USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
In 1875 she elucidated her discovery in a text book entitled "Science and Health." This book, many times revised and enlarged by the author in order, as she has said, "to give a clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning" (Science and Health, page 361), has had an enormous and increasing sale, both in the original English and in German and French translations.
Subsequent to the publication of her book, Mrs. Eddy (now married to one of her students, Asa Gilbert Eddy) began a truly remarkable career of preaching, teaching and organizing, which has placed her in the foremost rank of religionists. At first Lynn met her need, but she felt she must broaden her horizon to better establish her work. Accordingly, in 1878, she started her Christian Science activities in Boston. She lectured on Sunday afternoons in the Shawmut Avenue Baptist Church and in other available auditoriums; she talked in private homes to groups of interested people.
On April 19, 1879, at a meeting of the Christian Scientist Association, which she had organized, the first organization of those believing in the doc- trines of Christian Science, it was, on motion of Mrs. Eddy, voted "to organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Church Manual, page 17), and Mrs. Eddy became its first pastor. Services were held sometimes in private honies and again in halls, and in November, 1883, the services began regularly in Hawthorne Hall, 2 Park strect. Late in 1885 the congregation removed to the larger Chickering Hall on Tremont street, and thence to Copley Hall on Clarendon street, which had a seating capacity of about six hundred.
In September, 1892, the church was reorganized by Mrs. Eddy and twelve of her students and named "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts." Thereafter, progress was made toward acquiring a church
-
609
SWEDENBORGIANISM
home and land was purchased in the Back Bay, at the corner of Norway and Falmouth streets, upon which an edifice was erected and dedicated free of debt on January 6, 1895. Soon after, Mrs. Eddy ordained the Bible and "Science and Health" as the "impersonal pastor" for her church in Boston known as "The Mother Church," and for its branches. To be used in lieu of sermons, she established the "Christian Science Quarterly," containing Bible lessons, composed of correlative passages read alternately from the Holy Scrip- tures and the Christian Science text-book. A larger edifice soon became necessary, and in June, 1906, an extension, seating about five thousand and costing over two million dollars, fully paid for, was dedicated. Meanwhile, the branch churches and Christian Science societies were increasing and on December 1, 1930, numbered 2,485.
As her movement grew, Mrs. Eddy saw the need of her students' being better trained for the work of healers and teachers, and in 1881 she established the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, in which she taught for seven years. Recognizing the influence that a magazine of high religious character would have upon the home, she established first The Christian Science Journal, a monthly; and, in turn, The Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly; Der Herold der Christian Science, a monthly in German; and The Christian Science Monitor, a daily newspaper, internationally known. The Christian Science Publishing Society, formed by her to publish this literature, has added Le Héraut de Christian Science, a monthly in French; The Herald of Christian Science, published quarterly in the three Scandinavian languages, and another in Dutch, also issued quarterly.
As a part of her work as founder and organizer, Mrs. Eddy established, subject to the supervision of the Christian Science Board of Directors, the governing board of the denomination, the Christian Science Board of Lecture- ship, a body of representative men and women who lecture throughout the world on Christian Science; a Committee on Publication, part of whose duties is to rectify incorrect statements regarding Christian Science appearing in the public press, and a Board of Education to qualify teachers of Christian Science.
Mrs. Eddy also opened the way for the later establishment of the Christian Science Benevolent Association, operating a sanatorium in Brookline, Massa- chusetts, for persons under Christian Science treatment, and a similar sana- torium in San Francisco, California, opened last year. In addition to estab- lishing these institutions, the Board of Directors has opened at Concord, New Hampshire, the Christian Science Pleasant View Home for elderly Christian Scientists.
Before Mrs. Eddy passed on at her home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, in 1910, the religion she established had followers in all civilized countries of the globe. Since then its remarkable growth continues, as its founder intended.
