Boston
A town in Massachusetts. George Whitefield preached on its Common in 1740, and Charles Chauncy, pastor of its First Church, wrote against the revival in 1743.
George Whitefield’s journal records sermons in the meeting-houses of Boston and on the Common in September and October 1740, with the governor carrying him to his farewell sermon in his coach (Whitefield, Journal seventh journal, pp. 28 and 43). Charles Chauncy’s Seasonable Thoughts was printed in the town in 1743, and its title page calls him pastor of the First Church of Christ in Boston (Chauncy, Seasonable Thoughts title page). See the Great Awakening.
What happened here
- 1734 to 1743, firm dateThe Great Awakening
A revival in Jonathan Edwards’s congregation at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1734 and 1735 becomes known through his printed account. In 1740 George Whitefield preaches to great crowds in New England, and Charles Chauncy of Boston answers that much of the stir is disorder.
- 6 January 2002, firm dateThe Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis
From January 2002, reports from Boston and then official inquiries in the United States, Ireland and Australia document the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy and its concealment by church authorities. Popes change church law. Reports on other churches follow.