About Riverside Church

About Riverside Church

The CWS Covenant Member Convening will be held at the historic Riverside Church in New York City, an interdenominational church affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ.

Located in Morningside Heights, The Riverside Church in the City of New York is one of the leading voices of progressive Christianity, influential on America’s religious and political landscape for 90 years. Built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the interracial, interdenominational, and international church has long been a forum for important civic and spiritual leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and many others.

On August 13, 1961, Dr. King delivered his first sermon at Riverside, entitled “Paul’s Letter to American Christians” – his message, delivered in the voice of St. Paul, still resonates today:  “But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. Your poet Thoreau used to talk about improved means to an unimproved end. How often this is true. You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture, and through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood. But through your moral and spiritual genius, you have failed to make of it a brotherhood. And so, America, I would urge you to bring your moral advances in line with your scientific advances.”