Unitarian Church of All Souls
Encyclopedia
The Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City
was the first Unitarian Universalist
church in New York City. It is one of the largest and most influential congregations in the United States
. It has provided a pulpit for some of the movement's leading theologians and has also recorded many eminent persons in its membership.
congregation to be organized in New York and originated in 1819 when Lucy Channing Russel invited forty friends and neighbors into her Lower Manhattan
home, to listen to an address by her brother, William Ellery Channing
, the minister of the Federal Street Church in Boston
. Channing was making a stop in New York while traveling to Baltimore to preach the famous sermon in which he would articulate the distinctive tenets of Unitarian Christianity, the most salient of which were the rejection of the Trinity
in favor of absolute Monotheism
, and the imperative to interpret the Bible
through reason. In New York, the enthusiasm aroused by Channing culminated in the formation of the First Congregational Church (Unitarian), which proceeded to erect its first building, on Chambers Street
between Broadway
and Church Street
, before it had even found a minister. The task of recruitment was difficult since few ministers could be persuaded to venture away from the stability of the Unitarian heartland in New England
and risk their careers in new congregations beyond. Finally, on December 18, 1821, William Ware
was installed as the first minister.
In 1844, the congregation moved to a new building at 548 Broadway and renamed itself the Church of the Divine Unity the following year. In 1855, the present name, All Souls, was taken by an American church for the first time when the congregation dedicated its third building at 249 Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South
) at 20th Street. The address was conversely listed as 249 4th Avenue. In partnership with minister Henry Whitney Bellows
, who served for over four decades from 1839 to 1882, All Souls grew to include some of the leading social reformers and cultural figures of the city, such as Peter Cooper
, Herman Melville
, and others listed at the end of this article.
One famous member was the novelist Catharine Sedgwick
, who remarked upon the diverse backgrounds of the people who were attracted to the freedom of ethical inquiry which All Souls offered: "strangers from inland and outland, English radicals and daughters of Erin
, Germans and Hollanders, philosophic gentile
s and unbelieving Jews . . . In this, our ass'n, there is at least one of every sort." In evolving from its roots in Unitarian Christianity, All Souls has embraced an enlarging religious pluralism that continues to this day.
All Souls relocated to its current building on the Upper East Side
at 1157 Lexington Avenue
at 80th Street in 1932. The prolific author and theologian, the late Forrest Church served as Senior Minister for almost thirty years until the beginning of 2007, when, due to terminal cancer
, he was succeeded by Galen Guengerich and assumed the less strenuous duties of Minister of Public Theology.
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...
was the first Unitarian Universalist
Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
church in New York City. It is one of the largest and most influential congregations in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It has provided a pulpit for some of the movement's leading theologians and has also recorded many eminent persons in its membership.
History
All Souls was the first UnitarianUnitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
congregation to be organized in New York and originated in 1819 when Lucy Channing Russel invited forty friends and neighbors into her Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...
home, to listen to an address by her brother, William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing
Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...
, the minister of the Federal Street Church in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. Channing was making a stop in New York while traveling to Baltimore to preach the famous sermon in which he would articulate the distinctive tenets of Unitarian Christianity, the most salient of which were the rejection of the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
in favor of absolute Monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
, and the imperative to interpret the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
through reason. In New York, the enthusiasm aroused by Channing culminated in the formation of the First Congregational Church (Unitarian), which proceeded to erect its first building, on Chambers Street
Chambers Street (Manhattan)
Chambers Street is a bi-directional street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from River Terrace, Battery Park City, in the west, past PS 234 and Stuyvesant High School to 1 Centre Street, the Manhattan Municipal Building, to the east. In the early 20th century the street...
between Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
and Church Street
Church Street (Manhattan)
Church Street is a short but heavily travelled north/south street in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs along the eastern edge of the site of the World Trade Center destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Its southern end is at Trinity Place, of which it is a continuation...
, before it had even found a minister. The task of recruitment was difficult since few ministers could be persuaded to venture away from the stability of the Unitarian heartland in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and risk their careers in new congregations beyond. Finally, on December 18, 1821, William Ware
William Ware
William Ware was an American romancer, born at Hingham, Mass. He graduated at Harvard , studied for the Unitarian ministry, and preached mainly in New York, and later in Massachusetts....
was installed as the first minister.
