UC-NRLF 
 

 HE /PACIFIC 
 JNlf ARIAN 
 SCHOOL for the 
 MI NISTRY 
 
 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 
 
 A RECORD OF TEN : 
 YEARS' WORK 
 1904-1914 
 
 BY 
 
 THE PRESIDENT 
 EARL MORSE WILBUR 
 
A RECORD of TEN YEARS' 
 WORK and AN OUTLOOK 
 TOWARD THE FUTURE 
 
 (Eead at the Pacific Unitarian Conference at 
 Portland, May 12, 1914.) 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOL. 
 
 T the session of the Pacific 
 Unitarian Conference held 
 in Portland in September, 
 1889, twenty-five years ago, 
 the Rev. Charles W. Wendte 
 of Oakland offered a proposition for 
 the establishment of a Training School 
 for Ministers at Berkeley, the seat of 
 the University of California; and be- 
 fore the Conference adjourned resolu- 
 tions were unanimously adopted and a 
 committee appointed to give the matter 
 practical effect. This was the first 
 outward move for the realization of 
 hopes and plans which even then had 
 already for over ten years been earn- 
 estly cherished by certain individuals. 
 Before the next session of the Confer- 
 ence the plan had been put into work- 
 
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', SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 ?&ape, and h#d, fyeen cordially en- 
 dorsed by tlie National Conference. Of 
 the obstacles encountered within the fol- 
 lowing two or three years in attempting 
 to put the plan into operation, it is not 
 necessary here to speak. Suffice it to say 
 that, though it was never forgotten or in 
 the least given up by those who had it 
 most at heart, the whole matter had to 
 be abandoned for over ten years. It was 
 not until 1904 that it was again taken 
 up and that effective steps were taken 
 for establishing what has since come to 
 be known as the Pacific Unitarian School 
 for the Ministry. And now that ten 
 years more have elapsed since the found- 
 ing of the school, and the Conference 
 is again meeting where the idea of it 
 was first publicly discussed, it is a suit- 
 able time to render an account of what 
 the school has been able to accomplish 
 during this period of its infancy, and 
 to ask what the churches may fairly ex- 
 pect of it, or be expected to do for it, 
 in the years to come. 
 
 REASON FOR THE SCHOOL. 
 
 It has more than once been asked by 
 persons who had only a hazy notion 
 of the conditions and history of our 
 cause on this Coast, why, with no more 
 
 2 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 churches than we yet have here, we 
 need have a divinity school here at all. 
 So far as this Conference is concerned, 
 the grounds were twenty-five years ago 
 maturely discussed and considered suf- 
 ficient. But the general answer is that 
 our churches here are otherwise too far 
 from the source of supply for their pul- 
 pits.' It is as though our New England 
 churches had been obliged during the 
 first two generations of our movement 
 there, to have all their ministers sent 
 out from old England. And the specific 
 answer is found in the experience of our 
 church work here. For example, in the 
 'nineties, after a period of great mis- 
 sionary opportunity, and up to the pres r 
 ent day unparalleled church extension, 
 twenty-two organized churches* on this 
 Coast were obliged to suspend activities, 
 and in a large proportion of cases for 
 sheer inability to obtain a minister. The 
 fact that we have since regained eight 
 of these stations, and shall in time re- 
 gain the most of the rest, does nothing 
 to weaken the argument for the import- 
 ance of a reliable local source of supply. 
 Hardly a church on the Coast more than 
 five years old but has first or last had 
 
 *List in THE PACIFIC UNITARIAN for April, 
 1912, page 172. 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 this argument pressed upon it. Again 
 and again a church losing its minister 
 has had to wait for months, and see its 
 work run down, while the East was 
 scoured by correspondence for a man 
 who might come out, but even when he 
 had at length arrived and been settled, 
 without opportunity for the mutual trial 
 which a candidacy affords, might not 
 prove to be at all the man wanted, or 
 might not find himself at all suited to 
 his field. Few, if any, have had the 
 opportunity of knowing so well as I 
 how many of these misfits there have 
 been. They were largely unavoidable in 
 the circumstances; but had there been 
 an adequate source of local supply, they 
 might have been largely avoided. The 
 problem is not by any means solved, 
 but the establishing of the Pacific Uni- 
 tarian School was the first step toward 
 a solution, and every stage in its growth 
 will make the problem less acute. 
 
