Strangers in a Strange Land

I have an interest in immigration history, fuelled to some extent by my own work on nineteenth century English immigrants in the United States and the role that religion played in their Americanization. Most people assume that the English fared well in America but being an immigrant from anywhere was always hard. John Hodgson was a farm labourer from Yorkshire, who moved to Wisconsin because he heard that land was cheap there. On Christmas Day 1856, he wrote to his relatives and friends 4,000 miles away in a spirit of utter dejection and loneliness, ending his epistle with the words, ‘P.S. You cannot tell how bad I want to see someone that I have seen before.'

To some extent, John Hodgson’s suffering was a result of the harsh challenges of the Wisconsin frontier. He had never been so hot in his life, nor so cold and nothing in Yorkshire prepared him for rattlesnakes and mosquitoes. However, more significant was what he had left behind, particularly the people he missed. This inevitably was echoed in the experience of many English immigrants. Ruth Watkins was a Primitive Methodist preacher who travelled from the north of England to New York City in 1829 buoyed by an intense sense of mission but this was not enough to save her from melancholic sentiments. As she watched the Welsh mountains disappear from the horizon she wrote that she was 'very much affected by the thought (which seemed probable to me) of seeing my native land, my dear relations, and the scores of friends which I feel my soul closely united to, no more in this world.'

William Calvert was another immigrant from Yorkshire who arrived in Wisconsin in the 1840s. His naturalization papers have survived and reveal another side to the loss of identity that many immigrants experienced in the United States. To become a citizen of the United States Calvert had to promise that ‘it is bona fida my intention to become a citizen of the United States of North America and to renounce all allegiance to all and every foreign king, prince, potentate and state and especially to Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.’ The use of the word ‘especially’ must have hurt.

The pain of the immigrant experience in the nineteenth century was often intense, as for many it still is today, and I am thankful never to have experienced anything like it. However, I want to draw a parallel between the nineteenth century English immigrant stories outlined above and the experience of joining Unitarianism from another denomination today. I think this is worthwhile because, as I understand it, many Unitarians were not born into the movement, but, like me, came from somewhere else.

Over the past few months I have received a good, warm welcome from lots of people in different places but once in a while, if only to a small extent, I have felt slightly uncomfortable when people seem to have interpreted my joining Unitarianism as a complete rejection of where I came from i.e. Methodism. I am a Unitarian but I am also still quite Methodist. There are, for example, certain Methodist hymns I still appreciate, even whilst I disagree with some of the theology they express. For over twenty years I was a Methodist local preacher and after only a few months as a Unitarian I am still drawing from Methodist ideas and resources to prepare services, although the direction and tone of what I come up with has changed. Many of my friends and relatives are still Methodist and that is fine. Personally I cannot be a Methodist because I feel I don’t fit into the appropriate theological boxes but to hear the denomination disparaged unthinkingly has something in common with the experiences of William Calvert and John Hodgson. Perhaps Methodism is my ‘spiritual’ England. I don’t want to go back there now that I'm in the 'new world' but I would rather remember it with affection than renounce it. I might even visit once in a while if the storms that blow on the ocean crossing don’t prove too much.

I think my point is clear and I hope not overstated. If someone tells you they used to be a Methodist, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jedi or whatever else, rolling your eyes is probably not the appropriate response. A good welcome is great, especially when it comes with coffee and cake but a person needs sensitive handling when they are a little homesick on the Unitarian frontier.