Judson Memorial Church

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The Judson Memorial Church
The Judson Memorial Church

The Judson Memorial Church is located in Greenwich Village of Manhattan on the south side of Washington Square Park. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and with the United Church of Christ.

Contents

[edit] History

The church was founded by Edward Judson, a distinguished preacher, with the backing of John D. Rockefeller and other prominent Baptists, in 1890, as a memorial to his father Adoniram Judson, one of the first Protestant missionaries to Burma. Edward Judson chose as the new location of his church the south side of Washington Square Park, because he wanted to reach out to the neighboring Italian community. He envisioned the church as an institution to serve the burgeoning immigrant population of Lower Manhattan through health, nutrition, education, and recreational programs.

In the 1890s, Edward Judson observed that "the intelligent, well-to-do, and church going people withdraw from this part of the city." "This part of the city" was a reference to sections of the city where the wave of recent immigrants had settled, many in lower Manhattan. As an answer to that call, Rev. Renato Giacomelli Alden was appointed to minister to the Italian immigrant population that had settled in "Little Italy" just south of the church. The church offered healthcare and outreach ministries through the 1920s and '30s.

After the Second World War, Robert Spike and Howard Moody became outspoken about issues of civil rights and free expression, as well as breaking with the confessedly evangelical understandings of the past by speaking out for issues once universally considered to be immoral by Christians: abortion and the decriminalization of prostitution, a policy that continues under the present leadership of the congregation.

[edit] Mission

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The church's current mission is self described as being devoted to social outreach, and establishing programs designed to help those who they perceive to be in need despite the controversial or sometimes, unpopular, nature of that help. The church, for example, established local networks to aid women who needed abortions, housed and cared for drug addicts and runaway teens, established a Professional Women's Clinic for women engaged in prostitution, and helped provide medical resources for people with AIDS.

[edit] Sponsorship of the arts

Beginning in the 1950s, the Judson Memorial Church has supported a radical arts ministry. The church made space available to artists for art exhibitions, rehearsals, and performances. The church also assured that this space was to be a place where these artists could have the freedom to experiment in their work without fear of censorship. In 1957, the Judson Memorial Church offered gallery space to Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, and Robert Rauschenberg, who were then unknown artists. In 1959, the Judson Gallery showed work by pop artists, Tom Wesselmann, Daniel Spoerri, and Red Grooms. Yoko Ono also had her work exhibited at the Judson gallery.

The Judson Dance Theater, which began in 1962, provided a venue for dancers and choreographers such as Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Steve Paxton, David Gordon (dance), and Yvonne Rainer to create and show their work. Among others, these dancers and choreographers shaped dance history by creating postmodern dance, the first avant-garde movement in dance theater since the modern dance of the 1930s and 1940s. For the past 20 years or so, Movement Research has presented concerts of experimental dance at Judson on Monday evenings during the academic year.

In the 1970s, the Judson Memorial Church hosted various art shows and multimedia events. Most notable among these multimedia events was the People's Flag Show of November 1970, a six-day exhibition of painting and sculpture on the theme of the American flag. The exhibit and the accompanying symposium, featuring speeches by Abbie Hoffman and Kate Millet, attracted widespread attention from the public, the press, and the police. During the final days of the exhibit, three of the contributing artists were arrested, Rev. Howard Moody was served with a summons, and the District Attorney closed the exhibit on charges of desecration of the American flag.

In the 1980s, the Judson Memorial Church sponsored various political theater performances, such as those by the Vermont-based Bread and Puppet Theater. These performances included Insurrection Opera and Oratorio, performed in February and March of 1984. In this performance, the Bread and Puppet Theater, under the direction of founder, Peter Schumann, used opera and the company's now signature oversized puppets to convey an anti-nuclear message.

The Judson Memorial Church celebrated its Centennial in 1990 with performances and symposia involving many of the artists who had been involved with the arts ministry in the 1960s and 1970s. The church hosted a five-night stand by Montreal band Arcade Fire from February 13th through 17th, 2007.

