Discover the forgotten history of Labor Sunday

Of course you know about Labor Day, but have you ever heard of Labor Sunday?

Well, neither did I, until I discovered it by chance while researching another topic.

Labor Sunday is the day before Labor Day. It was widely celebrated in the early years of the last century, but gradually fell into oblivion. Only the progressive United Church of Christ (UCC) celebrates Labor Sunday annually. Its website contains a deeply moving “Liturgy for a Labor Sunday Service” written by UCC pastor Ed Middleton.

The confessional prayer of this liturgy includes the admission of personal failings, such as: “We do not think about the welfare of the garbage men who come through our streets in the early hours of the morning.” Parishioners are also reminded: “We stand at the fast-food counter and order food prepared by someone who lives on the margins of society, is poorly paid and often under threat of harder work.”

In his article “The Story Behind Labor Sunday,” published in Sojourners, Heath W. Carter noted that Labor Sunday has its origins in the church rather than the labor movement.

“By the 1890s, churches began to use the Sunday before Labor Day as an opportunity to elevate the voices and experiences of workers. Some pastors even gave their pulpits to union leaders who were always on fire,” Carter wrote. “On Labor Sunday 1910, a Chicago painter informed his Presbyterian audience matter-of-factly: ‘Among the worst enemies of organized labor are zealous churchgoers.'”

That painter was right. John D. Rockefeller, for example, was a devout Northern Baptist who went to church every Sunday and even taught Sunday school. However, the oil magnate strongly opposed all efforts by his employees to organize into unions and donated millions to anti-union campaigns.

Nevertheless, Labor Sunday was observed in many churches. In 1907, the Department of Church and Labor of the Northern Presbyterian denomination asked its pastors to preach about the problems of workers.

Charles Stelzle was a Presbyterian minister committed to the social gospel. Stelzle reported that Labor Sunday was a great success that year, as reported by Elesha Coffman in her article “Do they know its Labor Sunday?” in Christianity Today.

“Many a preacher, sitting in his study preparing for worship, received a new vision of what the labor movement stands for,” noted Stelzle, “and many a worker … received an insight into the purpose of the church that he had never dreamed of.”

Union leaders urged workers to attend these services, and many newspapers published the sermons in their Labor Day editions.

The American Federal of Labor, one of the predecessors of today’s AFL-CIO, passed a resolution recognizing Labor Sunday in 1909. According to an article on the U.S. Department of Labor website, the day was “dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.”

James W. Kline, a Methodist and president of the Blacksmiths Union, was invited to speak to the clergy of the Rock River Conference in 1913.

Kline explained, “I believe I can see the conditions of our time described in the fifth chapter of James and would like to hear some sermons on that chapter.”

I looked up James 5. Here are two notable quotes: “Come, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you” (verse 1).

“Behold, the wages of the laborers who have reaped your fields, which you have withheld, cries out against you; and the cry of the reapers has reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” (Verse 5)

Some church members who have heard a Labor Sunday sermon that included these verses may consider attending another church.

John J. Dunphy is an author and bookstore owner.