Hill has deep roots within the Camp Hill community. As current president of the Church, Marbutt strives to exemplify the qualities of past leaders and of the Universalist beliefs.

“The most important thing I’d say to them is please tell me what you need. We’re not top-down. We’re bottom-up, and we are reaching out to the community,” he said.

To learn more about the First Universalist Church of Camp Hill, visit the Facebook page or camphilluu.org.