God Box in New York more diverse at age 50

NEW YORK (ENI) — The 19-story granite building on Manhattan’s upper west side, often referred to as the “God Box,” is 50 years old. New York’s Interchurch Center, one of the most visible symbols of Christian ecumenism in the United States, is marking its 50th anniversary as the modern ecumenical movement for Christian unity is celebrating its 100th.

by The Presbyterian Outlook
Published: February 7, 2011 |Updated: February 26, 2014

A series of events in 2010, including a rededication in May, have marked the anniversary of the center.

American philanthropist and Baptist layperson John D. Rockefeller Jr. played a major role in the planning of the God Box, and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower attended the groundbreaking ceremony in 1958.

Dedicated in 1960 to house the National Council of Churches, the largest ecumenical body in the United States, the Interchurch Center also once housed a number of national denominational headquarters, including the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.

Today, the building still houses the NCC but it also includes more other religious bodies, local or regional offices of U.S. churches, humanitarian and philanthropic agencies, faith-based activist organizations, New York Theological Seminary, and some offices of Columbia University.

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