New York Avenue Presbyterian Church
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Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Presbyterian Church , or PC, is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. Part of the Reformed tradition, it is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S...
. The church was formed in 1859-60, but traces its roots to 1803 as the F Street Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and another congregation founded in 1820 on its current site, the Second Presbyterian Church.
The powerful story of these two early congregations and the merged church that welcomed President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and his family as pew holders on the first Sunday following his inauguration in March 1861—just six months after the dedication of the newly constructed church—is a story fully intertwined with the history of the denomination, the capital city, and this country.
Beginnings
The F Street Church was established in 1803 with James Laurie as pastor by leaders of the Associate Reformed movement, known as covenanters, who had seceded from the Church of Scotland in the mother country and retained a separate identity in North America. After holding initial worship services in the U.S. Treasury building, in 1807 the congregation began meeting, still under the leadership of Dr. Laurie, in an imposing brick building that stood where the F Street entrance to the Willard Hotel today opens on to Peacock Alley—just two blocks from the church's present location on New York Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, NW. The F Street Church, or Willard Hall, was one of the first buildings erected in Washington for Protestant worship. In 1824 Laurie led the congregation out of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian group to join the Presbyterian Church in the USA, which represented the mainstream of American Presbyterianism descended from the state-established Church of Scotland.The Second Presbyterian Church, also a congregation of the PCUSA, was organized in 1820 by 16 families from the Bridge Street Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, at the time a separate town from Washington City. These members found their church too distant for regular attendance over the often muddy streets connecting the White House area and Georgetown. Pastored until 1828 by the Rev. Daniel Baker, the Second Church congregation included three of the four candidates for President in 1824. Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
’s wife described Baker as “a fine, plain preacher,” and John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
was an early pew holder as Secretary of State and ultimately served as Trustee.
In those days, controversy divided Presbyterians into opposing camps of “Old Schoolers” and “New Schoolers.” The New School was ardently evangelistic and revivalist, and abandoned strict Calvinism for a theology of free will; the Old School was more doctrinally rigid and fearful of too much emotion. Second Church experienced an Old School/New School division, suffered financial hardship in covering the cost of its new building, and became involved in a scandal involving a member of Jackson's cabinet. By the 1850s, it was barely functioning.
Finally, in 1859, the F Street Church, pastored by Rev. Dr. Phineas Densmore Gurley
Phineas Densmore Gurley
Phineas Densmore Gurley was Chaplain of the United States Senate and pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC.-Early life:...
, an Old School Presbyterian who had been called in 1853 following Dr. Laurie's death, merged with Second Presbyterian to form The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church under Dr. Gurley.
Symbolically, as a church in the young and burgeoning city, the NYAPC took its name from the avenue that separated it from the oftentimes malodorous tanyard on its south side. Not surprisingly, the new church was erected with a bold vision for the future, for although its membership stood at 291, the new sanctuary and a gallery added later accommodated more than three times that number.
Beyond a Building
Ultimately, though, it is what happened in this first church building and its 1951 successor that matters. The ministers of this church have repeatedly had the opportunity to speak truth to power. In addition to Adams, Jackson, and Lincoln, other Presidents of the United States attended services to hear their preaching, including William Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States , an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the...
, James K. Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
, Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
, James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
, Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
, Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States . Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana at age 21, eventually becoming a prominent politician there...
, Dwight David Eisenhower, and Richard Milhous Nixon, as well as members of their Cabinets, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
President Lincoln worshiped regularly at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Lincoln rented a pew for $50 a year. Lincoln and Rev. Gurley developed a relationship in which they frequently discussed theology. Gurley presided over the funeral of Lincoln's son, William Wallace Lincoln
William Wallace Lincoln
William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln was the third son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. He died at the age of 11. He was named after Mary's brother-in-law Dr. William Wallace.- Final illness and death :...
, in 1862, and then over the funeral of Lincoln himself in 1865. Rev. Gurley had an "insider's" perspective of Lincoln's faith, and reported it as follows:
"I have had frequent and intimate conversations with him on the Subject of the Bible and the Christian religion, when he could have had no motive to deceive me, and I considered him sound not only on the truth of the Christian religion but on all its fundamental doctrines and teachings. And more than that, in the latter days of his chastened and weary life, after the death of his son Willie, and his visit to the battlefield of Gettysburg, he said, with tears in his eyes, that he had lost confidence in everything but God, and that he now believed his heart was changed, and that he loved the Savior, and, if he was not deceived in himself, it was his intention soon to make a profession of religion."
