PARK STREET CHURCH on the writtenFreedom by Elizabeth Lohnes Trail The Granary, built in 1729, in addition to being a location to store grain, was also home to the “There is one, and but creation of the sails for the U.S.S. Constitution before finally serving as a petting zoo. After the purchase of the land in 1809, its timbers were one living and true God, moved Commercial Point in Dorchester (the site of the Gas Tank), where it served as a ship subsisting in three persons, equipment storehouse and, at the time this photo- graph was taken in 1873, was being used as a hotel. The Father, The Son, and formerly-unchurched crowds were looking for a chased a plot of land on the corner of the site The Holy Ghost; and that home. A small group at the Old South Church, of the old Granary building, but after construc- keen on both preserving the doctrine of the tion began, Kollock decided not to come. trinity and promoting revival, resolved to es- these three are the one God, tablish an uncompromisingly orthodox church It was a disappointing and embarrassing initial in the very center of the Boston peninsula. blow for the small congregation, which had They were inspired by a visiting minister, Rev. raised $70,000 to build what was plausibly the 3 the same in substance, equal Henry Kollock from Savannah, GA, and invited grandest church in the city at the time. Seat- him to be their first shepherd. Rev. Kollock was ing over 800, the building had been designed in power and glory…” inclined to accept, but said he would not move by Peter Banner in a style similar to that of until a church was organized and a building Christopher Wren. The steeple was erected 2 around a strong and flexible ship’s mast, and at With those words the founders of Park Street constructed. The committee immediately pur- Church pronounced the standard upon which they could not compromise: Christ was no mere messenger sent from God—He was God himself. This stance on the divinity of Jesus had fallen out of favor in the early 1800s, in favor of the doctrine of unitarianism. Unitarians believe that Jesus was a good moral teacher rather than being one with God TRINITY — One Himself. The election God who exists in of Henry Ware, a three persons: God firm unitarian, to the the Father, God the chairmanship of Har- Son (Jesus Christ) and vard Divinity School God the Holy Sprit. in 1805 confirmed the momentum of the “Unitarian wave.” At its founding, Park Street Church found herself only one of only two churches out of 17 in Boston that still rigorously adhered to belief in the tri-personal nature of God.1

The revival period of the Second Great Awakening was underway, and suddenly large "Park Street Church and Park Street about 1812." Colored frontspiece from a fireboard in the collections of the Bostonian Society. BRIMSTONE CORNER — Often 217 feet made Park Street the tallest building attributed to fiery preaching, the nickname in the United States for 36 years (until the “Brimstone Corner” actually originated construction of Trinity Church in New York) from gunpowder stored in the basement and in Boston for 57 years (until the construc- during the War of 1812. Nevertheless, tion of the Church of the ).4 The M. A. DeWolfe Howe found a name like large, brand-new sanctuary now sat without that was too good not to catalog with a minister or congregation, and to some critics witty poem (published in Boston Common: the fledgling endeavor already seemed like a Scenes from Four Centuries in 1921.) failure.5

