The Reverend Bill Alberts—parish minister, civil rights activist, and prolific political journalist, who moved to UU affiliation after expulsion from United Methodist ministry—died on 22 March 2021 in Canton, Massachusetts, aged 941⁄2.
Mr. Alberts served United Methodist churches in MA and PA from 1949–73, but was always attracted to UU justice commitments and regularly attended meetings of a nearby UUMA chapter.
In 1973, two months after conducting a marriage ceremony for two male members of the Old West Church in Boston, the Rev’d Mr. Alberts was forcibly retired from United Methodist ministry. His ensuing landmark lawsuit, detailed in his booklet, The Minister Who Could Not Be “Preyed” Away (1987), was financially supported by the UUA’s Ministry Department, under the direction of the Rev’d David Pohl, who recalls Bill as “a warm, energetic, and devoted voice of compassion and courage.”
William Edward Alberts was born on 26 October 1926 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to Ralph Stanford Alberts and Nellie (Marks) Alberts. After US Navy service (1944–46), he was graduated with a B.A. in sociology from Lycoming College PA in 1951, earned his M.Div. from Westminster (now Wesley) Theological Seminary in Washington DC in 1954, and received his Ph.D. in psychology and pastoral counseling from Boston University in 1961.
After the abrupt termination of his Methodist ministry and several years of work in journalism and teaching, the Rev’d Mr. Alberts was lured back to parish ministry with a 1978 call to Boston’s Community Church, founded in 1920 as a “peace and justice” congregation by Universalist minister and academic Clarence Skinner. Bill’s sermons there are remembered as “gems of lovingly radical rebellious thought translated into action.” He received preliminary and final ministerial fellowship with the UUA in 1981 and 1984, respectively.
Leaving his parish call after 13 years, Bill moved to full-time chaplaincy at Boston Medical Center in 1992. His nearly 20-year tenure there inspired his book, A Hospital Chaplain at the Crossroads of Humanity (2012).
Bill is survived by his spouse of 45 years, Eva Young Alberts and their daughter, Amy Warren; three daughters, Susan Cook, Jeanne Paz, and LouAnn Meli, and a son, Jeffrey Alberts from his first marriage to Doris Schmaus.
A memorial service was scheduled at Boston’s Arlington St. Church for 23 October 2021. Donations are encouraged to the Asian American Civic Assoc. or to CounterPunch (an on-line political journal, to which Bill was a regular contributor). Notes of condolence may be sent to Eva Young Alberts, 25 Algonquin Road, Canton MA 02021.