Channing Church launches capital campaign to restore steeple

Channing Memorial Church is a thriving Unitarian Universalist congregation located in the heart of Newport. First gathered in 1835, our congregation has been a vital and inspirational community for generations dedicated to the values of liberal religion.

The Rev. William Ellery Channing spoke at the dedication of the church first housed on Mill Street. It was Channing who first articulated what came to be known as Unitarian theology, that there is but one God. Driven by his inclusive faith and a passion for social justice, Channing was an influential leader. His thought gave rise to New England Transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau and inspired intellectuals and reformers worldwide.

The Unitarian congregation chose to build a Memorial Sanctuary to honor William Ellery Channing in his birthplace. A feat that, according to the minister of the time “the majority of the congregation considered impossible and some thought it an insane and wild dream, but they resolved to go forward.” The cornerstone bearing the words “We Build in Faith, Hope, Charity” was laid on Pelham Street across from the Old Stone Mill in 1880, the centennial of Channing’s birth.

Many dignitaries gathered for the Centennial Celebration in Newport including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and Julia Ward Howe. The newspaper reports of the time state that the building of the church was cause for celebration not only for Unitarians but for all people.

Since its completion, the stone steeple of Channing Memorial Church has risen 130 feet above the skyline in Newport. Located on Historic Hill, the steeple can be seen from the water and when crossing the Pell Bridge. Newport’s tallest point, it is a symbol of religious freedom in a town known for religious diversity and tolerance.

Since 1881, Newport has not only looked to Channing’s steeple for inspiration, they have listened to its music. Housed within is a rare nine-bell set of chimes, a massive musical instrument with bells ranging in size from 300 pounds to just over a ton. For over one hundred years, the bells rang out in celebration at weddings, tolled in mourning, and rang in solidarity with the joys and sorrows of the larger community. That is, until the year 2000 when neighbors began hearing a periodic clang in the middle of the night, the sound of bricks falling from within the steeple striking the historic bells.

This phantom bell-ringing alerted church leaders to growing structural problems with the steeple caused by years of moisture freezing and thawing. This moisture found its way into the steeple through faults in previous repairs. A platform was constructed to protect the bells and a steel girdle was fastened to shore up the stone structure.

“Rising to the Challenge!” is the theme of the Capital Campaign to repair the steeple and bells of Channing Memorial Church launched on March 1, 2009. Already members and friends of the church are rising to the challenge! Of the estimated cost of $1.2 million benefactors, church members, and Foundations have already contributed roughly $400,000. In December, Channing Memorial Church’s application for a “Save America’s Treasures” grant of $440,000 was approved. This grant is very competitive. Our successful application demonstrates that the Gilded Age Sanctuary is a treasure not only to our own membership but as a community asset. Our goal is to raise $400,000, the remaining third needed to restore our steeple and bells.

This project is about more than stone and mortar. The steeple project is our opportunity to preserve a beacon of liberal religion for future generations. In the tradition of our namesake, Channing Memorial Church is an open and inclusive community dedicated to the values of equality, justice, and compassion. The church is open to all people for rites of passage, meditation, concerts, and educational opportunities; a safe haven for people of all religious backgrounds or none at all to join together for interfaith services and celebrations.

To reconstruct a steeple is an act of faith. The tower of stone seems to defy gravity as it rises 130 feet into the sky. When so much music is recorded, it is an act of faith to restore a chime of bells to ring out with timeless music. This reconstruction project will begin this spring. When so many banks are floundering, you are invited to invest in a sure thing.

Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman is the Minister of Channing Memorial Church, a Unitarian Universalist Church in Newport, RI.