Despite initial setbacks, the congregation’s A Legend of original Brimstone Corner commitment had not been The Devil and a Gale of Wind superficial. Danced hand in hand up Winter Street. The group The Devil like his demons grinned invited Edward To have for comrade so complete Dorr Griffin, A rascal and a mischief-maker a professor Who’d drag an oath from any Quaker. at Andover Theological The Wind made sport of hats and hair Seminary, to That ladies deemed their ornament; be their pastor. With skirts that frolicked everywhere He agreed, and The ordination service for the first American missionaries on February 6, 1812 in Salem, MA. Park Street Church's Away their prim decorum went; his ministry left an indelible mark of doctrine first minister, Edward Griffin, offered the opening prayer. And worthy citizens lamented and missions on the church. After pastoring The public spectacles presented. Park Street, Griffin became the president of Williams College. from Park Street to Mokuaikaua Church on the “Before God, I must say The Devil beamed with horrid joy, recent celebration of their 195 anniversary. that such a glaring contradiction as exists The establishment of the American Board of Til to the Common’s rim they came, between our creed and practice the annals of Foreign Missions is deeply intertwined with Dr. With Park Street’s zeal for the spread of the Then chuckled, “Wait you here, my boy, six thousand years cannot parallel. In view of it Griffin and Park Street Church. “[T]his relation Gospel throughout the world, it did not neglect For duties now my presence claim I am ashamed of my country. I am sick of our which has existed between us is not a relation its own neighborhood. In subsequent years In yonder church on Brimstone Corner unmeaning declamation in praise of liberty and alone between one organization and another. numerous improvement societies originated Where Pleasure’s dead and lacks a mourner; equality, of our hypocritical cant about We were born together, as has been said, the there, including the American Education the unalienable rights of man. I Board and Park Street Church, the children of Society, the Boston chapter of the “But play about till I come back.” could not, for my right hand, one mother…” 6 Although individual support NAACP, the Animal Rescue League, With that he vanished through the doors, stand up before a European for missions was common at the time, Griffin’s the Prison Discipline Society, and And since that day the almanac assembly, and exult that I church-wide backing of some of the earliest the American Temperance Society.7 Has marked the years by tens and scores, am an American citizen, and missionaries sent out from the United States William Lloyd Garrison gave his first Yet never from those sacred portals denounce the usurpations of a is believed to be a first.On October 15, 1819 antislavery address from that pulpit Returns the Enemy of Mortals. kingly government as wicked at Park Street Church, fifteen people bound on July 4, 1829. Two years later a and unjust; or, should I make for the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) were given children’s choir performed the hymn And that is why the faithful Gale the attempt, the recollection official recognition as the “Sandwich Islands “America” (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee) Round Park Street Corner still must blow, of my country’s barbarity and Church.” The relationship between Park Street set to music by Park Street’s own Waiting for him with horns and tail— despotism would blister my lips, Church and the resulting Mokuaikaua Church director of music, Lowell Mason. At least some people tell me so— and cover my cheeks with burning in Kailua Kona, Hawaii, has continued to this None of your famous antiquarians, blushes of shame.” day, with correspondence and congratulations In 1862, in answer to President Abraham But just some wicked Unitarians. (William Lloyd Garrison, in his first Anti-Slavery Address at Park Street Church in Boston, July 4, 1829.) ~ M. A. DeWolfe Howe In 1868, the church installed William Henry Harrison Murray—“unquestionably the most unique individual ever to pastor Park Street Church.”9 Dubbed “Adirondack Murray,” he lectured on Sunday evenings about the Ad- irondack wilderness of New York, and published Adventures in the Wilderness, or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks the year after he was hired. (This publication is credited as the pivot from the British usage of the word “holiday” to the adoption of the American term, “vacation.”10) A hot-blooded and zealous preacher and ad-

A.L. Stone and son Frank the day before they left A. L. Stone, chaplain of 45th MA infantry, 1862 camp at Readville, MA, 1862. venturer, he felt constrained by the aristocratic and intellectual personality of the members of Park Street Church.11 Murray intensely desired Lincoln’s call to arms, 80 men from the pews of graph of the sanctuary draped in yards of black that the church focus on the poor and outcast Park Street Church joined the 45th Massachu- mourning cloth preserves the grief the church around them. Finally, his differences with the setts Regiment. Pastor Andrew Stone agreed felt at the announcement. Park Street deacons having become irreconcil- to serve as chaplain. Several heartbreaking able, he resigned in 1874, only to immediately wartime letters to the congregation live today open his “New England Church” a stone’s throw in the archives at the Congregational Library: away in what is now the Orpheum Theatre.12 “Let your prayers hover constantly over the pillows of our sick and wounded. The touch of loved fingers is far away, but your intercession may be as the shadow of an angel’s wing to faces growing white under the signature of death.”8 He returned home after eight months of service to a motivated church. The Woman’s Benevolent Society contributed bandages, socks and food items for soldiers. The church also supported local chapters of the Christian Commission and the YMCA. The joyful news of the surrender at Appomattox was eclipsed by the shock of the assassination of President Lincoln. The congregation, prepared to rejoice, was wrenched into lament instead. A photo- The ensuing years were marked by a no- Perhaps due to pressure from the public outcry ticeable demographic shift to the suburbs, in combination with the loss of confidence in and the church building was surrounded and the real estate market, the deal fell through.18 nearly blocked by years of subway con- The pastor of Park Street, Dr. John Withrow, struction (see left).13 The decline in atten- had a change of heart and asked the member- dance forced the church to rent out space ship to hire a new associate minister who could in its basement to street-level vendors, reenergize the church. Dr. Arcturus Zodiac which served to stall a seemingly inevitable Conrad accepted the position in October downturn.14 On December 11, 1902 the Park 1905.19 Street Congregational Society officially voted to sell the church building, believing Perhaps no one could have been better suited that the money received from the purchase to initiate the church into the modern era could be used to relocate to a more conve- than A.Z. Conrad. As aggressive in business as nient location.15 The Boston Herald jumped he was in theology, Conrad capitalized on the at the chance, offering $1.25 million and an- recent goodwill of the city and began a series nouncing plans to tear down the church and of improvements, which replace it with an 11-story office building.16 included remodeling the Startled at this news, a group of Bostonians front of the sanctuary, unaffiliated with the church rapidly formed the purchase of a a “Committee for the Preservation of Park new organ and the Street Church,” arguing that the historical removal of decades value, cultural influence and architectural of gray paint from beauty of the church had inestimable worth the original red to the city of Boston and should be pre- brick exterior. served by all possible means. (For example, “After three years even the geographic location was honored of ministry, the by Back Bay architect Ralph Huntington Sunday morning —as in “Huntington Avenue”— who directed crowds had more than that Columbus Avenue, the spine of the doubled; the number in Back Bay project, aim directly for the Park the evening services had 20 Street Church steeple.)17 quadrupled. As soon as it was possible, on January 14, 1923, Park Street Church sermons were broadcast over the newly incorporated airwaves of WNAC.21 Conrad’s contribution not only to Park Street Church, but also to American evangelical history in general may have been more present in the public mind, if not for the enormous visionary influence of his chosen successor,Harold John Ockenga.

