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Broadway United Church of Christ is a Congregationalist Church at Broadway and 93rd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. == Finney's Broadway Tabernacle == The original Broadway Tabernacle, now known as Broadway United Church of Christ (), was founded as the Second Free Presbyterian Church, organized in 1832 by Lewis Tappan for Charles Grandison Finney, a famous evangelist / revivalist from western New York. It was founded on Chatham Street (Manhattan) in lower Manhattan, New York City, in the former Chatham Theatre (built 1824), which became known as the Chatham Street Chapel (New York City)〔Loveland, etc., From Meetinghouse to Megachurch, p.27.〕〔Review in ''The New York Evangelist'' quoted in Keith J. Hardman, ''Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875: Revivalist and Reformer'' (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987), p.252.〕 This first chapel was abandoned and shortly thereafter demolished in 1836 for the purpose-built Broadway Tabernacle, which was erected in 1836.〔Nathan Silver, ''Lost New York,'' (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.46〕 The Broadway Tabernacle was located at 340-344 Broadway, between Worth and Catherine Lane, and was considered one of the most influential churches constructed in America. Finney influenced the design; it held 2,400 people. Then a Presbyterian church, it was founded as a center of anti-slavery spirit in New York City. Finney left the church to join the Oberlin College’s Theology Department in April 1837 and the Tabernacle building was demolished in 1856.〔J. Russiello, ''(A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America )'' (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.217.〕〔Nathan Silver, ''Lost New York,'' (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.76.〕 The minister who followed Finney shared neither his anti-slavery attitude nor his ability to gather the large throngs that Finney had. A dispute about this led to the church leaving the Presbyterian fold, through the purchase of the building by a prominent member, David Hale. He reorganized the church as a Congregational church, and established policies that allowed for freedom of expression. The building was used for a wide variety of purposes, including the first demonstration of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) as an anesthetic. In the next decades, the church became a rallying point for those who were opposed to slavery, in favor of women suffrage (voting), and for the abolition of alcoholic drinks. Leaders of the Church took a prominent role in raising a defense fund for the Africans who were captured aboard the ship Amistad; Cinque, the leader of the captives, spoke at the Church as the freed slaves prepared to return to Africa. Members of the Amistad Committee eventually formed The American Missionary Association, an organization that opposed slavery, and established schools, colleges, and churches for freed slaves after the Civil War. William Lloyd Garrison, a prominent abolitionist, and Frederick Douglass, a black newspaper editor and former slave, both spoke at the Church. In 1853, a women's suffrage meeting at the Church was so disrupted by hostile men that Sojourner Truth, the famous leader of the Underground Railroad, had to shout down the hecklers from the platform. The church founded a newspaper, The Independent, an anti-slavery paper that had a circulation of 15,000, which helped to spread the renown of Emily Dickinson by publishing her poems. By 1857, the church accepted an offer by the Erie Railroad to purchase its original building, and moved uptown to 34th Street and 6th Avenue. The new building was designed by Leopold Eidlitz.〔Kathryn E. Holliday, ''Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age'' (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2008), p.171〕 As the American Civil War began, the Church's pastor, Rev. Joseph Parrish Thompson, was so identified with the Union cause that a Confederate sympathizer attempted to shoot him during a worship service. These years reflect a time when Protestant ministers were among the leaders of American society, and when their sermons would be reported in the newspapers. Churches were also significant cultural centers. For example, the Tabernacle choir performed the first North American concert of Mendelssohn's oratorio, ''Elijah''. Women were given the vote in the church in 1871. During the latter half of the 1800s, the Church supported mission activities around the world. It also carried out educational and religious activities in the poorer neighborhoods of the City, including Hell's Kitchen, where it established a branch, the Bethany Mission, in 1868. In 1892, the address was listed at 582 6th Avenue; it was informally called "Rev. Dr. Taylor's Broadway Tabernacle" at that time.〔''(The World Almanac 1892 and Book of Facts )'' (New York: Press Publishing, 1892), p.390.〕 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「Broadway United Church of Christ」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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