Christ Church is a Reconciling Congregation: Open, Welcoming, and Affirming. We are committed to providing community, sacraments, and the full services and programs of our faith family to everyone who seeks after the heart of God.
After the Civil War, Methodist consolidated the position of their ministry in the city near the geographical center of Manhattan following the formation, in 1881, of a new society, incorporated as the Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. This Society built and occupied a new French-Romanesque edifice, located at 60th Street, dedicated in 1883. Neighborhood constituents of the East Side had leapt uptown from lower Manhattan as the city’s population steadily trended northward.
Fifty years later, they merged with the 61st Street Church, a church of humble beginnings. The union of this church with the Madison Avenue congregation was confirmed in 1933, resulting in the dedication of Christ Church.
Dr. Ralph W. Sockman, the pastor who brought about the union of the constituent churches and guided the building of the Byzantine edifice of Christ Church voiced that:
“In this day of interdenominationalism and church union, we desire to serve in no narrow denominational sense. The new church will be a place of worship for all people of all communions. Our congregation numbers many who are not members of the Methodist Church, and my personal hope is to make the constituency steadily broader and more inclusive.”
So it is that the marble and mosaic splendor of Christ Church speaks of a time when the church was one. That spirit of unity is reflected in the Church’s mission statement, “We seek to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves,” which echoes the words of Jesus when he summarized the commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These statements are found inscribed within the apse mosaics.
The task of inscribing these words upon human hearts has formed the essential focus of the ministry of Christ Church from its founding and still points the way for the future of this dynamic congregation.
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