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Tenth Presbyterian Church

Coordinates: 39°56′49.19″N 75°10′11.52″W / 39.9469972°N 75.1698667°W / 39.9469972; -75.1698667
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Tenth Presbyterian Church
Map
39°56′49.19″N 75°10′11.52″W / 39.9469972°N 75.1698667°W / 39.9469972; -75.1698667
Location17th & Spruce Streets, Philadelphia, PA
CountryUSA
DenominationPresbyterian Church in America (PCA)
Membership1,500
Weekly attendance1,400[1]
Websitewww.tenth.org
History
Former name(s)West Spruce Street Presbyterian Church
StatusOpen
Founded1829
Architecture
Architect(s)John McArthur, Jr.
Frank Miles Day (1893 alterations)
Completed1856
Specifications
Spire height250 feet (150-foot wooden spire removed from east tower 1912)
Administration
PresbyteryPhiladelphia
Clergy
Minister(s)The Rev. Dr. William "Liam" Goligher, Senior Minister; The Rev. D. Marion Clark, Executive Minister; The Rev. Carroll Wynne, Minister of Family; Dr. Bruce A. McDowell, Minister of Global Outreach; Rev. Will Spokes, Minister of Outreach
AssistantDr. David S. Apple, Director of Mercy Ministries; Patrick Canavan, Director of Education; John Canavan, Director of College Outreach; Dora McFarland, Director of Maranatha

Tenth Presbyterian Church is a congregation of approximately 1,500 members[citation needed] located in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Tenth is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a denomination in the Reformed and Calvinist traditions.[2] It is located at the southwest corner of 17th & Spruce Streets in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, in the southwestern quadrant of Center City.

History

Tenth Presbyterian Church, interior prior to 1893 remodeling.

The original Tenth Presbyterian Church, founded in 1829 as a congregation part of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, was located on the northeast corner of 12th & Walnut Streets. It established a daughter church in 1855-1856 called the West Spruce Street Presbyterian Church on the southwest corner of 17th & Spruce Streets. The two churches worked together, with the ministers exchanging pulpits each week. Because of membership decline in the original Tenth Church caused by population shifts, the two churches merged in 1893 at the 17th & Spruce Streets location, taking the name of the older church (Tenth Presbyterian Church).

West Spruce Street/Tenth Church was designed by architect John McArthur, Jr., who was a member of the congregation. Its 250-foot (76 m) tower-and-spire was the tallest structure in Philadelphia from 1856 to the erection of the North American Building in 1900. McArthur later designed Philadelphia City Hall. In 1893, architect Frank Miles Day was hired to perform major alterations to the church's exterior and interior decoration. The 150-foot wooden spire was removed in 1912 due to structural deterioration.

In 1979, following a denominational ruling by the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America requiring congregations to elect both men and women to the office in ruling elder, Tenth Presbyterian left the UPCUSA, aligning itself with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.[3] Three years afterward, that denomination in turn merged with the Presbyterian Church in America, bringing Tenth Church with it.

Senior Ministers

Philip G. Ryken, in front of the pulpit, June 27, 2010

Some notable staff members of the church from its founding include:

  • Thomas McAuley, D.D., LL.D. Senior Pastor. 1829-1833
  • Henry Augustus Boardman, D.D. Senior Pastor. 1833-1876
  • Marcus A. Brownson, D.D. Senior Pastor. 1897-1924
  • Donald Grey Barnhouse, Th.D., D.D. Senior Pastor. 1927-1960
  • Mariano Di Gangi, D.D. Senior Pastor. 1961-1967
  • James Montgomery Boice, Th.D., D.D. Senior Minister. 1968-2000
  • Philip G. Ryken, Ph.D. Senior Minister. 1995-2010, now president of Wheaton College
  • Liam Goligher, D.Min. Senior Minister. May 22, 2011 – present[4]

Notable members have included C. Everett Koop, Surgeon General of the United States during the Reagan administration and one-time head of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Ministries

  • Three Sunday services with approximately 1,400 people in weekly attendance
  • ACTS Ministries: mercy ministries to the poor and homeless near Tenth Church
  • Tenth College Fellowship is a group for college students, helping them to be connected in the church and to grow spiritually during their college years.
  • Maranatha is the youth group for students in grades 7-12, begun in 1984 and still continuing to meet weekly on Sunday nights and sponsor other events throughout the year.
  • Medical Campus Outreach is a ministry to medical and other health professional students on medical campuses in and around Philadelphia.
  • Small group Bible studies meet weekly in host homes across the city of Philadelphia and throughout the suburbs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
  • Various other discipleship groups, support groups, and prayer groups meet regularly in the church facilities and elsewhere

References

  1. ^ www.tenth.org/index.php?id=8
  2. ^ "About Tenth". tenth.org. Tenth Presbyterian Church. 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  3. ^ D.G. Hart and John Meuther Seeking a Better Country: Three Hundred Years of American Presbyterianism (P&R Publishing, 2007) pgs. 239 & 240
  4. ^ Tenth Presbyterian Church - Philadelphia, PA: News

External links

Records
Preceded by Tallest towers in the United States outside of New York City
1856–1863
76 m 		Succeeded by
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