The Universalist Herald
Universalist periodical
Universalist Herald is a publication of the Universalist Herald Publishing company. "Universalist Heritage and Spirit Today" and "The Oldest Continuously Published Liberal Religious Periodical in North America" are the subtitles of the modern edition.
Overview
Founded in 1847 as the Religious Reformer by C. F. R. Shehane of Wetumpka, Alabama. Beginning January 1, 1850, it became The Universalist Herald and was edited by John Crenshaw Buruss. For many years it was strictly a regional publication, serving the Universalist Church of America in Southeastern United States.
In 1896, John M. Bowers purchased and moved the paper to Canon, Georgia, and remained as publishing editor to 1911. From 1911 to 1991, it continued to be published in Canon, Georgia, under an arrangement with the Georgia Universalist Convention, serving as a regional oriented periodical. There was a succession of local editors, notably Nellie Mann Opdale, Argyle E. Houser, and Haynie Summers. Then it began to shift its focus away from regional interests with editor William Balkan from 1985 to 1991, followed by Vernon Chandler and then Justin Lapoint. From 2004 to 2012, the editor was Rich Koster, a retired minister and former truck driver who still writes with the pen name Raven.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Universalist Herald” as universalist periodical. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as universalist periodical. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7771596. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1847, 1850, 1896 and 1911.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Three-step research path
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Universalist Herald” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.