[4] Though describing this as "cataclysmic", Brown chose to see it as a sign that he should enter the ministry, and began to seek training as a Unitarian minister, while working as an accountant to support himself.

[1] Within this radical milieu, Brown "anchored his ministry in Unitarianism as he had always intended, but with a humanist rationale, a socialist tilt and an anti-colonialism stance".

[4] In Harlem, Brown's founding congregants included West Indian activists W. A. Domingo, Frank Crosswaith, Grace P. Campbell and Richard B.

Brown delivered sermons on subjects including: "Christianity, Atheism, Agnosticism and Humanism", "Science and Philosophy", "Police Brutality in Harlem", and "Building the Church of Tomorrow".

[1] Crosswaith, Domingo, Campbell, and Moore, all made presentations there, as did Hodge Kirnon (who spoke on the work of writers including Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes).

[1] Writing in 2008, Juan M. Floyd-Thomas wrote of Brown and his church that:From its humble beginnings in 1920 until its dissolution in 1956, the HUC provided all interested parties in Harlem with an extraordinary venue in which to engage in open debate, social activism, and spiritual awakening through a radical brand of Black Christianity deeply infused with humanist principles.

[2]Brown's papers are held today by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, at the New York Public Library, which writes:Egbert Ethelred Brown maintained a forum for debate and a social and spiritual gathering place for Afro-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans for more than thirty years; through the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, World War II and the early 1950's.