Upcoming Worship Services

The Burned-Over District and the Writings of Faye Huntington for children in the late 1800s

This talk started with a focus on Faye Huntington (pseudonym of Theodocia Maria Toll Foster, my great-grandmother), who lived almost all of her life in Verona, NY. In order to understand her writings, more than 40 books for juveniles and many many short stories, I realized that I needed to understand the Evangelical movement of the early 1800s that is popularly referred to as either the Second Great Awakening or the Burned-over District. This talk presents my preliminary ideas of this linkage– between the goals of religious leaders in Upstate NY in the early 1800s and of Faye’s Christian temperance-oriented messages just prior to 1900.

Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Betts: Civic Leader, Crusader and Pastor at First Universalist Church for over 40 years

For a period of time after his death, our congregation was known as the Betts Memorial Universalist Church. He was a major civic leader in pursuit of social justice and earned his favorite accolade among many “Syracuse’s Most Useful Citizen” awarded to him by the congregation of the First Baptist Church. Come join us in celebrating one of our most famous roots! And yes, the Betts branch library was named after him.