BEACON HILL NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH (SWEDENBORGIAN) By the Reverend H. CLINTON HAY
Fifty years ago the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem was still happy in the possession of the house of worship which it now occupies, on Bowdoin
610
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
street, opposite the Mount Vernon street archway of the State House. It had been built in the garden of one of the members, "on the top of Beacon Hill," in 1845. In June, 1928, it became necessary to rebuild the interior, strengthening it throughout with steel girders and putting columns under the suspended arches. It thus became one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in the eity. For the past twenty-five years its Parish Rooms have been the headquarters of the Flower Mission of the Woman's Christian Tem- peranee Union, a beautiful charity, dispensing great quantities of flowers and fruit, through distriet nurses, to the siek and the shut-ins. The Greater Boston Federation of Churches also have been made freely welcome to the use of it and have held many meetings in it during the last quarter of a eentury. From the formation of the Federation, thirty years ago, this chureh has been one of its staunch supporters always.
The society has had only three pastors sinee it was organized a hundred and twelve years ago. The Reverend Thomas Woreester served forty-nine years, the Reverend James Reed served as assistant pastor, pastor and pastor emeritus more than sixty years, and the Reverend H. Clinton Hay is now serving his thirtieth year. More than half a eentury ago four suburban societies branehed off from this society; but they have continued to regard it as the central home church for all general purposes, as, for example, the monthly meetings of the Woman's Alliance and of the men's New-Church Club. The Massachusetts Association also holds an annual meeting there.
Largely under the leadership of the Boston ehureh, and especially of Dr. Thomas Woreester, who had then retired from the pastorate, a New-Church Theological Sehool was formed, which was incorporated May 17, 1881. The Sparks estate on Quiney street, at the corner of Kirkland, Cambridge, was purchased in 1889, and in 1891 the adjoining Greenough estate, extending to Cambridge street, was purchased, completing the square opposite Sanders Theater, as a home for the school. Two substantial houses, well adapted to sehool purposes, were already on the property, and in 1901 a handsome stone chapel was built to complete the equipment. And then another society branched off from the Boston ehureh to worship in that ehapel. Its elose proximity to Harvard University gives opportunity for speeial eourses there to its students. Soon after it was formed it became the theologieal sehool of the General Con- vention. It has had students for the New-Church ministry from all over the world, ineluding China, Japan, the Philippine Islands, Australia and New Zealand.
One of the activities of the Boston church, which was begun by the young men of the Boston Society, was the formation of the New-Church Union Book Shop and free eireulating library, afterwards taken over by the Massachusetts Association. For the past twenty-five years this shop has been domiciled next . door to the church, in a store provided by the ehureh, and has become the publishing house and salesroom of New-Chureh books for the community. The "New-Church Review" is published there quarterly.
i
611
THE FRIENDS
THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS By BLANCHE R. HOWLAND
There had been Friends' meeting houses in Boston from 1694 through 1865, but in 1870 Boston Friends were meeting at Lynn with Friends from that region. In response to a request made to Salem Monthly Meeting, per- mission was granted to establish a Monthly Meeting in Boston. The present Boston Monthly Meeting, however, was not established until 1884, and for a number of years the place of meeting was Wesleyan Hall on Bromfield street. The Society ereeted its own meeting house in 1894 on Townsend street, Roxbury, as many Friends were residing in that distriet.
In 1911 a number of Friends living in and near Cambridge began to meet regularly, at first in different homes and later in Phillips Brooks House, one of the buildings of Harvard University. Thirty-two years after the Roxbury meeting house was built it was sold, as so many Friends had moved from that distriet, and sinee that time joint meetings of the Roxbury and Cambridge groups have been held in Andover Hall, Franeis avenue, Cambridge, where the meetings are still held each Sunday morning. .
When the meeting house in Roxbury was given up and meetings for worship were held in Cambridge, an office for further activities was taken in the Con- gregational House, 14 Beaeon street, Boston, where later the New England Branch of the American Friends' Serviee Committee, which was formed in 1926, also had its headquarters.
In 1927, the present Friends' Center was established on the tenth floor of the Walker Building, 120 Boylston street, where there is an office and another adjacent room, overlooking Boston Common, which is used as a reading room and library, and is quite suitable for the frequent small gatherings of Friends. Here, also, is the office of the New England Branch of the American Friends' Serviee Committee, which has its national offiee in Philadelphia. This eentral committee was organized in 1917, to give a serviee of love in war time, and, in co-operation with the Friends' Serviee Couneil in England, earried on war relief work in Europe. Through it, twenty-five million dollars in money and gifts were distributed during the following eight years. In all these activities New England Friends have participated. Sinee 1925, when the need for material relief lessened, the Committee has continued and still earries on its efforts in building up international good will through its work in the United States and in foreign countries, where a number of Friends' Centers have been established.
