By Bonnie Withers

Last week, we learned about the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist) where William Ellery Channing’s famous sermon (1819) was preached. At that time, it was called The First Independent of Baltimore. As we learned, this was the first church built by Unitarians in the U.S. and has been used continually by Unitarian Universalists to this day. 

Another famous church from our early American history is King’s Chapel in Boston. If you have walked the Freedom Trail, you have seen this iconic church and have wandered through the burying ground next door. King’s Chapel was built as an Anglican church in 1754. When James Freeman became minister in 1787, he asked the congregation to agree to remove all references to the trinity from the Book of Common Prayer. They voted to do so and the congregation continues to use that text in their UU worship which, however, remains Anglican in style. Here’s a link to the rich history of King’s Chapel