Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church

Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church
Map
LocationNew York City, New York
CountryUnited States
DenominationPresbyterian Church (USA)
Membership572 (2021)[1]
Websitemapc.com
History
StatusChurch
Founded1839
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Architect(s)James E. Ware & Sons[2]
StyleNeo-Gothic
Completed1899
Administration
SynodSynod of the Northeast
PresbyteryPresbytery of New York
ParishMadison Avenue
Clergy
Senior pastor(s)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] In January 1936, he officiated the wedding of future President Donald Trump's parents, Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, in this church.[6] Writer Frederick Buechner attended MAPC and was eventually ordained there in 1958.[7]

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.[8]

Notable members

References

  1. ^ "Church Trends - Madison Avenue". Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "Upper East Side Historic District Designation Report" (PDF). City of New York, Landmarks Preservation Commission. 1981.
  3. ^ "New York, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church". Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  4. ^ "Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and Board of Pensions build partnership on shared values". Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  5. ^ T. A. Prickett, The Story of Preaching, Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2011, pp. 80-81 [1]
  6. ^ Trump, Fred (2024). All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way. London: Simon & Schuster. p. 29. ISBN 9781398541016. OCLC 1453469554. They married the following January at Manhattan's Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church with a British-born minister named George Arthur Buttrick officiating.
  7. ^ a b Miller, Emily McFarlan (August 15, 2022). "Died: Frederick Buechner, Popular Christian 'Writer's Writer' and 'Minister's Minister". Christianity Today.
  8. ^ Martin, Douglas (January 11, 2001). "David H. C. Read Dies at 91; Pastor to a Far-Flung Flock". New York Times. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  9. ^ Cascone, Sarah (January 9, 2019). "She Changed My Life for the Better': Read the Letters Ai Weiwei and Other Art Figures Wrote to Advocate Leniency for Mary Boone". Artnet. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  10. ^ "Bagpipe Tunes at Carnegie Wedding". New York Times. April 23, 1919. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  11. ^ Stacey Bieler, "Lin Yutang" Archived 2017-10-08 at the Wayback Machine Biographical Dictionary of Christianity in China

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