EASTERN CHRISTIANITY By Dr. H. S. JELALIAN*
The Eastern Christian Churches in our midst, in alphabetical order, are: The Albanian Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Syrian Churches, the Ukrainian Church.
* Doctor Jelalian wishes to acknowledge editorial assistance in the preparation of his article.
-
1
612
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Here are six racial churches, which represent at least seven denominations because, as we shall see later, the Syrians are divided into two or more churches. As a matter of actual fact, there are represented in this group only two entirely independent and distinct churches, and they are the Greek and the Armenian Churches. In order to make this fact understandable to the average American I inust in some detail expatiate upon the ancient historic status, the missionary activity and the ecclesiastical administration of the Greek Orthodox Apostolic Church.
Western Christians will remember that the foremost pope that ever graced the throne of St. Peter, Gregory the Great, delegated in 596 A. D. Augustinus Romanus to evangelize Britain and that he baptized the first heathen king, Ethelbert, and founded the Archbishopric of Canterbury. While the Church of Rome was engaged in this beneficent work of Christian extension in the West, the Greek Orthodox Apostolic Church in Constantinople was engaged in an identical work of Christian extension in the East, by preaching the gospel to the Slavonic peoples in the Balkan Peninsula and on the steppes of Russia. Thus it was that the Albanians, the Bulgarians, the Ruinanians, the Russians and the Serbians were admitted one by one into the communion of the Greek Church and all the Eastern Christian Churches listed above (except the Arme- nian) are members of the mother Greek Church. Absolutely there is no differ- ence in their theology and ecclesiastical administration. The only difference is in the language, which is, of course, determined by each racial group.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople of the Greek Church corre- sponds to the Pope of Rome of the Catholic Church. For centuries all the various branches of the Eastern Church in Europe were under his legal and spiritual jurisdiction, but by the gradual political emancipation of the subject Christian races from the Turkish yoke those people organized their own national churches, Greek in creed but national in polity. So today the Albanian, Rumanian, Russian and Serbian churches have their own Metropolitan Arch- bishops and Bulgaria has her own Exareh. These dignitaries are spiritually subordinate to the Supreme Patriarch of Constantinople, but politically they are independent of him. Even the Greek Metropolitan of Athens now is independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
The Armenian Church, as an apostolic institution, is not derivative. It has its own independent apostolie origin. In a nutshell here it is.
The Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew are believed to have evangelized Armenia in about 50 A. D., just as Augustine evangelized Britain 546 years later. For 250 years thereafter Armenia was a missionary ground. A leaven- ing process was going on and many Christians paid the supreme price for their faith. Gregory the Illuminator was one of the converts. He was subjected to terrible persecution. Like John Bunyan he lingered in a dungeon for twelve years. His saintly life, however, so softened the heart of the heathen king, Diritades, that the king was converted, and the saint was royally sent off to Caesarea of Cappadocia to be ordained and consecrated by the Greek Arch- bishop Leontius, who was said to be a direct successor of Archbishop Theophi- lus, mentioned in the first chapter of Luke's Gospel. Gregory, returning to Armenia in 301, organized the Armenian Church. After presiding over this
·
613
EASTERN CHRISTIANITY
church for thirty years, he appointed as his successor in the pontificate his celibate son, Aristages, who represented his Church in the Council of Nicaea. This is a succinct history of the ancient Christian institution, which for 1,630 years has been a powerhouse of spiritual radiation at the foot of Mount Ararat.
A visitor to alnost any of these Eastern churches in Boston will be im- pressed by the resemblance of the service to the Catholic Mass, but will note certain obvious differences. The unfamiliar language of the liturgy, the parti- . tion or screen, painted with ikons, before the altar, the absence of instrumental music, the oriental aspect of some of the bearded priests give an exotic flavor to the ceremonies.