From the start Ockenga showed a tendency toward overachievement. During his first senior pastorate at Point Breeze Presbyterian in Pittsburgh, PA, he grew the Sunday school to over 400 people, added a 60-voice choir and Taken from the “Committee for the Preservation of Park Street Church, Boston.” A portion of a birdseye view map of Boston, showing Columbus Ave leading directly to the Park Street Church on the Boston Common. retired the mortgage, all while working toward a Ockenga’s worldview was conceived against intellectual practice viewed as dangerous by PhD in economics at the University of Pitts- the backdrop of the fundamentalist-modernist fellow fundamentalists. His “neo-evangelical” burgh (his dissertation was entitled, “Poverty as controversy at Princeton Theological Semi- commitment to theological orthodoxy flowed a Theoretical and Practical Problem of Govern- nary, where he began his theological education. deliberately into a pragmatic lifestyle devoted ment in the Writings of Jeremy Bentham and the When his professor and mentor, John Gresham to serving the whole person—soul, mind and Marxian Alternative”).22 Machen, left the inhospitable environment at body. Princeton to found Westminster Theological Ockenga had a deep love for Boston, and Park Seminary, Ockenga followed, graduating from Street Church turned out to be an ideal site Westminster in 1930. (Even the hymnal we from which he could launch his initiatives. continue to have in our sanctuary pews today is While serving as senior pastor, Ockenga helped that of the Orthodox Presbyterian denomina- organize Christianity Today magazine, was the tion—established by Machen in 1933.) founding president of the National Association of Evangelicals, founded the War Relief Com- first president ofGordon-Conwell Theological mission (now World Relief), was a founding Seminary. father and the first president ofFuller Theolog- ical Seminary, was host to an unprecedented The tie binding these incredible accomplish- Billy Graham crusade in 1950, and authored ments was Ockenga’s sincere faith in the God 12 books. After his retirement he orchestrated of the . He feared neither the reality the merger of Gordon Divinity School and of the supernatural, considered absurd by Conwell School of Theology and served as the academic peers in Boston, nor the rigorous Paul Toms during his missionary days.

Dr. Paul E. Toms, Ockenga’s associate minister and eventual successor, was himself something of a product of Park Street Church’s missions history. Before coming to Boston he and his wife, Eva, served as missionaries in Hawaii, even for a time pastoring the very church started by those early missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. His passion for world missions matched Ockenga’s, and during his tenure as senior min- ister Park Street’s relationship with its mission- Harold John Ockenga aries deepened.23

