Arlington Street Church
The Arlington Street Church is a Unitarian Universalist church across from the Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Because of its geographic prominence and the notable ministers who have served the congregation, the church is considered to be among the most historically important in American Unitarianism and Unitarian Universalism. Completed in 1861, it was designed by Arthur Gilman and Gridley James Fox Bryant to resemble James Gibbs' St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London.[2] The main sanctuary space has 16 large-scale stained-glass windows installed by Tiffany Studios from 1899 to 1930.[3]
Arlington Street Church
351–355 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts
Arthur Gilman
18th-century English
0.5 acres (0.20 ha)
1861
May 4, 1973
August 14, 1973
On May 17, 2004, the Arlington Street Church was the site of the first state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in the United States.[4]
History of the congregation[edit]
The congregation was founded in 1729 as the "Church of the Presbyterian Strangers"[2] and became independent in 1787, incorporating under a congregational model of polity. Until the Back Bay location was completed, the congregation was located in the Federal Street Church in downtown Boston, where William Ellery Channing, the first major American Unitarian minister, preached from 1803 to 1842.[2] Two future presidents of the American Unitarian Association—Samuel Eliot and Dana Greeley—served the church during its first hundred years in the Arlington Street building. In 1935, the Second Universalist Church of Boston merged its assets with Arlington Street Church. In so doing, Arlington Street Church inherited the thinking of two great liberal theologians: Channing, called "the father of American Unitarianism," and Hosea Ballou, called "the father of American Universalism." In 1942, the Church of the Disciples united with Arlington Street Church.
In the 1960s, the congregation became active in the Civil Rights Movement. James Reeb, a minister active in the congregation, was murdered during a march in Selma, Alabama.[5] Under the ministry of Jack Mendelsohn, the church became a center for protests against the Vietnam War.[5] In the 1980s, the church led AIDS awareness programs and support for the homeless.[5] In 2004, Reverend Kim K. Crawford Harvie officiated the first legal state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in the United States.[5]
Governance and association[edit]
Arlington Street Church is a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association, a denomination created in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America.[2] The denomination is organized on the basis of congregational church government. Each congregation is self-governing, deciding on its form of worship, professional and lay leadership, programs, and business. Congregations are members of the Unitarian Universalist Association and are united by a statement of Purposes and Principles. Each congregation elects delegates to a yearly General Assembly where the congregational delegates vote on matters of denominational importance and on resolutions of social witness. Congregations are served by programs provided by the Association at the continental and regional levels.[2]
Preservation and restoration of the church building and its Tiffany windows are supported by The Foundation for the Preservation of 20 Arlington Street Inc, a separate, non-sectarian 501(c)(3) charity.[5] In 2017, the Tiffany Windows Education Center at Arlington Street Church opened its doors to the public, offering guided tours of the church and the Tiffany windows.[5]
Arlington Street Church, 2013
