Background
John Haynes Holmes was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, on November 29, 1879, the son of an unsuccessful but bookish businessman. He was raised in Malden, Massachussets.
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John Haynes Holmes was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, on November 29, 1879, the son of an unsuccessful but bookish businessman. He was raised in Malden, Massachussets.
Young Holmes was educated at Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, where he received his degree in 1904.
From 1904 to 1907 he served as minister to the Third Religious Society of Dorchester and then accepted the pastorate at New York's Unitarian Church of the Messiah. He served as president of the General Unitarian Conference and of the Free Religious Association in the years before World War I, but in 1919 he resigned his ministerial fellowship in the Unitarian Church. His congregation followed their independent minister, changing the name of their church to the Community Church of New York.
Under Holmes's guidance the church became famous for its programs of civic education and social service. When he later discovered the work of Mahatma Gandhi, he helped make the Indian leader known in the United States. In New York City he served as chairman of the City Affairs Committee, a citizens' group combating political corruption. He traveled widely, including a trip to Palestine on behalf of American Zionists in 1929 and another to India in 1947 as a lecturer. On all these matters of public concern he wrote and lectured across the country. His writings also included a book of short stories, a play (produced in New York during the 1935-1936 season), and several poems and hymns.
In 1949 he resigned his pastorate, but he continued to write and speak publicly until his death in 1964, at the age of 85.
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A pacifist, he refused to support the U. S. government in World Wars I or II. An advocate of socialism, Holmes defended labor unions and social legislation.
Quotations: Holmes said that his "passion was religion-liberal, or radical".
In 1904 he married Madeleine Baker. They had two children, Roger and Frances.