Religion question

The United States of America was born on Philadelphia’s Fifth Street, which runs along the east side of Independence Hall and The Liberty Bell. Fifth Street is thus unsurprisingly something of an anchor for, and a testimony to, American religious culture, past and present. After all, it was on Fifth Street that the Declaration of Independence was signed, thereby laying the foundation for American civil religion in its affirmation that the rights of the citizens of the new republic are “endowed by their Creator.” In addition to hosting and witnessing such landmark moments in American political history, like the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence and Obama’s epic 2008 speech on race at Independence Mall, Fifth Street has also witnessed some of the most significant happenings in American religious history. The Street is much longer today than in Washington’s era, now running, as it does, from Oregon Avenue at its southern limit to Cheltenham Ave at its northern, an urban stretch of 16.16 miles. Religious life and relics on the Street together offer a virtual visual tour of American religion in its historical and contemporary manifestation. Though certainly not comprehensively, the story of American religion is told on or within a few blocks of this street, for along it stand one of the country’s oldest continuously functioning synagogues; its most storied revolutionary-era Protestant churches, Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church and Christ Church; its oldest Italian Catholic parish, Mary Magdalene de Pazzi; its largest Quaker meetinghouse, on Arch Street; one of its most miraculous Catholic shrines, where Saint John Neumann’s body lies; and a Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral; along with a selection of botanicas that retail religious goods for practitioners of Santería. Though he would build his physical church edifice a block away, furthermore, it was on Fifth Street that Richard Allen established the nation’s first free African American congregation, while today Black, Puerto Rican, and Korean Pentecostal storefront churches dot the commercial throughway in North Philly, where also an ambulatory Senegalese Mouride mosque calls the faithful to Friday evening prayer. Upon closer inspection, on this street, or within one block on a side street to the east or west, one also finds a Moorish Science Temple, a Won Buddhist Temple, a yoga center, a “prosperity” center, and, among many other almost vertiginously variegated religious sites, a one-time German Protestant church that now houses an Hispanic Pentecostal congregation. A paragon of religious pluralism and religious liberty, running through the heart of the nation’s most important historical city, which is today its fifth largest city, Fifth Street tells America’s religious story.

First public library in USA is on Fifth…

Richard Julliani, Priest, Parish, and People: Saving the Faith in Philadelphia’s Little Italy. South Bend, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2007.

Book on St. Mary Magdalene delPazzi Church, 712 Montrose St., near Christian St.

In 1873, Msgr. Francis Kenrick, Bishop of Philadelphia, founded St. Charles Bormeo Catholic Seminary at Fifth Street, later relocating it at Fifth and Prune. It is now in Wynewood, PA. (http://www.scs.edu/publications/factbook/factbook01.htm) 2/10/09

The congregation of this Church was originally

formed by the associating of some of the members

of the MarTcei Street, or First Presbyterian

Church in Philadelphia, together with other persons

who were before unconnected with any particu-

lar congregation. For some time they assembled

for worship in a small building, called the Hill

Meeting-house, on the lot of ground in Pine street,

between Fourth and Fifth streets, where, after-

wards, was erected the spacious edifice which the

congregation now occupy. On the site of this edifice

it was, that about the middle of the last century,

the celebrated and successful evangelist, the Rev.

George Whifejield, preached to thousands, from

16 IIISTOKICAL SKETCH.

a stage erected by his friends for the purpose,

after he had been refused the use of the churches.

This lot, situate on the south side of Pine street

and west side of Fourth street, containing in length

from the south-west corner, on Pine street one

hundred and seventy-eight feet, and in breadth, on

Fourth street one hundred and two feet, was, by

Letters Patent dated on the 19th of October, 1764,

granted by the Honorable Thomas and Richard

Penn, esquires, proprietaries and governors of the

Province of Pennsylvania, " to the congregation

belonging to the old Presbyterian meeting-house,

situate on the south side of Hig;h street and near

the court house in the city of Philadelphia ;"

An Historical Sketch of the Pine Street: Or Third Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia

John Wood Scott, 1837, Philadelphia: Lydia Bailey

(http://www.archive.org/stream/historicalsketch00scot/historicalsketch00scot_djvu.txt) 2/12/09

“South Third Street Presbyterian (Old School), corner of Fifth street. This church originated in the second secession from the First church, previously alluded to. They first assembled for divine worship, on the 7th of April, 1844, in the public school room of District No. 1, which had been procured for their temporary use. On application to the (Old School) presbytery of New York, a committee of that body was appointed, who met on the 19th of April, and organized a church, consisting of twenty-seven members, which was subsequently taken under the care of that presbytery, and the Rev. N. S. Prime, at the request of the session, was engaged as a stated supply. At a meeting, April 22d, 1844, which bad been duly notified according to the statute, trustees were elected, and the congregation became incorporated under the style of The Presbyterian Church of Williamsburgh. The Rev. Eugene P. Stevenson received a unanimous call, October 31st, 1844, to the pastoral charge of this church, and shortly after commenced laboring with them, being installed on the 20th of February, 1845; meetings being held in the public school house on the corner of South Third and Fifth streets. On the 1Fifth of July, 1845, ground was broken on South Third and Fifth streets, for the erection of a church; the corner-stone was laid with appropriate religious services on the 18th of August, ensuing, the building being first occupied on Thanksgiving, December 4, 1845, and dedicated on sabbath, May 10, 1846. This edifice is of brick, sixty-two by seventy-five feet, with a projection of twelve by twenty feet for a tower and steeple; the land costing $650, and the building $16,000, together with a parsonage costing $3,800. In the following year the house adjoining the church, now owned by the congregation, and occupied as a parsonage house from the beginning, was built. Mr. Stevenson was succeeded by the Rev. John D. Wells, who was ordained in his office, was dismissed from his charge by the presbytery, October 9, 1849 ; and January 20, 1850.