The Judson Memorial Church continues its support of the arts and its social outreach to the community today.

[edit] Building

Judson Memorial Church is a particularly stately edifice, at the south side of Washington Square. The church building, designed by renowned architect Stanford White, and stained glass master John La Farge, features Italian Renaissance influences wedded to a basic Italianate form. It features notable examples of scagliola, a very convincing handcrafted imitation of marble made of highly polished pigmented plaster. Sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens designed a marble frieze in the baptistery. Overall, the exterior and shape of Judson Memorial is said to resemble Santa Maria, a basilica in Rome, while the entrance is said to be inspired by the Renaissance church San Alessandro, built in Lucca in 1480. The church is a national landmark.

In 1999, facing financial difficulties, the Board of Trustees sold the Judson House building behind the church to New York University School of Law, which used the site for its new Furman Building. At eleven stories tall, the new building now towers over the church and Washington Square Park beyond, causing considerable controversy in the community at the time of its construction.[citation needed] Judson Church's offices and a small Assembly Hall now occupy a suite in one corner of the new building, adjacent to the main church, at 239 Thompson Street.

Over the 16 years from 1990 to 2006, the church building was repointed, repainted, reroofed; the stained glass windows were cleaned and reinstalled; an elevator was installed to make the building accessible, and air-conditioning was added. These projects used up all the proceeds from the sale of the back lots, plus about a million more, raised from contributions of arts-lovers and the congregation.

Sunday services are held at 11 a.m. weekly. See www.judson.org for more details on current events and other features.

Judson Ministers Through History

  • Rev. Edward Judson (Judson minister, 1890-1914)
  • Rev. A. Ray Petty (Judson minister, 1915-1926)
  • Dr. Eleanor Campbell (Director, the Judson Health Center, Judson House 1922-1950)
  • Rev. Laurence T. Hosie (Judson minister, 1926-1937)
  • Rev. Renato Alden (Judson minister to Italian-speaking congregation, 1937-1946, sole minister after Hosie's departure)
  • Rev. Elbert R. Tingley (City Society's appointed executive director for Judson, 1946-1948)
  • Rev. Dean Wright (First Director, Judson Student Program, 1948-1952)
  • Rev. Robert W. Spike (Judson minister, 1949-1955)
  • Bernard (Bud) Scott (Seminary Intern under Spike, Assoc Minister under Moody, 1957-1960), serving as missionary to the surrounding artistic community
  • Rev. Howard Moody (Judson minister, 1956-1992)
  • Lorraine (Lorry) Moody (Ministry to the Sardonically Challenged, 1956-1992 - also, with Howard Moody, co-director of the Church in Urban Life Summer Service Project at Judson House, 1950)
  • Rev. Al Carmines (Judson minister, 1961-1981)
  • Arthur A. Levin (Director of The Center for Medical Consumers, 1976-present - also, administration for many Judson-related projects since 1966, including the Judson Teenage Arts Workshop, Judson arts program, and the Judson Runaway House)
  • Arlene Carmen (Judson "Administrix" 1967-1994 - "Administrix" over those years encompassed first Howard Moody's secretary, then Church Administrator, and finally Program Associate was added to Administrator sometime in the early mid-1980s)
  • Roland Wiggins (Minister to Property & Churchland Security, mid-1970s - present)
  • Dr. Michael Kelly (Musical Director & Dirty Joke Curator, late 1970s-1992)
  • Rev. Dr. Lee Hancock (Judson minister, 1981-1985)
  • Andrew Frantz (Sunday School Director and Grand Poobah, 1993-present)
  • Rev. Peter Laarman (Judson minister, 1994-2004)
  • Aziza (Special Program Associate, 1993-) (including Licks 'n Licks, Single Mothers' Workshop, Dance of African Descent Downtown)
  • Rev. Paul Chapman (Director, The Employment Project, 1994-present)
  • Rev. Louise Green (Judson minister, 1996-1998)
  • Rev. Karen Senecal (Judson minister, 2000-2005)
  • Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper (Judson minister, January 2006-)

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