Bryn Mawr 100: Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church

The largest congregation in Bryn Mawr of any denomination, boasts about 2,200 members in all. The church has done outreach work in the community almost since its 1873 founding, and that strong commitment to serve others is still true of the congregation today.

In fact, in the late 1800s, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian began supporting a medical clinic in Miraj, India, founded by a Presbyterian missionary and doctor. The church still supports it today—more than 100 years later.

Building and rebuilding

Bryn Mawr Presbyterian got its start informally in the Temperance Hall on Lancaster Pike in January 1873, and by September 1874, had been officially recognized by the Presbyterian Church and bought a piece of land on Montgomery Avenue, where the church stands today.

The original church building was a greenstone chapel, built in 1874. Two years later, the congregation had already outgrown its building, and in 1886, a red stone church was constructed.

That church building was demolished to make room for the new, bigger church sanctuary, built in 1927, which is still in use today. The new building was designed with 1,200 seats, enough for double the church's membership at the time. Now, those 1,200 seats are all put to good use in a congregation about four times the size it was 85 years ago.

With a congregation that large, a number of additions and new buildings have been undertaken since the church began. The church's current chapel was built in 1940, and contains four Tiffany windows that originally called the 1886 church building home. Other additions and buildings were completed later on as well.

If you're counting, all that rebuilding makes most of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian's buildings less than 100 years old, save the still-standing Converse House. Converse House was built in 1883 as the manse, and continued to be used as the senior pastor's home until 1958, according to the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian website. From then until 1990, it housed a number of church offices. Converse House is still standing today, and retains much of its original interior.

Reaching out

The congregation has a number of programs addressing community needs of all kinds, including the , a Hunger Committee, an Environmental Justice Task Force and more.

While the church has been involved in youth tutoring programs for decades, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1998 by beginning a multifaceted West Philadelphia outreach ministry that eventually gave birth to WePAC (West Philadelphia Alliance for Children), Singing City Children's Choir, and The Other Carpenter, a home repair assistance program.

"We decided to celebrate by doing something pragmatic rather than something with bricks and mortar," BMPC Shared Ministries Coordinator Sue Gibbons said.

"So [the church members] said, 'Let's partner with people in West Philly and figure out what we can do together.' It's not about the suburbs coming in and saving West Philly; … we had a couple years of listening and focus groups, and what [West Philadelphians] kept saying to us was, 'Please do something for the children.'"

Since 2003, WePAC volunteers—who come from urban and suburban settings and all different faith backgrounds—have mentored students, run afterschool programs, and donated school supplies to West Philly schools as a means of reaching the neighborhood's youth. 

WePAC volunteers are also to thank for the reopening of seven public libraries that had been closed for years due to lack of funding, Gibbons said.

"The books were there and the buildings were there, but there were no librarians," Gibbons explained. WePAC volunteers offered to staff the libraries so they could reopen.

Additionally, about 30 percent of the church's yearly budget is used for outreach and ministry programs, according to the church website. Many are nonprofits in need of funding, like afterschool programs, a Hispanic outreach for migrant workers, and a weekly health clinic in West Philly that serves those without insurance.

Social programs like this have "always been central to the work of the church," Gibbons said.

Editor's Note: This is the fourteenth in a . Check back with Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne Patch for more profiles leading up to the Sept. 10 celebration.