| Unitarian Church of All Souls | |
|---|---|
 (2016) | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Unitarian Universalist Association |
| Year consecrated | 1819 |
| Location | |
| Location | Upper East Side,New York,NY, USA |
 Interactive map of Unitarian Church of All Souls | |
| Coordinates | 40°46′32″N73°57′30″W / 40.7755°N 73.9584°W /40.7755; -73.9584 |
| Specifications | |
| Direction of façade | west |
| Materials | Brick, wood, stone |
TheUnitarian Church of All Souls at 1157Lexington Avenue atEast 80th Street on theUpper East Side ofManhattan,New York City was built in 1932 and was designed by Hobart Upjohn –Richard Upjohn's grandson – in theNeo-colonial style[1] with a Regency-influenced brick base.[2] It is the congregation's fourth sanctuary.[1] The congregation, dating back to 1819, was the firstUnitarian Universalist congregation in the city.[3] It has provided a pulpit for some of the movement's leading theologians and has also recorded many eminent persons in its membership.
All Souls was the firstUnitarian congregation to be organized in New York and originated in 1819 when Lucy Channing Russell invited forty friends and neighbors into herLower Manhattan home to listen to an address by her brother,William Ellery Channing, the minister of theFederal Street Church inBoston. Channing was making a stop in New York while traveling toBaltimore 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 theTrinity in favor of absolutemonotheism, and the imperative to interpret theChristian Bible through reason. In New York, the enthusiasm aroused by Channing culminated in the formation of theFirst Congregational Church (Unitarian), which proceeded to erect its first building in 1820–21, onChambers Street betweenChurch Street andChapel Street,[1] 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 inNew England and risk their careers in new congregations beyond. Finally, on December 18, 1821,William Ware was installed as the first minister.
In 1845, the congregation moved to a new building at 548 Broadway,[1] renaming itself theChurch 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 (nowPark Avenue South) and20th Street. The new church was designed byJacob Wrey Mould and featured bands of red and white bricks andCaen stone, which led to the colloquial names of "The Holy Zebra" and "The Beefsteak Church."[1]
In partnership with ministerHenry 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 asPeter Cooper,Herman Melville, and others. One noted member was the novelistCatharine Sedgwick, who remarked upon the diverse backgrounds of the people who were attracted to the freedom of ethical inquiry that All Souls offered: "strangers from inland and outland, English radicals and daughters ofErin, Germans and Hollanders, philosophicgentiles and unbelievingJews . . . In this, our ass'n, there is at least one of every sort." In evolving from its roots in Unitarian Christianity, All Souls embraced an enlargingreligious pluralism that continues to this day.
All Souls relocated to its current building on theUpper East Side at 1157Lexington Avenue at80th Street in 1932, designed byRichard Upjohn's grandson,Hobart Upjohn, in theColonial Revival style[1] with a Regency-influenced base.[2]Forrest Church, the prolific author and theologian, then served as senior minister for almost thirty years until the beginning of 2007, when, due to terminalcancer, he was succeeded by Galen Guengerich and assumed the less strenuous duties of minister of public theology. Church's charismatic style has been credited with the revitalization of the congregation.[1]
Notes
First Unitarian Church Here. All Souls' was the first Unitarian Church foundation in New York. The Unitarian Society was incorporated in 1818 ...
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