Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church Explained

Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church
Location:New York City, New York
Country:United States
Denomination:Presbyterian Church (USA)
Membership:572 (2021)[1]
Founded Date:1839
Status:Church
Functional Status:Active
Style:Neo-Gothic
Architect:James E. Ware & Sons[2]
Completed Date:1899
Parish:Madison Avenue
Presbytery:Presbytery of New York
Synod:Synod of the Northeast
Seniorpastor:The Rev. Dr. Aaron Janklow

Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (MAPC) is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA). It is located at East 73rd Street and Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

History

The congregation was organized in 1839 as Eleventh Presbyterian Church on 4th and Avenue D. The church moved to East 53rd and Madison Avenue in 1872 and changed its name to Memorial Presbyterian Church in commemoration of the Old and New School branches of the denomination.[2] [3] The congregation was renamed Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1886.

Phillips Presbyterian Church was organized in 1844 and moved uptown in 1869. In 1872, James Lenox donated a church building, designed in High Victorian Gothic style by R.H. Robertson, on the East 73rd Street site. In 1899, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church merged with Phillips and the church building was redesigned in a neo-Gothic style by James E. Ware.[2] The current location has an 800-seat sanctuary.[4]

In 1927, George Arthur Buttrick succeeded Henry Sloane Coffin as minister.[5] Writer Frederick Buechner attended MAPC and was eventually ordained there in 1958.[6]

David H. C. Read was pastor of MAPC from 1956 until 1989. During Read's tenure, his sermons were mailed out each Monday as part of a subscription service, and some of his regular radio sermons were broadcast nationally by the National Council of Churches. Read was succeeded by Fred R. Anderson.[7]

Notable members

References

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Notes and References

  1. Web site: Church Trends - Madison Avenue. 19 June 2023.
  2. Web site: Upper East Side Historic District Designation Report. City of New York, Landmarks Preservation Commission. 1981.
  3. Web site: New York, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. 19 June 2023.
  4. Web site: Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and Board of Pensions build partnership on shared values. 19 June 2023.
  5. T. A. Prickett, The Story of Preaching, Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2011, pp. 80-81 https://books.google.com/books?id=axcv4-7RnS4C&dq=%22george+buttrick%22&pg=PA80
  6. News: Miller. Emily McFarlan. Died: Frederick Buechner, Popular Christian ‘Writer’s Writer’ and ‘Minister’s Minister. Christianity Today. 15 August 2022.
  7. News: Martin. Douglas. David H. C. Read Dies at 91; Pastor to a Far-Flung Flock. New York Times. 11 January 2001. 17 February 2024.
  8. News: Cascone. Sarah. She Changed My Life for the Better’: Read the Letters Ai Weiwei and Other Art Figures Wrote to Advocate Leniency for Mary Boone . Artnet. 9 January 2019. 17 February 2024.
  9. News: Bagpipe Tunes at Carnegie Wedding. 26 March 2014. New York Times. 23 April 1919.
  10. http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/l/lin-yutang.php Stacey Bieler, "Lin Yutang"