 EARLY HANDICAPS. 
 
 Before going on now to relate what 
 the school has thus far accomplished, let 
 me first sketch a proper mental back- 
 ground against which to regard its work, 
 by reminding you that ten years ago 
 it began at zero. It had not a single 
 
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PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 student in sight; it had not a book for 
 a library; it had not a dollar of endow- 
 ment in hand or definitely promised; it 
 had no building: the school consisted, in 
 fact, of a sole teacher on the one hand 
 and on the other of a promise of $3,000 
 a year to meet the expenses of a five 
 years' experiment. For two years it 
 had only one teacher to teach all that 
 was taught and do all that was done ; for 
 four years more this teacher had no as- 
 sistance except in the way of relief in 
 one or two minor courses of instruction 
 and in clerical details. It was six years 
 before a second full professor was add- 
 ed ; and during the whole of its existence 
 it has been painfully cramped for lack 
 of sufficient funds to carry on its work, 
 and has had to practice in every direc- 
 tion the most stringent economy. The 
 only point in my mentioning at all any 
 of the handicaps under which the school 
 has worked, up to the present day, is 
 in the fact that these must be taken into 
 account before any just estimation can 
 be made of what it has thus far been 
 able to accomplish; and that they fur- 
 nish ground for the expectation that, 
 with these removed in large measure, as 
 they now soon will be, the school will 
 
 5 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOB THE MINISTRY. 
 
 achieve much, larger results than 
 hitherto. 
 
 NUMBER OF STUDENTS. 
 
 Coming now to speak of what has been 
 accomplished in the last ten years in 
 the process of building up a school to 
 which our Western churches may in 
 future look for many of their ministers, 
 I have first to report that its published 
 registers show that within this time a 
 total of 110 students have been enrolled 
 for instruction in its classes. Of these 
 we may describe thirty-eight as of our 
 own constituency, and seventy-two as 
 outsiders. Many of these latter have 
 been students from the other divinity 
 schools at Berkeley ; twelve of them have 
 been students from the university, both 
 coming to us for certain special courses ; 
 and some twenty-five have been men 
 preaching in the pulpits of other denom- 
 inations. I make no account of a con- 
 siderable number of persons who have, 
 with more or less regularity, attended 
 our classes as visitors, and have gone 
 away enlightened, encouraged, or in- 
 spired by the instruction received. 
 
 INCIDENTAL FORMS OF SERVICE. 
 
 I recall that in the course of an early 
 conference on the possibilities that the 
 
 6 
 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 school might be expected to realize, one 
 of its founders, Dr. Horace Davis, said 
 to me that beside training ministers for 
 our own pulpits, it could also do im- 
 portant work in several other ways : first, 
 by furnishing a place where ministers of 
 other denominations wishing to enter our 
 fellowship might become familiar with 
 our thought and spirit and be helped 
 past -what is usually a difficult transi- 
 tion, until they should be fitted for ac- 
 ceptable service with our churches; sec- 
 ond, by contributing to the education 
 of some who would never go into the 
 ministry at all, but whom the school 
 might make more intelligent and ef- 
 ficient laymen ; third, by bringing about a 
 more liberal spirit in men who might 
 come to its classes from other denom- 
 inations; and, fourth, by promoting the 
 religious welfare of the great Orient 
 through students of Oriental races who 
 might study with us; and he expressed 
 the judgment that each of these inci- 
 dental forms of service would be well 
 worth while. We have already done 
 something in each of these directions; 
 for, first, we have had among our stu- 
 dents four orthodox ministers, who came 
 to us to be "made over" and prepared 
 for service in our own denomination, and 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 we might easily have had more had our 
 scholarship funds been more ample; sec- 
 ond, about two-thirds of the students 
 whom we have counted as of our own 
 will remain laymen, and not a few of 
 them better informed and more devoted 
 laymen because for a time they studied 
 with us; third, although we never use 
 our class-rooms for proselyting purposes, 
 and should deem it hardly honorable in 
 the circumstances to do so, yet there are 
 already in the pulpits of other denom- 
 inations on the Pacific Coast perhaps 
 two score ministers who will at least have 
 a juster appreciation of our religious 
 movement, and will hold a less hostile 
 attitude toward us, because of their 
 having been for a time members of our 
 classes; and, fourth, among our most 
 earnest and appreciative students (not 
 to mention a much larger number com- 
 ing to us from the other schools) have 
 been four from Oriental lands, through 
 whom we hope to have made some con- 
 tribution to the solution of the religious 
 problems of Japan, China and India. 
 
