This is the story of one Unitarian Universalist congregation founded in 1833 and housed in a magnificent building which was designed by Minard Lafever and completed in 1844. It is a tale of scandals and sorrows, of the rough Brooklyn waterfront intertwined with the elevated airs of affluent Brooklyn Heights, and sharp theological differences that, at one time, rendered the church into four congregations. This book is for historians and lovers of the borough of Brooklyn. Containing over 50 photographs, it is a thoroughly documented, extensively researched view of a major metropolitan church and its times. For those familiar with the church and its neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights, it is an inexhaustible scrapbook, a complete compendium of those thousands of lives that have been touched by this center of Unitarian Universalism in Brooklyn....

"Although Unitarianism, with its rejection of the deity of the Son and the Holy Ghost, is an ancient tradition, churches professing it were quite new in America when ten displaced New Englanders met in 1833 to found the First Unitarian Church in Brooklyn."...

I: A Miracle of Elegance & Grace II: Acceptance & Division III: Service & Glory IV: Commitment & Notoriety V: Good Words and Works VI: Chance & Change VII: Windows & Memorials VIII: Dignity & Daring IX: A Willing & Generous Congregation Appendix References Bibliography Index...