Idlewild Presbyterian Church is a historic church located at 1750 Union Avenue in Midtown

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. Idlewild is a part of the

Presbyterian Church (USA) The Presbyterian Church (USA), abbreviated PC(USA), is a mainline Protestant denomination in the United States. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the US, and known for its liberal stance on doctrine and its ordaining of women and ...

History

Founded in 1891, Idlewild grew into a prominent Memphis church over the next several decades, moving into its current building in 1928. During the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

, Idlewild was one of the few churches in Memphis that held racially integrated worship services. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Idlewild helped found the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA), a community service organization that serves 50,000 people in

West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions (Tennessee), Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee River, Tennessee and Miss ...

annually. Idlewild

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

its first women deacons in 1968, and had a female associate minister as early as 1974. Today, three of the four ministers at Idlewild are women. The church was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2009. Recently Idlewild has continued its tradition of serving the community through partnerships with local schools and the More Than a Meal project, and through partnerships with local organizations that seek to promote social justice throughout the Memphis community. Idlewild is welcoming and affirming of the LGBT community, and blesses same-sex unions in its sanctuary. Steve Montgomery served as Idlewild's pastor from 2000 until 2019. After an interim period under the leadership of pastor Anne Apple, Idlewild called David Powers to serve as pastor in late 2020 During the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic, Idlewild has served as a mobile food bank distribution site for families in need in the Memphis area.

Sanctuary Building

Idlewild's current building was designed by

George Awsumb George Awsumb (20 July 1880 – 24 November 1959) was a prominent Norwegian-American architect in the first half of the 20th century. Awsumb defined architecture as “frozen music” designed for the “man on the street.” He was influenced by ...

, and it is in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. The building is similar to the nearby Rhodes College, a private liberal arts college nominally affiliated with the PC(USA). Idlewild's bell tower was completed in 1999; together the bells weigh nearly 27,000 pounds. Recently, nearby developments have incorporated design features to engage with Idlewild's architecture as a prominent feature in the neighborhood.

References

External links

Website

Webpage
of the Presbyterian Church (USA) {{Authority control Presbyterian churches in Tennessee Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Gothic Revival church buildings in Tennessee Churches completed in 1926 Churches in Memphis, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Memphis, Tennessee

History

Sanctuary Building

See also

References

External links