Right across from our hotel here on Thomas Circle (roughly 14th and Massachusetts Avenue Northwest) is Luther Place Memorial Church with a huge statue in front of Martin Luther, who almost on purpose started the Protestant Reformation. (You could look it up.)
And quite close to that church is National City Christian Church. Both structures are big, imposing and — by American standards — quite old.
Those descriptions also fit a church a few blocks away, New York Avenue Presbyterian, which Abraham Lincoln used to attend and which today houses, in its Lincoln Parlor, an early Emancipation Proclamation document, along with the Lincoln pew in the sanctuary.
In fact, as I recently wandered around our nation’s capital, I was struck over and over first by how many churches (to say nothing of synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship) help make up the structural and social fabric of Washington, and second, by how much this remains a reflection of the central role religion continues to play in this country.
IRD’s office is one block from Thomas Circle, where the beautiful church edifices Tammeus describes stand. While I wouldn’t describe the churches as dead, they are certainly a shadow of their former selves: National City Christian Church was damaged by the earthquake and a scandal with a former pastor, my understanding is that they are down to an attendance of about 170 and now resort to periodic “blessing of the pets” ceremonies in an apparently vain effort to lure gentrifying condo residents to their services. Luther Place Church often displays festive and colorful installations — especially during LGBT pride month — but reports attendance of 160. New York Avenue Presbyterian lists attendance of 225. All of these three congregations once had attendance measured in the thousands and were a central part of the city’s religious life (both LBJ and Grover Cleveland attended National City Christian Church, in addition to Abraham Lincoln’s already noted attendance at NYAPC). Today, they remain beautiful concert venues with glorious towers, but one must look in school auditoriums and theaters on Sunday to find the masses at prayer.