William Ellery Channing - Boston, MA
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 42° 21.134 W 071° 04.250
19T E 329444 N 4690962
Sometimes regarded as the "Father of American Unitarianism," William Ellery Channing served as Senior Minister at the Federal Street Church from 1803 to 1842. This statue is in an alcove on the outer wall of the Boston Public Garden.
Waymark Code: WME238
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2012
Views: 12
This eight foot high bronze sculpture is located in a marble alcove on the outside of the wall of Boston Public Garden, just across the street from the
Arlington Street Church, where Channing served as minister for forty-one years when the church occupied a building on Federal Street.
Dr. Channing is shown standing in his clerical robes, clutched in his right hand, while holding a Bible in his left. The granite base has inscriptions on all sides, and is mounted in a marble alcove with a canopy, with two steps beneath it. The sculpture was designed by Vincent Griffith, sculpted by Herbert Adams and cast by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company. It was dedicated on June 1, 1903.
William Ellery Channing was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1780, grandson of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He attended Harvard College during a particularly tumultuous time. His own theology underwent a transformation that led him ultimately to reject the harsh Calvinism that had informed the founding of the church he came to pastor in 1803.
Dr. Channing become a leading and influential figure of liberal theology finally defining the tenets of the emerging American Unitarian movement in his famous sermon, "Unitarian Christianity" at the ordination of Jared Sparks in Baltimore in 1819. His learning and eloquence and propensity for steering a course between extreme positions, broadened his sphere of influence beyond the walls of his church. He died in 1842 in Old Bennington, Vermont.