This three-part program was specially created for Gloucester’s 400th Anniversary Celebration to share the story of how the Rev. John Murray and Gloucester Universalists in the 1780s set the key New England precedents for the Constitutional separation of church and state and promise of religious liberty throughout the country.
The opening segment is a video made for this occasion that tells the story about how Murray’s followers refused to pay Gloucester taxes in 1782 to support the town’s church system. Their valuables were seized so they had to sue the state to get them back. They won a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in 1786 that said “a free populace cannot be taxed to support a state church.”
Rev. Murray was in close contact with John Adams and other Founders, so this news traveled quickly to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, providing an important precedent the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…’
The second segment features a monologue the Rev. John Murray, acted by Charles Nazarian, who magically returns to the Meetinghouse, sharing details about what happened around the famous court case. He will also explain how they also won a counter suit, brought by Gloucester Congregationalists, which eventually compelled the Massachusetts legislature to legally recognize diverse churches as well as Jewish synagogues.
The third segment will feature a panel discussion about why the guarantee of religious liberty matters as much today as it did in 1787 and how it remains an essential pillar of our democracy in this period of corrosive politics and culture wars seeking to deny freedom to minorities based upon religious beliefs. The audience will be invited to participate in Q&A with the panel.
A reception with light refreshments will follow at the Sargent House Museum, featuring the engraved silver pitcher that was confiscated from the home of Epes Sargent in 1782 to pay taxes to support the town’s Congregational Church’s expenses. The museum is the elegant home of Judith Sargent Murray and her husband the Rev. John Murray, featuring exquisite family portraits, furnishings and possessions.
EVENT INFORMATION: The event is free and open to the public. The Meetinghouse, home of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, is at the corner of Middle and Church Streets, GPS: 50 Middle Street. An accessible side entrance with an elevator is located at 10 Church Street. The Sargent House Museum is located at 49 Middle Street. For more information please visit: http://www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org
CREDITS: This event was jointly produced by the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation, the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, and the Sargent House Museum. The video was created by Heather Atwood of 1623 Studios with Jon Brysh of New Leaf Productions. Screening and projection is being provided by the Cape Ann Community Cinema. This presentation for the Gloucester 400th Celebration will be live-streamed on Channel 6 and will also be later available on YouTube.
Cape Ann Community 