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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 important in American Unitarianism. 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. The congregation was founded in 1729 as the "Church of the Presbyterian Strangers" 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. 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." On May 17, 2004, the Arlington Street Church was the site of the first state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in the United States. ==Arlington Street church building== As the population of Boston grew and land became scarce, landfills were created in the North End, South End, and finally the Back Bay during the 1850s. When the area around Federal Street became commercial, the congregation adventurously voted to move to the Back Bay. Arlington Street Church was the first public building to be constructed on the newly filled land. The present building was begun in 1859 and dedicated in 1861. Designed by Arthur Gilman and Gridley James Fox Bryant, architects for the Old Boston City Hall, its exterior was inspired by St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=MACRIS inventory record for Arlington Street Church )〕 The building is supported by 999 wooden pilings driven into the mud of Back Bay, and brownstone for its exterior was quarried in New Jersey. The bell tower stands 190 feet (58 meters) tall and contains a set of 16 bells, each with a Biblical inscription. It is one of only four sets in the city of Boston still rung by hand. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.〔 Landscaping for the church was designed by Mabel Keyes Babcock. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arlington Street Church」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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