Notable Events
The day after John Brown was executed his body was greeted by William Henry Furness in Philadelphia for a private vigil before heading to North Elba, New York where Brown is buried.
When Martin Luther King Jr. was a seminary student in nearby Chester, he attended a lecture about how Mohandas K. Gandhi integrated Henry David Thoreau's theory of non-violent civil disobedience that inspired King's non-violent protests for civil rights. This lecture is reputed to have taken place at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia.
In April 2006, the church officially became a Welcoming Congregation to the Bisexual, Transgender, Lesbian, and Gay community. In 2007, Nathan C. Walker became the first openly gay minister to be called to the serve the church.
In July 2006, executives from Monsanto visited the church to discuss the adoption of a code of ethics for the field of biotechnology, a sort of Hippocratic oath, akin to a doctor's pledge to 'do no harm.'
In December 2011, Palgrave Macmillan published "Whose God Rules?: Is the United States a Secular Nation or a Theolegal Democracy?", co-edited by Reverend Nathan C. Walker and congregational President Edwin J. Greenlee. The foreword was by former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair with additional contributions by Alan Dershowitz, Katie Ford, Robert P. George, Kent Greenawalt, Joseph K. Grieboski, Ted G. Jelen, Martha C. Nussbaum, Mark Rozell, William F. Schultz, and other scholars. The book was endorsed by Cornel West, the late Forrest Church, and Leslie Griffin.
Read more about this topic: First Unitarian Church Of Philadelphia
Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or events:
“a notable prince that was called King John;
And he ruled England with main and with might,
For he did great wrong, and maintained little right.”
—Unknown. King John and the Abbot of Canterbury (l. 2–4)
“This is certainly not the place for a discourse about what festivals are for. Discussions on this theme were plentiful during that phase of preparation and on the whole were fruitless. My experience is that discussion is fruitless. What sets forth and demonstrates is the sight of events in action, is living through these events and understanding them.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)