Broadway United Church of Christ
Encyclopedia
Broadway United Church of Christ is a Congregationalist Church at Broadway and 93rd Street on the Upper West Side
of Manhattan.
The original Broadway Tabernacle, now known as Broadway United Church of Christ http://www.broadwayucc.org, was founded as the Second Free Presbyterian Church, organized in 1832 by Lewis Tappan
for Charles Grandison Finney
, a famous evangelist / revivalist from western New York. It was founded on Chatham Street (Manhattan) in lower Manhattan
, New York City
, in the former Chatham Theatre (built 1824), which became known as the Chatham Street Chapel (New York City)Review in The New York Evangelist quoted in Keith J. Hardman, Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875: Revivalist and Reformer (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987), p.252. This first chapel was abandoned and shortly thereafter demolished in 1836 for the purpose-built Broadway Tabernacle, which was erected in 1836. The Broadway Tabernacle was located at 340-344 Broadway, between Worth and Catherine Lane, and was considered one of the most influential churches constructed in America. Finney influenced the design; it held 2,400 people. Then a Presbyterian church, it was founded as a center of anti-slavery spirit in New York City. Finney left the church to join the Oberlin College’s Theology Department in April 1837 and the Tabernacle building was demolished in 1856.
The minister who followed Finney shared neither his anti-slavery attitude nor his ability to gather the large throngs that Finney had. A dispute about this led to the church leaving the Presbyterian fold, through the purchase of the building by a prominent member, David Hale. He reorganized the church as a Congregational church
, and established policies that allowed for freedom of expression. The building was used for a wide variety of purposes, including the first demonstration of nitrous oxide
(laughing gas) as an anesthetic.
In the next decades, the church became a rallying point for those who were opposed to slavery, in favor of women suffrage
(voting), and for the abolition of alcohol
ic drinks.
Leaders of the Church took a prominent role in raising a defense fund for the Africans who were captured aboard the ship Amistad
; Cinque, the leader of the captives, spoke at the Church as the freed slaves prepared to return to Africa
. Members of the Amistad Committee eventually formed The American Missionary Association
, an organization that opposed slavery, and established schools, colleges, and churches for freed slaves after the Civil War. William Lloyd Garrison
, a prominent abolitionist, and Frederick Douglass
, a black newspaper editor and former slave, both spoke at the Church. In 1853, a women's suffrage meeting at the Church was so disrupted by hostile men that Sojourner Truth
, the famous leader of the Underground Railroad
, had to shout down the hecklers from the platform.
The church founded a newspaper, The Independent, an anti-slavery paper that had a circulation of 15,000, which helped to spread the renown of Emily Dickinson
by publishing her poems. By 1857, the church accepted an offer by the Erie Railroad
to purchase its original building, and moved uptown to 34th Street and 6th Avenue. The new building was designed by Leopold Eidlitz
. As the American Civil War
began, the Church's pastor, Rev. Joseph Parrish Thompson, was so identified with the Union cause that a Confederate
sympathizer attempted to shoot him during a worship service.
These years reflect a time when Protestant ministers were among the leaders of American society, and when their sermons would be reported in the newspapers. Churches were also significant cultural centers. For example, the Tabernacle choir performed the first North American concert of Mendelssohn
's oratorio, Elijah
.
Women were given the vote in the church in 1871. During the latter half of the 1800s, the Church supported mission activities around the world. It also carried out educational and religious activities in the poorer neighborhoods of the City, including Hell's Kitchen, where it established a branch, the Bethany Mission, in 1868.
In 1892, the address was listed at 582 6th Avenue; it was informally called "Rev. Dr. Taylor's Broadway Tabernacle" at that time.
, it provided weekly canteens for men of the armed forces. During the Depression
, it contained a theater, beginning a ministry to actors that lasted for many years.
Mission work continued to be a focus, leading among other things to the establishment of the Jefferson Academy in Tungshien, China
. Pastor Jefferson also led the establishment of the New York Congregational Home for the Aged in Brooklyn
in 1906. In the same year, Jefferson also proclaimed his interest in peace issues, as one of the founders of the New York Peace Society. Andrew Carnegie
gave Jefferson and his colleagues a grant to develop strong relationships between clergy throughout the world. After the First World War, Jefferson became an advocate for the League of Nations
and the World Court
.
