Seamen's Bethel
The Seamen's Bethel is a non-denominational loose when Seemannskirche designed church building in New Bedford in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . It was built in 1832 and is Contributing Property to the New Bedford Historic District .
history
The name Bethel (“House of God”) refers to the Old Testament story of Jacob's dream of the ladder to heaven ( Gen 28: 10–22 EU ). In Hebrew , "Beth" means house and "El" means God.
Believing that whalers' behavior "harmed the dignity and order of [their] community," the New Bedford Port Society for the Moral Improvement of Seamen was founded in 1830 to provide services for seamen before they went on a fishing trip. These took place either directly on the water or in the town hall, which is hardly suitable for it. In 1832, the Whalemen's Bethel church was built next to the Seamen's Home . Cross-denominational services are held there to this day.
Herman Melville was one of the participants in the service from December 1840 to January 1841 . The pew he used is marked accordingly today. On the side walls of the church there are cenotaphs that remind of whalers who perished at sea.
Herman Melville mentions Seamen's Bethel in his novel Moby-Dick , which made it famous. The pulpit he mentioned there, however, did not originally exist in the form he described as a ship's bow . But tourists who had read the book or watched the 1956 film adaptation (shot in Ireland ) complained about the lack of the pulpit until the New Bedford Port Society decided in 1961 to convert it according to Melville's idea.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 41 ° 38 ′ 6.1 " N , 70 ° 55 ′ 25.6" W.