Phil D.
ὁ βαπτιστὴς
My wife and I recently had the opportunity to travel through New England, and like on most of our trips we enjoyed taking in sites with interesting architecture and history. Here are three Boston churches we visited.
Old North Church
King's Chapel
Park Street Church
While not a church, I risked life and limb to get this photo of a lighthouse in Maine, which I thought turned out particularly well...
Old North Church
- Established/built as an Episcopal church in 1724. Is the oldest church building in Boston.
- Was the location from which the famous "one if by land, two if by sea" signal was sent, April 18, 1775, to warn of approaching British forces, prompting Paul Revere's (among others’) legendary midnight ride.
- Like so many New England churches, became and remains ultra-liberal
King's Chapel
- Founded as the first Anglican/Episcopal church in New England in 1686, although the current structure was built in 1754.
- Became Unitarian in 1785.
- The King's Chapel bell, cast in England, was hung in 1772. In 1814 it cracked, was recast by Paul Revere and Sons, and was rehung. It is the largest bell cast by the Revere foundry, and the last one cast during Paul Revere's lifetime.
- Remains ultra-liberal (as a close examination of the photo will sadly attest...)
Park Street Church
- Founded/built in 1809 by disenfranchised Congregationalists who wanted an evangelical church in Boston.
- Edward Dorr Griffin (1770–1837) served as the first pastor and preached a famous series of Sunday evening sermons attacking the New Divinity (the latter being based on Edwardian experientialism and supportive of the Half-Way Covenant)
- In 1826, Edward Beecher, the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and son of Lyman Beecher, became pastor.
- On July 4, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison made his first major public statement against slavery here.
- The church hosted the debut of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", also known as "America", on July 4, 1831.
- In 1857–58, Charles Finney held one of his revivals at Park Street.
- In 1949, Billy Graham's first transcontinental crusade began at Park Street.
- Harold J. Ockenga, notable theologian and co-architect of the Neo-Evangelical movement was the senior pastor from 1936 to 1969 (co-founded Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Christianity Today.)
- Still holds to its original, simple but in itself sound Statement of Faith
While not a church, I risked life and limb to get this photo of a lighthouse in Maine, which I thought turned out particularly well...
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