When we say that service is our prayer, what exactly are we called to do? How are we transformed by our covenant to “dwell together in peace, to seek knowledge in freedom,” and to help one another in fellowship?

In 1862, Unitarians Laura Towne and Ellen Murray joined the “Port Royal experiment”, traveling to St. Helena’s Island near Beaufort, SC to work with freed slaves. They brought homeopathic medicine and a passion for literacy, established the Penn School, and helped former slaves sell the cotton left in the fields and use the proceeds to purchase that land for taxes. In consequence, they helped to establish the only community in the US where the majority of former slaves owned the land they had worked in slavery.

We’ll explore how their work transformed the lives and futures of former slaves on St. Helena’s Island, and how they serve as exemplars for Unitarian Universalists today.

Helen Bishop has consulted with nonprofit organizations and Unitarian Universalist congregations on organizational issues all over the US. She worked for The Mountain near Highlands for nearly five years, served as District Executive in Central Midwest District of the UUA for eight years after earning a doctorate in organizational leadership, and has served on congregational, district and not-for-profit boards. She has worked as an adjunct faculty member of several universities, is a Credentialed Religious Educator at the master level, and has developed extensive resources for music directors, ministers, religious educators, administrators and lay leaders.  Her background includes work in genetics, medieval and Renaissance music, and distance learning.