Worship & Arts

Worship at Middle Church is a joyous celebration of the transformative power of love. In worship, we rehearse the Reign of God on earth. We celebrate the sacraments both in our sanctuary and outside on the streets as activism. We express our faith in music and the arts because the arts are an active prayer connecting us with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit inspires us to new theologies and ways of living out our faith.

A Digital Revolution

Worship is Celebration!

Every Sunday at 11:45 a.m. ET

Join us in-person at East End Temple (245 E 17th St, New York, NY 10003) or online on FacebookYouTube or our homepage for Worship!

Every Sunday, we are both in in-person/online hybrid worship. Before you come in-person, please read the list of policies our COVID task force has put together to keep us safe. You must provide proof of vaccination to attend worship in person. But we are so delighted to be worshipping in our new home at East End Temple, streamed into homes around the country and the world.

Every week, our worship team puts together a beautiful offering that will soothe you soul and inspire you to go out and heal the world. Our liturgy and worship will feel familiar in form, but you will be surprised by creative sermons that will provoke your mind and stir your spirit. You will also be surprised by the extensive use of the arts in worship. Our music—gospel, spirituals, stunning choral singing and classical music, and everything from R&B to Broadway—will encourage your toes to tap and your heart to soar. Our virtual sanctuary holds not only our incredible cultural and ethnic diversity, but dance, puppet theater, the dramatic and visual arts, and our diverse expressions of faith.

The most up-to-date list of our virtual programming can be found on our virtual events calendar.

Watch & Listen

While we meet live every Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m ET & 11:45 a.m. ET, worship certainly isn’t restricted to those moments! Anytime you need a comforting word, a reminder of your fundamental blessedness or a song that will help you hear God’s call upon your life, visit our video archives or listen to one of our podcasts.

Relive Worship Celebrations

Watch Here

How to Watch Worship Online

For folks who may find accessing our worship on Facebook, YouTube or middlechurch.org difficult, Elise Tiralli has provided a beautiful guide to accessing worship on our various platforms! Let them demystify the process so you can quickly and easily find your way to your digital pew. Just click the image below!

Join

Do you yearn to not just belong, but be celebrated for exactly who you are? Do you want a community of folks committed to radical love and justice? Wherever you live, you can call Middle Church home.

Give

This movement needs you! We need your time and talent, but we also need your resources. Make a contribution today and help us be midwives to love and justice.

December 5, 2020

A six-alarm fire spread from the building next door and destroyed our beautiful sanctuary. And yet, no fire can stop revolutionary love! Learn how we’re rising from the ashes and what you can do to help.

Find Your People!

Middle hosts small groups for everything from beginning ukulele lessons, Queer Black Men in the Middle or our Voting Reform team. And all of them have options to gather virtually! Join the groups that best fit your passion and the love you want to offer the world.

Liberative Learning

How do you change the world? First, you change yourself. Part of how we fulfill our commitment to God’s gospel of liberation is by training leaders with the skills you’ll need to bring freedom wherever you go. Thousands have participated in our digital courses. Will join them?

What We Believe

Middle is on a mission to reclaim and reframe Christianity—to realign our faith with Jesus’ teaching and take it back from the folks who have stolen it. We do this work joyfully, fueled by the Spirit, and strengthened by the community we create with one another.

Celebrate LOVE with Us!

Middle’s worship is a joyful, diverse celebration that gives a taste of what heaven feels like—an experience to soothe your soul and fill you with God’s liberatory fire! Every week is different, but what remains constant is how we tell the story of love through transformative art.

Do Justice

Faith comes alive when our love radiates outwards. At Middle, we’re committed to building an intersectional movement that both addresses the particular needs of different communities and unites us in common solidarity. This is God’s work, and we hope you’ll join us in it.