In 1852, extensive repairs and improvements were made in the interior of the church, and several times since the congregation has expended large sums in adding to the beauty and comfort of the building which has become so much endeared to them.

This church has been the centre from which a number of churches have radiated, viz: the Christie Street, the Throop Avenue and the Ross Street Presbyterian churches. All of these churches are thriving and prosperous, and are doing excellent service in the various parts of the city in which they are located. The old church, meanwhile, though often tried by the removal of influential members to the country, is still strong for its great work. It has ten ruling elders, three deacons, seven trustees, more than three hundred members, and about the same number of scholars in the Sabbath school, while it instructs many more in other Sabbath schools wholly or partially under its care.

The Rev. John D. Wells, D.D., is a native of Whitesboro, Oneida county, N. Y. His education preparatory to college, was received in the Cambridge, Washington County, and Sing Sing academies, under the care of the Rev. N. S. Prime, D.D. He graduated at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., in 1839, and received the honorary degree of D.D., from the same institution a few years ago. After leaving college he taught the academy in Huntsville, Alabama, for two years and a half. He studied theology in Princeton Seminary, graduating in 1844, and was licensed to preach the gospel by the North river presbytery. He supplied a private chapel till the fall of 1844, when he took charge of a mission enterprise at the corner of Madison avenue and Twenty-ninth streets, New York. Losing his health here, in 1847, he became the teacher of the parish school connected with the First Presbyterian church in the same city. After regaining his health he relinquished the school to accept a call from the South Third street Presbyterian church, Williamsburgh. In 1858, after he had labored unceasingly for eight years among them, his people sent him abroad for the benefit of his health.”

http://www.panix.com/~cassidy/STILES/PRESBYTERIANCHURCHES.html 2/12/09

Michael D. Cassidy WWW Site

Presbyterian
Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia PA 19147,
(phone: 215-627-1852)

Duffield was a “New Light” preacher; sided with Whitefield over “Old Lighters” and sought to carry on “Great Awakening” spirit

He was Revolutionary, preached independence at Old Pine; John Adams was a disciple… Chaplain to PA Militia and to the Continental Congress

Whitefield preached on fifth street in 1739

Religion and immigration in urban America

Homeland Cultural Identity Reconstruction and Reinforcement is a Central function of Immigrant Religion

And in the US, immigrant religion has time and again changed the face of the Religious field… Think pilgrims and conquistadores; Spanish missions and settlers in the west; first wave of immigrants and second…

Religious pluralism in America; disenfranchisement and why USA has never secularized (disenchantment of the world)

Leading theory on immigration: Push Pull

EXIT LOYALTY VOICE

Consider the role of religion in each.

Social Capital

Lecture briefly on Merci Jesus and Frantz Lubin

Once here: Consider the Cultural, Political, and Social MEDIATING FUNCTIONS of Religious institutions

Old wave of Immigrants (years, sending nations, religions) – overwhelmingly European and white; immigration laws tighten in 1920s and 30s, curtailing the boom

New wave of Immigrants (1965; sending nations, religions) – overwhelmingly from Third World and non-white

Immigration and Naturalization Act (1965)

Commonalities in both waves: highly concentrated in urban centers, port cities, and willing to take low paying jobs

Immigrants and religious revitalization in US and Europe (touch on secularization thesis)

Segway into religion on Fifth Street Philadelphia

16.6 Miles

Oregon Ave in South Philly to Cheltenham Ave in North

Historical significance:

Old Pine, Christ Church, Arch St Meetinghouse, Allen and Absalom; etc…

1st wave immigrants: Mary Magdelene de Pazzi

Deutches Evangelische Kirche

Impact of New Wave, example of the above church, for one…

Now, let’s take a look at Fifth st, past and present

Old Saint Augustine's Church
Old Saint Augustine's Church opened for divine worship on 7 June 1801 and stood at Fourth and Vine Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nicholas Fitz Maurice Fagan designed the structure.
Saint Augustine's Church at Fourth and Vine streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was burned during a display of anti-Catholicism on 8 May 1844. The Augustinians of Villanova, fearing a know-nothing onslaught against the college, did sentry duty on the grounds while students vacated the dormitories to sleep off the campus.
Interior of Olde Saint Augustine's Church restored for its Bicentennial. Founded in 1796 at 4th and Vine Streets in Philadelphia, suffered extensive damage during a storm in December 1992. The Church lost its steeple and a portion of its roof resulting in severe water damage to its decorative plasterwork and paintings.
(postcard, Brawer & Hauptman, Architects. 20 North 3rd Street. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106).