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Broadway Tabernacle

The history of Broadway Tabernacle, which later changed its name to its current name, Broadway United Church of Christ, is rich, complex, and inspiring. The church was opened in 1836 in lower Manhattan, New York City, to provide a platform for a famous evangelist from western New York, Charles Finney. Finney designed the new church himself; it held 2,400 people. Then a Presbyterian church, it was located on Broadway between Worth Street and Catherine Lane. It was called the Broadway Tabernacle. It was founded as a center of anti-slavery spirit, not a popular position in New York City. A pro-slavery mob burned down the church while it was under construction. Finney soon left to become the president of Oberlin College.

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 fought slavery, and established schools, colleges, and churches for freed slaves after the Civil War. 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 even 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. As the American Civil War began, the Church's pastor, Joseph 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 Mendelsohn's oratorio, Elijah.

Women were given the vote in the church in 1871. During the latter half of the 1800's, 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.

Charles Jefferson became pastor in 1897, and continued in the role until 1930. He was a skilled preacher and organizer under whose leadership the Church grew. The City had spread beyond its former boundaries, and again a generous offer for the Church's property stimulated a move to 56th and Broadway, a corner where the streets were still unpaved. The Gothic building that was erected featured a parish house that was ten stories tall and had its own elevator. The "skyscraper church" functioned, as the Church had before, as a gathering place for many meetings, more than 1200 in the year 1910. During the World War I, it provided weekly canteens for men of the armed forces. During the Depression, it contained a theater, beginning a ministry to actors that lasted for many years.

Mission work continued to be a focus, leading among other things to the establishment of the Jefferson Academy in Tungshien, China. Pastor Jefferson also led the establishment of the New York Congregational Home for the Aged in Brooklyn in 1906. In the same year, Jefferson also proclaimed his interest in peace issues, as one of the founders of the New York Peace Society. Andrew Carnegie gave Jefferson and his colleagues a grant to develop strong relationships between clergy throughout the world. After the First World War, Jefferson became an advocate for the League of Nations and the World Court.

In 1928, Broadway continued to break new ground by taking the rare action of ordaining a woman minister. Two years later, Jefferson left, and Allan Knight Chalmers was offered the unenviable job of replacing him. Women now demanded, and were given, the ability to serve as officers of the Church. Chalmers was a strong advocate of the Social Gospel; as the Depression deepened, he and the Church had many challenges to meet. One of the great public controversies of the time was the Scottsboro case, when a group of nine black men were charged with sexually molesting some white women in Tennessee. All except one were sentenced to death. Pastor Chalmers became the head of the national Scottsboro Defense Committee. The men were freed from prison; Chalmers was elected treasurer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in recognition of his work on the case.

Pastor Chalmers was also a leader in the pacifist movement. The Church's Young Men's Club issued the Broadway Declaration in 1932, declaring that service in the armed forces was inconsistent with Christianity. Other young men across the nation also signed it. When World War II came, eight Broadway members became conscientious objectors, serving out the War in mental hospitals and other forms of community service. Without an apparent sense of contradiction, the Church during this period continued to offer regular hospitality to members of the armed forces through its weekly canteens.

On into the 1960's, the Church continued to fight for human rights. It was the rallying point from which the United Church of Christ delegation went to the March on Washington. Lawrence Durgin served the Church for two years before being named pastor in 1963. During this time, the church embraced the ecumenical movement that was symbolized by the Second Vatican Council. As it confronted a large investment to repair its building, a proposal was made to sell the property and to use the money for mission. The proposal won by a very small margin. In 1969, Broadway left its own building to take up residence at a Catholic Church, the nearby Church of St. Paul the Apostle.

One of Broadway's staff members, Aston Glaves, became a leader in developing affordable housing in the church's neighborhood, formerly called Hell's Kitchen. A number of middle- and low-income apartment buildings in the area were developed through community efforts led by Glaves.

After twelve years at St. Paul's, Broadway moved to Rutgers Presbyterian Church, and then to St. Michael's Episcopal Church, each time moving further up the West Side. The Rev. Bonnie Rosborough was called during this time, and kept the church together during its various moves. Life as a "church without walls" began to pall after thirty years, so a relationship was formed with Advent Lutheran Church at 93rd and Broadway. Broadway would invest in the renovation and repair of Advent's building, and would be able to settle there for forty years. The congregation marched down Broadway to Advent Church in March of the year 2000, and were met on the steps by the Advent congregation singing its welcome.

In 1991, Broadway became an Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ, officially welcoming all people regardless of their sexual orientation. Ministries to churches in South Africa as it threw off apartheid, to prisoners, to people with HIV and AIDS, and to women on welfare, among others, have marked the 1990’s. Broadway members provided their labor and financial support to Habitat for Humanity as the millennium turned. Broadway has joined Advent in preparing and serving food in its meal program for poor people in the neighborhood.

The Church continues to explore its mission, following the theme of its covenant:

    In response to God's love
    made known to us in Jesus Christ
    we covenant with God and with one another
    to be God's church
    in this time and place
    as the Holy Spirit may direct.

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This brief history was adapted from Wade Arnold's A Brief Narrative History of the Broadway United Church of Christ, an unpublished manuscript by Alex Sareyan.