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History > Our Pastors > Charles Edward Jefferson

Charles Edward Jefferson
The Fifth Pastor, 1898-1929

Of all the pastors called to serve the Broadway Tabernacle, Charles Jefferson was said to have had "the longest run on Broadway."

Jefferson was a firm believer that war was an evil instrument in settling disputes among nations. This conviction permeated his ministry. He publicly lashed out against provocative action taken by President Theodore Roosevelt, who sent American warships to sea as a display of flexing the nation's military muscle. He chaired the New York Peace Society and played a leading and continuing role in national and international peace movements.

During Jefferson's ministry, the Tabernacle's missionary activities around the world reached a peak that was never to be equaled. A boy's academy was begun in China at the initiative of Tabernacle members Harry and Rose Martin. The school, known as Jefferson Academy, flourished as an outstanding institution until being taken over by Communists in the mid-1900s. Important mission posts were also staffed in India, Turkey and Greece by missionaries affiliated with the Tabernacle.

In 1901, again anticipating a continuing expansion of the city, the parish moved one mile north to 56 Street and Broadway to a district at that time "so backward . that there was a large horse-watering trough nearby . ." By early 1905, the third and last Tabernacle was completed. The press acclaimed the structure as the world's "first skyscraper church" because its height so dominated the neighborhood.

Among the great legacies of the Jefferson era was the leadership the church provided in establishing the New York Congregational Home for the Aged in Brooklyn. Since its opening, the Home has served elderly parishioners of New York City Congregational churches and, of late, persons of all affiliations.

In the early 1920s the Tabernacle acquired a campsite with a cabin in the Interstate Palisades Park (now Harriman State Park), just one hour's drive north of New York City. The camp initially was used by a Boy Scout troop sponsored by the church. Soon after, the site was formally dedicated as Camp Jefferson and, since the early 1930s, has functioned as an all-church facility.

Throughout his ministry, Dr. Jefferson's sermons provided the New York City Press with a rich and continuing source of observations from his perspective as a prominent theologian. He was a prolific writer and, in time, became the Tabernacle's most widely published author. He was honored with emeritus status when he resigned in 1929, in which capacity he continued until his death in the mid-1930s.

Allan Knight Chalmers, Our Sixth Pastor