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
- Mary Boone,[8] art dealer and collector
- Frederick Buechner,[6] author and theologian
- Andrew Carnegie,[9] industrialist and philanthropist
- Lin Yutang,[10] Chinese writer
- Warren Ost, minister and founder of A Christian Ministry in the National Parks
References
- ^ "Church Trends - Madison Avenue". Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ a b c "Upper East Side Historic District Designation Report" (PDF). City of New York, Landmarks Preservation Commission. 1981.
- ^ "New York, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church". Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ "Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and Board of Pensions build partnership on shared values". Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ T. A. Prickett, The Story of Preaching, Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2011, pp. 80-81 [1]
- ^ a b Miller, Emily McFarlan (15 August 2022). "Died: Frederick Buechner, Popular Christian 'Writer's Writer' and 'Minister's Minister". Christianity Today.
- ^ Martin, Douglas (11 January 2001). "David H. C. Read Dies at 91; Pastor to a Far-Flung Flock". New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
- ^ Cascone, Sarah (9 January 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 17 February 2024.
- ^ "Bagpipe Tunes at Carnegie Wedding". New York Times. 23 April 1919. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
- ^ Stacey Bieler, "Lin Yutang" Archived 2017-10-08 at the Wayback Machine Biographical Dictionary of Christianity in China