 GRADUATES. 
 
 We have sent into the field ten men, 
 eight of them as graduates and one after 
 post-graduate study. Seven of these are 
 
 8 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 now serving churches, one is unsettled, 
 and two are engaged in social service 
 though meaning later to resume the min- 
 istry. Six are on this Coast, three in the 
 East, and one in Japan. Four of our 
 men have entered service on the Coast 
 within the past year, while one here and 
 one in the East have been promoted to 
 higher positions. 
 
 STANDARDS OF THE SCHOOL. 
 
 From the first it was determined that 
 whether our school might be large or 
 small its standards should at all events 
 be high. We have scrutinized candi- 
 dates for admission most strictly, have 
 refrained from encouraging far more 
 candidates than we have admitted, and 
 have so well succeeded that only one 
 student thus far has, in his character, 
 proved a disappointment to us. From 
 the beginning we also established require- 
 ments for graduation as nearly as pos- 
 sible identical with those of the Harvard 
 Divinity School, and have conferred 
 degrees only on college graduates. At 
 the same time one need not look further 
 than our own pulpits on this Coast to see 
 that the lack of a college course by no 
 means necessarily stands in the way of 
 the highest 'success in the ministry. 
 
PACIFIC UXITARIAX SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 Hence we also provide a course for non- 
 graduates, requiring them to supple- 
 ment their theological work in the school 
 by courses at the University just across 
 the street from us. We have the past 
 year adopted a new measure for stimu- 
 lating a high quality of work by giving 
 scholarship aid only to students reaching 
 grade 1 or 2, and have had the most 
 gratifying results from it. 
 
 INSTRUCTION. 
 
 Our association with the University 
 and with the Pacific Theological Sem- 
 inary, whose courses are all freely open 
 to us, is of the greatest advantage, since 
 in effect it largely increases the size of 
 our faculty, and makes it possible for 
 us to offer an unusually wide range of 
 courses in all over ninety courses of 
 instruction in eight different depart- 
 ments of study directly related to the 
 work of the ministry. In all our teach- 
 ing we strive to keep in view the prac- 
 tical end; and while we aim always to 
 cultivate thorough scholarship, yet we 
 mean to ask at every point, What has 
 all this to do with the actual work of 
 the ministry? And our courses have 
 been repeatedly and highly praised for 
 their thoroughness and helpfulness, not 
 
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PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL TOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 only by our own students but by those 
 who have come from outside to take 
 them. 
 
 LIBRARY. 
 
 Next to instruction, the most valuable 
 agency in the process of education is a 
 good library. It gives me much satisfac- 
 tion, therefore, to be able to report that 
 we have in ten years accumulated a col- 
 lection of some 9,000 volumes and over 
 9,000 pamphlets. It has been well se- 
 lected, is well balanced, and well suited 
 to our needs, and I have reason to be- 
 lieve that in the line of Unitarian his- 
 tory and literature, to which we have 
 paid particular attention, it has in many 
 ways the most complete collection in the 
 world. 
 
 FINANCIAL SUPPORT. 
 
 The founders of the school early felt 
 justified in going beyond their original 
 promises of support, and in the ten years 
 under review contributed for mainte- 
 nance over $56,000, and' for grounds, 
 buildings and endowment a considerably 
 larger amount. Numerous other friends, 
 the greater number of them in the 
 churches on this Coast, have also shown 
 their interest in the school and their 
 
