Jenkin Lloyd Jones

Jenkin Lloyd Jones (November 14, 1843 – September 12, 1918) was a prominent American Unitarian minister. He founded All Souls Unitarian Church in Chicago, Illinois, as well as its community outreach organization, the Abraham Lincoln Centre. He was a founder and long-time editor of Unity, a liberal religious magazine. He tried to move Unitarianism away from a strictly Christian focus, aligning himself with a group of radical Midwestern ministers known as the "Unity Men" who stressed a creedless "ethical basis" as the common element for churches. At the end of his life, Jones was an outspoken pacifist opposed to U.S. involvement in World War I.

Early life

Susan met Jenkin while he was a student at the seminary. They married after he graduated in 1870, and spent their honeymoon in Cleveland, Ohio at the annual meeting of the Western Unitarian Conference (WUC). The couple then returned to Spring Green. They had two children: Mary and Richard Lloyd Jones; However, he resigned this position in less than a year because he felt it too limiting. He returned to Wisconsin to become a traveling missionary. As such, he founded churches in Racine, Madison, Baraboo, and Whitewater. He also worked with the First Independent Society of Liberal Christians in Janesville. The ministers affiliated with the magazine were labeled the "Unity Men". In April 1880, Jones was named Unitys editor and held the post for the rest of his life.

The combination of missionary work and pastoral and editorial duties caused health problems for Jones, so he decided to quit his missionary work in 1880. Instead, the WUC made the Missionary Secretary a full-time position. Jones resigned the Janesville pastorate and retained his WUC job. He and his family moved to the new WUC headquarters in Chicago.

All Souls Church (Chicago) The Jones family travelled to Wales in 1882, where Jenk preached and visited with family members and other Unitarians. After they returned to Chicago, he met with a dozen members of the nearly defunct Fourth Unitarian Church. In November 1882, he began preaching every Sunday in that small church, and the congregation steadily grew. When it reached 66 members, he gave what came to be known as his "All Souls Are Mine" sermon, which included this excerpt: As Samuel Eliot writes, "On that basis he [Jones] made a go of it, and when he died he was the oldest settled minister of any denomination in Chicago." In 1884, Jones resigned his position with the WUC to serve the rest of his life as minister of All Souls Church. His body was interred in the churchyard of Unity Chapel in the town of Wyoming, Wisconsin.

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