In 1928, Broadway continued to break new ground by taking the rare action of ordaining a woman minister. Two years later, Jefferson left, and Allan Knight Chalmers was offered the job of replacing him. Women now demanded, and were given, the ability to serve as officers of the Church. Chalmers was a strong advocate of the Social Gospel
; as the Great Depression deepened, he and the Church had many challenges to meet. One of the great public controversies of the time was the Scottsboro case, when a group of nine black men were charged with sexually molesting some white women in Tennessee
. All except one were sentenced to death. Pastor Chalmers became the head of the national Scottsboro Defense Committee. The men were freed from prison; Chalmers was elected treasurer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) in recognition of his work on the case.
Pastor Chalmers was also a leader in the pacifist movement. The Church's Young Men's Club issued the Broadway Declaration in 1932, declaring that service in the armed forces was inconsistent with Christianity. Other young men across the nation also signed it. When World War II
came, eight Broadway members became conscientious objector
s, serving out the War in mental hospitals and other forms of community service. Without an apparent sense of contradiction, the Church during this period continued to offer regular hospitality to members of the armed forces through its weekly canteens.
. It was the rallying point from which the United Church of Christ delegation went to the March on Washington.
Lawrence Durgin served the Church for two years before being named pastor in 1963. During this time, the church embraced the ecumenical movement that was symbolized by the Second Vatican Council
. As it confronted a large investment to repair its building, a proposal was made to sell the property and to use the money for mission. The proposal won by a very small margin. In 1969, Broadway left its own building to take up residence at a Catholic church, the nearby Church of St. Paul the Apostle.
One of Broadway's staff members, Aston Glaves, became a leader in developing affordable housing in the church's neighborhood, formerly called Hell's Kitchen
. A number of middle- and low-income apartment buildings in the area were developed through community efforts led by Glaves.
After twelve years at St. Paul's, Broadway moved to Rutgers Presbyterian Church
, and then to St. Michael's Episcopal Church
, each time moving further up the West Side. The Rev. Bonnie Rosborough was called during this time, and kept the church together during its various moves. Life as a "church without walls" began to pall after thirty years, so a relationship was formed with Advent Lutheran Church at 93rd and Broadway. Broadway would invest in the renovation and repair of Advent's building, and would be able to settle there for forty years. The congregation marched down Broadway to Advent Church in March of the year 2000, and were met on the steps by the Advent congregation singing its welcome.
In 1991, Broadway became an "Open and Affirming Congregation" of the United Church of Christ, officially welcoming all people regardless of their sexual orientation.
Ministries to churches in South Africa as it threw off apartheid, to prisoners, to people with HIV and AIDS, and to women on welfare, among others, have marked the 1990’s. Broadway members provided their labor and financial support to Habitat for Humanity as the millennium turned. Broadway has joined Advent in preparing and serving food in its meal program for poor people in the neighborhood.
On March 1, 2006, the congregation voted to call the Rev. James P. Campbell, an ordained, openly gay minister of the United Church of Christ as its 10th pastor.
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
of Manhattan.
Finney's Broadway Tabernacle
Lewis Tappan
Lewis Tappan was a New York abolitionist who worked to achieve the freedom of the illegally enslaved Africans of the Amistad. Contacted by Connecticut abolitionists soon after the Amistad arrived in port, Tappan focused extensively on the captive Africans...
for Charles Grandison Finney
Charles Grandison Finney
Charles Grandison Finney was a leader in the Second Great Awakening. He has been called The Father of Modern Revivalism. Finney was best known as an innovative revivalist, an opponent of Old School Presbyterian theology, an advocate of Christian perfectionism, a pioneer in social reforms in favor...