Billy Graham speaking at Park Street Church. “Seekers” ministry, circa 1975 Another turn of a in the Boston area. Ten years ago, the church’s century approached, traditional Sunday night service was attracting and the next only 40 people and was about to be canceled. senior pastor Church leaders instead decided to refashion David C. Fisher it to suit college students and partnered with embraced it. Campus Crusade and InterVarsity. These days, He encour- more than 1,000 students show up at Park aged associate Street most Sunday evenings. Church leaders minister Daniel have had to expand to two services.”24 Harrell to form a contemporary/ David Fisher's innovations expanded beyond postmodern just the worship services. He encouraged the service in the integration of computers in the office, wired Robert Bloodworth with the Sunday Night Band at the Park Street Church picnic on the Boston Common in 2006. evening, eager- the sanctuary for sound, increased pay for fe- ly embraced by male church employees to equitable levels, and the next generation. purchased numbers two and three Park Street tion to both think and love deeply. He fre- Growth was dramatic. Years from neighboring Houghton Mifflin Publishers. quently could be heard quoting the motto: “the th st later a lengthy expose in the Boston Globe Fisher urged a 20 century church into a 21 pursuit of God in the company of friends.” century mindset. reported: “Park Street is the flagship church for Although history has yet to be fully realized, college evangelicals from about 20 campuses Hugenberger is likely to be mostly remembered for his exegetical approach to understanding Scripture and his passion for integrating faith and science. Among his most notable accom- plishments is a shift from partial support of foreign missionaries to the adoption of a “full support” or “staff missionary” strategy, target- ing the most unreached parts of the world. He also facilitated the birth of two local schools: Park Street School and Boston Trinity Acade- my. During the 200th anniversary celebration of Park Street Church, Hugenberger presid- ed over a yearlong celebration that included preaching from Ravi Zacharias, Joni Eareckson Tada, John Piper, Francis Collins, and others. Students from Boston Trinity Academy (below) and Park Street School (above).

Park Street’s most recent senior minister, of engineering and applied physics at Harvard Gordon P. Hugenberger is a true native son University. Ockenga’s preaching profoundly of New England, and in some ways, of Park affected the way that Hugenberger himself Street Church itself. Although having come to thought about ministry. During his tenure at a saving faith through the work of the Salva- Park Street Church, Gordon Hugenberger tion Army, Hugenberger sat through Harold heavily promoted Ockenga’s definition of the Ockenga’s sermons as a young college student “neo-evangelical”—encouraging his congrega- Endnotes 1 Hill, H. A. (1890). History of the Old South 11 Englizian, H. C. (1968), p. 166.

Church, vol II. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and 12 Company, p. 366. Bendroth, M. L. (2005). Fundamentalists in the City. New York: Oxford University Press, 2 Englizian, H. C. (1968). Brimstone Corner. p. 160. Chicago: Moody Press, p. 25–26. 13 Bendroth, M. L. (2005), p. 160. 3 The Committee for the Preservation of Park 14 Street Church, Boston. (1903). The Preserva- Englizian, H. C. (1968), p. 197–199. tion of Park Street Church. Boston: Geo. H. 15 Englizian, H. C. (1968), p. 202–203. Ellis Co., Printers. 16 Bendroth, M. L. (2005), p. 163. 4 List of tallest buildings in the United States. (2016, July 1). Retrieved from Wikipedia: 17 The Committee for the Preservation of Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_ Street Church, Boston. (1903). The Preservation buildings_in_the_United_States#Timeline_of_ of Park Street Church. Boston: Geo. H. Ellis Photo taken April, 2017 tallest_buildings Co., Printers, p. 56.

5 Hill, H. A. (1890). History of the Old South 18 The Committee for the Preservation of Park Church, vol II. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Street Church, Boston. (1903), p. 65. Throughout the years, Park Street Church Company, p. 367. has remained remarkably consistent in its 19 Englizian, H. C. (1968), p. 207. dedication to worship in spirit and in truth. 6 Conrad, R. A. (1909). Park Street Church 20 Although culture and politics fluctuate locally Cenntennial. Boston: Park Street Church Cen- Englizian, H. C. (1968), p. 211–212. and globally, the words of the original members’ tennial Committee, p. 180. 21 commitment abide: "Radio Programs for Today." (1923, January 7 Rosell, G. (2009). Boston’s Historic Park 14). Boston Daily Globe, p. 50. Street Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publi- “Finally, we hereby covenant 22 Strachen, O. (2015). Awakening the Evangeli- and engage as fellow Christians, of one faith, and cations, p. 52. cal Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. particulars of the same hope and joy, to give up 8 Rosell, G. (2009). Boston’s Historic Park ourselves unto the Lord, for the observing the or- 23 Rosell, G. (2009), p. 77. dinances of Christ together with the same society, Street Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publi- and to unite together into one body, for the public cations, p. 97. 24 Swidey, N. (2003, November 30). "God on worship of God, and the mutual edification of 9 the Quad." The Boston Globe. one another, in the fellowship of the Lord Jesus; Englizian, H. C. (1968), p. 164. exhorting, reproving, comforting and watching 10 Where Was the Birthplace of the American over each other, for mutual edification, looking for Vacation? (2017, June 20). http://www.smith- that blessed hope and the glorious appeasing of sonianmag.com/travel/where-was-the-birth- the great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ, who place-of-the-american-vacation-5520155/ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Boston February 27th Anno Domini 1809.”