The largest body of Eastern Christians dwelling among us is probably the Greeks, who are said to number 11,000 or 12,000 in Greater Boston. For their first church, on Winchester street, the plans were drawn by a blind architect selected by Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, himself the best known among the Greeks of Boston. The first pastor was Father Fiampolis, a native of Ithaca. The most distinguished was Right Reverend Joakim Alexopoulos, who in 1923 was consecrated bishop of a diocese embracing all New England and Eastern Canada and including fifty congre- gations with 65,000 worshippers. In the year of his consecration the present Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation at Parker and Ruggles streets, which serves as a cathedral, was finished and occupied and the church on Win- chester street was sold. The congregation numbers about 6,000. In January, 1931, Bishop Alexopoulos, after a residence of twenty-four years in America, was recalled to Greece. The present pastor of the church is Reverend Athenagoras Cavadas.
About 1925 a group of Boston Greeks who objected to the change to the western calendar and the resulting shift of their traditional feast days, pur- chased the large Episcopalian Church at 11 Union Park street, refitted it with altar-screen and ikons, and have continued to occupy it as a house of worship. The ritual and doctrine are described as identical with those of the other Greek Chris- tians. The congregation is said to number 3,000. The present pastor is Reverend D. Mittacos, who early in 1931 took the place of Reverend Angelos T. Vrettos.
A small group of Evangelical or Protestant Greeks attend services conducted in Greek in the Park Street Church by Reverend Christie G. Tokas, a graduate of the University of Athens.
The Russians of Greater Boston, numbering perhaps 4,000, in 1910 pur- chased the Olivet Congregational Church at 6 Dearborn street, Roxbury, and rededicated it as Holy Trinity Russian Greek Catholic Church. Their pastor, Reverend J. E. Grigorieff, has presided over the congregation during the entire period. Besides the high mass every Sunday sung in Old Slavic, he conducts afternoon schools for children three times a week in Roxbury, Cambridge and Chelsea, where the largest bodies of Russian folk dwell. Father Grigorieff was ordained in 1904 and served in Salem for four years before coming to Boston. His flock numbers about 2,000, counting regular and occasional attendants. They accept the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Platon of New York.
It was at Kiev, the holy city of the Ukrainians (who dislike to be called Little Russians), that Christianity was first proclaimed in Russia in 988. A
614
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
border raee, 40,000,000 strong, though subjeet now to five foreign governments, they still long for their lost independence. About 4,000 of them are said to live in and near Boston. Since 1910 they have held serviees under various pastors in a former Protestant ehureh at 136 Arlington street, where about one hundred families are in regular attendanee. The language of the liturgy is Ukrainian and the edifiee is known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The first pastor of the congregation was Reverend Alexander Pawlak. A movement to identify the church with the Uniates (a group of Eastern Catholies affiliated with Rome) divided the membership at one time. The pastor since 1929 has been Reverend Joseph Zeleehivsky, who came to America in 1914 and was ordained in Pitts- burgh in 1919. He is subject to Archbishop John Theodorovich of Philadelphia.
The Albanians or Skypetars, descendants of the ancient Illyrians, number- ing, it is said, 3,000 in Greater Boston, began to meet for worship about 1908 at 227 Tremont street. In 1924 they bought the Swedish Church at 20 Emerald street, which, renamed St. George's Albanian Church, is still occupied by them. The first pastor was Bishop (then Reverend) Fan S. Noli, who was succeeded nine years ago by Reverend Dhosi Katundi. Bishop Noli, whose episcopal seat is in Boston and whose diocese covers the whole United States, is a graduate of Harvard of the class of 1912. The church which he founded was in some respects unique. Not only was it the first Albanian church in this country, but it was the first church in the world to use the Albanian language in its liturgy. Under Turkish rule the native tongue had been forbidden in the schools so that even the Bible remained untranslated until forty years ago. The Orthodox Albanians come principally from the south, the Christians of northern Albania being Roman Catholics, while the majority of the inhabitants of the country are Moslems.
About 1921 a group of Boston Albanians branched off from the main body, the differences relating apparently to questions of homeland polities and juris- dietion, as the general service is said to be the same. This congregation meets at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, 245 D street, South Boston. Its pastor is Reverend Nicholas S. Christopher, one of the oldest Albanians in America.
