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Cumberland Presbyterian Center is the denominational headquarters of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, located in Memphis, Tennessee.
The original center was located at 1978 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1951 to 2008. Funded through a denomination wide campaign in the late-1940s, the original building was an impressive and architecturally interesting neo-Gothic structure. The Cumberland Presbyterian denomination's seminary, Memphis Theological Seminary, was located less than a mile away. The construction of the center, and the consolidation of board and agency offices in Memphis, marked the end of a long period of recovery for the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination after a contentious period of a partial union with the Presbyterian Church (USA) since 1906. [1]
At the meetings of their General Assemblies in 2005 and 2006, Cumberland Presbyterians voted to either build, purchase, or lease a new denominational headquarters. [2] The decision was not without opposition. Factions within the denomination were divided over the deposition of the historic midtown Memphis structure that had served since 1951. Some Cumberland Presbyterians felt that the denomination would be better served by remodeling the existing structure. Arguments against renovation included the fear that asbestos employed in the original construction was a potential health risk to the occupants and that the structure was no longer in a desirable location. The majority of the denominational boards and agencies housed at the property were strongly in favor of renovation and that the Memphis firm, Chandler Demolition Company, Inc. (later hired by Chick-fil-A to demolish the building), did not consider the asbestos to be a health risk. [3]
The General Assembly appointed a task force to raise funds for construction, and to select a site for a new denominational headquarters. At the same time, the assembly affirmed its support for a centralized denominational staff. [4] On February 22, 2008, a site for the new Cumberland Presbyterian Center campus comprising two partially constructed buildings, a grassy area, and a portion of Rock Creek, was purchased near the intersection of Interstate 40 and Germantown Road in Memphis. Denominational offices were able to move to the new site, at 8207 Traditional Place, in September 2008. [5]
Chick-fil-A purchased the original property with the intention of developing a restaurant on the site. However, a general outcry from local media, neighborhood residents, and Memphis area historic preservationists persuaded the restaurant chain to agree to preserve at least a portion of the historic building. [6] [7] By mid-May 2009, the structure had been demolished, with the exception of the south wall along Union Avenue and a portion of the west wall along Rembert Street. [8]
The Presbyterian Church (USA), abbreviated PCUSA, is a mainline Protestant denomination in the United States. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country, known for its liberal stance on doctrine and its ordaining of women and members of the LGBT community as elders and ministers. The Presbyterian Church (USA) was established with the 1983 merger of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, whose churches were located in the Southern and border states, with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, whose congregations could be found in every state.
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662. Its headquarters is Essex Hall in central London, on the site of the first avowedly Unitarian chapel in England, set up in 1774.
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is an international Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and a large Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly African-American membership based within the United States. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. The current Presiding Bishop is Bishop John Drew Sheard Sr., who is the Senior Pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ of Detroit, Michigan. He was elected as the denomination's leader on March 27, 2021.
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is the second-largest Presbyterian church body, behind the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the largest conservative Calvinist denomination in the United States. The PCA is Reformed in theology and presbyterian in government.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian denomination spawned by the Second Great Awakening. In 2019, it had 65,087 members and 673 congregations, of which 51 were located outside of the United States. The word Cumberland comes from the Cumberland River valley where the church was founded.
Memphis Theological Seminary is an ecumenical seminary of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Although it is affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, it accepts and trains ministerial candidates from other denominations as well. Besides the traditional Master of Divinity (MDiv), Memphis Theological Seminary also grants the Master of Arts in Christian Ministry (MACM) with concentrations in Social Justice, Christian Education, and Chaplaincy, as well as the Doctor of Ministry (DMin). It also administers the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination's Program of Alternate Studies or PAS.
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC) is a theologically conservative denomination in North America. The ARPC was formed by the merger of the Associate Presbytery (seceder) with the Reformed Presbytery (covenanter) in 1782. It is one of the oldest conservative denominations in the United States.
Louisa Mariah Layman Woosley was the first woman ordained as a minister in any Presbyterian denomination. She was ordained by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church on November 5, 1889.
James Wade Knight was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. He served as that denomination's first Director of Ministry and was the Executive of Kentucky Synod.
Kentucky Synod was a synod of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America established in the late 18th century.
Thomas Hardesty Campbell was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, a former president and dean of Memphis Theological Seminary, and a former director of the Historical Foundation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America is a historically African-American denomination which developed from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1874.
Beverly St. John was an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and served as that denomination's first female moderator of the General Assembly in 1988. The Cumberland Presbyterian denomination had been the first Presbyterian body to ordain women as clergy beginning with Louisa Woosley in 1889. St. John also authored a collection of essays for parents of small children, As the Twig is Bent, in the mid-1960s, and co-authored a book of poetry with Rev. James Knight, "The Prophet is a Snow Man" in 1986.
The Assemblies of God USA (AG), officially The General Council of the Assemblies of God, is a Pentecostal Christian denomination in the United States and the U.S. branch of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, the world's largest Pentecostal body. The AG reported 2.9 million adherents in 2022. In 2011, it was the ninth largest Christian denomination and the second largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. The Assemblies of God is a Finished Work denomination, and it holds to a conservative, evangelical and classical Arminian theology as expressed in the Statement of Fundamental Truths and position papers, which emphasize such core Pentecostal doctrines as the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, divine healing and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Cumberland College in Princeton, Kentucky, was founded in 1826 and operated until 1861. It was the first college affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1842, the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination withdrew its support from Cumberland College in favor of Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. In doing so, the denomination intended to simply relocate the school from Princeton to Lebanon, but Cumberland College remained open without denominational support until the Civil War.
The Cumberland Presbytery existed from 1802 to 1806 as a presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, a predecessor to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The presbytery was strongly influenced by the Second Great Awakening and has an important place within the history of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
The Interchurch Center is a 19-story limestone-clad office building located at 475 Riverside Drive and West 120th Street in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. It is the headquarters for the international humanitarian ministry Church World Service, and also houses a wide variety of church agencies and ecumenical and interfaith organizations as well as some nonprofit foundations and faith-related organizations, including the Religion Communicators Council. The National Council of Churches also occupied the building from its inception, but in February 2013, the NCC consolidated its offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and vacated its New York headquarters facilities. NCC's sister agency, Church World Service, remains a tenant in the building.
Clear Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a historic church of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination in McMinn County, Tennessee, about 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Calhoun. The church building, which is no longer in use, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Myanmar is a conservative Reformed denomination in Myanmar.
