Louis Masi

Professor Steidl

American Religious Texts

6 May 2016

John Street United Methodist Church

            Every Wednesday I head to Wall Street and work for a small, startup digital company. Every time I pass by the John Street United Methodist Church on my commute and I never really thought anything of it, just another old Church in New York City. However, after the class where we discussed the split of Catholicism into the various different denominations, I decided to pay more attention to the Church. It was only then that I realized that this Church, the one I had been ignoring for nearly a month, is actually the oldest continuous Methodist congregation in the country. I had been in the presence of a historic building for a large religious community and had no idea.

            The Church is located at 44 John Street in the Financial District. It clearly stands apart from the rest of the buildings in the area. Sandwiched between corporate office buildings and restaurants, it was hard not to miss but easy to ignore. But what really drew my interest was the shrine that was immediately next to the Church. Besides parks, it is rare to find any grass in New York City, especially in downtown. But this Church had an open gate that allows the general public to walk off the bustling and street and into a quiet place in one of the loudest cities in the world.

            For me, this shrine symbolized the division and integration of religion in metropolitan America today. Although religion used to be the driving force of many cities and towns, that is no longer the case in New York City. Religion has taken a back seat to all the noise of large corporations, sporting events, Broadway, and other attractions. Where religion exists now is in the quiet, away from the loud distractions that the city has to offer. In those quiet, reflective spaces people generally tend to think more about deeper philosophical and religious questions. This gate into the shrine was the physical embodiment of the barrier between society and religion’s place in it today.

            Earlier this semester we discussed if we still saw religion as the cultural center of towns and communities across the United States. The general consensus of the class was that in smaller, rural towns religion held a much more influential hold than in urban areas like New York City. I agree with this wholeheartedly but would also add that in these quiet, religious spaces the influence of religion is no less. The distinction I am trying to make is that the power that religion has over people when exposed to it is no different anywhere else. Although it is not as a big attraction as some other outlets in New York, religion still thrives behind the scenes.

            Religion in the city that never sleeps might be easy to ignore, but that doesn’t mean its presence is not felt. I found it when walking through the John Street United Methodist Church shrine and I know that other New Yorkers can find it too.