Equal, perhaps, to the Greeks in numbers are the Syrians, who pride them- selves on their deseent from the seafaring Phoenicians. They are said to num- ber 10,000 or more in the metropolitan eity. Their four principal churches are elustered in a small section of the South End, where the Syrian colony, now widely seattered, originally settled. The oldest of these churches, that at 78 Tyler street, is that of the Maronites, dwellers on the western slopes of Mount Lebanon, which is commemorated in the poetie title of their house of worship, the Church of Our Lady of the Cedars of Mount Lebanon. It was from this church that Khalil Gibran, the Syrian artist and writer, was buried on April 12, 1931. The builder of the church was Bishop Joseph Yazbek. Its present reetor is Right Reverend Stephen el-Douaihy, chor-bishop of the Syrian Maronite churches in the United States. The liturgy is in aneient Syriae. The Melchites, like the Maronites a body of great antiquity but using Arabie with some Greek in their service, worship in the Church of Our Lady of the Annuncia- tion at 178 Harrison avenue, which is under the pastorship of Reverend Peter Abouzeid. Both Maronites and Melehites, though retaining many Eastern
BETH ISRAEL HOSPITAL
t
-
CHILDREN'S ORCHESTRA, HECHT NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE JEWISH CHARITIES
616
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
practices, are, strictly speaking, Roman Catholics, sinee they acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope. Together they comprise more than half of the Syrians in Boston.
Apart from them are the Orthodox Syrians, who have two branches in Boston. In 1915 St. George's Syrian Orthodox Church was organized but it was not until 1923 that the present edifiee at 154 Tyler street was built. The first pastor was Reverend George D. Maloof. The present ineumbent is Reverend John Saba, who has ministered sinee 1927 to a floek of 2,000 souls. Most of these, indeed the majority of the Syrians in Boston, are from the region of Mount Lebanon. The language of the liturgy is Arabie with some portions in Greek.
St. John of Damaseus Syrian Greek Orthodox Church, 68 Hudson street, was built in 1914, to serve the religious needs of a congregation organized in 1907, whose 1,500 members come from the ancient eity of Damaseus. The present pastor is Reverend Gabriel Barrow. The language of the liturgy is Arabie and Greek and there are no differences of rite or doctrine between this congregation and that which worships in St. George's Church. Both are essentially Greek Orthodox churches. Though subjeet ultimately to their own Patriareh at home, they affiliate readily with the other Orthodox bodies in this country. An exposition of Orthodox doetrine, for example, entitled "The Old Church in the New World," written by the Syrian arehpriest, Basil M. Kherbawi, of New York, is warmly indorsed in Russian and Greek forewords by Metropolitan Platon and Archbishop Athanassiades of Neapolis in Palestine and in English by Alexander, Arehbishop of the Greek Arehdioeese of North and South America.
Mention may be made here of the Evangelieal serviees conducted for Syrians at Morgan Memorial by Reverend Shibly D. Malouf.
The number of Armenians in Greater Boston is not easy to estimate but there are certainly several thousands of this far-seattered and mueh-suffering people. After worshipping in temporary quarters, they bought in 1923 the old church at 397 Shawmut avenue, previously used for the South End braneh of the Publie Library. The pastor for several years was the Right Reverend S. V. Kasparian, a graduate of the Episcopal Theologieal School in Cambridge, who was recently ealled to take charge of an Armenian seminary in Syria. His place was supplied for a time by the Reverend Khoren Lazarian. The present pastor is the Reverend H. Thoumayan. The congregation is estimated at 5,000. The liturgy is in Old Armenian and the chief dignitary of the church is the Catholikos, residing in the monastery of Etshmiadzin, near Erivan.
The Armenians have also a well organized Congregational church in Cam- bridge at Porter square. The minister is the Reverend S. H. Halajian.
Thus nearly a dozen churches, somne built, others purchased, usually out of slender means, testify to the religious fervor and loyalty of, perhaps, thirty thousand Eastern Christians who are endeavoring to keep alive the faith of their forefathers in the alien atmosphere of twentieth-century Boston. Some of them have migrated hither from the very eradle of Christianity and maintain religious practices that go back to the days of the Apostles.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.