History of the Ethical Society Without Walls (ESWoW)
The American Ethical Union’s Newest Society
During the first ten years, the New York Society for Ethical Culture
parented new groups in Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis. At the time
of the four societies’ first national assembly in 1886, delegates
considered not only setting up additional societies but also offering
individual memberships for persons “in places where insufficient numbers
existed to establish a society.”
Although some Ethical societies subsequently accepted non-residents as
members or associates, the American Ethical Union itself did not energetically
reach out to them until 1950 when it began inviting them to affiliate as
Members-at-Large (MALs). In return for modest annual dues, the AEU sent
MALs occasional mailings such as all-AEU newsletters, notices of the AEU’s
national gatherings, social action bulletins, transcripts of Ethical Leaders’
platform addresses. In a peak year, 1981, the AEU had 400 MALs, many of them
drawn to it by a widely-distributed brochure, Far from an Ethical Society?
Join as a Member-at-Lager. The brochure noted, “We cannot reproduce the
texture and fabric of an Ethical Culture community life as a distance,
but we do offer some fabric of connection and support.”
Noting a sharp decline in MAL numbers from 193 in 2001 to barely half
that number two years later, the AEU President and Executive Director
convened a task force to study this decline and develop a credible plan
for reversing it. Dedicated to the principle enunciated in 1913 by
Ethical Culture Leader John Lovejoy Elliott, “Organize … as though you
were dealing with people who have their contribution to make and give
them a chance to make it,” the task force ultimately proposed that the
AEU create a “virtual” society, one emphasizing “robust interaction among
its members, steady interchange with members of other societies in the
union, and global outreach.” In 2005, the AEU decided to back this proposal
and also to accept the name that MAL advocates of the new group had selected
for it: the Ethical Society Without Walls.
The ESWoW intends that – by means of electronic communication, standard
mailings, telephone and regional get-togethers – ESWoW members will
enjoy the full measure of services and challenges that membership in
“walled societies” have, namely, self-governance, professional
leadership (counseling and help in planning desired ceremonies),
administrative assistance, representation at AEU conferences and national
committees, and all-family educational programs.
In short, the ESWoW hopes that its members experience the profundity of
what Felix Adler called “the most august aim of which I am aware, namely,
drawing the circle of spiritual comradeship about myself and others.”
-- Marion Carson
-- ESWoW member and former Member-at-Large
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