, a famous evangelist / revivalist from western New York. It was founded on Chatham Street (Manhattan) in lower Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in the former Chatham Theatre (built 1824), which became known as the Chatham Street Chapel (New York City)Review in The New York Evangelist quoted in Keith J. Hardman, Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875: Revivalist and Reformer (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987), p.252. This first chapel was abandoned and shortly thereafter demolished in 1836 for the purpose-built Broadway Tabernacle, which was erected in 1836. The Broadway Tabernacle was located at 340-344 Broadway, between Worth and Catherine Lane, and was considered one of the most influential churches constructed in America. Finney influenced the design; it held 2,400 people. Then a Presbyterian church, it was founded as a center of anti-slavery spirit in New York City. Finney left the church to join the Oberlin College’s Theology Department in April 1837 and the Tabernacle building was demolished in 1856.
The minister who followed Finney shared neither his anti-slavery attitude nor his ability to gather the large throngs that Finney had. A dispute about this led to the church leaving the Presbyterian fold, through the purchase of the building by a prominent member, David Hale. He reorganized the church as a Congregational church
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
, and established policies that allowed for freedom of expression. The building was used for a wide variety of purposes, including the first demonstration of nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, is a chemical compound with the formula . It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic...
(laughing gas) as an anesthetic.
In the next decades, the church became a rallying point for those who were opposed to slavery, in favor of women suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
(voting), and for the abolition of alcohol
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
ic drinks.
Leaders of the Church took a prominent role in raising a defense fund for the Africans who were captured aboard the ship Amistad
La Amistad
La Amistad was a ship notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana to Puerto Principe, Cuba. It was a 19th-century two-masted schooner built in Spain and owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba...
; Cinque, the leader of the captives, spoke at the Church as the freed slaves prepared to return to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Members of the Amistad Committee eventually formed The American Missionary Association
American Missionary Association
The American Missionary Association was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 in Albany, New York. The main purpose of this organization was to abolish slavery, to educate African Americans, to promote racial equality, and to promote Christian values...
, an organization that opposed slavery, and established schools, colleges, and churches for freed slaves after the Civil War. William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
, a prominent abolitionist, and Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
, a black newspaper editor and former slave, both spoke at the Church. In 1853, a women's suffrage meeting at the Church was so disrupted by hostile men that Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth was the self-given name, from 1843 onward, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, she...
, the famous leader of the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
, had to shout down the hecklers from the platform.
The church founded a newspaper, The Independent, an anti-slavery paper that had a circulation of 15,000, which helped to spread the renown of Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
by publishing her poems. By 1857, the church accepted an offer by the Erie Railroad
Erie Railroad
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, originally connecting New York City with Lake Erie...
to purchase its original building, and moved uptown to 34th Street and 6th Avenue. The new building was designed by Leopold Eidlitz
Leopold Eidlitz
Leopold Eidlitz was a prominent New York architect best known for his work on the New York State Capitol , as well as "Iranistan" , P. T. Barnum's house in Bridgeport, Connecticut; St. Peter's Church, on Westchester Avenue at St...
. As the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
began, the Church's pastor, Rev. Joseph Parrish Thompson, was so identified with the Union cause that a Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
sympathizer attempted to shoot him during a worship service.
These years reflect a time when Protestant ministers were among the leaders of American society, and when their sermons would be reported in the newspapers. Churches were also significant cultural centers. For example, the Tabernacle choir performed the first North American concert of Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's oratorio, Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
.
Women were given the vote in the church in 1871. During the latter half of the 1800s, the Church supported mission activities around the world. It also carried out educational and religious activities in the poorer neighborhoods of the City, including Hell's Kitchen, where it established a branch, the Bethany Mission, in 1868.
In 1892, the address was listed at 582 6th Avenue; it was informally called "Rev. Dr. Taylor's Broadway Tabernacle" at that time.
1897-1950
Charles Jefferson became pastor in 1897, and continued in the role until 1930. He was a skilled preacher and organizer under whose leadership the Church grew. The City had spread beyond its former boundaries, and again a generous offer for the Church's property stimulated a move to 56th and Broadway, a corner where the streets were still unpaved. The Gothic building that was erected featured a parish house that was ten stories tall and had its own elevator. The "skyscraper church" functioned, as the Church had before, as a gathering place for many meetings, more than 1200 in the year 1910. During the World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, it provided weekly canteens for men of the armed forces. During the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, it contained a theater, beginning a ministry to actors that lasted for many years.
