“Gathering of Sailors: Daniel Waldo Stevens and Unitarianism of Martha’s Vineyard” with Bow Van Riper

“Gathering of Sailors: Daniel Waldo Stevens and Unitarianism of Martha’s Vineyard” with Bow Van Riper
The story of Unitarianism on Martha’s Vineyard is interwoven with the history of Vineyard Haven, its magnificent natural harbor, and an itinerant minister determined to serve the sailors who paused their voyages there. Rev. Daniel Waldo Stevens, namesake of the chapel that the Unitarian Universalist Society calls home, created a “Sailor’s Reading Room” a few blocks away on Hatch Road, perched on a low bluff overlooking a harbor perpetually filled with ships. His vision of a fluid community that remained stable and welcoming even as individual members came and went became the foundation — and embodied the spirit — of the Vineyard’s Unitarian Universalist congregation.
A third-generation washashore, A. Bowdoin “Bow” Van Riper first came to the Vineyard at the age of 3 months and, like his parents and grandparents, returned summer after summer until he figured out how not to have to leave. A historian for 40 years, he is the author, editor, or co-editor of 22 books and more than 200 articles. He is currently Research Librarian at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, and lives in a house overlooking Vineyard Haven harbor where (almost) nothing of historical significance ever happened.