The Young People's Christian Union (Y.P.C.U.), organized in 1889, was a Universalist youth group created to develop the spiritual life of young people and advance the work of the Universalist church. Soon after it was founded, the Y.P.C.U. focused its attention on missionary work. It was instrumental in the founding of new southern churches and the creation of a Post Office Mission for the distribution of religious literature.
Initially organized as an auxiliary to the Universalist General Convention, the Y.P.C.U. developed an independent identity. It held its own yearly conventions, published a magazine (Onward), implemented funding mechanisms and elected officers.
In 1941, the Young People's Christian Union was re-organized as the Universalist Youth Fellowship. In 1953, the Universalists and Unitarian youth organizations merged to form the Liberal Religious Youth (LRY). After the merger in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, LRY was re-organized as the Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU).
History
Early Young People Societies
The inspiration for the Young People's Christian Union can be traced to the founding of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in England.
George Williams, after entering the drapery business in 1841, formed a mutual improvement society with fellow workers. The aim of the society was Bible study and support of missionary efforts. Three years later, Williams and twelve other young men formalized the mission of their support group as the "improvement of the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery and other trades". Membership was later extended to anyone who was "a member of a Christian church" or gave "sufficient evidence of his being a converted character". They called their new society the Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.).
By 1855 there were 8,500 Y.M.C.A members in Great Britain. The American version of the Y.M.C.A. soon spread during a period of heightened religious activity called the Third Great Awakening (1850s – 1900).
In 1860, Rev. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, minister of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York, became aware of the success of the Y.M.C.A. to gather young men for prayer meetings, but that the Y.M.C.A. had not succeeded in organizing them for more sustained Christian work in the church. To address this situation, on November 6, 1867, Rev. Cuyler organized the Young People's Association (YPA). Cuyler's YPA was designed to focus the energy of young men on long-term church work such as "the conversion of souls, the development of Christian character and the training of converts in religious work".
Some years later, Rev. Dr. Francis E. Clark, pastor of the Williston Congregational Church in Portland, Maine, visited the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. In 1892 he reflected back on his impression of the Young People's Association, stating it "was certainly an inspiration to the first Christian Endeavor Society."
Christian Endeavor Society
During a monthly Week of Prayer, Rev. Clark observed that similar to the Y.M.C.A. model, the Week of Prayer gathered young people for Christian devotion but afterwards they soon departed. Clark had relied for years upon prevailing wisdom that entertainment, mutual improvement and literary societies would sustain young people's interest in Christian church work. After five years of such efforts, Rev. Clark had little to show.
Clark abandoned the "low expectations" model and opted instead to raise the expectations of the religious obligations of young people. His youth organization would be first and foremost a Christian society. Musical soirees and literary readings may follow, but they would be subordinate to the larger mission of seeking the kingdom of God. On February 2, 1881, Rev. Clark proposed his new society and secured the signature of forty to fifty young people to the constitution of an organization called the Christian Endeavor Society.
Additional societies soon followed in Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts. The absence of a denomination designation enabled a Christian Endeavor Society to be organized within any church denomination. Five years after the organization of the first Christian Endeavor Society, there were 850 societies representing eight denominations from 33 states and seven countries.
Others followed Rev. Clark's model, but created youth groups that were specifically denominationally branded: the Baptist Young People's Union (1891), the Luther League (1896), the Universalist Young People's Christian Union (1889), the Unitarian Young People's Religious Union (1896) and the Methodist Epworth League (1899).