Liberal Religious Youth

Liberal Religious Youth (LRY) was an autonomous, North American youth organization affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). LRY was unique as a church youth group in that it was governed by its members, who were generally between the ages of fourteen and nineteen years old, with adults serving only in an advisory capacity. Though partial funding and office space were provided by the UUA, primary funding was through an independent endowment, the investment of which was controlled by the LRY board of directors.

Continental LRY was run by an executive committee, usually consisting of four or five full-time officers, elected to one-year positions by the board of directors. Executive committee members shared an apartment and office in Boston and, like the board of directors, were all under the age of twenty.

History

LRY was founded in 1954,MacCleary, John Bassett (2004). "The Hippie Dictionary: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 1970s". Berkeley, CA, Ten Speed Press. ISBN 1580085474 pp.306, 314, 610] before the official merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America in 1961, and has roots going back both to the Unitarian Young People's Religious Union, organized in 1896, and the Universalist Young People's Christian Union, founded in 1898.Roy, Ralph Lord (1960). "Communism and the Churches". Harcourt, Brace. p.368]

In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, LRYers were seriously involved in the counterculture, civil rights and anti-war movements. At times these radical activities were sanctioned by their elders in the church, but at other times they were condemned. In the 1980s these activities continued but, along with the rest of the country, the leadership of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) was becoming more conservative, and relations between the leaders of LRY and the UUA became progressively more strained.Altbach, Philip G. (1997) "Student Politics in America: A Historical Analysis". Piscataway, NJ, Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1560009446 p.173] Oppenheimer, Mark (2003) "Knocking on Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture". Yale University Press. ISBN 0300100248 pp.35, 236]

Due to ongoing conflict with Unitarian Universalist adult leadership, and amid a great deal of controversy, LRY was disbanded in 1982. Within the Unitarian Universalist Association it was replaced in 1982 by a new youth program, Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU).

Conferences and summer camps

Many Unitarian churches had a local LRY chapter, which typically had at least one meeting per month, with some groups meeting weekly. The "locals" were organized into regional federations, such as LAF (Long Island [NY] Area Federation) or CMF (Central Midwest Federation), the members of which elected officers to represent them on the continental board of directors. Federations and local groups hosted weekend conferences at UU churches or campgrounds, at which the members of locals got to know their fellow LRYers from other locals, or from other regions entirely. Many LRYers would travel great distances for particular conferences, and hitchhiking was a popular mode of transportation. Near the end of LRY, there was also a growing population of LRYers who had no local group, and only attended conferences. This was largely due to the fact that some UU Churches refused to allow the LRYers to have a local at their church anymore.

Unitarian summer camps existed throughout the US, and many of the counselors for these camps were drawn from active LRY groups. These camps included Rowe in Massachusetts; Homestead, in the Catskill Mountains; Star Island, off the coast of New Hampshire; DeBenneville Pines, in the San Bernardino Mountains in California, and many others. Week long summer conferences were held at many of these camps, and non-UU camps were sometimes rented for events such as OPIK in Tar Hollow State Forest, Ohio and the LRY Continental Conference (aka Con Con), the location of which rotated throughout the US, and Summer's End, which took place every Labor Day Weekend in New England.

Trivia

LRY is mentioned in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test."Wolfe, Tom. (1997) "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test." Bantam Books ISBN 0553264915] A significant number of early LRYers were followers of Folk music. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s many LRYers were fans of the music of The Grateful Dead (aka Deadheads), while the late 1970s and early 1980s saw many LRYers become Punk rockers.

The political leanings of most LRYers were far left of "Liberal." Many did not consider themselves particularly "Religious," though most were interested in some forms of spirituality. It was suggested, with tongue firmly in cheek, that LRY might better be said to stand for "Lascivious Radical Yippies."

Notable LRYers

*Carolyn Adams (aka Mountain Girl, aka Carolyn Garcia) - Merry Prankster and the wife of Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead.
*Joyce Maynard - author.Maynard, Joyce (2003) "Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties". iUniverse ISBN 0595269389 pp.82-84]
*Ray Kurzweil - author.Kurzweil, Ray (2005) "The Singularity Is Near". VIKING ISBN 0-670-03384-7 pp.382]
*William G. Sinkford - first African American president of the Unitarian Universalist Association." [http://archive.uua.org/ga/ga01/elections.html William G. Sinkford Elected as Seventh President of Unitarian Universalist Association - First African American to Lead Historically White Denomination] " UUA Elections 2001 Press Release. Accessed 2007-06-01] [(Joshua Prager)] -A physician leader in the field of neuromodulation.

[(David Helvarg)] -noted environmentalist.

References

External links

* [http://www.bandia.net/LRY/ The LRY Memorial Room]