Joseph Tuckerman and the Outdoor Church

Description:
Joseph Tuckerman and the Outdoor Church is about the Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, a Unitarian minister who created and led a street ministry in Boston, Massachusetts, between 1826 and 1839 at the behest of his friend and college roommate, William Ellery Channing. Because of Tuckerman's innovative approach to encountering and helping the poor people he met near the Boston wharves, he is considered the father of American social work as well as a prescient, dedicated, and socially active minister whose work led directly to the Social Gospel Movement. The book examines and interprets Tuckerman's theology and ministry of outreach in light of the author's experience as pastor of the Outdoor Church of Cambridge, Inc., an outdoor ministry to homeless men and women in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Outdoor Church offers prayer services and pastoral assistance outdoors in all seasons and all weather in order to be accessible to chronically homeless men and women who, because of shame or embarrassment, hostility or illness, cannot or will not enter conventional churches. Joseph Tuckerman and the Outdoor Church is a unique and gripping look at a radically innovative nineteenth-century minister through the prism of the actual application of his thinking and his example to an ongoing ministry to the chronically homeless men and women of Cambridge.

Endorsements:
""Thank God that parish ministers are writing theology again, as Jed Mannis has done in his brief biography of Joseph Tuckerman, whose life was a lesson in taking the gospel of Jesus to the poor. Jed's writing and ministry make the call and gift of this quiet, impressive man come alive to us, who need to know that such a ministry is possible.""
--Carl Scovel, Minister Emeritus of King's Chapel in Boston, author of Never Far From Home and An Easter Faith

""Part biography, part memoir, and part description of a street ministry to the homeless-Joseph Tuckerman and the Outdoor Church succeeds marvelously on all fronts. You will not be able to put down this well-written biography of Joseph Tuckerman-the first true minister to the homeless in this country-and this memoir of Jed Mannis, who walks today in Tuckerman's footsteps. But even more compelling is the insight provided into ministry to the homeless and the presence of the divine and wonderfully human on the streets.""
--Tom Lenhart, Senior Minister of First Congregational Church, Chappaqua, New York


About the Contributor(s):
Jedediah Mannis is pastor to the Outdoor Church of Cambridge, an outdoor church that serves the chronically homeless men and women of Cambridge, Massachusetts.