Birthed to be ALIVE! in and by the Spirit’s breathing, called to live singing Love’s own song, lifted to soar aloft on the wings of the Holy yet not to skim the surface of God’s creation but to engage it profoundly, our mission as Madison Square Presbyterian Church is to reflect and proclaim, with our lips and with our living, the good news of God’s lavishly inclusive and unconditional love, made audible and visible and tangible in Jesus of Nazareth who is Christ.

In our birthing we are becoming a congregation more and more reflective of divinely created diversity, a diversity we respect and cherish and receive as a gift of blessing from God. Aware of the inclusive and unconditional love we have ourselves received, aware also that we are to be a reflection of that love in our living, we have opened our doors wide, both the doors of our church and of our own daily lives. With great gladness and thanksgiving we proclaim: God’s amazing grace cradles all God’s children! Our mission is to proclaim that awesome truth, and to embody what we proclaim. Were you to meet us you’d feel it in us, a diversity full of Holy love and welcome.

We are male, female, young, old, middle aged, married, single, heterosexual, homosexual, including different racial and cultural backgrounds, welcoming a wide variety of life experiences and spiritual expressions. We welcome and are eager to include any child of God whom the Spirit brings to our door step. Indeed, some are well nigh overwhelmed by the enthusiastic welcome they receive, and by our exuberant willingness to include them; we welcome them home and open our ministry to include the God-given gifts each of them brings.

We celebrate each new sister and brother who finds home and his or her own belonging place with us, welcoming with special tenderness those who have been wounded, many by those who call themselves “Christians” but who reject some of God’s beloved children. And we seek to empower the voices of the wounded and of the wound-healers.

We want to empower every voice to sing the Love song, and not just the voices of members of our own congregation. We go out into the world serving and tending, passing the Love song along for others to sing, encouraging them to carry the song to others.

What we preach, what we teach, the manner and depth of our care, everything we do to stimulate hearts and minds and lives is designed to empower each person’s voice. And we applaud when someone begins to sing the Love song in his or her own way, both at church with the church family and out in the world.

Such encouragement of individual voices could breed a noisy and chaotic cacophony of individualism instead of a shared melody. But, thanks to the Holy Spirit as “choral director”, it works for us – there is not divisiveness in our diversity, but harmony. And, thanks to our heritage as Presbyterians, there is not chaos, but a structure which unifies and enables us to use our diverse gifts in complementary fashion. Within the framework of our ministry house, we live into our ministry.