 11 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 faith in its work by gifts amounting to 
 nearly $28,000. The balance sheet for 
 the year just closed shows the school 
 in possession of property valued at over 
 $87,000, of which over $51,000 are funds 
 invested for endowment or buildings, 
 and over $27,000 are represented in the 
 present educational plant. The estates 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Cutting will, it is ex- 
 pected, be entirely settled within the 
 present year, yielding the school not less 
 than $325,000 additional for endowment. 
 Thus the last lingering doubt will be set 
 at rest as to the permanency of the 
 school. When this expectation shall 
 have been realized we shall need first to 
 provide the school with adequate build- 
 ings for its library and class-rooms in 
 place of the present old and inflammable 
 structure. We must not, however, for 
 this purpose to any great extent use up 
 funds required for permanent endow- 
 ment, but instead must call upon the 
 people of our churches to supplement 
 the beneficence of the founders by gen- 
 erous gifts of their own. Beyond 
 amounts already given for the purpose 
 not less than $35,000 will still be needed. 
 When this need has been met we hope 
 to be enabled by the new endowment to 
 call another professor to our faculty. 
 
 12 
 
PACIFIC UNITAEIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 These are our most immediate plans and 
 hopes. 
 
 FUTURE NEEDS. 
 
 I have spoken of what the school has 
 been able to accomplish during the ten 
 years of its infancy, and have brought 
 the story down to the point where it is 
 about to lay aside its swaddling clothes. 
 Some of its friends who have watched 
 it most carefully have been appreciative 
 enough to express surprise that it has 
 been able, with so slender resources and 
 equipment thus far, to accomplish even 
 so much as I have said. We wish the 
 results might have been much larger. 
 We hope and expect that in the next 
 ten years, with increased resources and 
 facilities, they will be much larger. 
 What can the churches of this Confer- 
 ence do to assist toward this end? In 
 the first place, having interests vitally 
 bound up with its welfare and success, 
 they can continue to give it their hearty 
 sympathy and loyal support, as they 
 have so generously done in the past. It 
 has now reached the point where it 
 would not fail even without these; but 
 with them it will succeed in fulfilling its 
 mission much sooner and more com- 
 pletely. 
 
 13 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 In the second place, it will still need 
 material assistance. I have spoken in 
 comparatively large figures, but no one 
 that knows the requirements of educa- 
 tional institutions needs to be told that 
 it will still be far from affluent, and that 
 its needs are sure to grow faster than its 
 resources. In this very year it has suf- 
 fered sharply for want of sufficient schol- 
 arship funds, and for this cause has been 
 obliged to lose one student and has bare- 
 ly escaped losing a second. This will 
 remain, as before, a steady object for 
 the generosity both of the Alliances and 
 of individuals. 
 
 In the third place, and most vitally of 
 all, the churches can help the school by 
 turning toward it the choicest and most 
 promising of their sons. This matter will 
 depend upon two co-operating agencies: 
 the ministers and the parents. First of 
 all upon the ministers. The school's 
 doors will of course be open wide to 
 every worthy applicant; and it will do 
 all in its power to discover and interest 
 candidates. But in the last analysis, in 
 almost every case a young man feels at- 
 tracted to the ministry because his own 
 minister has, by deed or word, made him 
 feel that its work is the noblest work to 
 which he can give his life. And, further- 
 
 14 
 
PACIFIC UNITARIAN SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 more, if our school is to be sought by as 
 large a proportion of college men as we 
 hope, a double responsibility for inspir- 
 ing and interesting these will rest on our 
 ministers at seats of learning ; first of all 
 the universities at Berkeley and Palo 
 Alto, Eugene and Seattle, and after that 
 the colleges at Spokane, Tacoma, Port- 
 land, ,Salem, San Jose, Los Angeles and 
 Pomona. The share of the parents will 
 be to sympathize with and encourage 
 every such ambition on the part of their 
 sons, although sad and surprising to say, 
 cases are by no means unknown in which 
 parents, themselves devoted to the 
 church and loyal to their ministers, seem 
 to dissuade their sons from this worthy 
 choice. 
 
 The founders of the school have in the 
 past ten years written their names high 
 up on the roll of the patrons of liberal 
 Christianity in this country. They have 
 conferred a great and lasting benefit on 
 the whole cause of our churches on this 
 Coast. We have as yet begun to see only 
 the scanty first fruits of the harvest ; but 
 if we still go on to bear our due share in 
 the labor, the full harvest cannot fail. 
 
 15 
 
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