Founded in 1890 by the Reverend William Dwight Porter Bliss, the church sought to promote the cause of economic justice and influenced many of its members to take an active interest in the labor movement.
Notable members included educator and activist Vida Dutton Scudder, sculptor Anne Whitney, novelist William Dean Howells, poet Robert Treat Paine Jr., city planner Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, and photographer Francis Watts Lee.
On Sunday, April 13, 1890, the Reverend William Dwight Porter Bliss held the first service of the Church of the Carpenter in Brunswick Hall, 241 Tremont Street, Boston.
Tolstoi in Russia, Stuart Headlam in London, Dr. McGlynn in New York city, voices in the Greek, the Anglican, the Roman Catholic communion, all speak of change, and they all move in one direction, the application of Christianity to social life...
[5] Notable members included educator and activist Vida Dutton Scudder,[6] sculptor Anne Whitney,[1] novelist William Dean Howells,[2] poet Robert Treat Paine, Jr.,[1] city planner Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch,[7] and photographer Francis Watts Lee.
[12] Towards the end of his life, Bliss characterized himself as a middle-class reformer who attracted "more leaders than led", and recalled "many mistakes and short-comings" in his organization of the Church of the Carpenter.