In 1844, the congregation moved to a new building at 548 Broadway and renamed itself the Church of the Divine Unity the following year. In 1855, the present name, All Souls, was taken by an American church for the first time when the congregation dedicated its third building at 249 Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South
Park Avenue (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
) at 20th Street. The address was conversely listed as 249 4th Avenue. In partnership with minister Henry Whitney Bellows
Henry Whitney Bellows
Henry Whitney Bellows was American clergyman, and the planner and president of the United States Sanitary Commission, the leading soldiers' aid society, during the American Civil War...
, who served for over four decades from 1839 to 1882, All Souls grew to include some of the leading social reformers and cultural figures of the city, such as Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and candidate for President of the United States...
, Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
, and others listed at the end of this article.
Catharine Sedgwick
Catharine Maria Sedgwick , was an American novelist of what is now referred to as "domestic fiction". She promoted Republican motherhood.-Biography:...
, who remarked upon the diverse backgrounds of the people who were attracted to the freedom of ethical inquiry which All Souls offered: "strangers from inland and outland, English radicals and daughters of Erin
Erin
Erin is a Hiberno-English derivative of the Irish word "Éirinn". ....
, Germans and Hollanders, philosophic gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
s and unbelieving Jews . . . In this, our ass'n, there is at least one of every sort." In evolving from its roots in Unitarian Christianity, All Souls has embraced an enlarging religious pluralism that continues to this day.
All Souls relocated to its current building on the Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
at 1157 Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue (Manhattan)
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated by New Yorkers as "Lex," is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street...
at 80th Street in 1932. The prolific author and theologian, the late Forrest Church served as Senior Minister for almost thirty years until the beginning of 2007, when, due to terminal cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, he was succeeded by Galen Guengerich and assumed the less strenuous duties of Minister of Public Theology.
Notable members
- George Fisher Baker, financier, philanthropist
- William Cullen BryantWilliam Cullen BryantWilliam Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
, poet, journalist - Peter CooperPeter CooperPeter Cooper was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and candidate for President of the United States...
industrialist, philanthropist (founder of Cooper UnionCooper UnionThe Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
) - Nathaniel CurrierNathaniel CurrierNathaniel Currier was an American lithographer, who headed the company Currier & Ives with James Ives.-Early years:...
, lithographer, co-founder of Currier and IvesCurrier and IvesCurrier and Ives was a successful American printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives . Based in New York City from 1834–1907, the prolific firm produced prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were hand colored... - Dorman Bridgeman Eaton, lawyer, civil service reformer
- Caroline KirklandCaroline KirklandCaroline Kirkland was an American writer.She was born into a middle class family in New York City, the oldest of eleven children. Her mother was a writer of fiction and poetry. Her father died when she was 21 and the family followed her to upstate New York where she taught and had met her future...
, writer - Herman MelvilleHerman MelvilleHerman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
, writer - Louisa Lee SchuylerLouisa Lee SchuylerLouisa Lee Schuyler was an American leader in charitable work, the great-granddaughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton. During the Civil War she was appointed as the corresponding secretary in the Woman's Central Association of Relief in New York City. The mission WCAR was to...
, Sanitary CommissionUnited States Sanitary CommissionThe United States Sanitary Commission was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised its own funds, and enlisted thousands of volunteers...
organizer, founder of America's first nursing school at Bellevue HospitalBellevue Hospital CenterBellevue Hospital Center, most often referred to as "Bellevue", was founded on March 31, 1736 and is the oldest public hospital in the United States. Located on First Avenue in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, Bellevue is famous from many literary, film and television... - Catharine SedgwickCatharine SedgwickCatharine Maria Sedgwick , was an American novelist of what is now referred to as "domestic fiction". She promoted Republican motherhood.-Biography:...
, writer
Further reading
- Kring, Walter Donald. History of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City in 3 vols.
- Liberals Among the Orthodox: Unitarian Beginnings in New York City, 1819-1839 (Boston: Beacon PressBeacon PressBeacon Press is an American non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association.Beacon Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses....
, 1974) - Henry Whitney Bellows (Boston: Skinner HouseSkinner House BooksSkinner House Books is a book publisher run by the Unitarian Universalist Association , specializing in books for Unitarian Universalists -- meditation manuals, worship and church resources, and books on theology, UU history and social justice concerns...
, 1979) - Safely Onward (New York: Unitarian Church of All Souls, 1991)
- Liberals Among the Orthodox: Unitarian Beginnings in New York City, 1819-1839 (Boston: Beacon Press