Music was (and still is) incredibly important in this church.

St. Cecilia, patroness of musicians

Miss Carrie Storrs became our organist and choir director in 1876 and served the church until 1924. The stained glass window near the organ, shown at left, was erected in honor of her long years of service. Other organists of long service include Tom Finch (1966-1986) and Nelly Case who will retire this year after 28 years of service. The Crane School of Music in Potsdam brought many talented musicians to our area, and they frequently performed in services in at the Canton church, as they still do today.

In the first two decades of the 1900s, the Universalist groups throughout the region began to wane in membership and activity. There has been much speculation on the cause of the decline, including the advent of the automobile, the theological shift by other churches toward a more loving God, and a general population shift toward urban areas and away from rural communities.  Ironically, the Canton Church seemed to benefit somewhat from their demise, with reports continuing of strong attendance at church services and in the Sunday School.  It was also during this time that our numerous memorial stained glass windows were commissioned and installed, commemorating past members and leaders.

From 1923-1958, we were served by a number of ministers, each of whom brought unique styles and gifts.  Most of them were graduates of the Theological School at SLU and knew us well.  Rev. Edna Bruner served our church as our first female minister in 1945-1950, as well being the first woman to serve any church in Canton.  Members of our church were instrumental in the establishment of Unirondack as a church camp in 1951.  This period also saw reorganization of various groups in the church (e.g., youth, women, Sunday School) as we were drifting ever closer to the merger decision.

In 1958, the congregation called Rev. Max Alden Coots to be our minister. As it turned out, Max was to bring us through a number of hard times, and we changed our name (although not, it turns out, legally as we are still incorporated as the First Universalist Church of Canton today!) There were very mixed feelings about the merger, and for many years our connection to the larger denomination was fragile. In 1965 the Theological School closed, changing our relationship to St. Lawrence University forever. During the 1960s and 70s, there was increasing emphasis on social justice issues. Our church was a source of information on draft issues during the Vietnam war. In 1974, the Canton UU Church joined with 6 other Canton churches to found the Church and Community Program. This successful partnership continues its work today, assisting area families in dealing with food, shelter and heat insecurities. Max preached his last sermon in June 1992, retiring after 35 years of service, our longest pastorate to date.

In 1993, we called a new minister… or more precisely, a husband/wife co-minister team, Rev. Anne Marsh and Rev. Wade Wheelock, who served us until their retirement in 2009. Under their ministry, we became more consistently Unitarian Universalist, with a decidedly rural North Country sensibility. We renovated and enlarged (to our back lot line!) our historic marble church just as our forebears had done, with a very successful capital campaign. After Rev Marsh and Wheelock’s retirement, Rev. Myron Andes served as our interim for one year and Rev. David Blanchard was selected as our settled minister in 2011. We grew stronger as a congregation under Rev. Blanchard’s guidance and accomplished another successful capital campaign that helped us to renovate our roof and interiors. Rev. Blanchard chose to resign for personal reasons in 2013. The congregation then called in Rev. Joel Miller as our interim minister. Rev. Miller has led us in a vision of shared ministry and helped the congregation introspect and reflect on several key factors.

Members of our church pursue a variety of ministries- social justice, religious education, worship, music, welcoming, and caring. We became a Welcoming Congregation in 1997 and helped establish a local PFLAG group. Recently we achieved denominational recognition as a Green Sanctuary. 
As our children say every Sunday, we work hard to be “the church of the open mind, the loving heart, and the helping hands.” This is a heritage we are proud of and for which we are grateful to those who came before us. We are now seeking a new minister to join with us, one who will respect our past and trust the “dawning future.”