Mission work continued to be a focus, leading among other things to the establishment of the Jefferson Academy in Tungshien, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Pastor Jefferson also led the establishment of the New York Congregational Home for the Aged in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
in 1906. In the same year, Jefferson also proclaimed his interest in peace issues, as one of the founders of the New York Peace Society. Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
gave Jefferson and his colleagues a grant to develop strong relationships between clergy throughout the world. After the First World War, Jefferson became an advocate for the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
and the World Court
World Court
* any of the international courts located in The Hague:**the International Court of Justice , a UN court that settles disputes between nations...
.
In 1928, Broadway continued to break new ground by taking the rare action of ordaining a woman minister. Two years later, Jefferson left, and Allan Knight Chalmers was offered the job of replacing him. Women now demanded, and were given, the ability to serve as officers of the Church. Chalmers was a strong advocate of the Social Gospel
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
; as the Great Depression deepened, he and the Church had many challenges to meet. One of the great public controversies of the time was the Scottsboro case, when a group of nine black men were charged with sexually molesting some white women in Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. All except one were sentenced to death. Pastor Chalmers became the head of the national Scottsboro Defense Committee. The men were freed from prison; Chalmers was elected treasurer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP) in recognition of his work on the case.
Pastor Chalmers was also a leader in the pacifist movement. The Church's Young Men's Club issued the Broadway Declaration in 1932, declaring that service in the armed forces was inconsistent with Christianity. Other young men across the nation also signed it. When World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
came, eight Broadway members became conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
s, serving out the War in mental hospitals and other forms of community service. Without an apparent sense of contradiction, the Church during this period continued to offer regular hospitality to members of the armed forces through its weekly canteens.
Postmodern era
On into the 1960s, the Church continued to fight for human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
. It was the rallying point from which the United Church of Christ delegation went to the March on Washington.
Lawrence Durgin served the Church for two years before being named pastor in 1963. During this time, the church embraced the ecumenical movement that was symbolized by the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
. As it confronted a large investment to repair its building, a proposal was made to sell the property and to use the money for mission. The proposal won by a very small margin. In 1969, Broadway left its own building to take up residence at a Catholic church, the nearby Church of St. Paul the Apostle.
One of Broadway's staff members, Aston Glaves, became a leader in developing affordable housing in the church's neighborhood, formerly called Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
. A number of middle- and low-income apartment buildings in the area were developed through community efforts led by Glaves.
After twelve years at St. Paul's, Broadway moved to Rutgers Presbyterian Church
Rutgers Presbyterian Church
Rutgers Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian house of worship in New York City.The church's origins date to 1798 in Lower Manhattan. The first church building was erected on a plot of ground donated by Colonel Henry Rutgers at the corner of what would become Henry Street and Rutgers Street....
, and then to St. Michael's Episcopal Church
St. Michael's Church, New York City
St. Michael's Church is a historic Episcopal church at 225 W. 99th Street in New York City. It was founded in January 1807; the present Romanesque building was built in 1890 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996....
, each time moving further up the West Side. The Rev. Bonnie Rosborough was called during this time, and kept the church together during its various moves. Life as a "church without walls" began to pall after thirty years, so a relationship was formed with Advent Lutheran Church at 93rd and Broadway. Broadway would invest in the renovation and repair of Advent's building, and would be able to settle there for forty years. The congregation marched down Broadway to Advent Church in March of the year 2000, and were met on the steps by the Advent congregation singing its welcome.
In 1991, Broadway became an "Open and Affirming Congregation" of the United Church of Christ, officially welcoming all people regardless of their sexual orientation.
Ministries to churches in South Africa as it threw off apartheid, to prisoners, to people with HIV and AIDS, and to women on welfare, among others, have marked the 1990’s. Broadway members provided their labor and financial support to Habitat for Humanity as the millennium turned. Broadway has joined Advent in preparing and serving food in its meal program for poor people in the neighborhood.
On March 1, 2006, the congregation voted to call the Rev. James P. Campbell, an ordained, openly gay minister of the United Church of Christ as its 10th pastor.