Riverside Church (New York City)

Riverside Church.

For seven decades the church has served as the premier model of Protestant liberalism in the U.S. Its history represents the movement from white Protestant hegemony to a multiracial and multiethnic church that has been at the vanguard of social justice advocacy, liberation theologies, gay and lesbian ministries, peace studies, ethnic and racial dialogue, and Jewish-Christian relations.

Riverside was conceived and built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., with the intention that Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick be the senior minister. In the 1920s, Rockefeller belonged to a Baptist congregation, worshipping at the Park Avenue Baptist Church. Fosdick (a Northern Baptist Minister, today known as American Baptist) had been preaching at the First Presbyterian Church when a controversy arose regarding his views on Christian Fundamentalism, most notably captured in his sermon entitled, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” Due to this controversy, he left First Presbyterian and eventually agreed to serve at Riverside, with the caveat that its congregation be inter-denominational rather than Baptist. Rockefeller agreed, and the congregation at the Park Avenue Baptist Church became the Riverside congregation.

Riverside’s Senior Ministers

• 1930-46: Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick
• 1946-67: Rev. Dr. Robert James McCracken
• 1968-76: Rev. Dr. Ernest T. Campbell
• 1977-87: Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
• 1989-07: Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr.
• 2008-09: Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton
• 2014-19: Rev. Dr. Amy Butler
• 2022-pres.: Rev. Adriene Thorne

Global Citizens at Riverside CHurch

• Fidel Castro
• Ban ki-Moon
• 2001: Kofi Annan spoke there after the September 11 attacks
• Maya Angelou?
• Paul Tillich
• H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama
• Abdullah II of Jordan
• Cesar Chavez
• Reinhold Niebuhr
• Desmond Tutu
• Marian Wright-Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund
• 1967: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached famous anti-Vietnam War sermon, “Beyond Vietnam,”
• 1972: Jackie Robinson‘s funeral (Jesse Jackson gave eulogy)
• 1987. Dr. Richard Yao & Jim Luce spoke on Fundamentalists Anonymous
• 1990: Nelson Mandela
• 1997. Betty Shabazz funeral
• 2004: U.S. president Bill Clinton spoke

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