Once the concept of youth existed, churches began to form local, regional, and
continental groups to address the needs of this very specific age group. In
1889 the Universalist youth organized to form the Young Peoples Christian Union
(YPCU). and in 1896, the Unitarian youth followed suit with the Young Peoples
Religious Union (YPRU).
The YPCU
The YPCU became very active fairly fast. Since its inception in 1889, they
had been working enthusiastically and hard toward a strong program. They
established mission funds, tried to publish a national newsletter, and started
summer programs. In 1901 the denomination acquired Ferry Beach, a Maine camp
and conference center which has maintained the affiliation ever since. It was
there that the YPCU held its first convention. Beginning in 1919, the YPCU
held one-week long summer institutes there, each of which had a theme,
workshops, and speakers. It is a format that is still employed by a number of
Unitarian Universalist camps and conference centers across the country. They
instituted a nationwide Young Peoples Sunday, still found in many congregations
as Youth Sunday when the youth group designs and leads the service. Between
1927 and 1930, they also held leadership conferences for older young people
(now referred to as young adults persons of and near college age) at Ferry
Beach. Both institutes are once again in place as YRUU and UUYAN weeks at
Ferry Beach. In addition to increasing youth involvement and visibility, the
YPCU had become involved in social and mission work. At their first national
convention they pledged eradication of the degradation . . . [of] drink and
alcohol habits (Miller, 186) and at the same convention they undertook to start
a parish, build a church, and partially fund its minister. This was
successful, if precarious, and by 1939, when the YPCU celebrated its fiftieth
anniversary, the YPCU had been responsible for the building of 5 churches. It
was also in that year that the programs at Ferry Beach were expanded and
separated to form a junior camp (7-15), a senior camp (15-18), and a young
adult camp (Miller, 181). As previously mentioned, they removed the reference
to Christ from the masthead of their national publication in 1931, and ten
years later they changed their name to reflect their denominational
affiliation, calling themselves the Universalist Youth Fellowship (Marshall,
214).
The YPRU
The Young Peoples Religious Union is not nearly as well documented as the YPCU.
From what little information I can find, I get the impression that they were
not as well organized or as active as their Universalist counterparts, but I
would love to have information to the contrary. In 1942, YPRU changed their
name to reflect their denomination, becoming the American Unitarian Youth
(AUY).
The Merger
In 1953 and
54, the AUY
merged with the UYF to form the Liberal Religous Youth
(LRY). Clara Mayo was the first president, and Bill Gold was the first
Executive Director.