Peter Marshall (preacher)
Dr. Peter Marshall was a Scottish-American preacher, former pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, and twice served as Chaplain of the United States Senate...
preached many famous sermons from the church's pulpit during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In the late 1940s, Marshall was appointed Senate chaplain. The book and feature film, A Man Called Peter, depict Marshall's memorable years at the church.
The Rev. Dr. George MacPherson Docherty
George MacPherson Docherty
George MacPherson Docherty was a Scottish-born American Presbyterian minister and principal initiator of the addition of the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States.-Early life:...
preached a Lincoln Day sermon on February 7, 1954, to a congregation that included President Eisenhower. The sermon, titled "A New Birth of Freedom," is credited with prompting the U.S. Congress to amend the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States, inserting the phrase Lincoln used at Gettysburg, "under God."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
spoke from New York Avenue's pulpit to warn about the consequences of the war in Vietnam. And, more recently, the church twice served as a host for the Christian Witness for Peace for Iraq in its efforts to call into question the war there.
Service to city and country and hospitality to all who enter this church are part and parcel of this place. Led by the Rev. Peter Marshall, the church opened its doors to the young men and women who streamed into Washington to fight or to support those who fought in World War II. NYAPC ministers, Dr. Docherty and the Rev. Jack E. McClendon, journeyed to Selma to march for civil rights with Dr. King. The church served as a haven for protestors of the Vietnam War and the center for publicity and public information for the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington in the spring of 1968. New York Avenue became a destination for prayer and comfort for many on September 11, 2001. And in January 2009, the church welcomed hundreds of the thousands of people who journeyed to the capital for President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
’s inauguration, providing food, drink, tours, and a warm place on a cold day—“a Godly pit-stop,” in the words of one visitor.
For many years, the church has hosted the Jewish High Holiday celebrations of Fabrangen Havurah. These services, which are free and open to all, annually draw hundreds from in and around the city.
Ministries in the City
The 1960s and 70s saw the creation of several ministries— for Washington, DC’s junior high and high school students as well as the homeless, the mentally ill, and the hungry—that continue still. Some 1,200 people come to the building on a weekly basis for a wide range of purposes—to meet with a tutor in Community Club or a social worker at the McClendon Center, receive a cup of coffee or an article of needed clothing through the Radcliffe Room ministry for the homeless, attend one of a number of AA meetings, sing in the Gay Men’s Chorus, or worship with one of the four congregations the church hosts. New York Avenue’s current pastor and head of staff, the Rev. Roger J. Gench, and members of the congregation also serve directly in the community as active participants in the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), a broad-based, multi-racial, multi-faith, and non-partisan citizens’ organization of local congregations and associations committed to training and developing neighborhood leaders, addressing community issues, and holding elected and corporate officials accountable.The church also extends beyond the boundaries of the metro region and the nation in many ways, but particularly through support—financial and otherwise—for a program for orphans sponsored by the Presbyterian Church in Njoro, Kenya, and a partnership with First Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Havana, Cuba. For several years, First Havana and New York Avenue’s congregations have reached out to one another, developing friendships and, more recently as downtown churches in capital cities, intentionally modeling reconciliation for their respective nations.
New York Avenue is a church that continuously strives to discern the role it is called to play in and from its building on this corner of Washington, DC. This is a church that is reformed and always reforming, and this place of worship and service reflects that longstanding tradition. Rev. Gench has served as pastor and head of staff since 2002. He was formerly senior minister of Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church
Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church
Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is a large, Gothic Revival-style church built in 1870 and located at Park and Lafayette Avenues in the city's Bolton Hill section...
in Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
. Rev. Gench's wife, Frances Taylor Gench, is a nationally known Biblical scholar and faculty member at Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education
Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education
Union Presbyterian Seminary, located on the near north side of the city of Richmond, Virginia, is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church...
in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. The associate pastor since 2006 is Tara Spuhler McCabe.
In January 2010, the church inaugurated a new, 3-manual, 63-rank Schlueter pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
,, with the dedicatory concert performed by virtuoso organist Douglas Major
Douglas Major
Douglas Major is a prominent American composer of sacred music and concert organist. He is the former choral director and organist at the Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., where he frequently performed on nationally-televised services and state occasions.-Early life and...
.