Now, more than 225 years later, the New York Avenue church in the nation’s capitol is celebrating its 200th birthday. This provides an occasion to recall the importance of this congregation and its pastors to the Presbyterian church and nation.
Late in the 18th century a group of Scottish stonemasons who labored in the area, worshiped in a shed they built for their tools and used for a church on Sundays. But New York Avenuers identify themselves with the history of the F Street and the Second Presbyterian churches, organized around 1803. The F Street congregation grew under the long-term leadership of James Laurie (pastor 1803-1853), a Scottish emigrant who was not only an eloquent preacher but a supporter of the Bible, Tract, Mission and Reform Societies organized at the time to Christianize the new nation and the world. At tunes associate pastor Septimus Tustin served as chaplain in the House of Representative and Senate.
Second church called Daniel Baker (1821-1828), and he served as pastor to Secretary of State — later President — John Quincy Adams, who actively participated in the congregation’s life and contributed to its financial needs. Andrew Jackson and his spouse, Rachel, attended Second church under the ministry of John N. Campbell (1828-1830). Unfortunately, Campbell made insinuating remarks in public about the moral character of Peggy Neal Timberlake. Peggy was engaged to a General John Eaton, Jackson’s Secretary of War. Campbell referred to a rumor that the couple had spent an unchaperoned weekend in Philadelphia. “Old Hickory” Jackson strongly defended the honor of his general and Peggy. He denounced Campbell in public, and left the congregation taking with him other “pillars” of the church. Embarrassed, Campbell resigned.
Meanwhile, area Presbyterians took part in the Old School-New School controversy, even compounding divisiveness by supporting a New School and two Old School presbyteries in Washington for a time. Over these years presidents Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, James Polk and Franklin Pierce attended Presbyterian services. Presbyterians in the district showed concern for the African American population and raised questions about the institution of slavery.
In 1859, F Street and Second churches united to form the New York Avenue congregation. Phineas Gurley of New York served as pastor from 1859-1868. During these years Congress authorized the director of the mint to start putting “In God We Trust” on our coins. Gurley became Abraham Lincoln’s pastor. Lincoln never joined the congregation officially, but worshipped there regularly with wife, Mary Todd. She picked the Lincoln pew in a new building the congregation built near the Capitol. Gurley claims that he often had conversations with Lincoln about the Bible and Christian faith and life, especially after Todd Lincoln’s death and the Battle of Gettysburg. Gurley also comforted Mary after Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theater. He prayed at the President’s deathbed and accompanied the family for the 12-day journey to Springfield, Ill., holding funeral services along the way. 
Once Lincoln was heard to say: “I like Gurley. He does not preach politics. I get enough of that through the week, and when I go to church I like to hear the gospel.” Lincoln showed he heard the gospel. His “Emancipation Proclamation” (1863) ended slavery, and he summarized the purpose of the war in his brief but eloquent “Gettysburg Address.” He dedicated “the nation, under God,” to a “new birth of freedom” so that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Gurley, noted church leader as well as Lincoln’s pastor, was elected moderator of the PCUSA (1867) after the fratricidal conflict and worked for regional reconciliation. He did not preach an anti-theater sermon until sometime after his famous parishoner’s death.
Wallace Radcliffe, a Pennsylvanian, also served a long and distinguished ministry at New York Avenue (1895-1922), as well as being moderator of the denomination (1898). During the early part of his pastorate, he worked with, among others, Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan, a Kentuckian, who moved to the capital in 1877 with his spouse, Malvina, and joined the New York Avenue family. Harlan worked closely with Radcliffe, serving as an elder, a Sunday School teacher and as a representative, when not on the bench, of his congregation at ecclesiastical meetings.
Harlan is best known for his lone dissent in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896), the “separate-but-equal” decision that perpetuated segregation in public accommodations. Harlan believed that the decision violated the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He wrote: “Our Constitution is colorblind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens … The destinies of the two races, in this country, are indissolubly linked together, and the interests of both require that the common government of all shall not permit the seeds of race hate to be planted under the sanction of law.” He was a prophet well ahead of his time. Harlan presided over the celebration of the church’s 100th birthday, at which time President Theodore Roosevelt addressed the congregation. He also served as vice moderator of the PCUSA. Radcliffe shepherded the congregation through the First World War and into the “roaring twenties.”
New York Avenue church has also been led by other nationally known leaders, such as Joseph R. Sizoo, a Dutchman, once featured in Life Magazine (April 6, 1953), and Peter Marshall, still remembered for his congressional chaplaincy. During this later period, President Harry S. Truman laid the cornerstone for the present building. And we should also remember George Docherty (1950-1975). Docherty, another Scot, often ministered to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and to John Foster Dulles, who often visited Docherty’s services.
On Feb. 7, 1954, the pastor preached a Lincoln Sunday sermon titled “One Nation, Under God.” In his presentation the pastor recalled Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and suggested that Congress would do well to insert “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance. The sermon was a winner. The next day lawmakers rushed to the Capitol building to amend our solemn national vow. Now all American’s repeat: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” Somewhat uneasy about his contribution to our common life, New York Avenue’s pastor explained that by the term, “under God,” he meant that we should live under God’s judgment. We should note here that this insertion into the pledge is being challenged today as unconstitutional. Docherty continued to play a national role from the pulpit and demonstrated for Civil Rights, for example, and against the Vietnam War, even in retirement.
So in these ways as well as others New York Avenue church, through its pastors and parishioners, has made a distinguished contribution to American life and to the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. It still does. On the occasion of this congregation’s 200th birthday, we should remember and live by the words with which Docherty concluded this “Under God” sermon
In this land, there is neither Jew, nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, for we are one nation indivisible under God, and humbly as God has given us the light we seek liberty and justice for all. The quest is not only within these United States, but the four corners of the globe wherever man will lift up his head toward the vision of his true and divine manhood.
These are still words worth pondering.
We wish all descendants of those 18th-century “rebellious scoundrels” of the New York Avenue Church a happy birthday.
