Плимут шіркеуі: Құлдыққа қарсы күрестің тарихи орталығы

Plymouth Church is an historic church located at 57 Orange Street between Henry and Hicks Streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City; the Church House has the address 75 Hicks Street. The church was built in 1849–50 and was designed by Joseph C. Wells. Under the leadership of its first minister, Henry Ward Beecher, it became the foremost center of anti slavery sentiment in the mid 19th century. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1961, and has been a National Historic Landmark since 1966. It is part of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, created by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965. The church is a member of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches.

Plymouth Church was founded in 1847 by 21 transplanted New Englanders, who were part of a circle centered on the wealthy evangelical merchants Arthur and Lewis Tappan. Among them were noted businessmen such as Henry C. Bowen, John Tasker Howard, David Hale, and Seth Hunt. It was the third Congregationalist church to be organized in Brooklyn – then a separate city from New York. The site where the church building would be located was purchased from the First Presbyterian Church, which had been worshipping there since 1822, but which needed more space. It moved to a new site on Henry Street, a few blocks away. Plymouth Church's first pastor was Henry Ward Beecher, who became a leading figure in the abolitionist movement. His sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe, noted today as the author of the anti slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) that "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War." The church itself became an important station on the Underground Railroad through which slaves from the South were secretly transported to Canada. Locally known as "the Grand Central Depot," slaves were hidden in the tunnel like basement beneath the church sanctuary. The Rev. Charles B. Ray, an African American living in Manhattan, and the founding editor of The Colored American newspaper, was quoted as saying, "I regularly drop off fugitives at Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church in Brooklyn." Plymouth Church is one of the few active Underground Railroad congregations in New York still housed in its original location. One of the main recurring events that garnered considerable public attention were Beecher's mock slave auctions. Imitating events like this in the South, Beecher would bring slaves into the sanctuary, auction them off to the highest bidder, and then set them free. The most famous case involved "Pinky", a 9 year old slave girl who had escaped from Alabama. On February 5, 1860, in front of a crowd of 3000, Beecher started the bidding and a collection plate was passed around the congregation. When the plate with $900 and a golden ring reached the pulpit, Beecher picked up the ring and placed it on the finger of Pinky. He exclaimed, "Remember, with this ring I do wed thee to freedom." Sixty seven years later, Pinky returned to Plymouth, now a well educated woman named Rose Ward Hunt, and returned the ring Beecher had given to her. In October 1859, the church offered Abraham Lincoln $200 for coming to Brooklyn and giving a lecture to the congregation. Lincoln accepted the invitation, traveled to Brooklyn and participated in church services on Sunday, February 26. Today a plaque marks the pew where Lincoln attended the service. Because of high demand, Lincoln's address was moved to Cooper Union, where a 25 cent admission fee was charged. Lincoln gave his famous anti slavery speech before a capacity crowd of 1,500 on February 27, 1860, more than eight months before he was elected President. In 1867, a group from Plymouth Church undertook a five and a half month voyage aboard the steamer Quaker City to Europe and the Holy Land. Joining them as a journalist was the young Mark Twain. His satiric account of this pioneering tour group, The Innocents Abroad, was Twain's best selling work throughout his lifetime. In 1875, a history of rumored extramarital affairs by Beecher and his condemnation from the pulpit of Victoria Woodhull's advocacy of free love among other factors culminated in the "Beecher Tilton Scandal Case". The highly publicized two and a half year long case resulted in the disfellowshiping of aggrieved husband and church member Theodore Tilton, legal and church exoneration of the pastor, and condemnation of him by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others including his younger half sister Isabella Beecher Hooker. Beecher died suddenly in 1887. He was succeeded by Lyman Abbott (1887 1899), a lawyer turned minister and religious journalist; Newell Dwight Hillis (1899 1924), who oversaw the completion of the Plymouth campus as it exists today; J. Stanley Durkee (1926 1940), a former President of Howard University; L. Wendell Fifield (1941 1955), a pastor of Seattle's Plymouth Congregational Church widely known for his active role in civic affairs throughout the Pacific Northwest; and the Rev. Harry H. Kruener (1960 1984), Dean of the chapel at Denison University. In 1991, the Rev. Sharon Blackburn, who had served as associate pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, located a few blocks from Plymouth Church, became the first female minister in the church's history, following the short tenures of the Rev. Frank Goodwin (1985–88) and the Rev. Richard Stanger (1988 1991). In addition to Lincoln and Twain many other famous writers and activists spoke at Plymouth, including William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, John Greenleaf Whittier, Clara Barton, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Greeley, and William Thackery. echoed just months later in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Senator Hillary Clinton spoke at Plymouth in 2001, and two noted minimalist composers, Philip Glass and Charlemagne Palestine, gave concerts using Plymouth's Aeolian Skinner organ. Plymouth Church merged with the Congregational Church of the Pilgrims in 1934, and the resulting combined congregation was named Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims. The Congregational Church of the Pilgrims left its Richard Upjohn designed church building, which later was designated a New York City Landmark as Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church. The building's stained glass windows, including windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios, were moved to Plymouth Church's nearby Hillis Hall. The church also displays a piece of Plymouth Rock, from the traditional landing site of the Mayflower Pilgrims. it is now a member of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. The church reverted to its original name, "Plymouth Church", in September, 2011. The church has used the Kansas City Statement of Faith as its own since its adoption by the Congregational Christian Churches in 1913. As a congregational church, each member is empowered to participate in the decision making of the congregation. The church is actively supporting various anti human trafficking groups, the Mission School of Hope in Eastern Cameroon, Habitat for Humanity, the Hope Program, and Brooklyn anti hunger initiatives. On April 17, 2016, it was announced that the Rev. Brett Younger will be the 11th settled senior minister in Plymouth's 169 year history. He succeeds the Rev. David C. Fisher who retired in September 2013, after leading the Plymouth congregation for 9 years.