- First Church in Boston
First Church in Boston is a
Unitarian Universalist Church (originally Christian Trinitarian) founded in 1630 byJohn Winthrop 's original Puritan settlement inBoston, Massachusetts . The current building is on 66 Marlborough Street in Boston.History
The church was created in 1630 when the settlers on the "
Arbella " arrived in what is nowCharlestown, Massachusetts . [Ellis, Arthur B. (1881). "History of the First Church in Boston, 1630-1880", pp. 1-3. Boston: Hall and Whiting.] Two years later they constructed a meeting house across theCharles River near what is nowState Street in Boston. From 1633 to 1652John Mather was a teaching elder at the church and helped to establish the foundation of theCongregationalist Church . In the 1700s,Charles Chauncy (1705-1787) was a minister at First Church for sixty years [Ellis (1881), p. 191.] and gained a reputation for opposing what he believed was emotionalism during theGreat Awakening of Jonathan Edwards. [Ellis (1881), pp. 202-03.] The church eventually transformed into a theologically liberalUnitarian Universalist congregation by the mid-nineteenth century and moved toBack Bay in Boston.After a fire in 1972, First Church and Second Church merged and built a new building in Back Bay. Second Church had previously broken off from First Church in 1649 [Bacon, Dolores (1906). "Old New England Churches and Their Children", pp. 27-28. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company.] and was home to
Increase Mather ,Cotton Mather , andSamuel Mather from 1664 to 1741.References
External links
* [http://www.firstchurchboston.org/ First Church in Boston website]
* [http://www.firstchurchboston.org/index.php?/history/item/141/ 1630 Christian Covenant of First Church in Boston]
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