The Unitarian Church of Vancouver is happy to announce its online publication this week of the complete sermons of the Reverend Dr. Phillip Hewett, one of the most admired and pioneering leaders of the world Unitarian movement over the past century.
In addition to about 1,200 sermons from 1956-2018, there are twenty files of his other papers, speeches and reports. The webpage also includes nine audio and two video sermons.
The sermons can all be found at : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nJiF5dCKnblwBvNwUfb1V9j0B4mZIT07 [best viewed in Chrome]
– Click on the folder labelled ‘SERMONS’ to browse the individual sermons, which are arranged into sub-sections by decade and then by year.
– Alternatively, click on the green Excel icon to open a list of all the sermons available.
Rev. Phillip Hewett graduation
After Rev. Hewett died in 2018 at age 93, his children donated seven boxes of his papers to the UCV archives, totalling some 7,000 pages.
Rev. Hewett’s friend, the journalist and longtime Unitarian member Stanley Tromp, catalogued all the papers (a two year process). He then had these digitally scanned to PDF files, so that they could be shared with the world online.
These records span a vast range of subjects, some topical and local, but most timeless and universal. They are of profound importance to Unitarian history and theology around the world, and perhaps a source of some guidance for today.
Born in England, Rev. Hewett served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He studied at Exeter and Manchester Colleges, Oxford (B.A., 1949, M.A., 1951) and the Harvard Divinity School (S.T.M., 1953), and received the S.T.D. from the Starr King School for Ministry in 1969. He served as minister for Unitarian churches in Quebec, Ontario, England, Australia, New Zealand, and for 35 years in Vancouver.
A staunch friend to the Unitarian movements in Poland and Romania, Rev. Hewett was also a strong advocate for the environment, family planning, disarmament and peace. In 1972 he first preached for acceptance of gays and lesbians, then officiated at several same-sex unions (the issue of same-sex marriages emerging after his retirement).
In 1992 he was given the Unitarian Universalist Association annual award for distinguished service. His books included the landmark An Unfettered Faith (1955), On Being a Unitarian (1968), Unitarians in Canada (1995), Racovia (2004), and The Unitarian Way (2015).
More biographical information can be found on UCV’s main Rev. Hewett webpage – Rev. Phillip Hewett (1925 – 2018) – Vancouver Unitarians (ucv.im)
If you would instead prefer these sermons in a CD format this is also available from UCV for $10. For any questions, contact UCV at info@ucv.im , or Stanley Tromp at stromp@telus.net